Wow. Just. Wow.

I have an awesome wood furnace in my basement that was put in by the original owner of the house.  It's ducted to the whole house and that's what I've primarily used for heating the house in the winter, as opposed to the alternative electric baseboard.
I replaced the thermostat that controls the firebox fan about 4 years ago with the simplest, least expensive thermostat I could find; a Honywell "Round".  It worked fine up until about a week ago when it no longer activated at the turn of the dial.
I called Honywell customer service this morning.  I didn't get the warm fuzzies for a successful outcome to the call with the barely English speaking rep as she asked me for my name, phone number, email address and zip code.
As I started to try and explain to her what the issue was, I could tell she would have none of it as she had a checklist, doggone it.  She wanted to know what the temperature in the room was and what the thermostat read.  When I told her I was holding it in my hand, she wanted me to put it back on the wall.  I didn't, and told her that was a pointless exercise.  Then she wanted me to reset the breaker to the system, which otherwise has been running flawlessly.  When I've needed the firebox fan, I simply used a jumper wire on the low voltage transformer.
It was at that point I knew without a doubt that to continue the conversation was going to be very painful and and an exercise in patience.  So I thanked her for her time and promptly hung up.
I did manage to get some information out of her, which was one of the reasons I called;  It appears that there is a small battery inside.  When I asked about it, she said there was, but it was not replaceable.
I guess no one makes a simple mercury switch thermostat anymore.  Sigh.....