Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Business customer service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business customer service. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Commentary Blubaugh: It was a great run, but it's time to cut the cord

Commentary Blubaugh: It was a great run, but it's time to cut the cord

April 7, 2019 by Bob Blubaugh

https://www.carrollcountytimes.com/opinion/columnists/cc-op-blubaugh-040719-story.html 

I’m in the process of ending an 18-year relationship.

Decisions like this are never easy. It’s going to be a major change. The house is going to feel a bit empty. I know I’m going to say or do some things out of habit before remembering. The process will be painful at times, but I’m convinced it’s for the best and everyone will be better off.

Yes, after 18 faithful years as a customer, I’m breaking up with DirecTV. I’m cutting the cord.

This doesn’t make me unique. Some 33 million Americans have left pay-TV behind, eschewing cable or satellite television in favor of streaming services. It is estimated that 6 million customers cut the cord last year and that even more will do so this year.

According to techjury.com, nearly all Americans aged 25-34 access some TV content through the internet and 90 percent of young people say they prefer consuming TV this way than via cable or satellite packages.

This demographic, of course, never knew what it was like to grow up with just three channels.

Read more here: https://www.carrollcountytimes.com/opinion/columnists/cc-op-blubaugh-040719-story.html 

++++++
Kevin Dayhoff for Westminster Common Council
Westminster Municipal election May 14, 2019
Authority Caroline Babylon, Treasurer.

Carroll County Times: www.tinyurl.com/KED-CCT
Baltimore Sun Carroll Eagle: http://tinyurl.com/KED-Sun

Facebook Dayhoff for Westminster: https://www.facebook.com/DayhoffforWestminster/
Facebook: Kevin Earl Dayhoff: https://www.facebook.com/kevindayhoff

Dayhoff for Westminster: www.kevindayhoff.info
Dayhoff Soundtrack: www.kevindayhoff.net
Dayhoff Carroll: www.kevindayhoff.org
Kevin Dayhoff Time Flies: https://kevindayhoff.wordpress.com/  

Monday, March 28, 2016

This is where a consumer may file a complaint about Comcast with the FCC


This is where a consumer may file a complaint about Comcast with the FCC

Chapter VIII of Part 1 of Don Quixote is titled, “Of the valorous Don Quixote’s success in the dreadful and never before imagined Adventure of the Windmills, with other events worthy of happy record.”

According to Cervantes, the first encounter between the windmills and Don Quixote went like this: “Just then they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless.”

“What giants?” asked Sancho Panza?

“Those you see over there,” replied his master, “with their long arms. Some of them have arms well-nigh two leagues in length.”

“Take care, sir,” cried Sancho. “Those over there are not giants but windmills. Those things that seem to be their arms are sails which, when they are whirled around by the wind, turn the millstone.”

Hat Tip: http://quirkyberkeley.com/don-quixote-and-the-windmills/ among multiple media sources…

Monday, March 28, 2016

In regard to a friend’s Facebook post on March 9, 2016 regarding Comcast customer service….


I was amused that many folks recommended FIOS. Take a memo, there is no difference between Comcast’s customer service and Verizon’s.  

Actually, every time you see a commercial by Comcast about how easy it is to move an existing Comcast service from one home to the next when you move; please realize that it is excruciatingly difficult to move your service and when folks move is when most folks ‘cut the cord’ because the customer service involved in moving your service from one home to the next is so horrific.

Sort of like walking into the office of a service provider, such as a medical health care office and you are greeted by a large sign that explains that customer service is so important to them – it is because that office has horrid customer service – and some faceless bureaucrat exercised corporate creativity and decided to solve the problem in true Orwellian fashion by posting a sign.

It is called “paper performance.” Solving a problem by checking-off a box that says that the problem has been addressed. Of course, nothing has been solved and if anything the customer service gets worse.

All that said, several years ago I called the Maryland Public Service Commission about a horrid customer service challenge with Verizon and talked with a very nice person who explained that she understood my complaint and admitted that the PSC receives many such complaints, but there was nothing that could be done. In the end, I solved the problem by cancelling my land phone line and DSL service.

A close friend explained that calling Comcast was like having a root canal without anesthesia. Extremely painful, but once it is over you feel better… Whatever.  

Currently, I have to call both Verizon and Comcast about a family member’s service issues and I am absolutely dreading it. I guess, you might say that both Verizon and Comcast have attempted to solve the number of customer service complaints by making it so horrid to call them that folks simply do not call.

Meanwhile, it has been said that the greatest hoax in life is the hope for safety. I simply have lost any hope that government or the regulatory agencies will address the horrid customer service of Verizon and Comcast. And sadly the marketplace will not solve the horrid service by Verizon and Comcast anytime soon. There is no incentive to improve the services they provide. Eventually it will be solved. But I am not holding my breath.

Maybe the only satisfaction that we may receive is to inundate the FCC with complaints. It may be a quixotic exercise at tilting at windmills but we may simply get some therapeutic benefit from the primal screaming. Just saying.


Filing a complaint
If you experience a problem with your broadband service, first try to resolve it with your provider. If you cannot resolve the problem directly, you have multiple options for filing a complaint with the FCC:


By phone: 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322); TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322); ASL Videophone: 1-844-432-2275

By mail (please include your name, address, contact information and as much detail about your complaint as possible):

Federal Communications Commission
Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20554

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19330000-Paris Flammarion

Edward Hopper: Don Quixote, c 1899


18740000-Boston Lee Quixote
*****

Sunday, January 03, 2016

Boston Globe reporters and editors delivered newspapers on Sunday.

Don Surber: Boston Globe sets its minimum wage at $0.00 an hou... 

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/2016/01/boston-globe-sets-its-minimum-wage-at.html 

Boston Globe sets its minimum wage at $0.00 an hour - Don Surber at Don Surber - 4 hours ago


To CNN, it is the feel-good story of the New Year. Boston Globe reporters and editors delivered newspapers on Sunday. If you're a subscriber to the Boston Globe, the person who delivered your Sunday paper might have been the same person who wrote part of it. Fed up after nearly a week of widespread delivery problems, dozens of reporters and editors at the Globe worked until dawn Sunday morning to deliver thousands of copies of the paper. The Globe said it was a "small gesture to show our Globe customers that we are working hard" to address the problems. Managing editors, politica... more »

[...]

Management screwed up. It switched delivery companies last week. The delivery company has 600 "contractors" -- people who are paid less than minimum wage to deliver papers. Management said this was done to improve service.

Service so improved that customers complained and cancellations piled up. On Saturday, newsroom staffers volunteered to do the job. Apparently, they worked for nothing, which is even less than "contractors" received.

*****

Sunday, July 12, 2015

July 9, 2015 update to Feb. 2008 story: “Compact avoids Do Not Deliver free newspaper law.”

July 9, 2015 update to Feb. 2008 story: “Compact avoids Do Not Deliver free newspaper law.” http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2015/07/july-9-2015-update-to-feb-2008-story.html

Update July 9, 2015 - A reader has been in touch to say that the link is dead for this story, “Compact avoids Do Not Deliver newspaper law, February 29, 2008.

Kevin E. Dayhoff July 9, 2015

Westminster Md. - The February 29, 2008 story was about proposed legislation in the Maryland General Assembly to stop the delivery – that is to say, the littering - of unwanted spam newspapers on your front yard – and the agreement that was reached that stopped the legislation from moving forward.

Word on the street in February 2008 was that the “do not deliver” legislation faced an uphill battle but had a better than average chance of passing because unwanted papers piling up in your front yard annoys both conservatives and liberals.

In Carroll County, the bipartisan initiative was spearheaded by a leading community liberal as far back as 1995 – and introduced in the Maryland General Assembly in 2008 by a leading community conservative. A copy of the November 13, 1995 citizen’s complaint was forwarded to the Westminster mayor’s office on November 14, 1995. 

The issue of the free newspapers littering neighborhoods was brought-up frequently in community meetings with homeowner associations and community groups from 1995 to 2008.

Actually, the free newspapers in the area ultimately made the decision for the legislative initiative as a result of failing to respond to the citizen complaints of many neighborhoods throughout the community.

Many in February 2008 felt strongly that the agreement did not go far enough. That in addition to the opt-out phone number, the agreement ought to have required the free newspapers to stop delivery at an address where it was obvious the free papers were not being retrieved – and as a result the papers were piling-up in an unsightly mess.

The accumulation of unwanted newspapers on a property in the neighborhood is an eyesore. In the words of one neighborhood newsletter, “Free papers laying around make the neighborhood look bad, and can invite crime by advertising when you may be away from home.”

More often than not, the accumulation of the unwanted free papers eventually has to be cleaned-up by municipal or county maintenance workers – which is a burden upon the taxpayers.

Or worse yet, the unwanted free newspapers end-up clogging the stormwater drains, causing damage and more cost to the taxpayers because government maintenance workers need to spend time cleaning-up the mess.

Apparently the problem has raised its ugly head again.

If you will recall, the February 2008 agreement with local newspapers was successful in getting Carroll County Delegate Shewell to withdraw the “do not deliver free newspapers” legislation.

In return for the withdrawal of the legislation, the local papers would provide a phone number that homeowners could call and opt-out of the free delivery.

Today, over seven years later, no one remembers the legislation or the agreement that stopped the legislation - - and the number published on the front of the free newspapers has evolved into voice mail jail that ultimately, if you are patient enough, lands you with someone who does not know where Westminster or Carroll County Maryland is located. “Never heard of it.” You cannot make this up.

In other words, it is a number provided so that the free newspapers can say that they are in compliance with the agreement. After-all, no-one said that the agreement required that the published number has to actually work as it was intended by the agreement… Just saying.

Meanwhile, what many folks have long forgotten is that according to Channel 2 in Baltimore, “Newspapers would have seven days to comply with a request.  If it's still delivered, consumers could register a complaint with the Attorney General's Office and the newspaper could face a fine.”

Maybe more folks ought to contact the Attorney General's Office and complain - or maybe better yet, this legislation ought to be brought back for re-consideration with stiffer penalties or maybe just outlaw the unwanted spam from being littered on your property altogether.

To be sure, we have greater problems to solve in the greater community, but this might be one small step in the correct direction to take pride in the appearance of our community, protect our neighborhoods from unwanted corporate spam, obviate the potential for attracting crime and protect the environment.

I’m just saying.

Kevin E. Dayhoff July 9, 2015

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Compact avoids Do Not Deliver newspaper law


spaceFriday, February 29, 2008
space
ANNAPOLIS — Four free-delivery newspapers in Maryland have agreed to crack down on deliveries to customers who say they don’t want them, pre-empting an attempt to set up what would have been one of the nation’s first “Do Not Deliver” laws.

The newspapers have agreed to publish a phone number that homeowners can call to stop deliveries. The number will be on the second page of each home delivery edition and will be in a 12-point bold font.

Under the agreement announced Thursday, the newspapers also said they would increase supervision of carriers to make sure deliveries stop when people make requests.

“We’re certainly not out to hurt businesses, but we do need to answer constituents’ concerns,” said Delegate Tanya Shewell, R-Carroll, who said she plans to withdraw two bills that would have fined newspaper publishers who failed to meet requests to stop deliveries within seven days.

Shewell says she proposed the bills after a flurry of complaints from constituents that the free newspapers littered their lawns and deliveries didn’t end even after homeowners requested them to stop.

The agreement applies only to Carroll County, northwest of Baltimore. But the director of the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association said many free newspapers would comply with provisions to prevent consumer complaints.

“Newspapers don’t want them going to people who don’t want them and won’t read them,” John “Jack” Murphy said during a meeting with Shewell.

The papers include The Examiner, the Carroll County Times (which distributes both free and paid papers); The Gazette, and Kapp Advertising, which produces a free-delivery periodical called The Merchandiser.

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"Do Not Deliver" Bill Delivers Controversy


Some say it's a nuisance and others call it community service. Free newspapers pop up on your front steps everyday. Now one Maryland lawmaker wants a "Do Not Deliver" registry.

"I do recycle them, but some of them do fly away in the yard and go onto the street and down the gutters," said Essex resident Cathy Benzig. 

In fact, a state delegate from Carroll County goes as far to say the newspapers, that are delivered with no cost, infringe on the rights of property owners.

Delegate Tanya Shewell from Carroll County says consumers have the right to say what's on their front lawn.  She wants a phone number printed on newspapers that you can call to stop delivery.

The bill is modeled after the national Do Not Call Registry that let's you decide about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home.  Delegate Shewell wants consumers to have the final say with free newspapers.  But some of her colleagues in Annapolis think the plan will hurt small businesses.

"I think it's much to do about nothing.  It's an intrusion.  It's shooting a flea with an elephant gun.  And it's unfair to local publishers who do a wonderful job for the community," said Del. Pat McDonough, (R) Baltimore County.  

Delegate McDonough says he's talked to publishers of local papers who say they'll stop delivery when asked.  But we talked to people with failed attempts. 

Newspapers would have seven days to comply with a request.  If it's still delivered, consumers could register a complaint with the Attorney General's Office and the newspaper could face a fine.

20080128-freepaperCh2ShewellDoNotDeliverBillDelsControversy - 20080128 Do Not Deliver Bill Delivers Controversy
*****

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Jordan Weissmann: A Former Comcast Employee Explains That Horrifying Customer Service Call

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/07/16/comcast_customer_service_an_employee_explains_why_they_won_t_let_you_cancel.html?wpisrc=obnetwork

No exit....
....
Comcast says it’s "embarrassed" by the recording of a customer service rep desperately refusing to cancel a subscriber’s account that had the entire Internet gawking in horror yesterday. However, the company would like to assure us all that this was simply a case of a single, misguided employee leaping over the edge.
Jordan WeissmannJORDAN WEISSMANN
Jordan Weissmann is Slate's senior business and economics correspondent.
"We are investigating this situation and will take quick action," the company told the Hollywood Reporter. ... 
*****

Friday, July 25, 2014

Comcast 'Embarrassed' By The Service Call Making Internet Rounds by ELISE HU July 15, 2014

Comcast 'Embarrassed' By The Service Call Making Internet Rounds by ELISE HU July 15, 2014   

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/07/15/331681041/comcast-embarrassed-by-the-service-call-making-internet-rounds?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140720&utm_campaign=mostemailed&utm_term=nprnews

When a customer service call is described as "Kafkaesque" and "hellish," you pretty much know how it's going to go down before even taking a listen. But in case you haven't heard the condescending, tedious call that's lit up the Internet, here it is:
The recording starts after the call has already been in progress for about 10 minutes, according to the caption on SoundCloud by Ryan Block, who was trying to cancel his Comcast Internet service. Block writes:
"The representative (name redacted) continued aggressively repeating his questions, despite the answers given, to the point where my wife became so visibly upset she handed me the phone. ...  http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/07/15/331681041/comcast-embarrassed-by-the-service-call-making-internet-rounds?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20140720&utm_campaign=mostemailed&utm_term=nprnews
*****

Friday, January 24, 2014

The Weather Channel’s Plea to Waive DIRECTV’s Cancellation Fee - FishbowlDC

The Weather Channel’s Plea to Waive DIRECTV’s Cancellation Fee - FishbowlDC

By James Reiter on January 23, 2014 2:40 PM

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/the-weather-channels-plea-to-waive-directvs-cancelation-fee_b122178

The Weather Channel's Plea to Waive DIRECTV's Cancelation Fee

After DIRECTV recently dropped The Weather Channel from its lineup, many of the television provider's customers went to switch service, only to be faced with cancelation fees ranging from $200 - 400. Yesterday, The Weather Channel ran full-page ads in The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the LA Times that featured an open letter to DIRECTV's Board from The Weather Channel's Chairman and CEO, David... read more>>

To date, more than 115,000 DIRECTV subscribers have pledged to switch their provider, more than 750,000 have complained about the dropped channel, and 4.7 million people have visited the site, www.keeptheweatherchannel.com. These numbers are up significantly from where they were at just 48 hours ago.


Read more: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowldc/the-weather-channels-plea-to-waive-directvs-cancelation-fee_b122178

'via Blog this'

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

BofA's Newest Insane Fee and news from Huffington Post Business Brief

    
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Dow Hits Huge Marker
General Electric Tax Rate 2.3 Percent Over Decade, Report Finds
The New One Percent May Cost Health Insurers Big Time
'Tip Theft' Bill Would Crack Down On Alleged Employer Skimming
The Wall Street Guide To Making A Boatload Of Money
BLOG POSTS
Marcelo Giugale: The Lingering Global Crisis and the New Poor
The lingering global crisis is forcing us to rethink the objectives and the tools of social policy. Past meltdowns in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin-America provide us with some good hints on what to expect and how to respond.
Arvind Ganesan: Corporate Crime and Punishment
Should corporations have immunity for human rights abuses? Today, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that will decide whether corporations will be exempted from a crucial law that allows foreign victims of serious human rights abuses to sue them in US courts for civil damages.
Sen. Ron Wyden: Trade Rules Matter
If China is violating trade rules to help its industries undercut the price of solar panels and other environmental goods, it changes the competition from a race to produce better products more efficiently to a competition to cheat better.
John Fullerton: Beyond Firm-Level Sustainable Capitalism
We need the sustainable business community to join the ongoing systems level conversation about how to make the whole global economy truly sustainable, not merely less unsustainable.
Women 2.0: The New Girls Network: Building A Bigger Pie for High-Growth Women-Led Companies
There are incredible things happening in the startup world for women entrepreneurs.

*****

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

A 1st. Told ya Microsoft is behind the cable software Its got the cust service


A 1st. I had never received the "blue screen of death" before on my cable TV screen... Told ya Microsoft is behind the cable software. Cable TV - Comcast has got the horrid customer service down pat. Now comes the blue screen death. Next will come the invasive upgrades from heck. I'm just saying.

last year it was the Comcast digital cable box hardware upgrade - from hell. It took an enormous amount of time, several false starts and lots of time on the phone with "customer service." Now comes the software upgrade...
*****

Friday, December 30, 2011

Verizon Preps New $2 Convenience Fee

Verizon Preps New $2 Convenience Fee:

Verizon Faces Backlash Over Fees, Outages

Company blames network glitches on "growing pains," says more are possible.


"UPDATE: The last week of the year has not been a good one for Verizon.


Not only is it dealing with an Internet backlash over its new convenience fees, but it vaunted 4G data network suffered its third outage of the month. In an interview with the tech blog GigaOm, a top company official blamed the spotty service on "growing pains."" http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/12/29/verizon_preps_new_2_convenience_fee.html?from=rss/&wpisrc=newsletter_slatest


'via Blog this'

More Update:

Verizon Drops Plan for $2 Fee on Some Bill Payments

| December 30, 2011


In a remarkably swift reversal, Verizon Wireless has canceled plans to impose a $2 “convenience fee” on some bill payments, just a day after announcing thenew policy.
The company said in a statement that it was dropping the plan in light of customer feedback.
“Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week,” it said. “The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.”
*****

Verizon Wireless to charge customers $2 when they pay bills online or by phone - The Washington Post

Verizon Wireless to charge customers $2 when they pay bills online or by phone - The Washington Post: "By Paul Miller | The Verge, Published: December 29


http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/verizon-to-charge-customers-2-when-they-pay-bills-online-or-by-phone/2011/12/29/gIQAUaBqOP_story.html?wpisrc=nl_tech


Well, it's true. Verizon has confirmed to us that it's adding the $2 convenience fee for paying your bill online or over the phone, and has posted a blurb in its News Center detailing the options available to someone who wants to avoid it.

Obviously many customers use AutoPay, which avoids this hassle entirely, but we're sure there will be plenty of customers frustrated by the fee when it goes live on January 15th.

What's unclear right now is if this constitutes a change in contract terms, which could potentially allow unsatisfied customers to hop off Verizon without a spendy ETF penalty.

We've asked Verizon to clarify, and we also asked for some more details on exactly why online and robo-phone payments are more expensive to process than the "free" options they list — you know, the ones where you pay Verizon money, but don't pay for the privilege." http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/verizon-to-charge-customers-2-when-they-pay-bills-online-or-by-phone/2011/12/29/gIQAUaBqOP_story.html?wpisrc=nl_tech


'via Blog this'


http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2011/12/verizon-wireless-to-charge-customers-2.html


++++++++++++++

Verizon Faces Backlash Over Fees, Outages

Company blames network glitches on "growing pains," says more are possible.

 

"UPDATE: The last week of the year has not been a good one for Verizon.

Not only is it dealing with an Internet backlash over its new convenience fees, but it vaunted 4G data network suffered its third outage of the month. In an interview with the tech blog GigaOm, a top company official blamed the spotty service on "growing pains.""  http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/12/29/verizon_preps_new_2_convenience_fee.html?from=rss/&wpisrc=newsletter_slatest

'via Blog this'

More Update: 

Verizon Drops Plan for $2 Fee on Some Bill Payments

 | December 30, 2011 

In a remarkably swift reversal, Verizon Wireless has canceled plans to impose a $2 “convenience fee” on some bill payments, just a day after announcing thenew policy.
The company said in a statement that it was dropping the plan in light of customer feedback.
“Verizon Wireless has decided it will not institute the fee for online or telephone single payments that was announced earlier this week,” it said. “The company made the decision in response to customer feedback about the plan, which was designed to improve the efficiency of those transactions. The company continues to encourage customers to take advantage of the numerous simple and convenient payment methods it provides.”

*****