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Frustrated with customer service from phone and internet companies? Pa. attorney general wants to fix it.

Attorneys general said they receive complaints every day from consumers about “deceptive, confusing, and unfair interactions with service providers.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry led a coalition of state attorneys general in writing a letter to the FCC pushing for stricter customer service rules for internet and phone providers.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry led a coalition of state attorneys general in writing a letter to the FCC pushing for stricter customer service rules for internet and phone providers.Read moreAlejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

Often find yourself yelling “agent” or frantically tapping “0″ on your phone screen when you call a company’s customer service line?

You’re not alone. Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said she’s heard residents’ complaints, and wants to make it easier for them to reach a human being when trying to solve consumer woes.

Henry, the state’s top prosecutor until January, led a group of state attorneys general, including New Jersey’s Matthew Platkin, in writing a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in support of new customer-service regulations for internet, cable, voice, and broadcast satellite providers.

“Internet, cable, and broadcast satellite use is part of daily life for so many Pennsylvanians, so customer service should be up to par when consumers have issues with services they are paying for,” Henry said in a statement.

The attorneys general said in the letter that they receive complaints every day from consumers about “deceptive, confusing, and unfair interactions with service providers.”

The officials are asking for all providers, not just cable companies, to better train representatives, shorten wait times, and ensure convenient bill-payment and customer-service-center locations. Representatives should receive ongoing training to ensure they are sharing accurate information with customers, the attorneys general said, and recordings of conversations should be available to customers upon request.

Consumers should also more easily receive credits for service outages, disruptions, or other inconvenience, the officials added in the letter, and companies should address issues with missed service appointments.

The attorneys general also wrote of concerns about the practice of companies charging a fee if costumers want to skip the virtual queue to talk to a representative. This practice, they wrote, “rewards service providers for providing service that is not universally prompt, and it negatively impacts those consumers who are unable to pay the fees.”

The letter was signed by Henry, Platkin, and attorneys general from Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Connecticut; Vermont; Illinois; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Arizona; Colorado; California; Massachusetts; and Oregon.