Why is their customer service so poor?

Question

On June 13th I went into a Verizon store in Chicago, one that I have been to many times. The wait is always tremendous but I try to let that go since it's a downtown, loop located Chicago store. I'm adding a line to my plan. The salesperson took it upon himself to choose the $90.00 a line plan no discussion of what my needs are nothing. This is something I cannot change now. He choose to add insurance on a device that they charged me a 1.00 for, never asked me. And the worst yet he sold me a tablet that I had no idea would come with a contract and monthly line fees. The tablets were on sale for $10.00 BUT I did not realize that I would be paying a monthly fee for it or that it would come with a contract. And while everyone is always so quick to point out "you didn't look at your contract..." No you're right I didn't because in this store it literally comes up on the pad where you swipe your credit card and is part of your receipt! Who stands there and goes through a contract in that setting? Better yet what company thinks so little of their customers and the contracts that they are signing to make the contract part of the receipt?!?!?!?!?
I called customer service today to ask that the tablet be removed. Yes I want the contract and activation fee to go away. NOPE. I can pay a $70.00 restocking fee to return it since I'm within the 14 day window of time from the date of the purchase and still pay the $10.00 a month for a device I've returned or I can pay $350.00 to get out of the "contract".
After adding two lines when I thought I was adding one, my new phone bill is $365.00. The customer service agent saw nothing wrong with this or anything wrong with charging my existing line a prorated amount for my existing line for the period of the 13th-20th (my billing cycle ends on the 20th) even though the bill for my existing line had already been paid (and early I might add) when I walked through the door.
I'm not sure when cell phone sales people became used car salesmen, but I think it sucks. Now I can pay a total of $1,050.00 to get out of the 3 contracts I now have.

Answer 1

You still have time to return the devices without the ETF, but the restocking fee is going to stick.  As you mentioned, this is all spelled out in the contract, but I get that when you are in a busy store and just trying to complete a transaction people tend to hurry along and ignore the fine print because you will have time later to read it all.  The restocking fee is still far less than the ETF, so that is the route I would go for return.
Proration has three components to it:
1. Credit for the month in advance service already paid ( so if you changed plan on the 15th and the bill cycle ends on the 20th, you will have a credit for the remaining six days of the old plan)
2. Charge for the new plan from the date of change to the end of the bill cycle, and
3. Month in advance charge for the new plan for the next bill cycle.
You aren't charged for both plans for these periods of time.  I try to backdate whenever possible because not doing so makes the bill harder to understand.
In this case you have to choose the lesser of the evils for you, and for me that would be paying the restocking fee and returning the tablet (you will need to do this at the store you purchased it at), and keep your receipt for the return so that the record of you returning the device won't "disappear."  Do not, under any circumstances, return it to anything but the original store.  Even if you now feel you don't want to use that store anymore, you still have to return it there to avoid further issues.
The contract on the tablet line should have been disclosed, and if you were unsure of the circumstances for purchase you should have asked.  If it seems too good to be true, it is.  I have seen paper tablets cost more than $10, so that would have raised a red flag for me.  I'm not sure why you put the word contract in quotes, because it isn't a figurative contract, it is a literal one.
Finally, the fact that insurance was put on a line without your authorization is wrong, and should be removed back to the date it was put on.  However, the fact that you paid $1 for the phone in question is moot.  That is a contract price.  So if you break the phone tomorrow, you will not be able to go get another one for $1.  You will either have to submit a claim for insurance, pay full price for a replacement (typically at least $500 for smartphones), add a new line to get the $1 price and a new contract, or purchase a used phone from someplace like eBay or Swappa.
Hope it all works out for you!