Too bad, so sad...

I don't know about you, but I really get ticked off when I get that 'too bad, so sad' attitude from a salesperson. A couple of different situations in the last week has gotten me on the customer service rant again.
Our cell phone service (which shall remain nameless) is supposedly known for no dead zones, our area is very rural and we don't always have good service. On top of that, over the past few weeks, my phone won't ring when I have a call. It goes straight to voice mail, and never shows that I've got a missed call, until several hours (or days) later when the voice mail suddenly shows up. During this time, my phone will show full bars. HB may have to dial me several times before he gets me. We've been by the local offices several times, and they've tried all kinds of things including resetting all the default settings and hooking my phone directly to the computer to update the software. That brings up another point- I can't even update the software where I live, I have to wait 'til I'm in Montgomery, which isn't very often.
I don't guess it would be such a big deal but for 3 things:

• I've given my cell number out to my clients so they can reach me when they need me
• my daughter, who is 15, has after school activities and might need to contact me
• I paid for my phone service and I like to get what I paid for

While on the phone with my service provider yet again, trying to get this straightened out, my son made the statement "Mom you know you're going to have to pitch a fit to get what's right". Well, I know that, but that doesn't make it right. Why can't companies just give customers what they pay for? This last call ended up with them telling me that they couldn't talk to me because my name isn't on the contract -?!?!. So when my husband got home, he called them, and they basically told us we were eligible to upgrade and get another phone, which also meant we had to sign another contract to extend our service time. Nothing else they can do; they can't give me another phone that will work correctly - too bad, so sad. Of course, that's not going to stop them from charging me for my service. So, my next step is to see if they'll let us out of our contract early. Probably not, though.
The other situation involves my college aged son - I ordered one of his books from the online bookstore related to the university. The order form says, 'you'll get a confirmation email when the book is available for pickup'. Got the email, printed it out and sent it with my son to school so he could pick up the book. He gets to the bookstore the first time, he's told they're not quite ready, come back later. Goes back the next day and is told they're sold out, check back later (I'm thinking why did they sell the book I paid for?). They give him a paid receipt so he can show that next time. He goes back yesterday and they tell him he can't pick it up because it's not in his name, but mine - well duh, my name was on the card I paid with; no place on the order form to put his name.
I called and went 'Sugarbaker' on the girl who answered- I told her the sequence of events, and that we live 30 miles from the school, he's there and I can't just turn loose and drive over there to pick it up and hand it to him. She asks if she can put me on hold and check out some things.
She finally comes back and tells me that there was a mistake - those books had never come in and I shouldn't have gotten a confirmation yet. She had no explanation for the other things; of course I apologized to her, it's not her fault, she's just a student worker. But somewhere, somehow, folks have got to realize they're being paid to do a job. Don't just say the first thing off the top of your head, and brush off customers.
Why are we as a society doing this? I want to challenge you- go over your customer service guidelines; if you've got employees, discuss with them how they should treat your customers. Ask them to remember that the customer is their real boss- if the customers quit buying, you go out of business.
Start taking care of your customers!