A Virginia woman is filing suit against cable conglomerate Verizon after she claims a phone exchange between her and a customer service representative directly prompted her to have a heart attack. And you know what? Anyone who has ever had the horrible hardship of dealing with a Verizon service representative knows it’s totally not a stretch to believe her.
From My Fox Chicago:
Angela Hawkins is seeking more than $2 million.
She called Verizon wireless last November to get her $60 credit.
She says the call began in a “routine matter,” but then, the rep began questioning her “in an aggressive manner.”
The lawsuit says Hawkins was put on hold for 15 or 20 minutes.
Some irritating shit right there. That’s exactly what these cable companies are best at: claiming to not understand your complaint or that they don’t have the clearance level to deal with it, delaying any possible resolution AS LONG AS POSSIBLE, overcharging the shit out of you, and getting flip with you when you try to argue your usually valid point, solely because they have the luxury of sitting on the other side of a phone line.
It’s incensing as fuck! All this lady wanted was a $60.00 credit that she was more than likely entitled to!
After that, a manager got on the line and allegedly accused Hawkins of threatening his employees.
That’s when the court records claim Hawkins “began experiencing physical distress, including tightness in her chest and difficulty breathing.”
“He was under the impression that I had threatened to bring a gun to the call center and shoot every employee in the call center,” Hawkins explained, “I was just blindsided. I mean, my heart sunk. I felt like I was in a whirlwind because what a horrible thing to accuse somebody of.”
“I had had a heart attack. She didn’t even want me to drive across the street to the hospital,” Hawkins added.
Look, it’s a pretty widely accepted medical fact that extreme levels of stress can be precursors to heart attacks and other cardiac events. If you’ve ever been stuck on the phone with a Verizon rep. – or any other leeching cable company employee for that matter – you’ve undoubtedly been angered, stressed-out, and exhibiting a bit of tachycardia. It’s standard operating procedure with these fucking companies, and it’s tragic that you literally cannot do anything about it.
No surprise the Verizon rep. on the other side of the phone implored her to not even go to the hospital, either. They would have much rather listened to Hawkins die over the phone, I’m sure, and continued to overcharge the shit out of her credit card even after she was dead. Completely ruthless stuff.
And where any Verizon manager would get the idea that this little lady would begin to threaten death upon the call center employees is beyond me. All she wanted was her credit, which she made pretty cut & dry, so the managers assertion here is downright ludicrous, as Hawkins’ attorney points out.
“She’s never had anything like this, and all of a sudden he went through this event and she had a heart attack, there’s no question about it,” Hawkins’ attorney Jeffrey Brooke said, “She’s about 4’10”, so when they say she threatened someone, that’s a little bit hard to believe.”
A spokesperson for Verizon Wireless had no comment.
“Their customer service rep did a wrong, a horrible wrong in my book,” Hawkins said.
That’s sooooo Verizon to not even comment on the situation. Hopefully, Angela Hawkins has no problem collecting the $2.35 million that her lawsuit commands on the basis of “negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” God knows it should probably be a class-action suit for the unfathomable amount of stress Verizon puts customers through nationwide on a daily basis.