[elizilla]

If it's like most such jobs I have had, management would like the customer service team as a whole to achieve some revenue target, and there are probably even some guidelines saying what they're supposed to charge you. But the processes for figuring out exactly who has to pay for what and how, are too difficult. And management can't decide whether they prefer to have high customer satisfaction and pay for it by selling you the next product, or whether they want to hit customer support revenue targets by annoying you with charges related to your current product.

As a result, if you get someone who just got chewed out for not collecting enough money from someone else, they might try to extract more money from you. But if you get someone who just tried to collect money from someone else, had a battle, and lost it, they might not bother trying again with you.

Also, the folks in customer support do notice when a particular user is "shopping" for the person who will give them a freebie. If you're pleasant they may quietly facilitate this shopping, but if you are nasty they can intentionally defeat it.