How Do You Make a Company Feel Compassion?

“A broken mannequin laying on the street in Taguatinga” by Edu Lauton on Unsplash

My new phone came in today.

After months of hand-wringing, and putting up with a phone that was too small for my giant hands, and too slow and choppy to run more than one app at a time, with an internal memory that was so small that, in order to download a new app, I had to uninstall one or two others, I broke down.

It wasn’t an easy decision for me. I questioned myself, was I being too materialistic? Did I really need a new phone, or did I just want one? Was I spending more than I could afford? Was I being greedy? I finally decided that, no. This was something I needed. Even if my other phone technically worked, it was spending more time pissing me off than actually being useful.

So I went on to Amazon, found a phone that was compatible with prepaid plans — just move your SIM card over! — one that was large enough for my hands, one that had enough internal memory to be useful, and one that didn’t cost more than a year’s salary. And I bought it.

You know how this story ends, right?

When I moved my SIM card over, it didn’t start working as magically as it was supposed to. Of course not.

When I logged in to my Verizon account — I have been using a Verizon prepaid account since last December — and went through the options that would allow me to…