Today’s my last day with Charter Cable. I’ll be plugging into AT&T’s U-verse tomorrow.

Ultimately, it wasn’t the company’s flagging reputation, unreliable Internet service, or lackluster HD lineup that compelled me to change. Somehow, I accepted these shortcomings because, hey, it was cable.

I’m flipping the switch because Charter would no longer let me pay directly for my father-in-law’s broadband service, even though I had been picking up his tab for 10 years or so. (It’s a long and ugly story; I’d rather not drag a bankrupt company through the mud.)

That may be the first time in history that a company lost business because it refused to take a customer’s money.