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Strategies & Market Trends : Range Bound & Undervalued Quality Stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JakeStraw who wrote (1940)	4/28/2000 9:38:00 AM
From: Esway	Respond to of 5499

LPX:Louisiana-Pacific doubles income cbs.marketwatch.com

To: JakeStraw who wrote (1940)	4/28/2000 10:48:00 AM
From: Esway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5499

Apr. 28 (Houston Chronicle/KRTBN)--Compaq Computer Corp.'s chief executive told shareholders Thursday that improving the quality of the company's products and services is a top priority, conceding that some are not up to par. "Are we happy where we are today? Absolutely not," Michael D. Capellas said, adding that executive bonuses are now tied directly to improvements in product and service quality. "Customer advocacy has to come first," Capellas said. The candid admission came at Compaq's annual stockholders meeting at the J.W. Marriott Hotel near the Galleria. Compaq usually convenes the meeting at its northwest Harris County campus but moved it due to the overflow crowds that had attended in recent years. The mood at this year's gathering -- the company's 18th -- was much more upbeat than last year's, which took place days after Compaq's board ousted Eckhard Pfeiffer as chief executive. Ben Rosen, Compaq's chairman, told the crowd that he was "going to enjoy the 18th annual meeting a lot more than the 17th annual meeting." On Tuesday, Compaq released quarterly earnings that met Wall Street's expectations, which Capellas said at the time was not an easy feat. He said Thursday that the company now will focus again on increasing its sales and profits. He also said that a key goal for the year would be improving customer satisfaction and the quality of Compaq's computers and services. Capellas' comments on quality were underscored during the question-and-answer session with shareholders when one man told a nightmarish tale of trying to get his Compaq notebook computer fixed. He talked of repeated promises of call-backs that never came and incompetent answers to technical questions. The man said he even was sent another notebook, and that one didn't work right, either. The shareholder said he tried to get through to Mike Larson, the senior vice president in charge of the consumer division, but was told that no one in Larson's department was answering the phone. In a brief meeting with reporters afterward, Capellas said Compaq is attacking the problem from several fronts. One is simplicity of design. By making products with "fewer moving parts," he said, fewer things can go wrong. Capellas said the company also is studying how it fields technical support and customer complaint calls. "We are really addressing the concept of who takes the first call," he said. "We are doing a lot of work with our call centers and partners, and right now it's unclear who should take the first call on quality." Compaq has struggled with quality and technical support issues as it has grown quickly -- and particularly as it has entered the high-volume consumer market. PC World magazine, which conducts a twice-annual survey of its readers on quality and technical support issues, placed Compaq in the "fair" category in both business and consumer PCs in its January issue. Aoife McEvoy, a senior associate editor at PC World, said Compaq's Presario home PCs have been rated only fair in reliability since November 1998. McEvoy said Compaq customers who were asked how satisfied they were with Presarios gave them a poor rating. The Compaq owners surveyed also said that the company's support technicians were not very knowledgeable. McEvoy said Compaq has responded by increasing staffing and training in its customer service centers. Also Thursday, Compaq named Foote, Cone & Belding Worldwide as its new advertising agency. Capellas said its new TV ads will be aimed at making people more aware of Compaq's high-end products and will be "edgier" than past Compaq commercials. Compaq's stock closed up 3/4 at 30 in after-hours trading. By Dwight Silverman -0-