It may not be the best movie ever made, but the zany premise for Weekend at Bernie's is that two guys go to extraordinary lengths to convince the world that Bernie, their dead boss, is still alive. It is great for a few chuckles especially when Bernie goes water-skiing.

You might think that would only happen in the movies, but at least one telecom service provider has the same idea. Retaining customers is of course a worthwhile business objective, but making it so hard to leave, even in death, seems to be taking things too far.

At this point, I'm turning this over to a guest blogger - my Mom, to tell her story of trying to cancel Dad's cell phone account. I blanked out the offending company since we do business with almost every large telco. Take it away Mom.

My husband and I had cell phones from XXXX. He was the primary account holder, mine is the secondary phone. Then he died.

I did not want to continue paying for his phone so I called XXXX to cancel it. All together it took 40 minutes, these are just the highlights.

"May I speak to the primary account holder?"

"I'm sorry but you can't."

"Why not?"

"He's dead."

"Dead?"

"Yes, he died. I'm his widow."

"I see."

"I want to cancel his phone and transfer the account to my name."

"I'm sorry I will need to transfer you to another department for that."

Next person knows nothing about the previous conversation, so we start over.

"I will need to speak with the primary account holder."

"As I explained before, he's dead and I want to cancel his phone."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure; we had a funeral and everything."

"No - I mean are you sure you want to cancel his phone?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, It's on one of our most attractive plans, is there perhaps another family member that could use it?"

"No, there is no one else."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I've looked all over the house, and there is no else here who needs a phone."

"I'm going to have to transfer you to someone else"

This next person knows nothing about the two prior conversations, and has a thick accent. Apparently, they transfer the difficult customers to the overseas service reps.

"Hello, and what can I do for you?"

"I want to cancel my husband's phone - and don't bother asking to speak to him. He's in a jar up on the mantle.

"in a jar?"

"That's right - a jar. An expensive urn is customary, but my kids are practical jokers and they put him in a peanut butter jar. You got a problem with that?"

"No, no problem at all."

"So you are going to cancel his phone and transfer the account to my name, can you do that?

"Yes, but first I will need to ask a few questions."

So after I give her my life history, she assures me that my account would be transferred to my name, and that my husband's cell phone would be discontinued.

Now I have received not one bill but TWO! One for me and one for my dead husband! Who's he going to call?

If any of my kids come into this house with a cell phone from XXXX I will take them out of my will.

Dad loved peanut butter, cornbread, mashed potatoes, steak, bacon & eggs, tennis, working in the yard, fixing things himself, Christmas lights, the American Flag, helping neighbors, and his job as an FBI agent. But he hated what he called rig-a-marole.