If customer service is "so important" to a company, why is the customer service department seen and treated as the lowest in the company?

1 - Raises for other departments (after all had reviews) but not customer service

2 - Other departments are short-handed or backed up, customer service has to do their work for them, in addition to their own. Customer service is backed up or short-handed, no help given.

3 - Sometimes customer service is short-handed or backed up already, and still has to help other departments.

4 - If customer service (c.s.) needs info from another department, c.s. must do as much as possible to make it as easy as possible for the other department

5 - Other departments can speak to c.s. however they want, c.s. must be polite in return

6 - If customer service needs info (for a customer) from another department, that department can take their time, but if the customer gets upset, only c.s. is accountable.

7 - If the other department needs something from c.s, it must be done immediately. If a customer is upset that they had to wait because c.s was doing something for another department, c.s is in trouble.

The list of how low customer service is just goes on and on!