Walmart Philanthropy

Surprisingly, Walmart offers a myriad of financial aid to community causes. The causes range from scholarships, to emergency relief, and even donated equipment. The comany's philanthropic website, includes the award of 2008 Forbes most generous company overall. This status is important as Walmart is also one of the largest company's overall. Although aid is not given to religious foundations, or sports teams, the grants range form $250-$5 million dollars. The top three categories Walmart contributes to is education, united ways, and health. The site also mentions Walmart specifically serves veterans, disabled, and undeserved individuals. Overall the site contains key information on it's philanthropic activity, and a layout of funds, and interests in this area.

http://www.accessphilanthropy.com/funderinnews.php?funderID=36

Walmart Investor Relations

In order to ensure better communication with investors, Walmart established an enormous interactive investor relations website. The site has tabs for just about any information a stockholder would need including stock information, daily updates on company financial news, and stockholder services. Interested stockholders can purchase company stock online with ease, and even sign up to obtain email alerts on the financial news. An interactive calendar allows users to see what events are taking place, and dividend checks can be made direct deposit with the click of a button. The site is very easy to navigate and contains straightforward information for any shareholder interested.

http://investors.walmartstores.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112761&p=irol-irhome

Verizon Investors- Giavanna Zannino-Peppe

Although Verizon Wireless is the largest mobile telecommunications network in the country, it's success is based on a joint venture.  Verizon Communications owns 55% of the network while Vodafone owns 45%.  Vodafone is located in London and is the WORLDS largest mobile telecommunications network.  Most recently Verizon expanded it's investments and bought Alltell Wireless in 2009.  The deal was said to be for over 28 billion dollars.  According to Verizon's financial report which is available to the public online, they also invest 5.7 billion a year in order to expand its nationwide network. It seems as if shareholders associated with Verizon Wireless are very satisfied with their investments, as well as Verizon Wireless being satisfied with their investments as well.  As a joint venture with the worlds largest mobile telecommunications network (Vodafone), it seems as if Verizon Wireless is an unstoppable force both nationwide and worldwide in regards to investments and shareholders.

StubHub Customer Service Call

I was selling three tickets for a concert in the city on StubHub.com. By the end of the night, only two out of the three tickets sold. However, I had no way of telling which tickets sold so I called the 1-800 number for stubhub. It brought me to an automated system and none of the options matched my issue. All I wanted was to talk to a human, not a computer!

I pressed zero and it brought me to another automated message that told me the wait time for the next representative was 12 minutes. After nearly 15 minutes on hold, I was finally transferred to a StubHub representative. The man was very friendly and was automatically able to help me in the situation.

The automated voice messaging system was awful and quite annoying. Also, the wait time was outrageous! The representative was friendly which made the phone call okay. Overall, I was not satisfied with the customer service that I received from StubHub.

L'Oreal Corporate Social Responsibility

L’Oreal has implemented many social responsibility initiatives. Starting in 1998, they teamed up with UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, to start the “For Women in Science” program. The program honors women from all over the world who are pursuing a career in science, with the hope of encouraging women to succeed in this field. Another one of their goals is to educate the public on AIDS. Again, teaming up with UNESCO, L’Oreal participated in the "Hairdressers Against Aids" campaign, which informed hairdressers on the risks of AIDS so that they could inform their patrons and raise awareness. These hairdressers can attend a special training program, which is now offered in over 25 countries around the world. The reason that I find this campaign so interesting is because it relates to the company. L’Oreal is a company that provides hair care, and therefore training hairdressers to inform their customers is very relevant to both L’Oreal itself, and to the cause.

NYC cab customer service

I Take a NYC taxi twice a week to get to and from my internship. Im usually half asleep in the car so any complaints or comments that i may have remain in my head because im to tired to care. But for the sake of this assignment i took down the number to the taxi comanies customer service number for comments or complaints. I actually called from inside the cab. After a brief hold a nice women answered my call. Her tone over the phone gave off the vibe that she was irritated that i even called. I decided that i would make a semi complaint about the televisions that have been recently installed inside each cab in NYC. Each car plays live television giving the news and entertainment information. Its actually very cool but can be annoying if your trying to sleep. I simply started having a conversation with the women about how i feel these tv can distract the drivers and that passengers shoul be able to turn the tv off whenever they want. the lady changed her tone in a split second and started agreeing with me. She let me know that there was most likely nothing she can do to help. As i kept talking i could tell she was getting annoyed because the conversation wasnt really going anywhere. I basically hung up the phone on her because i felt she was being disrespectful when alll i wanted to do was talk about the stid tvs in the car. i dont understand how these people can get mad onthe phone when their job discription is to provide customer service and respond to comments and complaints. if your guno be annoyed by customers thenfind another job.

Verizon Wireless CSR- Giavanna Zannino-Peppe

As I conducted my research on Verizon Wireless's part in Corporate Social Responsibility, I was pleased to find that they are very involved in contributing to a better society. According to a news release "CRO magazine ranked Verizon No. 32 on the publication's 100 Best Corporate Citizens List.  Verizon is the only telecommunications company on the list, which the publication announced at a news conference Friday." It seems as if Verizon's dedication to aiding different aspects of social problems also aids to their social responsibility success. 

Verizon's first CSR tactic is Hopeline, a cellphone recycling program that either recycles or refurbishes old cellphones in an environmentally friendly way.  This is Verizon's efforts towards going green.

Verizon then extended their efforts by donating the refurbished phones to "local domestic violence organizations and local government and law enforcement agencies for use with their domestic violence clients."  Verizon Wireless provided more than $1.5 million dollars in support to Domestic Violence Prevention Agencies.

As a result of the Tsunami in Thailand, Verizon Wireless has also helped raise money for the tsunami relief efforts.

These 3 efforts by Verizon for CSR have shown its dedication to making society a better place and the company should be recognized more for it's contributions.