Three Credit Card Transactions Later...

I HATE Starbucks....

What a &%#@ cluster #$*& it is trying to use Starbucks for 15 minutes of Internet access.

It took me 45 minutes this morning to log on because "I hadn't had a 'Qualifying' transaction on my account in the past 30 days."

Apparently somewhere in the fine print AT&T and Starbucks have decided among themselves that if I'm not some sort of yuppie coffee shop denizen that lurks around the espresso machine at all hours of the day and night (read that--I have high speed Internet at my house and don't live under a bridge or in a homeless shelter or commune) that they can take my money and then make me jump through all kinds of hoops in order to check e-mail every two months.

Can you believe that sort of crap? No wonder Starbucks is closing down stores and laying off people.

Any way, since I hadn't been to a Starbucks since the last time I was here on our little island six weeks ago my TEN DOLLAR Starbucks card wouldn't let me into the Internet without "verifying my e-mail address."

Since I couldn't get into the Internet to respond to the "e-mail" verification process, I went and bought another FIVE DOLLAR card but guess what...

Since I registered the new card under the same name I STILL COULDN'T LOG INTO THE INTERNET BECAUSE I HAD TO CHECK MY E-MAIL TO RESPOND TO THE E-MAIL THEY SENT ME WHICH WOULD ALLOW ME TO LOG ONTO THE INTERNET.

How screwed up is that?

So I finally had to resort to charging $3.99 on my credit card for TWO HOURS of access and given that I have to leave within the next half hour I ended up paying...get this

the equivalent of about $16 per hour to check e-mail today.

Thus my reason in blasting the inane feckless stupidity of AT&T wireless and Starbucks.

I say that in my opinion you'd have to by default an idiot to hang out somewhere which requires that you show up every few days just to use a service which they made you pay for in the first place.

Screw AT&T and Starbucks...

I have to go have a drink now and get back to having fun at the beach...

Dammit...