Call for Action: these are the volunteers helping solve your consumer complaint

MADISON, Wis. — All week long, News 3 Now is pulling back the curtain to introduce you to the faces behind the phones of our Call for Action team.

These are the folks tasked with hearing your consumer complaint, calling the business in question, and getting thousands of dollars back into your pocket in the meantime. So far this year, our local team has returned more than $350,000 to viewers. That makes us the most successful CFA team in the country, according to the main Washington, D.C. office.

Those goals are laudable alone — but what’s even more impressive are the skills these volunteers bring to the table.

Meet Melissa. She’s a newer member of the team, recently promoted to day captain of her assigned day because of her ability to so quickly pick things up. She has a PhD in mathematics, and a personal story behind her service.

“We had two people in our family that had dementia,” she told us. “They had stopped opening their mail or filing their taxes and let their insurance lapse, so I helped them by making a lot of phone calls and filing paperwork, trying to figure out what was going on.”

Aside from volunteering for CFA, Melissa is a mom of two who’s integrally involved in her community through several other organizations.

“I feel like everyone’s called to do something, and if you don’t fill your role, it’s not going to get done,” she said.

We heard that sentiment again and again from our Call for Action volunteers. What differs, though, is their backgrounds.

Each volunteer we have specializes in a certain realm that helps them answer your call for action. For our mathematician Melissa, that might be data-driven issues. We also have a veteran, several lawyers, retired education and public health experts all here to help you out.

Judy is our resident public health expert. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s in counseling, along with a lifetime of learning about advocacy growing up in Madison.

“I was raised by parents in the 1960s who were racial and social justice advocates, and talked about and did things about racial justice in our neighborhood and our church,” she said. “That really started to influence the dirction of my life.”

If your call for action has to do with a hospital not getting back to you or an insurance company overcharging you, Judy may well be the volunteer assigned to your case.

Judy and Melissa are two of a dozen of experienced volunteers taking your calls. You can reach them Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. at 608-270-2833.

You can also call for action anytime online here.

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