Friday, August 31, 2007
Dialing 911 On Your Cell Phone? Not So Fast
Several wireless companies remain non-compliant with a federal government requirement that consumers using their phones can reach appropriate emergency services when dialing 911.
The Federal Communications Commission had issued a rule stating that 95% of consumer phones be equipped to make 911 calls. The agency says that three companies -- Sprint Nextel, Alltel and United States Cellular -- have failed to do so and will be fined.
In a decision published yesterday, the FCC said it would send Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (“NALs”) to the companies. The companies have 30 days to submit statements regarding their non-compliance. The Commission then has the opportunity to enforce fines ranging from $500,000 to more than one million dollars against the companies.
An FCC statement said that Alltel and US Cellular were now compliant, but had missed the deadline.
Labels: Alltel, FCC, Sprint Nextel, US Cellular, wireless
Thursday, August 30, 2007
How Airlines Can Improve Their On Time Statistics
Airline timeliness statistics are regularly released by the U.S. government so that consumers can make informed choices about which flight to take.
Right after unveiling a new terminal at New York's busy JFK Airport, American Airlines also snuck in a way to improve its on-time statistics.
The Washington Post reports today that the Dallas based airline said it will add five to seven minutes to each flight at its largest airports. The carrier said the move would help reduce delays and avoid cancellations.
The schedule change will also help that all important statistic.
Labels: American Airlines, JFK Airport
Using This Knife May Cut You
Gerber Legendary Blades is recalling 154,000 knives made in...wait for it....China.
The company, a division of scissors maker Fiskars that is not affiliated with the baby food company, says that its Exchange-A-Blade pocket knives have a manufacturing defect. The back of the blade can slide past the support, according to the company, and cut a consumer. Gerber reported that the company was aware of eight such incidents, including several where the consumer needed medical attention and stitches.
The recall involves Gerber EAB Pocket Knives, model numbers 22-41548, 22-41548CDIP, 22-01548W and 22-41548W.
Consumer should stop using the knife immediately and contact Gerber for a new knife. Calls are toll free at (877) 204-5510 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday.
Labels: Fiskars, Gerber Blades, recall, safety
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
FAA Requires Airlines Test Jets After Explosion In Japan
After last week's horrifying air travel accident when an China Air 737 caught fire after landing in Japan, the United States Federal Aviation Administration has given American carriers three weeks to test their own planes.
According to an
FAA Airworthiness Directive issued this weekend, American companies flying certain Boeing 737 models must complete testing of their fleet by mid-September. The agency said that "Loose or missing parts...if not detected and corrected, could result in a fuel leak and consequent fire."
Aero-News Net has identified eight U.S. airlines flying the planes as Southwest, American, Delta, Continental Air Tran, Alaska Air, ATA and Aloha. The aviation news site is tracking airline compliance with the directive.
Labels: 737, Aero-News Net, Boeing, FAA
Monday, August 27, 2007
(beep) Would You Like Fries With That?
PC World's Mark Sullivan blogs today about an AOL tech support chat session that left him feeling a little less like a customer and a little more like a database query.
Judging by the partial transcript Sullivan posted, the entity at the other end was perfectly scripted and pressing buttons that fired macro and marketing-perfect answers at the user or
a bot.
That's right. Even when Sullivan baited the conversation by asking if he was typing to a male or female, he did not get a straight answer. He finally called the
person (?) "HAL" after the computer in the classic movie
2001. Still no answer.
Only a month ago, we wrote about
AOL's refund policies and our work on behalf of consumers who were owed money. Even if Sullivan had received service from someone in Bangalore or South America or even Dubuque, now is not the time for the beleaguered company to be coy regarding its service.
(beep) You've got customers.
Labels: AOL, PC World
Friday, August 24, 2007
GE Seeking Compliance On Dishwasher Recall
Full page, color ads in major newspapers are showing up regarding the
GE dishwasher recall. We reported on the details months ago when they became public, but there is apparently still not enough compliance.
Please do not use affected dishwashers until they are repaired or replaced. The details of the machines are in the link above and cover brand names Kenmore and Hotpoint, in addition to GE. The company is offering a free repair or a rebate amount of varying amounts on a new purchase. All of the affected units are more than five years old.
Consumers need to know that using the dishwasher with a liquid rinse can cause an electrical short-circuit, overheating and even fire.
Labels: dishwasher, GE, Hotpoint, Kenmore, recall, safety
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Wheels On The XBox Burn, Burn, Burn
Microsoft Corporation announced yesterday that an add-on
device for their XBox 360 game console can overheat. No fires, injuries or other problems have been reported, but the company received dozens of complaints that the unit overheated and smoke was visible.
The company said consumers could fix the problem with the "Wireless Racing Wheel", but cautioned consumers that they should not use electrical power when using the device until they received a repair kit. Microsoft did not say when the kits would ship, and the federal government has not issued a recall notice.
The new console from Microsoft has taken its share of abuse. With a larger Sony installed base and tremendous buzz around Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's XBox was best known for its "red ring of death", the lights that displayed when some units locked up. The phrase was a play on words based on computer user's referring to failures in the company's Windows operating system as a "blue screen of death".
Blue or red, unplug your XBox's steering wheel until it is repaired.
Labels: Microsoft, safety, XBox
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Skype Antes Up Resolution
When eBay's Skype phone service crashed last week, users throughout the world were faced with a spinning icon and wasted computer cycles. The company later said that the crash's scope was international and cited stress caused by millions of computers rebooting after receiving an updated Microsoft patch.
Pundits throughout the blogsphere and traditional media continued to ask why this particular update, one of many Microsoft regularly sends subscribers, caused the crash, but the company would only state that the crash was unintentional and not the work of hackers.
Many of Skype's users have free accounts, the remnants of a well received promotion that offered free service to any landline phone during 2006. Millions of users pay for varying levels of service, however, including local phone numbers, the ability to call any phone and reduced international calling rates. To compensate users, Skype has added a week to any paid subscriber's account.
Labels: eBay, Microsoft, Skype
Monday, August 20, 2007
If The Skies Aren't Friendly, San Francisco Lines May Be
Security lines are a necessary evil at airports. Comedian Bill Maher has a great schtick on flying without them, but no one wants to do that.
While everyone gets frustrated in a long line, frequent travelers -- the kind of passenger who take 20, 50 or even 100 flights a year -- often find themselves spending plenty of time on the other side of the detectors. Many have their own favorite lines and times, but one family with twins in strollers can change the day.
Registered traveler programs might be one answer. For about $100, passengers can opt to have a background investigation done and enter shorter lines. One such program,
Clear by Verified Identity Pass is due to open at San Francisco's busy airport in September. Here's betting that the gateway to Silicon Valley (if you don't count San Jose...) will see more than its share of travelers sign up, which begs the question transportation officials have asked about their highways for years.
What happens when the express lanes slow down?Labels: airport, safety, San Francisco
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Could Credit, Customer Service Cripple Jet Blue?
Celebrity CEOs are sometimes worth their weight in platinum. Gates, Jobs, Bezos, Buffett and others have set a high watermark that brand them as much as their company. Even the late Dave Thomas helped resuscitate hamburger chain Wendy's when McDonald's and Burger King threatened the then-higher priced chain.
David Neelman, a serial entrepreneur and airline exec for virtually his entire adult life, was joining their ranks as he led low-cost, non-union JetBlue Airways into the public consciousness. Focusing on frills passengers wanted and mixing second-tier airports with some strategic hubs, Neelman had JetBlue poised somewhere between the low-cost carriers and the legacy major airlines.
Then one service catastrophe after another hit the company in early 2007. JetBlue was the country's eighth largest carrier when a series of winter storms caused it to cancel more than 1,000 flights in February. The cancellations disrupted travel plans for more than 100,000 passengers, and Neelman found himself on the short end of the blame stick. A hasty departure upstairs to the Chairman's seat was arranged for Neelman, and the CEO duties were handed over to another airline veteran, David Barger.
The cachet of free televisions and big seats was no longer the differentiator it had once been. MaxJet began operations to Europe, quickly followed by the launch this week of Virgin America. Both pose huge threats to the cool factor JetBlue enjoyed among younger travelers. Even
Wired blogger Dylan Tweney extolled the virtues of Virgin to the world's geeks.
So where has JetBlue gone wrong? Wall Street pundits still are concerned about the company 's cash flow and the growing liability lines on the company's balance sheet. Key financial metrics like ROA and ROE continue to slump in negativity territory.
And then there is the customer experience.
Consumer Help Web was going to try the airline out for a big search engine conference in San Jose this month. We know the web, we understand online airline booking and were willing to fly into Oakland direct from our DC area offices. The price was competitive with the majors, even though United has a hub in DC and nearby San Francisco.
Then the roof caved in. JetBlue's web site returned pricing for a direct flight and prompted us for payment. There were no seat maps so we had no idea whether people would be traveling on full or open flights, or worse, whether someone would be in a middle seat for three hours.
Being good consumers, we called. And we continue to tell ourselves that the grumbles we've heard about JetBlue are traced back to poor customer experience. To begin with, we never should have had to call. But the results were
astounding when we did.
"You'll get to choose a seat when you pay," the bored sounding CSR told us on the phone.
No amount of appealing to reason, rationality or the promise of winning new customers could convince her to research the flight and tell us. We moved from asking to declaring that we would not use JetBlue. They would join another unnamed airline on our blacklist.
This comment was met with indifference as well. Finally, we did the only thing most consumers can do before purchasing when they don't feel like investing the time to climb the corporate ladder. We asked that the call receiver make a note of our dissatisfaction and let her manager know that we were unhappy. The thinking here is that if the manager hears that enough, the word makes its way up the ranks.
Not at JetBlue though. Our call receiver refused to tell her manager. The best way to complain, she said, was to visit their web site and use the complaint form there. Three of us here have customer contact center experience. We agreed that we could fix this nonsensical approach in a morning with two coffee breaks -- it's just that easy. We might even do the training free if JetBlue asked nicely.
This wasn't an isolated incident, you see. We tried calling back again and were met with the same brick wall.
Poor customer web experience.Atrocious call center training.Nonsensical complaint policies.JetBlue may have televisions and big seats, but in the battle for customer's hearts and minds, that only works once. Think back to the last time you said to yourself, "I hate doing business with that company, but they give me what I want." It's not a phrase most people say ever and certainly not often.
In the turbulent wake of rising fuel prices, increased competition and a major service quality meltdown, JetBlue may be the next airline finding itself short of customers, cash and finally, solvency.
Labels: airline, customer satisfaction, JetBlue
Don't Catch This Fish
Seafood lovers may find their choices more limited at the supermarket after the Food and Drug Administration said some fish imported from China could be harmful. The government agency said that farm-raised fish from China being sold in the United States contained anti-bacterial drugs not approved for use in this country.
The FDA singled out popular seafood like shrimp and catfish, as well as basa, dace and eel. The levels of drugs found in the fish were low, but the FDA issued an "Import Alert" that gives the agency the authority to stop import shipments and test them for the drugs. Food companies are able to apply for exemptions if they meet certain criteria.
Trade between the U.S. and China has suffered this year after recalls affecting
toys,
automobile tires,
laptop batteries and
pet food.
Labels: China, fish, food, safety
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Flood Vehicles Showing Up For Sale, Carfax Warns
After weeks of heavy flooding in the Midwest, used car shoppers everywhere need to be on high alert as vehicles damaged by floodwaters may be sold - knowingly or unknowingly - by dealers or individuals.
A recent study by vehicle history leader Carfax shows that the number of flood cars discovered by their customers' reports has doubled nationwide in only five years. Thousands of waterlogged wrecks from Hurricane Katrina and Rita already have made their way back onto the market. The Virginia company also warns that ore are still showing up around the country.
Carfax continues to offer a
free Carfax Flood Check to help consumers avoid unknowingly buying a flood-damaged car. Under the Carfax Buyback Guarantee, cars purchased with Carfax Vehicle History Reports that do not contain DMV-reported incidents (salvage, flood damage, lemon, odometer problems) may be eligible to be bought back by Carfax.
Labels: carfax, cars, vehicle
Government Will Consider Untested Matresses Unsafe
Growing concern over imported goods and a hyper-competitive market have prompted the federal government to issue a ruling that any mattresses not tested by the government would be considered unsafe and subject to recall. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the mattresses would be considered flammable.
A "narrow exception" has been made for medical beds meeting strict criteria.
Labels: CPSC, furniture, safety
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
No More Running Through The Airport Like O.J., Flights Post Awful Records
Older readers may remember O.J. Simpson's famous Hertz commercials back when he was a football player and actor. The spots showed the star running back racing through an airport and hurtling over chairs, suitcase and other obstacles.
According to the latest government data, travelers can stroll more leisurely than Simpson.
The nation's airlines, despite rising fuel prices and terrorism concerns, posted some of the worst flight delay statistics in recent memory during June. The national average for timeliness was 68.1%, down almost a full percent from last June. More astonishing was the 100% delay experienced by eight different flights last month. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that 6 of the 8 flights originated from New York's JFK Airport or from Atlanta's
Hartsfield. One of the other flights was a departure from Tennessee to Atlanta, and for some inexplicable reason, Northwest's flight 656 from its hub in Detroit to Newark, New Jersey joined the group at 100%.
But late arrivals were not the only issue facing travelers in June. Three airlines canceled more than 5% of their flights in June: Mesa, American Eagle and Northwest.
When flights did take off, there was a good chance that the luggage was also delayed or even lost. The government agency said that "mishandled baggage" complaints rose 25% for a 6 month period ending in June. There were 7.34 reports of mishandled baggage for each 1,000 passengers during the period. Put in perspective, a small regional jet holds nearly 50 passengers while larger jets can hold more than 100, sometimes much more. Another way of expressing the rate the government reported is that 1 out of every 136 passengers reported a baggage problem, and many passengers continue to only bring carry-on luggage.
Keep your cool during the waning days of summer, and you just may want to consider carry-on luggage for shorter trips. At least you won't bump into O.J. Chances are his flight is late too.
Labels: airline, travel
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Massive Fisher-Price Recall Affects Sesame Street, Dora The Explorer, Other Toys
On the heels of a
huge recall of Thomas Railroad toys thought to contain lead-based paint, toy giant Fisher-Price is recalling nearly a million units for the same reason.
The New York based company said it had not received reports of injuries, but a chance existed that excessive lead based paint was used for toys based on popular children's characters. Those characters are from series such as
Sesame Street,
Dora the Explorer, and
Sponge Bob Squarepants among others.
The recalled involves various figures and toys that were manufactured between April 19, 2007 and July 6, 2007 and were sold alone or as part of sets. The model names and product numbers for the recalled toys, which are all marked with “Fisher-Price,” are listed below. The toys may have a date code between 109-7LF and 187-7LF marked on the product or packaging.
The toymaker also issued a large recall earlier this year for its "Little People Animal Sounds Farm". That toy had a loose fastener that injured at least one child that resulted in surgery. As part of that recall, Fisher-Price agreed to pay a civil penalty of nearly one million dollars. Another choking hazard in a Fisher-Price toy was also found earlier this year when
500,000 "Laugh and Learn Bunny Toys" were recalled. The recalls follow a relatively quiet 2006 that was marred only by a
recall of 600,000 musical toy chairs that the Consumer Product Safety Commission said could trap a small child and lead to strangulation.
Fisher-Price is a unit of Mattel and conceded that the affected toys were made in China. The company instructed parents and caregivers to take the affected toys away from children immediately. Fisher-Price will issue a voucher for a replacement toy. Consumers can call toll-free (800) 916-4498 anytime for more information.
Labels: CPSC, Fisher-Price, recall, safety
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Gerber Baby Food Recalled
A recal that has nothing to do with China is newsworthy in and of itself, but this important recall focuses on baby food.
Gerber, now part of Nestle after being sold by huge European conglomerate Novartis, is recalling a half million units of baby food. The company said its oatmeal and rice products may not properly dissolve in water or milk and could pose a choking hazard by "clumping".
The company has recalled pacifiers, rattles and bottles this summer.
Labels: Gerber, recall, safety
