Comments@THE GUSS REPORT-As we wade knee-deep into the 21st century, we still have lessons to learn, as I shared last week in “Love and Political Lessons from a Special Needs Rescue Dog.”
Today’s column is about businesses with an LA presence that have lessons to learn about mistreating people. Stick with me, as it all comes together by the end.
New York Life, Cool with Lying
A few years ago, a man walked into a Verizon store, showed his California Driver’s License and walked out with what was at the time an armful of new iPhones. The problem is that his ID had his photo and all of my personal information.
When I received Verizon’s bill for thousands of dollars it worked diligently to shut-down the phones and remedy the damage its employees caused.
That’s why when I recently received this voicemail message from a Glendale-based representative from New York Life, it immediately seemed like another case of identity theft:
“Hi Daniel, my name is Courtney Demolay, I am a recruiting executive. Got a chance to review your resume you submitted through Zip Recruiter, and wanted to set up that one-on-one interview with you. So when you get a chance, give me a call at. . .”
I knew from the outset that Ms. DeMolay was lying because I am not in the job market; I hadn’t touched my Zip Recruiter account in so long that I forgot I had one; and New York Life had been pestering me for years, as insurance companies infamously do, trying to recruit people with no connection to, or interest in, its industry.
I elevated my concerns to New York Life’s executive offices when Ms. DeMolay failed to respond to my calls to find out whether this was another instance of identity theft. Instead of getting to the bottom of the issue, I received the following voicemail from an attorney at Sloane Public Relations a self-described crisis management firm in New York, to which New York Life forwarded my complaint and contact information without asking.
“Hi Daniel, uh, my name is Lauren Nussbaum, I work with Jackie Meere of New York Life. Um, I was calling you because Jackie would like to send you an email and we don’t have your email address so I was wondering if you could please provide it to me. You can give me a call back at. . .”
Ms. Meere previously promised to call me back, not send my information to a lawyer at an unknown third party. This caper just got kookier.
When I asked Ms. Nussbaum how she got my contact information, instead of an honest reply, she said in her most stern lawyerly way, “so you’re refusing to provide me with your email address, is that correct?”
Correct. I instead elevated the matter to Ted Mathas Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of New York Life. It resulted in a slew of apologetic executive calls from everyone – except Courtney Demolay – in which they finally acknowledged that she is an assistant, not a recruiting executive, and that New York LIfe would re-evaluate its policies; apparently because it may not be clear to employees that lying is unacceptable.
While they’re at it, Zip Recruiter, the California and New York insurance commissioners and departments of consumer affairs are also investigating.
Speaking of Apologizing, DirecTV does it a Lot Lately.
As an early cord-cutter, I recently invited family members to join our YouTubeTV subscription, having concluded that despite a significant recent increase in its cost, we would collectively save thousands of dollars per year by dumping TV providers and sharing this best-in-class service.
After years of mistreatment by El Segundo-based DirecTV, they were suddenly calling us daily (twice on one memorable day) promising to remedy its past transgressions, which it refused to do when we were still subscribers. Most telling was that, instead of speaking with their Philippines-based customer reps, the calls were now from costlier, easier-to-understand, American-based reps.
In the last quarter alone, DirecTV lost 1.3 million subscribers. It was a huge mistake for ATT to buy it, and then boost bills by 50% or more; losing returned equipment; making false promises if you keep AT&T’s internet service, and then threatening to ruin credit ratings if you didn’t abide by long-expired contractual obligations.
Television providers, like cellular companies, bank on your rather paying them more money for the same services rather than the inconvenience of going to the competition. DirecTV is now learning this the hard way as it bleeds subscribers, revenue and stock market capitalization.
Speaking of Cellular Service. . .
We recently decided we could do better for ourselves than Verizon, the costliest cellular service, and tried out Google Fi, the tech behemoth’s new phone service.
Good lord, what a mistake!
The next day, Google sent us new SIM cards to redirect our service. It got the internet up and running, but their overseas rep (again, in the Philippines) told us that the phone service would be ready “in about 24 hours.”
Say what, Alphabet CEO, Sundar Pichai?
We ran, not walked, to the nearest Sprint store to rescue our ported phone numbers. Not so easy, considering that Google Fi has so few customers that our account number literally had only four digits, meaning it has fewer than 10,000 customers. Way fewer.
The problem is that Sprint requires 9-digit account numbers in order to port! Holy smokes!
For the next hour, I had the Twilight Zone-like experience of listening to Philippines-based phone reps from both companies debate – with a frustrating degree of politeness – which of them would break the stalemate as our phone numbers were all now in limbo across the Pacific Ocean. Then I had the stupefying experience of listening to their respective supervisors debate the same issue from their corporate scripts for another half hour.
Ultimately, it got ironed out. But we then discovered that with Sprint, one cannot use the phone and internet at the same time. If you’re speaking with someone who asks what the final score was, or how the stock market is doing, you literally have to hang-up, look it up and then call them back.
We are back with Verizon after a colossal 4-day escapade, and it’s staying that way.
And finally. . .
Several years ago, I wrote about how Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire, lost a fortune shorting LA-based Herbalife after he lost another fortune banking on a deceitful company then-named Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Deceitful, as in Valeant scandals caused its share price to crumble from the $240 per share range to $8.51 in less than two years.
At the time, I wrote that despite the company’s slew of troubles and overwhelming debt, it was worth vastly more than its anorexic stock price. Last week, the company, now re-branded Bausch Health Companies, hit $31.97; a far cry from its dishonest highs, but 375% higher than its punitive recent lows.
The point of today’s column is that taking responsibility and readily apologizing (when appropriate) is always a great idea; don’t take people for granted; sometimes a deal isn’t such a deal; and there is a light at the end of most tunnels.
Now that I think of it, these are also great ideas to keep in mind for New Year’s resolutions.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion, Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers. Follow him on Twitter @TheGussReport. His opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
