WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
Ben Ashton’s recent altercations with a telecommunications company have forced his hand when deciding whether to answer the phone or not.
The 32-year-old from Betoota’s French Quarter is in the midst of a long-running battle with his previous telephone provider over money.
Feeling fleeced by the large multinational for excess data charges, Ashton decided to change providers and refuse to pay his remaining two monthly bills in protest.
However, this protest has resulted in frequent calls from said provider, chasing up the amount of money owing.
Ashton explained that for the majority of his life he has always endeavoured to answer phone calls from known and unknown numbers, but he is wise enough to know when to shelve the habit.
“Very rarely does someone actually call you off a private number. Very rarely. It’s usually a telemarketer, a debt collector, a company chasing a debt you have with them or one of my fuckhead mates who was pranking someone with a private number and forgot to change it back,” he said.
“If I don’t have any reason to be suspect I might answer.”
“But now that I have this debt with my ex-mobile provider, I can inform you that there is zero chance of me taking a call from a private caller,” he said.
“Not worth the risk.”
Ashton told us that he hopes to now just bury his head in the sand until the company gives up on the money and leaves him alone.
“I’m not paying it. On principle,” he said.
“I know they are not going to give me a bad credit rating or anything anyway. It’s all talk.”
