Customer Service

136-acre development of luxury homes opens in western Howard Toll Brothers Inc., a builder of luxury homes, has unveiled Tridelphia Ridge. The 136-acre single-family-home community in western Howard County features four- and five-bedroom houses with two- or three-car garages. Customer-service award for Guaranteed Best Optical noted for customer service Guaranteed Best Optical, an optometry and optician office in Dobbin Center, has received customer-service honors from Valstar Certified, a customer-service research company.

Ron D. George Membership specialist AAA Mid-Atlantic, Arnold Salary --$35,000 Age --30 Years on the job --One How he got started --George lived in Williamsburg, Va., working at a small airport and helping his mother open a bed and breakfast inn. He then moved to the Annapolis area and began looking for a job. On a whim, he walked into the Arnold office of AAA to ask if they were hiring. Typical day --As a membership specialist, George concentrates on selling and explaining the various benefits associated with the auto club.

Deborah Bryan Sales and service associate U.S. Postal Service, Woodstock Salary --$45,000 Age --41 Years on the job --18 How she got started --After graduating from Towson University with a degree in business administration, Bryan went to work at the post office. For the first 15 years she worked in the back, getting mail ready for carriers to deliver. Not quite three years ago, she switched to working the front window at the Woodstock branch. She's currently on a temporary reassignment, working out of the main branch of the Baltimore post office assisting business customers.

In the short time this column has been around, a nudge from me and compromise by both parties involved in disputes have helped people get apologies, save money, replace faulty products or receive refunds. For that, some consumers have written in to praise. Some call to say thanks. One man sent flowers. One particular person, though, was utterly effusive. "Thank you for this major accomplishment," said John Carson, a 64-year-old retired police officer from Carroll County. "It means more to me than I can say. Thank you."

Until the other day, I had never experienced the sudden panic, feelings of worthlessness and subsequent descent into Customer Service Hell that comes with losing your bank card. The good news about the card was this: It wasn't stolen. So therefore I wasn't worried about some grinning hoodlum standing in the check-out line of Best Buy with a new flat-screen TV and my card, ready to go to town. The bad news: The card was "eaten" by the automated teller machine outside my bank, which turned out to be a horror story all its own. Anyway, the story goes like this: It's a weekday morning when I pull up to the ATM to withdraw cash.

Joe De Francis acknowledges that he is not his father, from whom he inherited Pimlico and Laurel Park a decade ago."I certainly would agree with the conclusion that I'm not as visible as my father was," De Francis said. "But that doesn't mean I don't care as much as he did about the fans and their comments."De Francis said that in his father's day, every racing fan congregated from noon to 5 p.m. at one track. "If he walked around the facility once, everybody said, `I saw Frank De Francis today,' " his son said.

The power goes out, so you fumble in the dark, pick up the phone and call Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.You might get Barbara Palmer -- sitting at home in a bedroom with racks of shoes and a bed lined with stuffed animals.For the last six years, Palmer's office has been the spare bedroom in her Northeast Baltimore rowhouse. She uses the same kind of phone and computer as her colleagues in BGE's downtown office on Lexington Street. But unlike her co-workers, Palmer doesn't need to worry about dressing up or driving to the office.

One of Jim Nordstrom's favorite customer service stories is about a Nordstrom shopper in desperate need of a blue dress shirt with white cuffs and collar and a salesman who produced one within a day.When asked how, with none in stock, the salesman held back the details, but replied, " `Well, if you need a white dress shirt with a blue collar and blue cuffs, we have one,' " recalled Nordstrom, a company co-president and part of the fourth generation to...

When Sitel Corp. was looking for a new president to help guide its burgeoning growth, it knocked on the door of the Alex. Brown investment banker who helped take the teleservices company public the year before.Phillip A. Clough answered, joining as the No. 2 man in January 1997. Now with the title of chief executive officer, he has overseen the company's largest deal to date -- this month's five-year contract to provide customer service for General Motors' North American Vehicle Sales, Service, and Marketing Group.

CHICAGO -- UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, the world's largest airline, reached a tentative first contract yesterday with its newly unionized ticket agents and reservations clerks, who are among the industry's lowest-paid workers.The one-year agreement with the International Association of Machinists would give the roughly 19,000 service workers improved pension benefits and a 5.5 percent raise as of April 13, 2000. It also would eliminate a separate, lower pay scale for workers hired after UAL's 1994 employee buyout.

To the chagrin of many readers, I defended the Maryland Transportation Authority's decision this year to impose a $1.50-a-month fee on E-ZPass accounts. It was a sound business move because it pushed some subscribers to drop inactive accounts that were costing the state money. But in doing so, the authority assumed the responsibility of making timely refunds of the money it held on behalf of those subscribers. And from what I'm hearing from readers such as John B. Ramsey of New Carrollton, the authority has bungled the job of giving back people's money.

When Wayne Taylor was 16, he'd bring girls all the way from his home in Upper Marlboro to Annapolis for dates. "We'd sit on the docks and watch the boats," said Taylor, a 13-year resident of the city and now candidate for mayor. "It was more enjoyable to get away from the day-to-day process that you're used to and come here to small-town Annapolis." Since then, Taylor turned his affection for the city into a profession. He's the community engagement coordinator for the Anne Arundel Community Action Agency, a branch of a government organization that works to alleviate poverty.

MARK SCHLOTTMAN Sales representative Partsmaster Inc., Aberdeen Salary $60,000 Years on the job Nine How he got started Schlottman said he enjoys sales. Before working for his current company, he sold printing materials for 11 years. Nine years ago, he began working for Dallas-based Partsmaster, selling hardware products to area businesses. Typical day By about 6:30 a.m., Schlottman begins his day planning appointments. He leaves his home office about 7:30 a.m. and estimates he'll check in with four to eight customers before he returns.

Hall of Fame inductees named The Howard County Community Sports Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Department of Recreation and Parks, has announced its 2008 inductees: Tony Brudis, Jim Carlan, Don Disney, Karen Dye, Roger Hockey, Helen Moody and Stanley "Chick" Nedzel. The inductees include game officials, promoters, coaches and program administrators. The induction ceremony will be Oct. 20 at the sixth annual "Celebration of Sports" at Turf Valley Resort & Conference Center in Ellicott City.

A hand-held scanner that enables consumers to ring up purchases as they shop and a remote deli ordering system are among the innovations that Giant Food will bring to area stores as part of its latest strategy aimed at reversing eroding sales and regaining market share. The region's largest grocery chain, which has been losing customers to new competitors, plans to announce these and other initiatives today as part of a plan to "reinvigorate our brand," Robin Michel, the grocer's general manager, said in an interview.

Exhibit to focus on injured soldiers AT:LAST Inc., a nonprofit organization that operates a buying cooperative for devices to help the handicapped, will hold a "Regaining Independence" day from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. July 31 for wounded soldiers returning from service and their families and potential employers, and members of the community. The event will celebrate the opening of AT:LAST Inc.'s expanded Assistive Technology Learning Center in Columbia. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 3 p.m. The celebration includes interactive exhibits of low- and high-tech devices to overcome limitations resulting from spinal cord injury, brain injury and loss of limbs, vision or hearing.

If you had to pick between one of these two options, which would you choose? A. Jab yourself in the eye with a sharp stick. B. Call a customer service number to ask a question, lodge a complaint or request a service. If you considered A for even a fleeting second, you probably flashbacked to the joy of navigating an automated voice system while elevator music droned in your ear and a chipper voice thanked you for holding for the umpteenth time. Depending on which study you read, customer call centers have improved a bit. But we hate to take anybody's word for it. So we conducted a very small and wholly unscientific study.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and mortgage industry representatives met yesterday to create a process for loan "triage" in Maryland by which homeowners at risk of foreclosure could be connected with lenders willing to refinance. The mortgage summit came a week after O'Malley railed against loan servicers for shoddy customer service as a rising number of homeowners are defaulting on loans. Eight loan servicers attended the event, including Baltimore-based CitiFinancial and Ocwen Loan Servicing.

A year ago in this column, we railed at Verizon for a raft of customer service complaints about the new fiber-optic video, voice and data services called FiOS that it rolled out in 13 states. At the time, Verizon conceded that it left potential clients waiting for no-show technicians or stuck with partially completed installations. The company said it would focus on improving customer service and avoid overbooking installation work. Well, the retooling either didn't quite take or Robert Hanna slipped through some big cracks.

Manning a complaint line requires a certain amount of patience and je ne sais quoi to listen to both sides of a story without succumbing to the urge to throttle the party that is clearly in the wrong. During the day, I do my best to control my opinions and frustration when facing obstinacy, or as I'm researching all available facts. The paper pays me to be compassionate, kind and nonjudgmental. On my own time, though, all bets are off. Certain consumer issues make me name-call, blaspheme and yell loudly in spasms of English and Vietnamese (not at actual people, though, since that's rude)