uReport: Airlines Get A Lot Of Hate On Social Media, Especially The Big Onesr

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  (benh57)

  As often as we use social media to proclaim our likes and loves, just as often we air grievances to our friends and the world — including complaints about the companies we do business with. When it comes to talking about airlines on social media, a new report says it’s a negative arena, especially when it comes to the largest carriers.

  According to an analysis of Tweets from 2014 into this spring by Crimson Hexagon, a social media analysis company, 47% of posts about five large U.S. airlines were negative, with positive comments only getting about 20% of the social media pie, reports the Chicago Tribune.

  The rest of the posts got a “neutral” rating — like, “Hey, I just boarded a/an [X] flight to [Y] and thought I’d tell everyone I know.”

  The report says that United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue have seen a 209% increase in mentions on Twitter since January 2012.

  The two biggest airlines United and American — also had the highest rate of negative posts among the rest, with 56% of both carriers’ mentions on Twitter being rated negative.

  In the social media age, companies have had to adjust their customer service methods to adapt to the changing times. Customers can now complain directly to companies’ Facebook or Twitter accounts, instead of being restricted to only emails, phone calls or handwritten letters.

  “More consumers are taking to social media to discuss these airline brands, ask general and specific travel questions, and express their satisfaction — or more likely, their dissatisfaction — towards these brands,” said the “Analyzing Customer Relations in the Airline Industry” report.

  While social media is supposed to make people feel more connected to the brands they’re encountering in real life, the report points to American as an example of a somewhat robotic social media personality.

  “Twitter was designed to be a social platform where relatively informal conversation takes place, yet American Airlines has not adapted its customer service methods to fit this social setting,” the report said. “The company’s replies to customers are very formal and do not come off as personal.”

  JetBlue uses less formal responses, the report says, and it ended up with the highest rate of positive comments, at about one-third of the total.

  The lesson to be learned here, the report indicates? Acting natural when communicating with the customer, because no one likes to feel like they’re talking to a robot instead of a real live person at a keyboard.

  Larger airlines get social media hate [Chicago Tribune]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uOwner Accuses Petco Groomer Of Leaving Dog To Die Of Heat Stroker

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• Most dogs are not fond of blow dryers, which is why pet groomers use a quiet, hands-off method to dry them off after a bath. Drying cages are simply cages that blow hot air onto the animal inside. Users are not, however, supposed to put a dog inside and then leave the shop, and that’s what a Virginia dog owner accuses her local Petco of doing.

  If her allegations are true, this would not be the first time that a dog had died while in a grooming cage. One owner whose pet died in a cage seven years ago campaigned for the contraptions to be banned, and Petco claimed at that time that while it continues to use dryer cages, they were no longer heated.

  Yet TV station WWBT reports that the woman whose dog, Colby Jack the Golden Retriever, died after a grooming session in Virginia was told that the animal suffered from heat stroke. She called the store to check on her pet, and was put on hold for an extended period before being told to meet an employee at a nearby animal hospital. There, she learned that Colby Jack had died, and due to his still-elevated body temperature, the veterinarian declared that it must have been heat stroke.

  The owner claims that the store holder they couldn’t reach the technician who had bathed her dog, since she had left to go to a graduation party and wasn’t answering her phone. They wouldn’t comment directly on the situation to the media. Both Petco and the local animal control department are now investigating the incident.

  Woman says her dog died of heat stroke at Petco [WWBT] (Thanks, Ed!)

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uThe Former Face Of Men’s Wearhouse Re-Emerges With On-Demand Tailoring Businessr

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  (nathanmac87)

  He might not be able to guarantee you’ll like the way you look, but George Zimmer, the former face of Men’s Wearhouse, is back and pitching on behalf of his own clothing company, an on-demand tailoring business called zTailors that he thinks is “a hell of an idea.”

  Though you might have thought Zimmer was just going to fade into the darkness of a closet somewhere after he was fired in 2013 from the company he founded more than 40 years ago, he has emerged with a shiny new company that uses a nationwide network of on-demand tailoring professionals that make house or office calls for customers, reports Bloomberg.

  The new company launched today, offering at-home alterations on both men’s and women’s clothing. Once the measurements are taken, the tailors take the clothes for a week or less to make the alterations before returnig them to customers. If something doesn’t fit quite right, additional changes are free. For now there’s simply a website for customers in most of California, Texas, Florida, and New York’s Tri-State area, but the company is planning to expand to other areas and create an app for the service as well.

  Tailors first have to be tested for their ability and interviewed by an executive, as well as submitting to background checks. So far there are 600 tailors signed on, with plans for 1,000 by the end of the year.

  “We think this is a hell of an idea,” Zimmer, who owns about one-third of the company and serves in an advisory role as chairman says. “I’ve had a 40-year tradition with tailors, and they are the quintessential underdogs.”

  As for guaranteeing how people will feel after using the service? Well, Zimmer won’t be uttering anything familiar on that front.

  “I’m very careful not to use that word,” he told Bloomberg. “I’m fine using it in jest or for charity, but I’m not using it commercially.”

  The Face of Men’s Wearhouse Is Back With a New Tailoring Startup [Bloomberg]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTesla Won’t Be Selling Cars Directly In Texas For At Least Another Two Yearsr

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  (Atwater Village Newbie)

  Tesla won’t be conquering the Lone Star state anytime soon, as bills in front of the Texas legislature that would allow direct-to-consumer sales by the electric car maker likely won’t see the light of day until 2017, when the next regular legislative session begins.

  Bloomberg reports that the latest hurdle for Tesla is the second in Texas since 2013.

  This year, Tesla backed two bills that would have allowed the company to sell directly to consumers in the state, rather than going through a car dealership. However, neither the Texas House nor Senate brought the bills to a vote.

  The legislative failure comes after Tesla CEO Elon Musk campaigned heavily for the bills, including a tour through the state’s capital of Austin in early January.

  In all, Bloomberg reports that Tesla hired about 20 lobbyists and spent more than $150,000 on campaign contributions last year in an effort to sway policy in its favor.

  However, Tesla’s backing paled in comparison to that of traditional auto dealers in Texas – which represents the second largest car market in the U.S. Dealers in the state have had substantial support of residents and legislators especially in Texas’ vast rural areas.

  Additionally, the industry’s lobby groups have fought fiercely to protect their businesses, and not just in Texas. Tesla has seen setbacks in several states when it comes to its direct-to-consumer sales model.

  Back in January, a Missouri auto dealers group sued the state for allowing Tesla to sell directly to consumers.

  Before that, in October 2014, the Michigan legislature quietly passed – as an amendment to an unrelated bill – a law that explicitly states that the dealership-only requirement applies to all car companies who sell, service, display or advertise vehicles in the state; meaning Tesla isn’t welcome to sell directly to customers.

  Just last month, the Federal Trade Commission urged Michigan lawmakers to repeal the ban.

  But for every setback Tesla has faced in recent years, there have been a few victories. Georgia, Maryland and New Jersey passed measures that allow the electric car company to sell its products directly to residents.

  As for Texas, Tesla likely won’t be backing down from its fight, but it will have to wait nearly two years for its third go-around with the state.

  “We have to do a better job of marshaling the popular support that we know is there,” Diarmuid O’Connell, vice president of business development for Tesla, tells Bloomberg.

  Tesla’s Push to Sell Cars Directly to Texans Runs Out of Juice [Bloomberg]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSurvey Says: Everyone Still Hates Comcast’s, TWC’s Customer Servicer

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  (Consumerist)

  Comcast keeps promising that this is the year their legendarily bad customer service gets an overhaul, but consumers don’t seem to be buying it. A national survey asking consumers about cable and internet companies has, once again, dropped Comcast and Time Warner Cable right at the very bottom of the heap.

  The survey was conducted by our colleagues at Consumer Reports (Consumerist’s parent company), and it’s yet another tale of woe for millions of American cable and broadband subscribers.

  The Consumer Reports National Research Center’s latest telecom survey separately ranks telecom companies — cable, fiber, and satellite — on internet, phone, and TV service as well as for bundled packages of multiple services. And CR’s data matches what other customer service indexes have found: cable companies do not fare well, and the bigger, the worse.

  Regional providers Armstrong and WOW (Wide Open West) fared best in the ratings, generally, but that’s a painfully low bar, writes CR:

  Only one of 39 Internet providers received a middling score for value, with the remainder failing to reach even that level of mediocrity. TV-service providers also took a beating, with 20 of the 24 companies earning our lowest scores for value; the rest managed to do just a little bit better. Bundles also weren’t deemed especially good deals, since only one of 20 bundled services got an average mark for value—the others all did worse.

  Regional provider Mediacom did fare equally badly or worse worse than Comcast (Xfinity) and Time Warner Cable in most measures, but taken together those three companies landed at the absolute bottom in ratings for phone, TV, and bundled services. Comcast fared slightly better in ratings for internet service, though still remaining in the bottom third of the 39 companies rated (including behind all four major mobile providers).

  CR also confirmed what many of us have felt likely to be true, and what other studies have shown: the younger you are, the more likely you are to replace or supplement your cable subscription with over-the-top, streaming video offerings.

  

  The survey also found one bright spot in the sea of consumer misery: when it comes to cable, negotiation works. 42% of survey respondents reported trying in some way to negotiate for a better deal with their provider, and in many of those cases, the negotiations were successful. Nearly half (45%) were able to have their bills reduced by up to $50 per month, 30% received some kind of new promotional rate, and just over a quarter got extra premium channels.

  Cable-TV and Internet subscribers remain unhappy customers, new Consumer Reports survey says [Consumer Reports]

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist

uBlackBerry Settles Patent Dispute With Makes Of Slip-On Keyboardr

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• After another round of fighting over whether keyboard company Typo Products’ was infringing on BlackBerry’s patents, the two sides have decided to settle their dispute. Typo will still get to sell slip-on keyboards — as long as they’re of a certain size.

  Blackberry and Typo agreed to settle the dispute, reports Reuters, with an agreement that allows Typo to sell keyboards for smartphones and other devices that have screens larger than 7.9 inches. That means no (current) iPhones, but allows for tablets and other devices.

  Last February a U.S. district court slapped Typo — co-founded by that guy from American Idol, Ryan Seacrest — on the wrist for violating a previous injunction that had kept it from selling an iPhone keyboard case that BlackBerry claimed was a copycat design. This, despite Typo’s claim that a newer release of its keyboard didn’t infringe on any patents.

  BlackBerry then sued again, which is what led to today’s settlement.

  BlackBerry settles patent dispute with Seacrest’s company Typo [Reuters]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBank Of America Must Pay $30M For Military Relief Law Violationsr

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  (James Callan)

  The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) aims to protect members of the Armed Forces from unfair and harmful practices that jeopardize their financial well-being while deployed. It shouldn’t be surprising then, that failing to adhere to those protections is frowned upon by federal regulators. Just ask Bank of America, which is now on the hook for $30 million stemming from SCRA violations related to more than 73,000 servicemember accounts.

  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that Bank of America must pay the hefty fine and provide remediation to the affected customer accounts after an investigation found the bank violated SCRA when it came to collecting debts from military customers.

  According to the OCC consent order [PDF], since 2006 Bank of America took improper legal action against military customers for delinquent credit card accounts and overdrafts.

  In many cases, investigators found that deficiencies in BofA’s enterprise compliance risk management function led to unsafe and unsound practices and violations of SCRA.

  For example, the investigation found that when the bank filed legal action against military customers to collect debts, employees asserted in affidavits that they had personal knowledge of the alleged delinquencies, when in fact they didn’t.

  In other cases, according to the OCC filing, employees filed court documents without the proper notarization.

  Additionally, the institution failed to devote sufficient financial, staffing and managerial resources to ensure proper administration of its legal documentation and to overseeing outside counsel and other third-party providers handling those documents.

  Under the consent order, the bank is required to strengthen its oversight of military member accounts to prevent future violations of SCRA.

  Bank of America must also improve its SCRA-compliance policies and procedures for determining whether “military personnel are eligible for requested SCRA-related benefits, for ensuring that the bank calculates the SCRA benefits correctly, and for verifying the military service status of servicemembers prior to seeking or obtaining default judgments on non-home loans.”

  The New York Times reports that while the bank did not admit any wrongdoing with regard to the OCC’s findings, it has taken steps to amend its SCRA weaknesses.

  “We have taken significant steps over the last several years, and will take further steps now, to ensure we have the right controls and processes in place to meet – and exceed – what is required by law and what our military customers deserve and expect,” the company said in a statement.

  OCC Takes Action Against Bank of America to Protect Consumers and to Ensure Servicemembers Receive Credit Protections for Their Non-Home Loans [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency]
  Bank of America Fined for Violations of Military Relief Law [The New York Times]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist