One complaint already on the Web-site accounted the story of a customer who got duped into an exorbitantly high interest rate on his purchase when the customer service representative lied to him about whether he qualified for the "no interest, no payment" financing.

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If the customer hits the button on a client's Internet site, Harte-Hanks also answers that, for another 75 cents a pop, sending out canned or, in some cases, human-written responses and saving clients from tying up their own people and computer systems.

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If the customer hits the button on a client's Internet site, Harte-Hanks also answers that, for another 75 cents a pop, sending out canned or, in some cases, personalized written responses and saving clients from tying up their own people and computer systems.

FORBES: The unsentimental publisher

It could be stored on a personal password-protected web site, with temporary access granted to any e-tailer a customer chooses.

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Instead, for every customer who wants real-time usage information, a truck roll and on-site coordination with the incumbent utility is required, costing thousands of dollars per transaction.

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They need to be on-site for the obvious cost and practicality reasons, but also sometimes for security needs (theirs and yours), customer needs, and even location needs.

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