Recently a Verizon Wireless customer-service rep blew the whistle on their own company, contacting a newspaper columnist with an allegation that Verizon is now coaching its employees in how to avoid giving legitimate refunds to customers. According to this employee, when people call to complain about unanticipated charges for data access, even though these charges are often due to the way the keys on Verizon's phones are configured (automatically accessing the Web and incurring a data charge, for instance, when they're accidentally pressed), service employees have been instructed NOT to inform customers about having the ability to block these types of accidental calls unless a customer specifically asks how to do so. Moreover, if a user complains about paying unwarranted charges after going months or more without noticing them in their statement, Verizon is only authorizing its reps to offer a single month's refund.

Continue reading "Move Over, Management! Employees Will Lead the Trustability Revolution! " »

Posted by Don Peppers | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a recent post I suggested that Amazon, Apple, and Google are imminently trustable companies, appearing always to put their customers' interests first when devising new products and business strategies. And it's truly gratifying to see three such customer-oriented firms succeeding so well. But what about Facebook? Given all the recent concerns over Facebook's privacy protection policies, would you say it is as trustworthy as these other firms?

Continue reading "Is Facebook Trustworthy? (I think not.)" »

Posted by Don Peppers | Permalink | Comments (2)

The ratings agencies, including Moody's and S&P (a unit of McGraw-Hill) are under fire for not doing a better job in evaluating various financial securities and derivatives products during the sub-prime housing boom and the run-up to the 2008 financial meltdown that has so seriously undermined the world economy. Recently Moody's released information that it might be the subject of an SEC investigation over its presumed "false and misleading" ratings of various products. The company maintains its innocence, of course, and nothing is proven until all the evidence is presented to a judge, but it's widely thought that the big ratings agencies failed miserably in their jobs of providing reasonable and prudent financial ratings to guide investors.

Continue reading "Biased Information and the Financial Meltdown" »

Posted by Don Peppers | Permalink | Comments (0)