Business errors and overcharging cost you money, increase company profits

Consumer

Carol Forsloff----More than a decade ago the television show 60 Minutes had a segment about errors that occur on transactions involving bill payments, buying groceries or purchasing goods of any kind.  And what they reported was one-third of these transactions involved errors, not in the customer's favor.  Ten years later, anecdotal and research evidence suggests those errors may have not diminished, but actually  increased; and the impact of that over millions of purchases can increase business profits while creating customer harm.

Over the past year a journalist has examined personal records, observing grocery receipts, utility bills, and other consumer activities.  On many, if not most, of these bills and transactions, there have been errors, not in the customer's favor.  These can be medical bill overcharges or utility bills.   The FTC has reported 1 in 5 Americans have errors on credit reports.   And the problems are not just American ones, as the Guardian reported how 28% of customers of energy companies had been overcharged on their energy bills.

Some of these errors have been small.  A fifteen cents error on a Chase account, overpricing of seven cents on a grocery item, and a $50 extra charge on a Comcast account relative to a house call made about constant dropped calls and service problems.

A more recent example shows how widespread these problems may be.  An order for a Casio keyboard from Amazon was delivered promptly, however one item that belonged with the kit, a software utility, was missing.  A chat with the service representative brought the response that an entirely new delivery would be made as a replacement, and that 30 days would be allowed to return the original item.  Reassurance from the representative emphasized the fact that the customer could call and schedule the pickup of the item, at no cost for the return.  In addition, the customer was promised a transcript of the chat conversation and complete instructions for the original item's return.

The following day the doorbell rang.  Less than a minute later, the customer opened the door; and no one was there.  Later it was learned the UPS driver had arrived to pick up the original package, despite assurances that the customer could call and make the arrangements.  The driver had not waited for a response to the doorbell, as the only sign of anyone having been there was a glimpse of the UPS truck pulling away.  A complaint to UPS brought the explanation that the information would be passed along to the driver and a return call would be made to the journalist customer for an estimate for pickup at a later time.

The UPS office failed to call.  The copy of the chat conversation was not sent.  Nor were there instructions for returning the original item.  Another call to Amazon resulted in obtaining those instructions but still not the copy of the chat conversation.  Instead an email arrived from Amazon that stated the original item was on its way back, despite the fact the driver never picked up the package.  What's more, UPS offices maintained they were to pick up two packages, not one.  A third call to Amazon brought a customer service representative who maintained he would follow up with the account, apologizing for the numerous errors already made.

The issue remains unresolved and simply attests to the ongoing problems that occur all over America.  And if time is money, those errors cost the company if the customer discovers them.  On the other hand, the number of errors is likely much larger than the number of customers who discover them, resulting in profit for the company.  The unwitting customer becomes the loser and multiplied many times over, the company wins again.

Vigilance is key to change, as each person must examine the results of every transaction in order for the problems to end while business groups need to encourage companies to emphasize care and caution when they work with customer needs.  But it is unlikely with the number of errors made by businesses of all kinds that the problems will end, as the numbers of transactions have increased with Internet purchase options, and the time it takes to check every receipt and transaction makes it difficult for the consumer to track the mistakes.

Should the police spy on all Muslim mosques and groups?

Islamic Institute, mosque and school

Carol Forsloff---“Prudence dictates, and common sense frankly, that the department find out if violence would ricochet here,”Attorney Peter Farrell said in reference to the 9-11 counter-terrorism strategy of spying on Muslims in mosques and other public places.

At a recent hearing Farrell argued that it was fair to target Muslims in mosques, just because they are Muslims and that it is a matter of national security to do so. A struggle that has been going on concerning where spying is appropriate and where it is not was examined by the Associated Press in 2012 when the NYPD intelligence division was found to have eavesdropped on dossiers on dozens of mosques, businesses and student groups.

Peter Farrell, a New York City attorney, maintained at a hearing that Islamic terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon that requires information be gathered in a wide fashion. He said it is important to do so even if there is no prior evidence of extremism or a crime.

Those who are concerned about the police doing surveillance of Muslims in places of worship argue that this is religious profiling and unfairly so.

Legal experts maintain there have been more than 4000 surveillance actions in the past three years that have included mosques.

The argument that it is necessary to target Muslims for surveillance omits the fact that in places like Kenya during the recent mass shooting of hundreds of people in a shopping mall,  Muslims themselves are targets of the extreme groups like Al-Shabab and Al Qaeda, who having been criticized before for killing fellow Muslims, offered those who were identified as Muslims during the mall shootings a test which they had to pass or be shot with the other captives.

A forum on the Internet discusses the concerns about Muslim violence against Christians, as targeting Christians for violence is forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad. A reference is made to a segment on the television show “60 Minutes” which included the letter written by the Prophet that was sent to St. Catherine's Monastery, after a visit made to him in 628 by a delegation from the religious group at St. Catherine's. The following represents the contents of that letter: “The Promise to St. Catherine:

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."

The letter with the Prophet Muhammad's seal remains in the archives of St. Catherine's Monastery as a testimony to the fact that Muslims who follow the tenets of their faith in the simple, traditional ways that people do in other faiths are not violent and in fact do not violate the basic law of not committing acts of terror against Christians. This raises the question by Muslim adherents about whether or not it is right and just to target all Muslims for surveillance.

Poor corporate customer service creating economic, social and personalstress

[caption id="attachment_15619" align="alignleft" width="225"] This child wandering through Target is used as the image of how lost a consumer can become in the corporate maze, without proper customer service, and is not identified as a problem only by Target.[/caption]

Carol Forsloff - If you spent seven or eight hours this past month correcting bills and mistakes made by various corporations relative to your accounts, even at the grocery store, then you are among the many Americans likely frustrated and suffering either economic, personal or social problems as a result.

More than a decade ago, the television news magazine 60 minutes had a program in which they discussed the errors made by corporations, finding that approximately 1/3 of all transactions in the United States have errors not in the customer's favor. Although this journalist has seen no research of late about this, it is likely that with the recession, and the cutbacks of employees made by various corporations coupled with the tendency to digitize virtually everything, creating more distance between customer and Corporation, that problems have increased.

Experience of this journalist is similar to many people who spend many hours trying to get service or correct errors on accounts. Some of these will be detailed here, simply to illustrate the consequences of ongoing problems that impact lives.

A scheduled medical procedure recently had to be canceled because of lack of insurance. The lack of insurance came as a result of clerical errors that continued from Blue Cross Blue Shield, and still continue, month after month after service representatives and supervisors promise they will not continue. But they do continue in the same form and with the same consequences.   The company applies premium payments made monthly to a single account as opposed to both accounts which are clearly identified on the checks and statements. Despite these clear,  identifying materials, premium payments are documented only on one account, resulting in an overpayment on one and no payment on the other. Representatives see the error, once the customer has described it, and promise to correct it. The following month, however, brings the same ever again. What are the social and personal problems that arise from these errors?

Corporate errors of various kinds certainly impact the customer but multiplied many times, they impact all of us as a larger group. In fact, errors like this are so pervasive that one might suggest they are purposeful, a method of creating distance between customer and corporation in a fashion that reduces the power of that customer to complain or even to discover the errors or to have them corrected. The number of errors also might indicate that the corporation recognizes that many people will give up when they encounter consistent difficulties they are unable to resolve. It becomes a personal problem when the issue is a service the customer depends upon. It results in frustration, the type of frustration that can bring strong feelings that can impact others. The service representative hears these frustrations, then must go home with the additional stress.

So as technology has on the surface provided an avenue for multiple types of communication, the absolute reliance on that technology has risks. Another example is this publication, which is an online magazine  for three years. During those three years, however, Internet service has not always been reliable. In addition, hosting services have not always been reliable as well. The details of these are numerous, but suffice to say they exemplify the problem that impacts the consumer multiplied many times that results in wasted time, frustration, stress and all sorts of issues that can affect health and the community.

Contaminated foods entering the food supply has concerned many consumer groups. It is one of those errors made within corporations that can impact many people and create major health problems.

Medical bill errors are rampant, so much so that there are businesses that have been created simply to handle the errors.

There are also media groups that focus attention on corporate corruption, specifically the numerous errors that create serious problems for the public, costing millions of dollars.

So what is the solution to an ongoing problem that impacts everyone? One of these is for folks to enlist others in applying protest, a kind of protest that multiplied many times can impact a corporation's bottom line. This means that protest groups are not always the ragtag group they are identified as by the same corporate executives or politicians supported by them. Many of them are you and me.  And taking back the "government" may simply mean restoring the American dream of the customer first, which means that reducing regulation for businesses who make these errors may not be the right avenue, given the multiplication of mistakes made from the lack of internal regulation creating the problems in the first place.