One of my colleagues, legendary anchorman Floyd Kalber, passed away yesterday at the age of 79.
Floyd spent more than 50 years in the business, and was a Chicago anchorman for so many years that he was (no joke here) my grandparents' favorite anchor. Seriously. They watched him every night.
And, when he came to ABC-7 in 1984, out of retirement, I had this image of him as an imperious old man. What I found was a man of integrity and intelligence, with a wickedly dry sense of humor, who was a pleasure to work with, which I did on a daily basis for more than a decade. It was a privilege to be able to call him a colleague and friend.
And for those of you who have had bad dealings with the rapacious phone conglomerate SBC, I had a rude one today.
Nearly three years ago, my grandmother passed away in California and I handled her bills, among those a final bill from Pacific Bell, which has since been swallowed up by SBC.
Today, I received a bill from a California collection agency saying I owed money to SBC and they were collecting.
I have been on the phone with SBC for nearly half an hour trying to straighten this out. One rep said that she would take care of it. But then when I asked for something in writing, she said that would have to be taken care of by another department. I asked if I'd have to explain this again. "Oh, no, of course not."
Well, when the other rep came on, he had no clue what I was talking about.
This is customer service in the 21st Century. And this company has the temerity to put its name on a ballpark.
Floyd spent more than 50 years in the business, and was a Chicago anchorman for so many years that he was (no joke here) my grandparents' favorite anchor. Seriously. They watched him every night.
And, when he came to ABC-7 in 1984, out of retirement, I had this image of him as an imperious old man. What I found was a man of integrity and intelligence, with a wickedly dry sense of humor, who was a pleasure to work with, which I did on a daily basis for more than a decade. It was a privilege to be able to call him a colleague and friend.
And for those of you who have had bad dealings with the rapacious phone conglomerate SBC, I had a rude one today.
Nearly three years ago, my grandmother passed away in California and I handled her bills, among those a final bill from Pacific Bell, which has since been swallowed up by SBC.
Today, I received a bill from a California collection agency saying I owed money to SBC and they were collecting.
I have been on the phone with SBC for nearly half an hour trying to straighten this out. One rep said that she would take care of it. But then when I asked for something in writing, she said that would have to be taken care of by another department. I asked if I'd have to explain this again. "Oh, no, of course not."
Well, when the other rep came on, he had no clue what I was talking about.
This is customer service in the 21st Century. And this company has the temerity to put its name on a ballpark.