How Yoga Helps Me Battle My Cell Phone Bill
Instead of blogging about yoga poses or alternative health or wellness, I wanted to share a victory I had against Verizon so I can inspire you to see how yoga can help you when you are dealing with unfair and difficult people and situations.
We signed up with Verizon Fios with their cell phone, internet, cable and land-line package earlier this year. I’ve had a lot of problems understanding their confusing billing practices and they messed up our install as well.
They actually had our calls going to our neighbor’s phone since they got the wires crossed. I’ve been a customer of Verizon’s for over 10 years and can’t tell you how many times I’ve had some gi-normous bill that I had to battle against. One bill (which was $900…not a typo) made my knees buckle and I just fell on the ground and started to bawl and decided the only solution was to join an ashram and get away from the complexities of modern life.
This last few times I called them, I was calm but assertive, polite but firm about the $200 that was owed to us as a promotional gift for signing up with their bundled service. (On a more practical note, whenever you are not getting anywhere with the customer service rep, always ask to speak to a supervisor as quickly as you can since they are the only ones able to modify or add credits to your bill.
The other tip that works really well is to call the cancellation department and just say you want to cancel. The reps at the cancellation department will go to great lengths to save you so if they ask if there is anything they can do to keep your business, tell them what the grievance is and what you would like.) With patience and perseverance, I was able to get $208 as a credit on our bill going forward.
Because I have a pretty steady and committed yoga practice, I’m able to not be so reactive when faced with unfairness and unjustness. I stay steady and calm with whoever I am dealing with but I know that my peaceful yet powerful persona is helping me get through to the other person. I find that I am not as quick to get angry and I know that the other person is just doing the best that they know how from their level of consciousness.
And that $900 bill? After a few calls and with persistent determination I got it reduced to $250. I didn’t join an ashram to escape the responsibilities that go with living in a complex and highly wired world. My yoga practice helps round out the rough edges for me so that life goes smoother. Challenges and problems still come my way, but I find that I handle it much better by coming to terms with my response-ability….my ability to respond to chaos, challenge and confusion.
What about you? What spiritual practices help you stay grounded?