GTE Opens Customer Service Center in Oxnard

GTE California, based in Thousand Oaks, has officially opened its Customer Contact Center in northeastern Oxnard.

The center, in a structure built but never occupied by Chevron USA, will provide space for about 900 employees handling customer service and billing inquiries.

Already, the new facility is handling more than 800,000 calls a month from residential telephone customers about service and billing.

The new facility is part of a nationwide network of eight centers that will serve residential customers of GTE’s parent, GTE Inc. Employees will answer customers’ questions weekdays from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Coupled with a video service that GTE hopes to launch in Ventura County and other pilot areas, the new center helps to make the county a key area for the company, said Red Keith, president of the firm’s California region.

The 115,000-square-foot Oxnard structure was built by Chevron at a cost of $15 million. The oil company originally planned to use the building as an administrative headquarters, but then decided to locate its administrative operations outside the county.

“The center is great for the city of Oxnard,” said Mayor Manuel Lopez. “This city has been committed to quality business development for many years, and this center is the result of a lot of work--both by GTE and the city of Oxnard.”

Keith praised Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) for supporting the communications company’s efforts to establish its center in Oxnard.