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Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic

Six weeks into Tucson Newspapers' merger of its in-house customer-service center into a specialized call center in Tulsa, Okla., the transition continues to be rough all around.

"Despite great efforts, the training of customer-service representatives has been slower than we had hoped for,'' said Jim Rowley, vice president of circulation.

For example, his department created an information sheet for the Tulsa call center to use. However, the customer-service representatives are not always using it. This results in frustrated readers who can't persuade the call center that they know what they are talking about, which they do.

In addition, "Calls times are longer than we had hoped for, especially on Mondays and Fridays,'' he said.

Rowley said he and his team are working with the call center each day to improve their customer service and training.

So what's a reader to do?

A circulation department briefing earlier this month suggested the following ways for readers to make speedy account changes.

The fastest is to go online to www .tucson.com /ezaccess/ and make your changes yourself. You can also send an e-mail to circulation @tucson .com. That address responds only through e-mail or forwards to Tucson any e-mails that require a return phone call. You can also get a faster response if you call toll-free 1-800-695-4492 and use only the voice-response system. The slowest way is to wait on hold to talk to someone live.

You can avoid the prompts and go directly to a customer-service representative during business hours. Answer "Star'' to the first question to determine which paper you are calling about. When asked the next question, say "representative'' to skip the prompt and be queued up for a person.

The call center is open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tucson time, Saturdays 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. A voice-activated system is available 24 hours a day. Season changes delivery times

Friday and Saturday night press starts are 15 minutes to an hour later to make sure lottery numbers and final sports scores are in the paper. The goal is to have papers delivered by 8 a.m. on Sundays and 6 a.m. on Saturdays. Free PR workshop

Seats are available for all three free workshops to help nonprofit organizations get their news in the Arizona Daily Star and online at azstarnet.com.

The workshops are:

● Thursday, in the Star's Community Room, 4850 S. Park Ave.

● Wednesday, Sept. 26, at American Legion Post 66, 1560 W. Duval Mine Road in Sahuarita, west of the Titan Missile Museum.

● Thursday, Sept. 27, at Pima Community College's Northwest Campus, 7600 N. Shannon Road, in the Community Room.

The workshops run 7:30 to 9 a.m. Call 573-4142 or go to www.tucson.com/prworkshop to reserve a seat. Seating is limited.

Sports page designer Irene McKisson's pattern to knit a way-cute stocking based on David Fitzsimmons' artwork is yours free to download at go.azstarnet.com /designerknits