When Internet Providers Play the Blame Game: One User’s Delightfully Petty Malicious Compliance
If you’ve ever been trapped in the labyrinthine world of internet provider support, you know the pain: endless calls, vague promises, and the creeping suspicion that your ticket is just a cosmic joke. But what if, instead of giving up, you decided to play their game—with your own rules? That’s exactly what one Brazilian Redditor did, turning corporate indifference into a masterclass in malicious compliance (with a dash of petty revenge).
This is the story of how a simple home internet installation morphed into a months-long saga of ignored cables, technician whack-a-mole, and a deliciously petty payback—one missed appointment at a time.
The Tangle Begins: Cables, Confusion, and Corporate Apathy
Let’s set the stage: Our protagonist, u/DangerousKing7079, needed a fresh internet connection for their home office. Enter "Provider A"—in real life, the telecom giant Vivo, but let’s stick with the pseudonym to protect the not-so-innocent. A technician arrived, started the installation, but inexplicably left some cables dangling from the wall, like a half-finished art project. The result? No functional internet, and months of frustration.
For three long months, DangerousKing was forced to leech Wi-Fi from a neighbor two floors below. Imagine depending on a stranger’s spotty signal while trying to hold down a remote job—nightmare fuel for any home office warrior.
Desperate for a fix, our hero started the sacred ritual of support tickets. Over a month and a half, a parade of seven technicians showed up, peered at the wires, shrugged, and departed—each leaving the situation as tangled as they found it. As u/Annepackrat cleverly summarized in the comments (via Google Translate): “Technicians would come out, take a look, but never actually resolve the issue. As many as seven different technicians had visited my home.” Seven! Who knew cable management could be a spectator sport?
A Game of Pass-the-Buck: Providers B and C Enter the Arena
By now, any reasonable person would have lost hope. But DangerousKing decided to switch providers, entering the bureaucratic ring with “Provider B.” B, in true telecom fashion, insisted that A needed to come back to remove their cables first. Another round of calls, another dead end: A declared they were “no longer responsible.”
This is where the tale takes a delightful turn. Instead of accepting defeat, DangerousKing requested a “new installation” from Provider A—just to see if they’d finally fix their own mess. At the same time, a third competitor, Provider C, was brought in. While A’s technician again bailed (“there’s a problem at the building’s main distribution box!”), C’s team went above and beyond—solving the problem in heroic fashion and finally delivering working internet.
Meanwhile, the comments section buzzed with empathy and exasperation. u/PoisonPlushi chimed in with their own telecom horror story, threatening to bill their provider for lost work hours until service was restored—sharing a universal truth: sometimes, only financial threats get results. As u/Illuminatus-Prime observed, this story straddles the line between petty revenge and malicious compliance. But really, can you blame anyone for resorting to creative tactics after months of runaround?
The Sweetest Revenge: Scheduling Shenanigans
Now armed with reliable internet from Provider C, DangerousKing wasn’t done with A just yet. Here’s where the malicious compliance kicks in. Remember those endless, unproductive appointments? The tables turn: every week, A calls to reschedule another “installation.” Every week, our protagonist confirms the appointment—then ignores the intercom and lets the technician wait. The cycle repeats, week after week.
As the original poster clarified in the comments: “They reschedule the appointment; I confirm it; and I just keep repeating this cycle until I get tired of it.” It’s a low-effort, high-irony payback—turning the provider’s own bureaucracy into a time-wasting loop.
The peanut gallery was divided. While u/eyes_glued_open admitted they’d tire of the scheme quickly, OP replied with a shrug: “É só ignorar.” (Translation: “Just ignore it.”) After months of being ignored themselves, a little passive-aggressive appointment ghosting seems downright therapeutic.
Lessons from the Telecom Trenches (and the Reddit Peanut Gallery)
What can we learn from this epic saga of wires and woe? First, the internet installation process—even in the age of fiber and 5G—remains a wild west of finger-pointing and corporate apathy. Second, sometimes the only way to stay sane is to embrace a little mischief. As one commenter noted, with so many posts now auto-translated on Reddit, stories like this resonate across borders: telecom pain is truly universal.
And finally, while some may see this as petty, there’s a cathartic poetry in turning the tables on a faceless corporation—one missed appointment at a time.
Conclusion: Have You Outplayed a Provider?
Have you ever had to battle your own cable company, ISP, or utility provider? Did you find a creative (or delightfully petty) way to get even? Share your stories in the comments below—because as this saga shows, sometimes the best revenge is simply wasting the time of those who wasted yours.
And remember: next time your provider leaves you hanging, you might just have the makings of your own malicious compliance masterpiece.
Original Reddit Post: A provedora de internet me disse que o bloqueio dos cabos na parede não eram de responsabilidade, então eu dei trabalho a eles.