Customer Service

If you prefer a customer service agent who speaks "American," then computer maker Dell has a deal for you. Catering to consumers put off by the accents of Bangalore, Manila and other call-center hubs around the globe, Dell will guarantee -- for a price -- that the person who picks up the phone on a support call will be, as company ads mention in bold text, "based in North America. " The Your Tech Team service, with agents in the United States, costs $12.95 a month for customers with a Dell account, or $99 a year for...

Regarding Michelle Boorstein's June 7 Metro commentary, " A big, smoking hole in the real life of Capitol Hill ": My office usually has an annual picnic in June, and we always rent a large charcoal grill from Frager's. They have always been timely with the delivery and pick-up of the grill. And if there have ever been any issues (e.g., lateness because of traffic), they have always called with an update and an adjusted time of arrival. This year, the grill delivery was scheduled for 11 a.m. June 13. On June 12, word...

Here's a parable on clueless providers. A friend suggested I try her favorite app for my web-based meeting and training needs. So I went to the vendor's site — but found no apparent reference to the product. If it was there, it was well hidden. After resorting to a search, I browsed informational pages that seemed disconnected from what a user would want to know. I viewed prerecorded demos that had sample data from 2008. Has this product not been updated in four years? When I signed up for a free trial on a Saturday, nothing happened.

NEW YORK — Microsoft has unveiled plans for "store-within-a-store" sections in Best Buy stores, becoming the latest major consumer electronics maker to acknowledge advantages of the brick-and-mortar format. The sections will begin opening this month and offer Windows-based PCs, tablets, Xbox and accessories, as well as trained staff to explain Windows 8 to customers. All of the Microsoft mini-stores are expected to be set up in about 600 Best Buy locations in the U.S. and Canada by...

We live in an age of instant gratification. Thanks to the internet and mobile technology, the ability to access information, products and services is at our fingertips 24/7. Is it any wonder, then, that consumers are beginning to expect the same of customer service? Whether it's information on a product, questions about a service or simple driving directions, consumers want answers, and they want them now. Instant Customer ServiceSince 2002, the use of live chat and instant messaging to connect consumers with live service reps online has...

Once a month, half a dozen New York- and New Jersey-based Glazer-Kennedy members get together for a Mastermind meeting. I always ask for an entire dish of lemon wedges for my iced tea, while another group member always has a piece of warmed-up chocolate cake as an appetizer. Its always very amusing to watch a new waiter try to grasp this peccadillo. Last week the cake appeared after an unusually lengthy wait, accompanied by profuse apologies. Faced with an unfamiliar request, our waiter had to ask the manager what the procedure...

DETROIT -- Chrysler Group LLC dealers across the country are being schooled on the company's customer service expectations this week but won't get a glimpse of the company's new model lineup. Company spokeswoman Kathy Graham says dealers are being told in regional meetings about expectations for things like returning telephone calls, opening doors for customers and minimizing waits for service. But she says dealers will not receive details of the new model plan, which is still being developed.

Barbara Jean Fraker, 82, a former customer service representative at Dominion Federal Savings and Loan in Springfield, died Sept. 28 at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital. She died of congestive heart failure, said her daughter, Janet Hannah. Barbara Jean Olson Fraker was born in Seattle. She moved to the Washington area in 1962 from Germany, where she worked in a civil service job for the U.S. military. She was a stay-at-home mother until the 1970s when she began working at Dominion Federal, where she was employed for about 10...

A look inside at the turnaround efforts at Sprint ( NYSE: S ) Nextel?or, as some employees were calling the struggling carrier, Shawshank, after Stephen King's fictional prison. According to a NYT feature, Dan Hesse, who stepped into the role of CEO last December, hopes to find redemption for the company through better customer service and improving corporate culture. The ills of the country's third lagest carrier are no secret: the disastrous tie-up with Nextel; fleeing customers; executive brain drain; a downcast staff...

IBM 's India Research Laboratory has developed software technology that uses math algorithms to extract and deliver business insights hidden within the large quantity of information gathered by companies during customer service calls and other interactions, according to an official at the lab. Most customer service software simply asks a customer to rate their level of service at a call center, but a rating on a scale of say one to five does...

"Horrible customer service. " That's what the newly fired IRS commissioner averred was the agency's only sin in singling out conservative political groups for discriminatory treatment. In such grim proceedings one should be grateful for unintended humor. Horrible customer service is when every patron in a restaurant finds a fly in his soup. But when the maitre d' screens patrons for their politics and only conservatives find flies paddlewheeling through their consomme, the problem is not poor service.

The firestorm buffeting the Internal Revenue Service intensified Friday as lawmakers began what they promised would be an extensive effort to learn whether there was any political motivation or White House involvement in the agency's recently acknowledged misdeeds. Fueling those concerns, J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's top tax watchdog, said Friday he had informed top Treasury officials starting last spring about problems related to the special attention the agency...

Some reasons Metro struggles with train breakdowns : No station has enough staffers to help the hundreds who pour from trains that can't continue, and the buses for the substitute shuttle service need to be collected and sent along congested streets to the affected stations. We saw the dramatic effects of this Tuesday evening at Takoma station after the train fire at Silver Spring . But this letter isn't about chaos resulting from an emergency. It's about chaos...

Crews began working Wednesday morning to repair a ruptured water main in Northwest Washington. D.C. Water officials said the broken eight-inch main is located on Randolph Street between Georgia Avenue and 10th Street NW. The emergency repairs began around 5 a.m. and are expected to last until approximately 2 p.m. Traffic will not be impacted by the work, but some customers in the area may experience a service disruption, officials said....

Harold Meyerson's April 17 op-ed " Crummy service for a reason " missed the mark. There is much a corporation such as McDonald's or Wal-Mart can do to improve customer service without raising wages. Perhaps customer dissatisfaction has more to do with problems stemming from management, corporate culture or individual employee attitudes. Simply put, throwing money at the problem will not solve it. Ian Luria , Arlington

Regarding Duncan D. Hunter's and Pete Hegseth's April 11 op-ed, " The VA needs a new leader ": I can only relate my own experience as a Vietnam veteran. Yes, it took several months for my claim in 2010 to be adjudicated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but I was advised on an ongoing basis as to the status of the claim, and in some cases I needed to provide additional information. My claim was subsequently approved. Since then, the service and treatment I have received from the VA has been nothing less than outstanding.

Ricardo Gilkes, founder of D.C.-based housecleaning service Maids in Black , recently faced a new public relations dilemma, a product of the social-media age. A customer running a well-trafficked music site tweeted his dissatisfaction with the maid service to his 12,228 followers. "@maidsinblack unhappy. Paid u $200, nobody arrived, called, you promised they'd be here, nobody came, so we're cleaning ourselves," @indiefeed had tweeted. Gilkes had to decide, should he respond?

On the same day President Obama was preparing for his first trip to Israel , the finances of Cyprus called into question the future of the euro , and we marked the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War , the world was riveted by — of all things — yoga pants. Make that sheer yoga pants. The news that Lululemon , the maker of pricey yoga gear, was recalling 17 percent of its pants inventory due to fabric that was too revealing spread widely on the Internet. It helped, of course, that the story was tailor-made for puns ....

Pepco, the electricity supplier for the District and suburban Maryland, announced Friday that it is seeking a $52 million rate increase for its city customers, despite lingering questions about the utility's performance in big storms. The proposed 6 percent increase, which would require the approval of the D.C. Public Service Commission, would add $5.89 to the average monthly residential bill, increasing it to about $100, Pepco Region President Thomas H. Graham said. He said the increase, which comes after a $24...