#service?

CENTURYLINK! DECEPTIVE! LOVE TO LIE TO THE CUSTOMERS!

Ever since I became a CenturyLink customer!

A so-called technician was o come b and activate my modem. No show!

The net day! I called them. I was told I do not have an account with them. I asked? “If I don’t have an account where did the modem come from?” Silence! I asked?

“How did I get a technician to come here 2 times in 1 day? The same!

3mbps? Is “FAST?”

When you’re dealing with “outsourced…

CARBON COPY!

Cable was an antenna service. Only for people who lived in the “rich” suburbs.

It was promoted as having: more programs more sports! etc. It only covered channels 2-13.

This was at a time when TV stations went off the air mostly after the last network program, then the last reading of the news.Then there was noting during the overnight hrs. Only in less competitive…

Remembrance Day 'sergeant' sentenced to community service, probation

The Quebec man who illegally wore a military uniform and medals during last year’s Remembrance Day ceremony has received a suspended sentence of probation and community service.

Gervais pleads guilty to illegally wearing military gear

Remembrance Day ‘sergeant’ Franck Gervais not in the military, DND says

Follow live updates from the courthouse here.

Franck Gervais of Cantley, Que., north of Ottawa, wiped away tears and choked up several times as he told the courtroom his actions were wrong, misguided and inappropriate, and he will regret them for the rest of his life.

Gervais, second from right, made a tearful apology in court on Tuesday morning, saying he’ll regret his actions for the rest of his life. (Matthew Kupfer/CBC)

He said he had intended to pay homage to soldiers and veterans and didn’t mean to offend anyone.

He was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 50 hours of community service through the Collaborative Justice Program.

Tuesday’s sentence followed the 33-year-old’s guilty plea in March to charges of unlawful use of military uniforms and unlawful use of military decoration while dressed as a sergeant. Two charges of impersonating a public officer were withdrawn.

Gervais was wearing the Canadian Armed Forces ceremonial dress uniform of a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Regiment at the Nov. 11 ceremony broadcast live by CBC News.

He was also wearing the Medal of Bravery, the Special Service Medal with one bar, the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, the NATO Medal for Kosovo and a Canadian Forces Decoration for 12 years of service.

Gervais taken to National Military Cemetery

On Tuesday in court, three veterans read victim impact statements.

The court also heard the results of a restorative justice project that saw Gervais being taken on a tour of the National Military Cemetery in Ottawa on Aug. 1 by retired Major Gerald S. Wharton.

“From the beginning to the end of our two and a half hours together, Mr. Gervais displayed appreciation for what the program had offered and was profusely thankful for my part in it,” Wharton wrote in his prepared statement, which was filed with the courthouse before his testimony.

“He was attentive to what he was experiencing and attempted to explain the esteem in which he held the Canadian Armed Forces, his desire to be part of it and his frustration of being unable to penetrate that barrier.”

Wharton also said he was left with the impression that Gervais’s actions in 2014 “had no malicious intent.”

Spoke as ‘sergeant’ in 2014 interview

After a brief interview during the Nov. 11 broadcast in 2014, in which Gervais spoke as a “sergeant,” a number of veterans and soldiers called CBC News to question his status.

Gervais is not a member of the Canadian Forces.

Court heard Gervais was a cadet for several years in the 1990s, but never joined the military. He was arrested in Ottawa in November and later charged.

His misrepresentations on Nov. 11 did not end at the Remembrance Day ceremony, according to the agreed statement of facts heard in court.

Gervais and his wife went to the Canadian War Museum, where author Rod McLeod was promoting his book, Vigil, the statement said. Gervais spoke to McLeod and an officer with the Canadian reserves, falsely claiming he had been a paratrooper and had earned the Medal of Bravery.

Franck Gervais’s lawyer, Claude Levesque, had requested an adjournment to sentencing in May.

Massachusetts officials attend service for unidentified girl whose remains were found on beach

BOSTON – Massachusetts officials have attended a memorial Mass near the Statehouse for a young girl whose body was found in a trash bag last month.

Wednesday’s service at the Paulist Center was organized by House Speaker Robert DeLeo. His legislative district includes the Boston Harbor beach where the girl was found.

The Rev. Rick Walsh says the unidentified child is "our little girl." Gov. Charlie Baker says he wonders what her life was like before it ended "in such a terrible way."

State police have disseminated a composite image of the girl they call Baby Doe. She’s white or Hispanic and about 4 years old, with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was found wearing black-and-white polka dot tights and had a zebra-printed blanket.

Authorities don’t know how she died. They hope to learn more from DNA tests.

The problem with customer service

Almost everyone has to deal with customer service at some point. In fact, 88 percent of the people surveyed recently by the Consumer Reports National Research Center had done so in the past year—to question a bill, request a repair, return ill-fitting merchandise, and more.

And many of them didn’t like the experience and had a problem with customer service. Half of the people we surveyed reported leaving a store without making their intended purchase because of poor service. Fifty-seven percent were so steamed that they hung up the phone without a resolution. Women were more annoyed than men, as were people over age 45.

(Looking for customer-service advice? Find out what works for career customer-service experts—including Consumer Reports “acquisition” pros—on the job or at home.)

We live in a world of instant connection, where owners of Amazon Kindle Fire tablets can instantly summon a tech adviser live onscreen by tapping a “Mayday” button, for example, and Neiman Marcus customers snap photos of shoes in magazines to automatically search for them in the store’s inventory. So why are we still so frustrated?

“Many companies today are simply awful at resolving customer problems, despite investments in whiz-bang technologies and considerable advertising about their customer focus,” said Scott Broetzmann, president of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting. “Customers spend valuable time and invest considerable effort—and get little in return.”

Satisfaction with service is actually no higher than it was in the 1970s, according to research from Arizona State University. The latest version of the school’s “customer rage” study found that companies are doing all the right things but in all the wrong ways. Think 800-numbers with overly complex automated response menus, agents with limited decision-making authority, and understaffed call centers.

Do we take those survey results as a sign that service is improving or that we’ve grown desensitized to brusque treatment?

All of that chaos can cause nasty behavior. There has been a significant increase in incidents of consumers yelling, even cursing, at reps, the ASU study revealed.

But it may also breed futility. The same study found that the number of Americans who think that complaining is worthwhile has fallen to 50 percent, from 61 percent, since 2011. Perhaps that’s why, when we compared some common service-related irritants (see below) with the results of a similar survey we conducted in 2011, we found that people were actually less piqued overall.

Jack Abelson, a retail-industry consultant, speculates that younger consumers, especially millennials, have never experienced top-flight care, so they don’t know what they’re missing. Other experts suggest that we’re less irked now that we’re becoming accustomed to serving ourselves, whether it’s at a grocery store checkout line or banking online.

“Companies are making it easier for customers to use simple solutions, like FAQs,” said Shep Hyken, a customer-care consultant. There are also online how-to videos that enable customers to get info quickly.

The Better Business Bureau logged fewer complaints last year than in 2013, and nine of the 10 most trouble-prone industries saw declines (cable and satellite TV services were the exception). The reason for the drop, the bureau says, is increased proactivity by consumers, who are now more likely to check out a business first rather than complain later, and their new ability to lodge a complaint or post a review directly on the BBB site.

Prevention may be better than a cure, so try to be picky about where you do business.

What Americans hate most about bad customer service

The Consumer Reports National Research Center surveyed 1,016 adults about the pain points listed at right using a scale of 0 to 10, from “not annoying at all” to “tremendously irritating.”

A Silver lining? Whether they interacted in person, by phone, or by e-mail, fewer Americans were agitated over lousy service than they were in 2011, when we conducted a similar study. The percentage of those whofumed over various practices declined in almost every category, most notably the rudeness of salespeople and the inability to get a live person on the line.

The top irritants

Percentage highly annoyed

Can’t get a live person on the phone

75

Customer service is rude or condescending

75 (For in-store experiences, rudeness was highly annoying to 71 percent of respondents.)

Disconnected

74

Disconnected and unable to reach the same rep again

71

Transferred to a representative who can’t help or is wrong

70

Company doesn’t provide—or hides—customer-service phone number

68

Long wait on hold

66

Many phone-menu steps needed

66

Repeatedly asked for the same information

66

Proposed solution was useless

65

Salesperson ignored me

64

Unsure whether on hold or disconnected

62

Can’t speak with a supervisor

62

Phone menu doesn’t offer needed option

61

Voice-recognition system works poorly

61

Sales pitch for unrelated goods or services

60

Salesperson is too pushy

60

This article also appeared in the September 2015 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Copyright © 2005-2015 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission. Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this site.

Frustrated by customer service?

We asked career customer-service experts—including Consumer Reports “acquisition” pros, who pose as regular consumers to sign up for services and buy the thousands of products we test—what works for them on the job or at home.

(Read our special report on why company promises and new technology haven’t made the customer-service experience much less painful.)

1. Pick up the phone

Eighty percent of those who participated in our national survey contacted a company that way. Half of them said it was the most effective way to resolve an issue. Real-time contact is often more efficient than e-mail, where there can be a wait of 24 to 48 hours for an answer, said Sharon Parker-Odom of Carmel, Ind., a Consumer Reports Facebook fan who worked in customer service for 26 years, three of them in call centers. Need a company’s number? Look under “investor relations” or “news,” or try websites such as Dial a Human and Get Human.

2. Cut your hold time

Try a free Web service like Lucy Phone, where you enter a company’s name or number, then give the service your phone number. It calls you back when a rep comes on the line.

3. Bypass automated menus

The old ploy of pressing “0” (with or without the “#” sign) sometimes works. Another option: Forget support entirely and press the prompt for “sales” or “to place an order,” when companies are likely to roll out the red carpet. Dealing with a TV provider or telecom company? Leapfrog service and go directly to customer retention, where agents are empowered to negotiate.

4. Show—and ask for—empathy

Many customer-care reps are low-paid workers subject to poor treatment, and their opinions are rarely sought. If you’re in a store, act with sensitivity if you notice one of them being abused by another customer. When making your case, end with the words, “Can you help me?” He or she might not have the authority, so instead of making insults, politely ask to speak with a supervisor. You also might want to say, “Don’t you agree?” or “Would you want that done to you?”

5. If nothing else works, escalate

We never suggest that you become uncivil, but if you’re stuck, be forceful. Companies rely on voice-recognition software to detect anger, sarcasm, and inflammatory phrases like “you people,” and will swiftly transfer you to an operator.

6. Try live chat

The option, if available, is just as effective as using the phone and is often faster. It also results in a transcript for follow-up purposes. Chat reps tend to be more senior than phone reps and have greater decision-making authority, said John Goodman, vice chairman of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting.

7. Build a case

You don’t have to be a lawyer to get satisfaction, but it helps to think like one. One of our shoppers was recently surprised when Verizon FiOS pulled the Weather Channel from his TV package, replacing it with the company’s own version. When he asked why it was removed, the response was a terse, “We’re just not doing it anymore.” So our shopper went Perry Mason: “ I signed a two-year contract; you changed the lineup and altered our agreement. The way I see it, that contract is null and void.” The representative ended up giving him a discount on his bill.

8. Tell your (Facebook) friends

Many companies actively monitor social-media sites to intercept problems before they go viral and do greater damage, so you’re likely to get a quick response, Goodman said.

9. Take it to the top

Contact the president’s or CEO’s office and ask to speak with an assistant. Or write the chief executive directly. Less than 2 percent of consumers do that, Goodman said, so executives pay attention.

10. Seek outside help

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers assistance with problems involving financial products and services such as loans, leases, debt collection, credit cards, and banks. File a complaint at consumerfinance.gov/complaint, and the federal agency will forward it to the company and work to get a response within a specified time frame. You can also share your story to help protect other consumers.

11. Cancel and come back

Cable companies used to trip over each other trying to snatch a competitor’s customers with enticing incentives. These days, they seem to have no qualms about letting you walk. But believe it or not, that can work to your advantage. When the half-price HBO promo ended for one of our shoppers and the cable company refused to extend it, he dropped the package. “Once I quit, they offered it to me again—in the same phone call,” he said. Another shopper dropped Cablevision completely when his bill skyrocketed. After he quit, the company was willing to deal to regain his business.

This article also appeared in the September 2015 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Copyright © 2005-2015 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. No reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission. Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this site.