I subscribed for access to U.S. census records with Genealogy.Com. I understand they are part of the Ancestry.Com conglomerate that is part of the Mormon church. I knew that when I had completed my census search, I would have to call 1-800-548-1806 to cancel the subscription. Otherwise Genealogy.Com would continue a monthly billing of my credit card account until the gates of hell iced up.

Today I called that phone number, intending to quickly ask that my subscription be cancelled immediately. After thirty minutes of being on hold and burning up cell phone minutes, I was dumped into dial tone land. My second attempt lasted thirty five minutes. My next two calls took one hour and twenty five minutes. The whole thing took two and a half hours.

In addition to the elapsed phone time that only a retiree can afford, they inflicted physical pain on my ears while I was on hold. They started out with an audible voice telling me to remain on the line. Then they went to symphonic music at what to me was an ear piercing decibel rate with for about fifteen seconds. Then I could almost hear a very low volume female voice asking me to remain on the line. Then I was back to the symphony for another fifteen or so seconds. After four or five repeats of this cycle, I wound up holding the phone way away from my head and wondering if the last voice I couldn't hear was someone asking if they could help me. They certainly don't make it easy or pleasant to deal with them. However, I don't recall ever having had this problem when they were taking my credit card informatiom.

Now, I would go to my local library for census information rather than have to deal with these folks again.