Complaint resolution service publishes case studies, recall information and consumer news.

Customer service issues that are handled by a computer automated response system (ARS) on the telephone generate significantly lower customer care ratings when compared with issues handled by a live representative, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Wireless Customer Care Performance StudySM —Volume 1.

Now in its fifth year, the semi-annual study provides a detailed report card on wireless provider customer care performance based on customer experiences with three point-of-contact methods: telephone calls with a service representative and/or automated response system (ARS); visits to a retail wireless store; and online Internet connection. Within each contact method, processing issues such as problem resolution efficiency and hold-time duration are also measured.

Overall, customers who speak with a service representative on the telephone provide an average index score of 127 points, which is significantly higher than the industry average of 98 points. However, customers contacting their carrier with a problem or inquiring through an ARS system rate their experiences significantly lower, averaging 92 index points. The index score drops even further (to 73 points) for contacts made over the Internet.

“One of the main factors contributing to this performance disparity is the quality of the response that is given,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “A service representative—either over the phone or in person—has the ability to answer customer questions and clarify answers. This flexibility is very limited in both ARS and Internet contact methods.”

In addition, scores for the ARS contact method have decreased 5 percent to 92 index points in overall performance when compared to the most previous reporting period six months ago (97 points). The largest declines were reported for customers experiencing too many prompts before getting to the desired menu and the lack of relevant menu options available to address the customer’s inquiry.

“As more companies strive to save operating costs by encouraging customers to contact Internet- and computer-based customer service programs, they run the risk of increasing the rate of customers who will switch carriers, especially as the number of contacts needed to resolve issues rises,” said Parsons. “Since future churn levels are four times as high among those who rate their wireless carrier below average in customer care, the challenge for wireless providers is to offer an easy and efficient customer care transaction experience.”

For a fifth consecutive reporting period, T-Mobile ranks highest among the five largest wireless service providers by creating a positive experience among customers who contact the carrier for service or assistance. With an index score of 107 points, T-Mobile performs well across all factors that determine overall satisfaction, particularly in the ARS and retail contact channels, and in the overall hold-time duration on the phone. Verizon Wireless (101) and Alltel (99), respectively, follow T-Mobile in the rankings.

The study also finds several key wireless customer care patterns:

* More than one-half (55%) of wireless users have contacted the customer service department for assistance within the past year, marking a nearly 7 percent decline from the most recent reporting period (July 2006).
* The average number of contacts necessary to resolve an inquiry by phone is 1.87—up from 1.76 in the previous reporting period.
* Among customers who contact their provider, 73 percent do so by telephone and 24 percent do so through their provider’s retail store. E-mail/Internet accounts for only 3 percent of customer contacts.
* The average initial reported hold time on calls to the customer service department is 3.58 minutes. In comparison, it takes an average of 8 minutes before speaking in-person to a representative at one of the provider’s retail stores.
* More than four in 10 customers (42%) contact their provider with a billing-related service inquiry, with 55 percent of these contacts attributed to inaccurate charges. Additionally, 30 percent of all customer care inquiries are call-quality related.

The 2007 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study—Volume 1 is based on responses from more than 13,970 wireless customers who contacted customer care within the past year. The results are from the past two reporting waves, conducted in June and September 2006. The 2007 Volume 2 report will be issued in July 2007.

Posted under Customer Service

Consumer Help Web was contacted by a customer who was suffering from an ongoing problem with furniture giant Levitz.

Our customer tells us she purchased a dining room set from Levitz in 2004. She reports within a week or two of the expiration of her warranty the brace support on the bottom of one of the armchairs separated. This happened to another chair a month later. She states she contacted the company immediately after each incident, only to be told the warranty had expired and no assistance would be provided. Our customer tells us she believes there is a manufacturing defect in the chairs and is concerned for the safety of her family and guests.

Consumer Help Web contacted the company’s senior management multiple times and was stonewalled. To help our customer, we then arranged for free referrals to a local consumer attorney and the contact information for the government agency responsible for ensuring that Levitz addresses consumers when they have these types of complaints.

Posted under Complaints, Customer Service

Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that he has secured the settlement of a civil lawsuit he filed against Pleasant Care Corporation, the second largest provider of nursing home care in California, that will result in court-enforceable improvements in the quality of care for elderly Californians at 30 facilities statewide.

“All Californians are entitled to know that they are not putting personal life or health at risk when they or an elderly loved one is placed in the care of a nursing facility,” Lockyer said. “Despite dozens of warnings and fines, Pleasant Care was simply unable to provide an appropriate level of care for its residents.

This injunction will make sure that Pleasant Care complies with existing law and also provides the best level of care possible.” The settlement will result in a permanent injunction that resolves a civil lawsuit filed by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Lockyer’s lawsuit stems from numerous allegations of elder abuse and criminally negligent care, including more than 160 citations that the California Department of Health Services (DHS) has issued against Pleasant Care facilities across the state over the last five years for regulatory violations. The injunction was formally approved this morning by Superior Court Judge Laura Matz.

Under the terms of the injunction, all 30 of Pleasant Care’s skilled nursing facilities in California must comply with numerous conditions that will immediately and dramatically improve the quality of care provided to residents occupying the company’s more than 4,300 skilled nursing facility beds, including:

• Mandatory Staff Training - staff must undergo training on proper patient care in such areas as wound treatment, accurate record keeping, and the prevention of malnutrition and dehydration; • Abuse and Neglect Investigations - each facility is required to implement policies to ensure prompt reporting and investigation of any alleged act of abuse or neglect towards a resident, and staff persons reasonably suspected of committing abuse must be placed on administrative leave during the course of the investigation;
• Compliance Officer - Pleasant Care must hire a Compliance Officer who will be responsible for ensuring that each facility complies with the law, properly responds to state and federal investigations, and delivers proper levels of care to residents;
• Independent Monitor - Pleasant Care will pay for an Independent Monitor, selected in consultation with the Attorney General, who has broad authority to order statewide quality of care improvements, and will annually report its findings to the AG over the next five years;
• Nurse to Patient Ratio - Pleasant Care must maintain nurse staffing ratio of 3.2 hours per patient, per day, subjected to outside audits to ensure compliance, and ordered to pay stipulated fines for any failure to maintain the required nurse-to-patient ratio; and,
• Whistleblower Protections - Pleasant Care must establish and maintain a whistleblower program that allows employees, residents and other individuals to anonymously report suspected violations and mistreatment of residents. A log detailing all complaints made and investigation outcomes also must be maintained and made available to the Independent Monitor and the AG.

In addition, Pleasant Care is required to pay $1 million in civil penalties and $350,000 to reimburse the state for investigative costs. Failure to fully comply with any provision of the injunction also could result in civil penalties of up to $6,000 per violation, other sanctions deemed appropriate by the court, and exclusion from receiving funding from both the Medi-Cal and Medicare healthcare programs.

Pleasant Care currently operates 30 skilled nursing facilities in 14 different California counties, including: Alameda, Butte, Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Riverside, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and Sutter. Over the last five years, DHS has issued more than 160 citations and fines against numerous Pleasant Care facilities for violations of patient care regulations, with several citations involving violations which presented an imminent danger that death or serious harm would result.

In 2004 alone, for example, eight different Pleasant Care nursing homes in California were found to have delivered “substandard” care to residents in annual surveys conducted by DHS. Other specific instances of deficient service and care also formed the basis for the AG’s lawsuit. In 2003, a resident at the company’s Ukiah facility suffered a seizure and a blocked airway, but the nurse was unable to effectively aid the resident due to the fact that the facilities suction machines had not been kept in working order. The resident died from acute cardiopulmonary arrest stemming from his inability to breath. In 2004, a resident at Pleasant Care’s Novato facility suffered from a pressure sore that was allowed to worsen so severely that the resident ultimately died. The coroner who examined the female resident later told DHS that his examination showed that she had been subjected to “abominable wound care management.”

According to data maintained by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Developement, Pleasant Care has also consistently failed to staff its chain of nursing homes at the rate of 3.2 nursing hours per patient, per day as required by California law. The failure to adequately staff its facilities with qualified nurses resulted in increased profits for the corporation at the expense of its residents’ health and safety.

Posted under Customer Service

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer last month announced an agreement that requires the nation’s leading internet service provider to reform its customer service procedures.

Under the agreement, America Online (AOL) will alter the incentives it offers to customer representatives who seek to persuade subscribers not to cancel their service.

“This agreement helps ensure that AOL will strive to keep its customers through quality service, not stealth retention programs,” Spitzer said.

In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, Spitzer’s office began an inquiry of AOL’s customer service policies. The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate system for rewarding employees who purported to retain or “save” subscribers who had called to cancel their internet service. In many instances, such retention was done against subscribers’ wishes, or without their consent.

Under the system, consumer service personnel received bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars if they could successfully dissuade or “save” half of the people who called to cancel service. For several years, AOL had instituted minimum retention or “save” percentages, which consumer representatives were expected to meet. These bonuses, and the minimum “save” rates accompanying them, had the effect of employees not honoring cancellations, or otherwise making cancellation unduly difficult for consumers.

Many consumers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel service and stop billing.

The agreement requires AOL to:

• Eliminate any requirements that its customer service representatives maintain a minimum number of “saves” in order to earn a bonus;

• Record all service cancellation requests and verify action on the request through a third-party monitor;

• Provide refunds to all New York consumers who claim harm based on improper cancellation procedures, up to four months worth of service;

• Pay $1.25 million to the state in penalties and costs.

The claim form for New York consumers seeking refunds is available at Attorney General Spitzer’s web site http://www.oag.state.ny.us/internet/internet.html.

Consumer Help Web President Joan Bounacos applauded the decision. “We have had similar cases this year and last that the company resolved,” Bounacos stated. “It is certainly appropriate for AOL staff to try to persuade customers to remain, but no means no and a consumer’s cancelation request must be honored no matter what.”

Bounacos stated that AOL’s management had responded to Consumer Help Web complaints with offers of refunds and free service.

Posted under Customer Service

JetBlue topped the 15th annual Airline Quality Rankings for the second straight year, an example of the rankings achieved by low cost “no frills” carriers. Four of the five top spots in this year’s survey, announced this week, went to newer airlines that may not offer as many amenities or destinations as traditional “legacy” carriers.

The research is based on weighting elements such as on-time arrivals, baggage handling, customer complaints and denied boardings. Research teams at Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha conduct the study.

The study also found that overall quality diminshed throughout the industry, and only four carriers (Air Tran, Atlantic Southeast, JetBlue and United) improved their scores from 2003.

The authors have published their entire study complete with statistics, charts and graphs in a PDF file on the web. The overall rankings for those consumers who don’t want to delve into the details are:

JetBlue
AirTran
Southwest
United
Alaska
America West
Northwest
American
Continental
ATA
Delta
US Airways
American Eagle
SkyWest
COMAIR
Atlantic Southeast

Posted under Customer Service