Terrible Customer Service Experience

[MandyL005]

I am a single mother of 4 and inflation has affected me along with everyone else.  I have been a loyal customer of Verizon for over 5 years, and have never been late on a payment.  I know that AT&T and other companies have lower rates than Verizon, but I have stayed with Verizon this long and wanted to remain with them if possible.  I figured they might have some type of loyalty program or discount that I could ask or apply for, and that would help with monthly expenses.   I had just changed plans the month before to lower my bill, but today my bill came out and the amount was still higher than they had quoted me last month.  The representative I got today seemed energetic and at first like he was going to be helpful.  He looked into things and explained that the bill had been prorated and a 411 charge was on there (I am not sure why) and that was the discrepancy in price.  He then told me he could not give me any type of loyalty discount, and could give me a 1-time discount but he wouldn't.  Then after talking aloud to himself he realized the representative that had helped me change my plan the month before had input some things incorrectly, and he could in fact lower my bill by $25 this month, but not because he wanted to help me.  Only because it was an error and he wanted to reiterate that he would never have helped me on purpose.  I asked him why would he feel that way and he said he did not want to encourage my "bad behavior".  When I asked him exactly what he meant by that, he insisted that he needed to discourage my bad behavior of calling with questions about my bill and possible discounts.  He didn't want it to become a monthly "habit".  Until this recent couple of calls to them (one of which was because of incorrect price) I had never called Verizon to ask for any type of discount or plan change.  Ever.  These past two months are the first times I have ever called them, and these were to discuss billing issues.  As a single mother who has worked very hard, paid all of my bills on time and maintained a home all on my own, this felt like a slap in the face.  I have never had a representative tell me I was exhibiting "bad behavior" by calling and that he needed to train me not to.  I  am still shocked from it.  I have every right to call and ask any questions I feel necessary about my bill and plan.  After I called him out on that he apologized and said he should not have said that.  Too late now, you did say it.  Has anyone else had an experience like this and am I wrong for feeling so minimalized?  He made me feel very small and pathetic, and I think that might have been the goal.  Why do these big companies not train their employees on how to behave during a customer service call?  And why don't they care about their loyal customers who have been with them for years?  At the end of the call, the rep continued to press me to finance a new phone through Verizon, even after I told him countless times I didn't want one, didn't need one, nor was I able to afford that right now.  It feels like customers don't matter anymore, and human decency doesn't either.  Corporate greed is out of control.  

[vzw_customer_support]

We are sad to see you in this situation. We understand the importance of managing your service. Our goal is to help you in the best way possible.

We sent you a Private Message. Please review at your earliest convenience.

~Gilbert