Consumerist

I wrote to the guy in charge of the St. Louis cable market for Charter Communications asking yet again for my CBS HD service to be restored. The reply I got basically said "it's not our fault but we're working on it" for a problem THEY caused and could have fixed a long time ago.

This was after they got sick of the bad press in the local paper (some of which has been published here) and said "if there is anything we can do contact blahblahblah..."

Apparently, they just meant "we'll throw you this so you THINK you'll get something done, then we'll just excuse away our problems and do nothing. Just like we've been doing."

Yup...I sent one in regard to my nightmare of an experience with WishList from American Express. After the nightmare, I canceled a card and sent an EECB letting them know about it. The next day, I received a phone call begging me to reinstate my account. They offered a statement credit. Also, they honored their wishlist screw up. Good times.

I'm getting close to pulling one of these if Comcast can't get my TV working. The words "incompetence" and "useless" will be part of the email.

One more thing I'd add to the list at the start: Make sure you've exhausted the existing support structure for the company first.

Increased use of Executive Carpet Bombs will degrade the effectiveness of the technique.

I did once to Apple when they denied my warranty based on a slight gap between the top case and bottom case on my 12" Powerbook.

I sent it to Steve Jobs, Jeanne Tolouse and another person. It got resolved several days later although there was a bit of teeth pulling.

@Kornkob: Good call.

funny. me and a co-worker were just talking about this with the local school district. its like you are reading our thoughts...

When one of these gets routed to me at a the very big company I work out, I put it in the Crazy File and move on with my day. FWIW.

I recently launched an EECB with Cubana Airlines. On a flight from Toronto to Cuba they lost 8 of 11 suitcases from my family going to celebrate Christmas down south. Our gifts and clothes showed up 3 full days after we arrived. I sent a letter that the travel agent dubbed "the best he's ever read" and sent it to all the Canadian email addresses on their site. Within minutes all but one of the email addresses bounced back. And I still haven't heard from the successful email. I find I tend to have much more success starting at the bottom and crawling my way up the ladder via the customer service phone line rather than email.

I sent a resignation bomb when I quit my job in 2000.

When someone writes a letter to my company's executives (I work at a BIG telecom ISP), my supervisors JUMP all over it. They are completely scared of anything that comes down from the upper execs. So it is very effective for getting a response in my department. It's almost comical.

@greeper - I have a hard time believing that someone with your lack of spelling and grammar skills would hold a position high enough to receive many "executive" level emails.

This worked the one time I tried it. When my neighbor moved out, the phone company turned off my phone instead of the neighbor's. After days of frustrating CS calls, I looked up the phone company CEO's name. I called the switchboard and asked for his Exec. Assistant's email. I emailed her in the morning, and my phone was back on when I got home from work.

I went the Exec. Asst. route because I figured she'd be more likely to actually read and act on my letter. I also knew the switchboard would give me her contact info, which saved me some snooping time.

when the company is obviously keeping the addresses close to the chest.

Almost as important is keeping your letter short. You might even have to lose some of the tiny details and nuances of your claim in order to do so.

Finally, don't be an ass. They'll be more like to help you if they think you're nice. They'll want to screw you if they think you're a jerk.

@Geoffrey: Geoffrey, it's fun to attack people on here, isn't it? Especially over really petty/stupid things like typos? (Not sure what you found offensive gramatically in my post). I'm a frequent commenter on consumerist, and what I said was my point of view and adds to the substantive diversity of the site. Unlike a personal attack on another commenter, which adds nothing. Regardless of whether I'm an executive (which I happen to be despite the inordinate amount of time I spend surfing online), in my experience emails sent to an inappropriate number of people or levels within the comapny are not taken seriously. Sending the CEO and ten other people a letter about your stale potato chips doesn't rate (here).

@Greeper: If you work for a potato chip manufacturer can I have some potato chips?

I always copy the PR department. The last thing they want is a complaint going public. PR is a fast track to the executive suite.

I did this with Sprint once: cc'd their entire executive board, plus the FCC, and anyone else I could think of. They fell all over themselves and rolled out the red carpet for me the next day. Problem fixed, immediately.

Tried this with Saturn over a POS Ion. Car has been in the shop 6 times in under a year... with less than 4000 miles on it. Everything from near single digit gas mileage to violent shakeing and knocking to a dead window motor (Twice)
Response was "bring it back in and let us try again".
When I pursued it with the regional service manager he basically said, "Sure it is a horrible car... but we aren't replacing it"...
what do you do after a this email tacktic? Sue?... not a chance, already wasted enough of my time with them.

It worked for me several years ago with a cell phone company.

I recently had problems with my cable company and I filed a complain at the city's cable franchising office. Not quite the same, but it was so effective that I am now paying less than I was when I first signed up under their new customer promotion.

So yes, exhaust the normal channels but don't give up. If you've given it a fair effort and you know you are in the right, escalate.

I did this with Overstock.com when I got a defective product.

After several rounds of emails with the Exec and his underlings, they gave me a full refund for the item.

@Kornkob:

In theory, yes. But in practice, no. I t makes sense that if this technique gets out then it will become useless. However, considering how few people know about doing this combined with the amount of time, effort, and skill required to do it effectively, I don't think this is something that will be rendered useless anytime soon.

An important point here is to go through the lower levels of hell first. Where I work if someone emails the execs the exec ask to see waht we've done already. If there's no record of the person contacting us, then it's automatically left to us as to what happens and the upper office don't want to hear fromthe person again. However, if the person has gone through the proepr procedures and gotten nowhere and the record shows this (and believe me, it will) then the problem is corrected, even if we have to backpedal, break a policy rule, apologize, etc... so, definielt go through the proper channels. The email carpet bomb is an atom bomd. Use it after all other avenues are exhausted.

@mredraider: I IMed Ben about a completely different problem and he mentioned that there are Lemon Laws on pretty much all products. I don't know if it only applies to brand new items, but if something needs to be fixed more than 3 times, it is considered a lemon and you are entitled to a replacement or refund. Definitely something to look into.

@Geoffrey: I find an inverse correlation between the position/power of an emailer and correct usage of little things like grammar and spelling. At least that is how it is at my work -- the top dogs send out emails that most high school grads would be ashamed to send.

I always found that the three magic words "public utilities commission" worked wonders with Pac Bell/ SBC / AT&T.

With virgin wireless I got resolution of a complaint after escalating to two levels of supervisor and pointing out that it was going to cost them more to talk to me than to just resolve the issue.

My ISP (sonic.net) the CEO reads and responds in the sonic.* newsgroups but there service is so amazingly good I've never had to bug him.

The EECB worked for me with Verizon. At the end of my latest 2-year contract, I purchased a new phone on their website (a Motorola Q--big mistake). Instead of giving me a new phone for my existing number like I ordered, they gave me a new phone number. When I asked them to fix the mistake, they said that the phone was in their inventory as a new line, and they wouldn't switch it. Their solution was that I had to ship back that phone, and purchase the phone again. One more trip to the website to look up the CEO, Customer Service VP, and head of PR's email addresses and it was fixed the next day.

I work for a cable company (oddly enough, the CEO of this cable company recently had his contact info posted on this very blog) and this morning one of my co-workers fixed a very strange and intermittent HSD problem for a subscriber in the Boston area. Evidently the dude had been complaining through the usual customer service chain since February, but just Thursday sent an email to 6 or 7 top execs.

Shit rolled downhill and the issue (which, in our defense, was very hard to diagnose) was fixed within hours.

I'm finding it hard to believe that it's a coincidence that you posted that CEO's contact info just a week before he got an email that lead to results exactly like you described in this post.

@mredraider - Check your local "lemon law." In many states a car dealer can be forced to replace a car that is deemed to be a "lemon." Generally this requires a substantial defect that the dealer has been unable to repair after a reasonable opportunity (usually after 3 attempts). Most states have a consumer affairs bureau. You might check with that agency to get more specific information on the requirements to qualify under the "lemon" law. Or, you could hire a rapacious attorney ;)

I did the EECB to Grande Communications last month in order to get Houston Astros games broadcast on their system (in DFW we fall into the local market for both the Astros and Rangers). Within 3 hours of the emails, I received a phone call from one of the exec's interns saying they were talking to Fox Sports Net to setup Astros broadcasts. 3 days later, this Press Release was made:

http://www.grandecom.net/news_offers/?cat=1

I, of course, wrote a great review of them on DSLReports.com but, unfortunately, I had to move to a different town and got Charter Communications: TERRIBLE!

@phildeaux: We were just talking about this at work on Friday. My boss had busted me for misspelling a word in an email that in actuality wasn't misspelled given the context. Not 5 minutes later I got an email from one of the Executive VPs. She had misspelled the words by (bl), security (secruty) and access (acess)...all in a 2 sentence email. I won't even mention there was no punctuation dividing those 2 sentences.

I did this EXACT thing several years ago when I was having getting my Sony TV fixed under an Extended warranty.

I went through the normal channels and wasn't satisfied.

I figured out the company's email address scheme & found the list of executives.

I sent an email to all the head honchos and was quickly contacted with someone who clearly was ordered to do what was necessary to make me happy.

This is a great way to fix a problem when a company won't listen.

I used this technique on the New York Times a couple of years ago. I live and Florida and ordered NYT Sunday home delivery. It was supposed to start the following week. It didn't so I called customer service. I was assured it would start the following week. This same song and dance went on for a month with emails and multiple phone calls. The CS rep apologized many times but still couldn't fix the problem.

After seeing yet another "Get the New York Times delivered to your home" commercial on tv, I decided to do an EECB. I used the technique described to figure out the likely email configuration for several key executives. Amazingly, I received a prompt reply from two executives. The corrected the issue and my NYT showed up the following Sunday.

That sounds like an awesome plan, but would executives really check the email thats sent to the adresses that their companies assign them? And what if an exeption is made because of some one else with the same name?

asher's touching on a point i wanted to make

My company publishes email addresses of all the board members and execs. However those emails do not make their way to those people. They are sent to a collective mailbox managed by tenured CSRs.

The syntax is not even close to the real email address syntax.

Essentially, to get email to an exec you need to know the *real* email address.

Even better than e-mail: spend a few dimes on a bona fide, honest-to-goodness LETTER to five or six of the top execs. That will really get your problem flowing to the right people.

I can testify that the Executive Email Carpet Bomb works.

I just read about the Executive Email Carpet Bomb on your site. I did not know there was a name for this but I used this tactic successfully many times at a job I had. I worked for a company that did accounts payables via direct deposit. I would have to call and say I am calling on behalf of company A and they are changing their payments away from sending a paper check to electronic. Many times, I would get a "snotty Suzie Q" who said, "We don't do that etc." I would ask for Suzie's supervisor etc and of course she would not give it out. I did have the luxury of already having an email address or two so I would search their website, find the executives names and email the mass emailing. I would also mention the dates we talked to Suzie Q and her tone etc. I can not count how many times within hours of emailing the company would A) not call us back but had gone to the our site and filled out the registration to be paid electronically. B) An exec would call and apologize and say they have no issues with getting paid electronically etc.

I'd just like to thank your wonderful sight for getting my situation in an extremely timely manner. I had called the company in question 6 times to get my problem resolved and I was met with rudeness and no solution. So I took your suggestion and wrote to everyone I could find in the executive office and finally got a response from a woman who went out of her way to help me. Had I not been shown this sight I'd be up a creek with no paddle so thank you for helping the little guy against the corporate world!

I had to launch an EECB with Sprint PCS a few years ago. I did not know back then that it was called EECB...in fact, I figured it out myself and though I was pretty darn clever at the time.

My clamshell-style phone was not working...the screen was not getting power, and the two pieces were not securely attached, but still attached.

I brought it into the Sprint store in my neighborhood, and the guy there told me that I could purchase another phone, since it was one week after the warranty period...which was fine. Then, he was playing around with the phone, and the two pieces came apart...he handed me back the two pieces, said 'sorry' and asked which phone I wanted to buy.

I ended up coming in there with a phone in one piece and leaving in a huff with a phone in two pieces after the manager offered me the same deal...phone was past warranty, but it had not been 2 years since my last phone, so I could buy any phone in the store for full price.

I called Customer Service and ended up with a guy that could waive the 2-year requirement, so I could get a $150 discount on the phone. I chose a phone, and he told me it would be at my house in the morning. Two days later, I called customer service again, and asked what the problem was...I was told that they guy who offered me that discount was not allowed to do so, and my order had been cancelled. I asked how I was supposed to know that, and they told me that they left me a message...on my bleepin' cell phone number, if you can believe that. Even though it was clearly annotated in my account that my phone was destroyed.

I asked to talk to a supervisor and asked if he could help me out with the discount...he said no. I informed him that I had given Sprint PCS approximately $5K over the years, but he did not seem to care. I asked to talk to his boss, and he told me it would not help, because no one was able to give me that discount. I assured him that someone in the Sprint corporate structure would be able to give me the discount, and I would make sure that person also knew the name of the customer service supervisor that would not help me.

I got the e-mail format from the press releases section of the sprint web site, and I got the list of executives from Yahoo finance. I sent an e-mail, and got a phone call in less than 2 minutes, from the secretary of the CEO, telling me that they would take care of me. I then received a phone call and incredible service from a lady who is in charge of the Sprint PCS accounts for Sprint executives...that is her only job. I got a free phone with accessories and became a happy Sprint customer once again.

While I find it sad that we must resort to tactics like this to get satisfaction, I am here to tell you that it works.

I work for a mortgage servicing company. A customer had a complaint and the amount of time it was taking for us to issue him a refund. Somehow, he got a hold of our president's HOME phone number. Of course the president called one of the managers at the office, the manager screamed at a supervisor and the issue was resolved right there and then. Getting to the executives definitly works.

I used the EECB concept in a very small way, sending a single email to what I hoped was the email address of the Centurytel CEO. For those that don't know, Centurytel is a small-ish telephone company based in Louisiana that has been buying up fringe area systems, like mine in the outer 'burbs of St Louis, for the last several years.

Anyhow, my business line in my home was working intermittently. After five useless services calls, five different stories about what was wrong, and finally one guy blaming it on inside wiring (when I pay for inside wiring service), I was pissed. I crafted a strong but polite email titled "Why I'm switching my business to VOIP" and then fired it off to what I hoped was the CEO. I did this on Thursday night then promptly left town on Friday for a two week business trip.

My first response actually came on Thursday night: a "read receipt" from the CEOs email system. I guess the CEO had a Blackberry. :-)

The next day I had voicemails from the president of Centurytel Missouri, the statewide head of service, the local zone head of service, and two other guys I can't remember. As I was traveling (and still pissed but beginning to enjoy this), I ignored them. More calls came in on Saturday. By Monday, the voicemails were sounding desparate ("PLEASE call us back!"). I finally called the service guys back on Tuesday, and by the time I returned from my trip, the problem was solved. :-)

Geez, if they'd only done that sometime during those first five calls...

I have another method for getting fair and just results from retail establishments. You will either disapprove or applaud my strategy... one thing for sure, it works EVERY time!
Disclaimer - MAKE SURE YOUR CLAIM IS JUSTIFIED!
Abusing this tactic could get you into trouble.

Below is the "short" story of my favorite and most successful use of the "Lawn chair strategy"

Years ago I had my home phone "ported" over to my cell phone by cingular. I was told that it would be no problem at all. (they lied). In summary, they set up a second account for the new number but left both accounts active. Soon I started getting two identical bills. At first I didn't realize that they were separate accounts and only paid one each month. Then the disconnect notices began to arrive! After countless calls to cust. serv. and 3 visits to the retail store, it was still NOT resolved. The last straw occurred when my service was cut off while out of town. (after being ASSURED that all was straight).
When I returned, I was livid and knew that another call or polite visit would continue to resolve nothing..... then I had a brain storm!

I loaded into my truck the following items:
- Folding lawn chair & table
- Cooler filled with soft drinks
- Bag of chips
- A 1000+ page novel

(you probably see where this is going already)
Yes, I set this all up just inside the door of the Cingular store. I just wish I had a camera phone at the time so I could attach photos of the bewildered faces of the employees and customers HE HE HE...
Within minutes a lowly rep cautiously approached me and asked if he could be of assistance. I replied that I doubted anyone but the general manager could resolve my issue. He quickly scampered to the back room. seconds later the GM approached me and with crumbs on her lips asked in a sickening sweet voice if she could assist me. I replied :
"I hope so, because there are only 2 ways I will leave here...
1) With my issue resolved BEYOND my expectations
once and for all.
or....
2) Forcibly by 4 police officers carrying me by each of my limbs kicking and screaming!

Needless to say, she invited me to her private office and I ended up leaving peacefully with my bill(s) straightened out, a new phone and a $250 credit towards future service!

I have used this technique a few times, once at a large Hospital billing department and once at a Bank

Again, it is very important to use this ONLY as a LAST resort and ONLY if you are 110% confident that your issue is valid and the resolution you seek is fair.

@SkippyKilimanjaro:
People, there is a difference between not knowing how to spell, and typos. Most of what you see on here are people who are typing too fast. The execs at my company send out misspelled emails all the time, because most of them are using their Blackberries, and are doing a million things at once. I find it hard to believe that it is them not knowing how to spell. If it's an internal email, they really don't care. I don't understand why I'm the only one who seems to realize this.

I have been using tactics of this sort for years, mainly using telephone services. However, people need to note that these tactics work not only on corporations, but also on government agencies (cities, counties, school boards, state govt, medical providers of all sorts, etc.).

Just be sure you have your ducks in a row and if you are arguing with a government or medical entity that you have checked for current and future requirements in ALL applicable areas (perfect example: if you think that your child needs to be tested for ADD/ADHD or other learning problem, you need to know that the laws governing the steps you have to take to get this done are not only local, but state and federal).

The last and best thing to do when talking to any sort of entity about anything is to maintain a written record that includes dates, times, names, phone numbers called, and notes on each stage of the conversation with names and ID numbers. As long as you have the notes to back up the phone calls - or recordings if you have that capability - with persistence you have over a 95% success rate.

This has worked for me with Verizon Wireless, Charter, EMC Mortgage, Benson, MN School District/Police Department/City Council/Human & Family Services, the state of Minnesota, several juvenile drug treatment centers and rehab units (for my daughter who is a recovering meth addict - 3 yrs clean) and too many others to list.

It's often said in business seminars and publications that a happy customer will tell three people, but a dissatisfied customer will tell ten. I don't know if that's accurate, but I wouldn't be surprised: a transaction that goes smoothly is unworthy of remark but one that's a disaster is worth talking about. And whether the figures are accurate or not, most top executives have heard this or some variation on it, and so they feel that if the customer is irate enough to bother to track down the CEO's contact info (and doesn't sound like a nutjob) it is good PR to make him or her happy--not just no longer dissatisfied, but happy enough to tell people. I've worked in several corporations where this was the SOP in top management, and I've used that fact as a customer.

My favorite response: After numerous frustrating calls up the line about a brand-new water heater that broke down 24 hours after purchase, I tracked down and left a message for an executive. I wasn't home when he called back, but he told my husband that "it is as if your wife bought a chicken and we handed her a serpent." Which exactly captured my dissatisfaction. He had the guys out to solve the problem that day.

I had a problem similar to this with Bresnan once(owned by Comcast). I signed up for their digital phone service when it first came out, and for three months my phone and internet would hardly work. I called their customer service at least five times each week. I finally got fed up and looked up their corporate offices. I spoke with their exec over all of their customer service. The problem was fixed the next day, but came back about two weeks later. I called and told them I wanted somebody out immediately because the service was unacceptable. After they said they couldn't do it, I asked if Maureen Huff (exec's name) could get them to my house. I had three techs at my home within an hour, at night, in the snow, on a holiday weekend. The problem never came back, and I got two free months of their best cable, internet, phone, and dvr as their apology.

On a side note, there are still a few excellent cable techs out there. One of them gave me his personal cell # to call if I had any problems, and periodically called me for the next two months to be sure I wasn't having anymore problems. I now ask for him by name regardless of the circumstances, and when they say they can't guarantee he'll come, I just tell them they're wasting their time because I won't let anybody else in my house.

Bresnan's corporate contact info is on their website if anybody needs it.

@Caroofikus: I forgot to add that they asked me "what was that name again?" and I said "Maureen Huff". They put me on hold for a moment and then came back and said they were on their way.

This works in reverse also...

I actually used this technique to have the last word with the Executive VP of a venture capitol firm who was sleeping with my (then) wife. His site had lists of their executives, clients, and potential customers (most WITH email addresses).

Last I heard, he lost his job, is going through a messy divorce, and is now a teller at a credit union.

Life is good.

I've never ever had a problem resolved.

Maybe just bad luck?

These are all very good ideas.

I will use them in the future.

Thank you so much.