Bill says:

I had a $500 billing dispute with T-mobile. Long story short: I lost my phone. Got a new one through their insurance program that was configured incorrectly (wasn't using WIFI to make free phone calls) and was charged for tons of minutes that should have been free.

After being rebuffed by customer service and eventually having my phone disconnected, I filed a claim with the BBB and then, when that seemingly had no effect, performing an EECB, emailing the CEO, VP of external affairs, and VP of customer service of T-mobile.

The result:

I received a phone call the next day (today) from someone from the T-mobile "Executive Response" team. The woman explained that she was calling because of the email I had sent (EECB = Success!). She then explained that she was surprised that the BBB said T-mobile did not response because they, in fact, had. In addition, she said that she removed the charges from my account almost 2 weeks ago and left me 2 voice mails (which I never received) saying as such. She was very appreciative that I forwarded her the email the BBB had sent me, because she seemed quite anxious to resolve the situation with them...even though they are not a BBB accredited business they still respond to their claims.

Summation: The BBB and EECBs DO work. Thanks for the tips, Consumerist!

For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

(Photo: cmorran123 )

We have quite a few stories now about Best Buy responding favorably to EECBs, which goes to show that if you can find a way to reach the company's executives—and you write a good EECB—your odds of having your problem favorably resolved improves considerably.

Here's Alicia's story:

I just wanted to thank you for running such a helpful website. A Best Buy employee recently damaged my car loading a TV into the back of it. My bumper suffered from several deep gouges due to the large staples holding the box together being scraped across it. Upon noticing the damage when I got home, I immediately called the store. The employee insisted that "no manager would ever be available to discuss the issue" with me, and insisted on transferring me to their "consumer relations" line only to be put on hold indefinitely. Rinse, repeat. Of course, this lead to a dead end.

I've been an avid reader of The Consumerist for some time, and immediately consulted the site for e-mail addresses to send an EECB out to (I've included the letter at the end of this e-mail). I used many of the tips listed on how to write a letter that will receive a response. Sure enough, the next day I received an e-mail from an executive office representative letting me know that their insurance company would be contacting me shortly. Within a few hours an insurance representative called me, took my information, and got the ball rolling. After submitting an estimate, I had a check for the full amount of the estimate in my hands less than a week later.

I can't thank you enough for having information readily available to help consumers fight back against endless streams of unhelpful processes. Please feel free to publish my story if you believe it would be helpful to other readers.

Sincerely,
Alicia

Happy to help, Alicia! Here are some of those links for other readers:

"How To Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb"
"Email Addresses For Best Buy Execs"

Below is the EECB Alicia wrote. Here are some things that are great about it:

• It's to-the-point; although you shouldn't feel the need to be too formal, an EECB is not the place for jokiness or overtly conversational writing styles.
• The structure of the email is easy to follow. If you're having trouble writing a clear EECB, try following her 4-paragraph structure:
  1. this is the shopping event I'm writing about;
  2. this is the accident that happened, and how it was not resolved;
  3. this is why I'm a customer worth keeping (a difficult concept to convey without sounding entitled, and Alicia nails the tone perfectly); and
  4. here is what I want you to do to rectify the situation.
• Emotions, insults, and grand statements against corporations/the decline of American values/humanity in general are kept out of the email.

Hello,

My name is Alicia. On the evening of September 5, 2008, my boyfriend
and I decided to take advantage of your 3-year no interest offer on
new HDTVs at store #204 in Austin, Texas. We selected a 46" Samsung,
which was sent to the front of the store to be loaded into my car.

A helpful employee loaded it into the back of my 2008 Honda Fit.
Unfortunately, in this process my car bumper was damaged. Paint was
scraped off, and several gouges were left. As soon as we noticed the
damage, we called the store we had just purchased the TV from, and
asked to speak to a supervisor. We were transferred to Consumer
Relations line instead. After speaking to a representative named
Renee about the issue, we were put on hold so that she could "process
some information." We waited approximately 30 minutes on hold before
giving up and hanging up. We then called store #204 back, and asked
again to speak to a supervisor, and were again transferred to Consumer
Relations and placed on hold for an extended period of time and again
not helped. We were told by the staff member answering the phone at
the store that there were no other options on whom we could speak to,
thus I am e-mailing you in attempts to receive some kind of resolution
to this issue.

We have been loyal Best Buy customers for upwards of six years. We
have easily spent at least $20,000 between us in that time. Needless
to say, we are very disappointed in the lack of customer service we
have received in this matter.

We would like to remain Best Buy customers, and would like to give
your office the chance to provide the superior customer service we
have received in the past. I am asking that a representative assess
and arrange for repair of damages to my bumper. I have included
several pictures of the damage.

I look forward to hearing from you in regards to this matter.

Thank you for your time,
Alicia

One of the best ways you can approach a company to resolve a problem is as a partner in the business transaction—that is, you are not a victim or (worse still) an opponent, but rather someone who has done business with them and plans to do business again in the future, provided you two can iron out some kink that has recently gotten in the way.

Not everyone has the great hand Alicia had to play, because that "$20k customer" detail she throws out there at the end is pretty steep, but even so we think Alicia's letter is a good example of how to approach a company on equal footing. Even if you're not a big spender with a company, there are other ways you remain valuable to them, including word of mouth and long term repeat business.

RELATED
"How To Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb"
"Email Addresses For Best Buy Execs"

Scott's letter to Ikea

Hello.

This weekend I drove 5.5 hours from Green Bay, WI to your Schaumburg, IL store to buy my 3 year old daughter her first big girl bed. We picked out the Tromsnes day bed and bought a princess canopy and a comforter and bedding and a stuffed tiger. Oh and a box of double chocolate crisps and two sodas. Aren't I the PERFECT Ikea customer?

I brought the name of the bed to your info center, they ordered our bed and I was told to pick it up at furniture pick-up.

I picked it up, packed it up and drove back home. Tonight, I broke open the box to put my daughter's new bed together only to discover I don't have all the parts necessary to assemble it. Well, I should say, I have all the parts that were suppose to be in the box, but I need ANOTHER box of parts (Part number 85698810) in order for my daughter to have a sleepable bed.

Why wouldn't your floor person tell me that? Why wouldn't the guy at the info center tell me that? Why wouldn't the girl at the pick up desk tell me that?

Tonight, I spent 45 minutes in a phone loop where I called the Schaumburg store and kept pressing the same series of 1, 3, 3, 2, 2 only to come back around to press 1, again.

So here I sit frustrated and I'm wondering if you have something I can tell my daughter as to why she can't sleep in her big girl bed...

Do I really have to drive another 11 hours to get the bed I thought I bought on Sunday?

Your prompt response would be very much appreciated.

And Ikea's response? Good, Great, not so good, and then Awesome:

The next day I got an email from CustRel saying they'd take care of me (Cool!). Then I got an email from the Schaumburg Ikea asking for more details so they could help (Yay!). Then I got an email from Ikea U.S. CustRel saying I was crap out of luck. That the pieces I was missing are an extra purchase and not available via phone orders. I would, in fact, have to drive back down to Chicago to buy the part (Booo!). THEN I got another email and phone call from the Schaumburg customer relations guy who took my receipt information and mailing address and he assured me that they'd be shipping out the parts via UPS (cautious Woot!). Today: The parts came!!

Another successful EECB, and a just response from Ikea. Glad we could help, Scott.

So, if the low-level peons are ripping you off, try appealing to the higher authorities, en-masse, via EECB.
(Photo: Alexis Deadly)

Be sure to read our Ultimate Consumerist Guide to Fighting Back, a go-to handbook for the dissatisfied consumer. Once you've decided to go the executive customer service right, be sure you read this first so you know what to say when you call the corporate avatar of your choice.

The Consumerist Executive Customer Service Index

ACS
Adelphia
Air Tran
Alamo
Alaska Airlines
Allegiant
Aloha
Amazon
America West
American Airlines
American Express
Amtrak
Apple
ATA
AT&T
AT&T Wireless
Bank of America
Barnes and Noble
Bell Canada
Best Buy
Blizzard
Blockbuster
Blogger
Bloomingdales
Blue Cross/Blue Shield
British Airways
Borders
Busey Bank
Buy.com
Cablevision
Charter Communications
Chase
Circuit City
Citibank
Comcast
Continental
cox
Delta
Direc-TV
Discover Card
Dish
Disney
Ebay
Enterprise
Equifax
Experian
Fedex
Frontier Airlines
Fry's
Gamefly
Geek Squad
Georgia Power
Helio
Home Depot
Humana
HSBC
IKEA
ING Direct
Insight
Keybank
Lenovo
Loew's
Macy's
Microsoft (and Xbox)
Midwest Airlines
Motorola
National City
Nicors
Northwest Airlines
Norton
Office Depot
Office Max
Orbitz
Paypal
Pitney Bowes
Qwest
RCN
Regions Bank
Register.com
Ryan Air
Samsung
Seagate
Sears
Sirius
Skybus
Sony Ericcson
Spirit Airlines
Sprint
Sports Authority
Staples
Symantec
T-mobile
Target
Time Warner Cable
TransUnion
Uhaul
United Airlines
United Health Care
UNUM Life Insurance
UPS
US Airways
US Cellular
Verizon landline/DSL/Fios
Verizon Wireless
Vonage
Wachovia
Walmart
Washington Mutual
Wells Fargo

In the event you can't find the info you are looking for here, you can scan our backlog of contact info, or use Google to uncover the addresses yourself. In the event you find something we don't have, feel free to share at tips@consumerist.com.

Researched by Alex Jarvis
Last updated: 11/07/2008

Here's the EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) Bill sent to Verizon:

I am trying to sign up for FIOS service and now have to place a 3rd order in a week. I am particularly furious because it was supposed to be installed today and only found out my order had been canceled when I went to www.verizon.net/whatsnext and it showed canceled. I received no phone call.

Let me reiterate. I was supposed to be installed today. I took off of work today. I took the whole day off because the only time that could be given to me was 8am to 5pm. I only found out that my order was canceled because I happened to check the website again.

As of yesterday, 10/15/08, the order was still showing on the website for an install today on 10/16/08. I am now currently holding on my 9th phone call to get service.

I originally signed up with a door to door sales person [redacted] on 10/8/08 in the evening. I had a question the next morning whether the premier package for TV, that had I originally signed for, was considered essentials or extreme in the new setup. So I tried to call to find out.

Below is my log of phone calls.

10/9/08 - 9:05am
called 888-281-1511 - given to me by verizon person on phone during original order
-can't find my order. finds out I ordered from a door to door person. gives me a new number (866-326-7937) and tries to transfer me. answered by another person on the same number i originally called
10/9/08 - 9:08am
called 866-326-7937 - given to me by the previous call
-told me i need to call my local office and gives me 410-954-6260

10/9/08 - 9:10am
called 410-954-6260
-went through 4 separate menus. eventually hung up on by the system

10/9/08 - 9:15am
called 888-553-1555 - from bottom of sales order form
-10 minutes before phone is answered. told they have to put me through to a fios representative and gives me a new number (410-265-0577) and transfers me

10/9/08 - 9:26am
-Transferred to 410-265-0577
-hung up on by system

10/9/08 - 9:26am
-called 410-265-0577
-Connie [Redacted]
-Premier = Essentials TV Plan
-10/mo extra for Extreme TV
-can't find the order in the system to make the upgrade to extreme tv package
-says the 12.99/mo for 3 boxes is only good till the end of the year when the sales person says it is 12.99/mo for 1 year and that's what's on my paper
-can't cancel the order because they can't find the order
-takes my number and promises to call me back the following morning

10/10/08 - 12:00pm
called 410-265-0577 after not receiving the promised callback
Miss [redacted]
still can't find the original order
Doing a new order
$109.99/mo
Extreme HD w/sports package
20/5 internet
verizon freedom essentials
free HM DVR for 12 months
3 STB for 12.99/mo for 12 months
hbo/cinemax free for 1 month
-read back the above to the operator to confirm pricing and package details
-hang up at 12:35 with promise to call back once she gets her supervisor to check the order because it's not going through

10/10/08 - 2:05pm
Miss [redacted] called back
-install on the 16th
-Confirmation for TV and Internet [redacted] - double bundle until phone is brought over
-will receive 4 e-mails. 1st email is bundle terms, 2nd email is security and backup bundle, 3rd games on demand, 4th starz play - THESE ARE NOT ON BY DEFAULT I HAVE TO ACCEPT IT TO BE TURNED ON
-confirmed 20/5 internet and extreme TV
-cancel free hbo/cinemax by Nov 13th
-free install - 1 time activation for internet 29.99 - broken up into 3 month payments

-Confirmation for Phone [redacted]
-transfers on the 20th
-bringing over on copper first then switching over to fiber later
-freedom essentials package
-no activation charges for phone since it's a package
-1-800-688-2880 (8am-8pm)
-1-888-553-1555 (24 hrs)

10/16/08 - 10:55am
went to verizon.net/whatsnext to look at my install time again and it says Our records indicate that your order was canceled on 10/10/2008. If you believe this order was canceled in error or want to place a new order please call 1-888-553-1555.
Called 410-265-0577
Veronica
-Order [redacted] was canceled because of 2 duplicate orders
- [redacted] was original order that nobody could find originally. We now have to cancel this order so I can place a 3RD order which will be a duplicate of the 2nd order.
-I am being promised a 16/mo credit for 1 year because of the inconvenience
-I am being told i will be able to have an install on 10/20/08 for the new order which was the date of the original order
-11:25am
-Veronica is waiting for the old order to clear out of the system.
-we go over what the 2nd order had on 10/10/08 in order to duplicate that order
-it is taking a long time to clear out of the system so Veronica promises to call me back after it happens. She expects it should clear out by 1pm
-she takes my e-mail and e-mails me so I will have a point of contact in case she doesn't call back

I don't know what the installation expectation is for verizon, but I hope this isn't it.

I would like for someone to please ensure that my now 3rd order is processed correctly, that I receive my installation on 10/20/08, and that my 16/mo credit actually appears on my bill when it comes.

Bill CC'd the EECB to Consumerist and followed up with his success story:

I wrote earlier on 10/16/08 about my horrible verizon installation experience and CC you in an EECB that I sent to verizon.

It worked. Fifteen minutes after I sent the e-mail I received a phone call telling me they would see to it that I was installed that day.

They followed through. Not only did they follow through they exceeded expectations in being able to get my home number ported that same day as well.

I think, perhaps unrelated, my TV service stopped working a few hours later, but they are supposed to fix that tomorrow 10/17/08. We shall see.

Hopefully i won't have to do another EECB for my billing when i get my first bill!

Bill

Congratulations, Bill. Logging your phone calls was a smart move.

For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

(Photo: cayusa )

Luisa writes:

I don't know who I should be writing to but I just wanted to thank you for guiding me in the right direction! After reading the information on your site, I realized I could be helped!

I incurred $315 in overdraft fees over a 3 day period. Every fee kept making me overdraft more and more. The 1st one was my fault but it just snowballed into a $315 problem. I went to my local branch and had 3 of those fees credited by a very nice branch manager. I proceeded to call CSR and was immediately shut down after pleading my case. I immediately started researching and came across your site. I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a shot and let B.O.A know what happened and that I would be taking my banking elsewhere. Long story short, I had ALL $315 credited by Norma, who personally called me earlier today.
The little guy won, all because of your help! Thanks a million! The Consumerist rocks!

Here's the letter that Luisa sent to Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis.
October 11, 2008

Mr. Kenneth D. Lewis
100 N. Tryon Street
Mail Code NC-1-007-18-01
Charlotte, NC 28255

RE: Checking account # xxxxxxxx

Dear Mr. Lewis,

I am writing to you to express my dissatisfaction with Bank of America . My name is Luisa [redacted] and my husband and I have been loyal Bank of America costumers since 2005.We have a checking, savings account and credit cards with your company. As CEO, I am sure you would like to know when you are losing customers to a credit union because your customer service representatives refused to waive some overdraft fees .

Since October 9th, 2008, my checking account was charged $315 in over draft fees. I understand that the first time I over drafted was my fault, and I immediately went to the bank and deposited $200 in cash before the pending transactions posted. When I come back to check my account online I see my $200 have been eaten up by fees and I again am showing a negative balance. At this point I have no more cash to deposit and wait until the following morning to go and speak to a branch representative. Ms. [redacted] was kind enough to refund 3 of those fees after I explained my situation. I have deposited a total of $420 in my account within the past days to make sure I had all of my pending transactions covered and I am still racking up overdraft fees.

I am writing to you as a full-time college student and mother of a toddler in need of a favor which may be small to you, but very helpful to me. I am asking you to waive these fees, which as CEO of Bank of America, I know you have the power to. I simply cannot cover afford to pay the overdraft fees incurred and the ones I am sure will post to my account come Monday.

I hate to have to close all my accounts with Bank of America and move them all to Suncoast Federal Credit Union. I really enjoy the simplicity of online banking and bill pay and I do not wish to discontinue my banking with you.

I hope you understand and find it in your heart to waive the overdraft fees that both pending and posted.

Congratulations, Luisa! If you've got a problem that needs a little TLC from BoA, try sending a well-written letter to Mr. Lewis.

(Photo: thecornballer )

First read this post about how to contact and conduct yourself when using executive customer service.

1) Call 866-249-3302. Ask to be transferred "to the office of Mr. Stumpf." Once you reach the secretary or switchboard operator, say the following:

"Hello, my name is ________. I'm one of your customers, and I was hoping to speak to Mr. Stumpf because I'm really getting frustrated with getting a problem resolved, and I know that your company doesn't want me to feel that way."

2) You can also send some of their busy executives a well-written and cogent complaint letter (here's how to write one):

John G. Stumpf@wellsfargo.com, Howard.I.Atkins@wellsfargo.com, James.M.Strother@wellsfargo.com, Richard.D.Levy@wellsfargo.com, Mark.C.Oman@wellsfargo.com, David.A.Hoyt@wellsfargo.com, Carrie.L.Tolstedt@wellsfargo.com, Michael.J.Loughlin@wellsfargo.com

If you prefer using written correspondence, particularly when sending letters by certified mail provides a trail that they actually got your letter, these addresses may come in handy:

Corporate Offices
Wells Fargo
420 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94104

Home Mortgage
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
P.O. Box 10335
Des Moines, IA 50306-0335

Home Equity
Wells Fargo Home Equity-Internet
MAC S3837-020
2nd Floor
2222 W Rose Garden Lane
Phoenix, AZ 85027-2644

Online Customer Service
Wells Fargo Customer Service
P.O. Box 4132
Concord, CA 94524-4132

Wells Fargo Financial
Wells Fargo Financial, Inc.
Customer Service F4008-080
800 Walnut
Des Moines, IA 50309

wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com

Company email address format: firstletteroffirstnamelastname@blizzard.com
firstname.lastname@blizzard.com

Employee directory
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/bc-credits.html

Important people:

Mike Morhaime
CEO and cofounder

Julia Gastaldi
Director of Communications and Community

Paul Sams
SVP Business Development

Rob Pardo
Vice President

Frank Pearce
Vice President

Blizzard Entertainment Mailing Address
P.O. Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92623

Blizzard Entertainment Physical Business Location
10114 Adams Ave
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
(949) 955-1380

Headquarters:
Irvine, CA 92606
Phone: 949-955-1382

E-mail Form: http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml?gameId=11
Billing and Account Services Phone line:
North America - 1 (800) 592 5499
Australia - 1 800-041-37

Call 1-(949)-955-1380, option3, type in the first 3 letters of the person's first name.

(Photo: Plankton 4:20)

Hello Rick,
I just left you a message on your phone but will also confirm in writing.

There was a misunderstanding on our part when one of the staff looked at the monies disbursed and saw $125 had been paid out, she assumed it was to Jim Breer which in fact it was for the inspection instead. As this money was to have been paid from the seller's escrow, we will attempt to have it paid from there, if not, we will pay it ourselves. I do apologize for the time it has taken to get this resolved and assure you that our staff were well intended and generally get high marks from our members for the work they do.

I am available should you need to chat further and thank you for your
business!

Cheryl

Go back to Jim's letter in the original post and use it as a guideline in the future. It's polite, to the point, focuses on facts, explicitly states the desired outcome. Best of all, it worked. He himself used the complaint letter template in this post as an outline, it, too, should be inspiration for your next letter of complaint.

PREVIOUSLY: Man Feels Opportunities Credit Union Screwed Him Over For $125

(Photo: Getty)

This is the executive email carpet bomb Jim wrote on 8/30/08.

"Office Max Management Team:

I am writing to inform you of business practices that will be costing you our business permanently. My wife and I have given Office Max tens of thousands of dollars in business over the last few years, and due to very unsavory events that transpired this evening our contributions to your eight-tenths of a percent stock increase today ceases. Perhaps if you were to reign your store managers a little more tightly you wouldn't have a nearly 7% loss on sales as compared to last year's quarterlies. However, I'm just a consumer. What could I possibly know?

My wife purchased a Brother color inkjet printer via your online store a week or so ago. The merchandise arrived this afternoon; after a set up and test revealed that we were not pleased with the product, we followed your company policy on returning merchandise and took the printer to our local Office Max location. This specific make and model of printer is carried in your store location at 7980 W Alameda Avenue in Lakewood, CO, and was on the shelf when we returned to the store. If I may, please allow me to cite your returns policy, where I have taken the liberty of bolding text relevant to this email:

If you are not satisfied with your online OfficeMax purchase, simply return it to us in the complete and original packaging (together with all accessories and manuals) with your original sales receipt within 30 days of the date of purchase. We will gladly replace or repair the item, or return your money. Max Choice furniture and any assembled furniture cannot be returned. Electronics items, software, digital cameras, computers, PDA's and business machines must be returned within 14 days of purchase. Computers, PDA's, digital cameras, monitors, projectors or software can be returned for a complete refund if the item is in the original, unopened package. Defective items can be exchanged for an identical item only.

We returned the printer to the store, all accessories and packing intact as required, and reached the returns counter where we encountered "Lindze," a cashier, who informed us that we had to take the printer out of the store again and call the number on the bill of lading so someone could come to our house to pick up the printer. Lindze wouldn't budge on this, and the printer is in a very large package, so I asked for her manager. It didn't make sense that we had to return home so someone could pick the printer up there. The store manager of the aforementioned location, named "David," was dispatched at my request after an obviously off-put Lindze refused to help us with our return. I handed David the bill of lading from the package, informed him of our dissatisfaction of the product, and he stated that this was a "special return" that they didn't carry in the store. We informed David of the product's location on the shelf, and he returned after checking our information. David then stated, in an overly condescending tone in front of other customers, "I'll let you return it this time. This is why we don't buy things over the internet. You can't touch them."

At this point, my wife and I were appalled, offended, and quite shocked that we were just publicly condescended by your store manager. My wife and I have four degrees between the two of us, and frankly, if we wanted to be treated like unintelligent criminal garbage, we'd be pouring the tens of thousands of dollars we have provided for Office Max into Wal-Mart.

After a few minutes of Lindze attempting to enter in our information, she tried to give us store credit for the printer. Neither my wife or myself has any plans on ever giving Office Max our patronage again after being treated like stupid people who are trying to pull a fast one over on Office Max. I informed Lindze that we didn't want the printer or their store credit, and that we wanted our money back. We were then informed that a "no receipt return" only warranted store credit. But with both of our iPhones displaying the receipt and the bill of lading in the store manager's hands, we couldn't understand why we can't return the item. David then told us "well, if you want your money back, you need to go home and call the number listed on the receipt." David pretty much passed us off at this point, so we collected our merchandise and left the store. Now we have two more problems - a store manager who recognizes we had a receipt but will still not relent to our request, and the inconvenience of having to waste a half hour of our time travelling to the store, a half hour dealing with David and Lindze, and the three hours in research and writing that went into finding your very elusive email addresses and informing you of this incident.

My wife and I used to shop at Office Max because your stores were relatively convenient to us; we often surpassed more convenient selections of Staples and Target to visit your stores. We've been so pleased with Office Max in the past that we have overlooked your inflated prices to shop there. We also both bill several hundreds of dollars for our time, which was wasted by your practices, management, and low level employees. We want this solved right away, and no excuses will be accepted. We have a printer in our possession that does not meet our expectations, no way to return this printer due to the rudeness and blatant disregard for customer concerns that David expressed, and our money in your possession that we want returned to us post haste. I have included all pertinent information as a PDF attached to this email and copied it at the bottom; you might also recognize that even though our printer was delivered and we tried to return it, the shipping status still says "pending." That confused us very much as well. Let's hope we don't receive two of these or get double charged. That will only lead to an immediate BBB complaint and as much consumer advocacy press that I can possibly generate. My wife and I are both heavily involved in online consumer advocacy. We're beyond appalled by this colossal waste of our time and resources.

I want a call from your executive customer service department promptly and immediately. After that call, which needs to include an explanation of your manager's actions, rude behavior, why he thought it would be a good idea to publicly condescend us and deny us your own policy, I want to be given specific instructions on when and where this printer will be taken from us and our money refunded. I am copying the online consumer advocacy group The Consumerist as well on this post, and formulating our Better Business Bureau complaint. I will hold off for 48 hours from Tuesday morning at 8am before filing my complaint and contacting every one of our friends at various regional and national consumer advocacy groups across the country about the details of this incident. I refuse to be treated like this by anyone, especially by a company that has been given as much money and time as we've given Office Max.

We are patiently awaiting your response. Please don't waste your time trying to run us in circles; you've wasted enough of our time already with this ordeal."

This is the letter Jim wrote me on 9/07/08:

"Well, I was right. Office Max's policy is exactly what they wrote on their website, and this was all confirmed. Store 1192 was wrong when they wouldn't process the online return.

After sending Office Max the EECB, I received an email from the district manager, Kevin, who asked that I call him. A day went by, and I received another email from the district manager asking if he would hear from me that day. I called him the following morning.

Kevin was extremely apologetic, said he was dumbfounded and sorry that this had happened, and that he was having a personal meeting with the "store" manager (whom we later found out was not in fact the store manager). Kevin said he could not believe that the manager and cashier wouldn't process my return, he was sorry for my trouble, and said that we experienced some "training problems" with a manager who was pretty new in his job. He then asked me what this was all worth to me, and as all I wanted was an apology, I said that I would leave it up to him. He said that he was going to send a $30 gift card for our troubles, and that he was extremely sorry for the whole thing.

Sure enough, I got a $30 gift card, and a hand signed apology from Store 1192's management. It reads:

Dear {redacted],
My sincerest apologies for your bad experiences at our store. my managers did have a training issue with what to do for online returns. They have been well informed and when the situation arises again we will not make the same mistake. I hope this experience does not completely turn you off from Office Max altogether. We at store 1192 try to pride ourselves with great customer service, but we are only human and do make mistakes and our goal is to learn from them and never make the same mistake twice. My understanding is you are getting the credit back from the printer and here is a $30 gift card for your gas and time spent at our store.

Respectfully yours,

Office Max
Store 1192

Score one for the EECB. Thanks Ben."

(Photo: Maulleigh)

Dear Disney,

My name is Jane [redacted]. On September 28th, 2007, my husband, Daniel, and I went to California Adventure on the 2nd day of our two-day Disney pass. Around 11 a.m. we rode the Maliboomer. After our ride was over, I got off the attraction, but Daniel stayed to ride again. While I waited on a bench, Daniel went to get back on and in the process fell and hit his head on the ground, knocking him unconscious and cutting his forehead open. Almost instantly, numerous park officials were at the ride helping him. The care he was given at the park was comprehensive and prompt, and for that we are appreciative. While waiting for the ambulance, he and I had a conversation with a very kind Disney nurse. We discussed the process of how Disney would handle this incident, and she said not to worry, that we should give the hospital Daniel’s health insurance information and Disney would reimburse the insurance company (United Health Care). In addition, she said Disney would send us two passes to the parks to make up for the day we missed due to the incident. I don’t remember her name, and I apologize for that, but I’m sure you can understand I was distraught. We went to Western Medical Center where Daniel was treated and released several hours later.

Several months later, we started receiving bills from the hospital and ambulance service for the co-pays and deductibles that Daniel’s insurance did not satisfy. Thinking what we were told about the billing to be the truth, we called the companies and advised them that they would receive payment from Disney. We kept receiving bills, so finally in February we were able to get in touch with Disney Guest Claims, and they advised us that the claim had been assigned to Mr. Garth Steever.

From February to August, we tried over and over to get in touch with Mr. Steever to have a complete conversation about Disney’s position on the incident. Mr. Steever would occasionally return a call or email and ask when a good time was to call us back to discuss. We would give him a date and time, but he would not call back. This finally came to a head last Friday (August 15th) when we were contacted by a collection agency. Daniel and I are both hard workers and have spent our entire lives building good credit, so to have our credit harmed by something that should have been settled almost a year ago is absolutely unacceptable. I left an urgent voicemail for Mr. Steever, and when I still had not heard back from him after several hours, I got in touch with his manager, Mr. Bob Weise. Mr. Weise apologized for Mr. Steever’s continuous lack of response and scheduled a teleconference for Mr. Steever, my husband, and myself for 1:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, August 19th.

By the time Mr. Steever did call on the 19th it was almost 2 p.m. EST. He advised us that Disney investigated and decided that it was not liable for the incident, so they would not pay the lien the insurance company served them (which occurred on Feburary 20th, but coincidentally we heard nothing about until this phone conversation), and therefore could not make a good faith payment to us. He also explained that if the insurance company had not served a lien against Disney, then Disney would have more “flexibility” to pay the claim. We asked him if that meant that if Daniel didn’t have insurance that Disney would pay the claim, and he said “yes.”

Does this make sense to you? It doesn’t to us. Essentially, Disney is punishing us for being hard-working, conscientious people who have the foresight to protect ourselves by purchasing health insurance.

We asked how Disney determined that it was not liable, and Mr. Steever advised that he researched a state inspection of the ride (that was conducted a few days after the incident occurred) and also interviews with Disney employees. This was the first we heard about any of this, and when I told him that we would need copies of the state inspection and the employee interviews, he told me that we are not allowed to receive copies of the interviews because they are confidential Disney property. Once again, this does not make sense. We are not allowed access to documents concerning my husband and his injury?

When I asked Mr. Steever when they determined that Disney was not liable and therefore not willing to pay the claim, he advised it was “sometime in April.” Again, this conversation took place on August 19th, so that is a full four months that we were left in the dark about this. When I asked him why it took him so long to let us know, he said he was sorry, but he “dropped the ball.” I’m sure you will agree that any “dropped ball” that damages someone else’s credit is a pretty serious ball to drop. Is it standard Disney practice to wait four months to let an injured party know that their claim has been denied? Clearly we are infuriated. If we had not been told in the first place that Disney would pay the costs arising out of the incident, this never would have happened. But more importantly, if Mr. Steever had done his job and notified us promptly about Disney’s decision, our credit would not have been harmed.

Daniel and I are not out to gain financially from this. We want the bills paid and this situation to be rectified immediately as we were told it would be from the beginning. So we expect Disney to reimburse Daniel’s insurance company for what they have paid and to pay the deductible amounts that have been billed to us. A summary of the totals is below.

Billing Company | Amount Paid by Insurance | Amount Billed to Us

Pacific Shores Radiology Medical Group | $120.00 | $80.00
CARE Ambulance Service, Inc. | $379.20 | $344.80
JJ&R Emergency Medical Group of California, Inc. | $214.81 | $53.70
Western Medical Center Anaheim | $897.26 | $299.31
TOTAL | $1,611.27 | $777.81

In addition, we expect Disney to cooperate and provide any documentation we may need in order to repair our credit. Coincidentally, we never received those park passes we were promised, either.

I am copying this email to several companies that make customer service a priority. I can be reached any weekday after 4:30 p.m. EST and any time during the weekend at [redacted]. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to a quick and satisfactory resolution to this issue.

Sincerely,

Jane [redacted]

This email did just the trick and we got a call the next day. Disney advised they will pay all the bills AND give us the passes to Disney.

We got the idea from your website. Thanks so much!

It's easy to send an EECB like Jane and so many other Consumerist readers have to done, solving the seemingly irresolvable. Here's how to get started.

(Photo: sanctumsolitude)

andy.bird@disney.com, andrew.bird@disney.com, garth.steever@disney.com, bob.weise@disney.com, robert.weise@disney.com, alan.braverman@disney.com, ronald.iden@disney.com, ron.iden@disney.com, kevin.mayer@disney.com, christine.mccarthy@disney.com, zenia.mucha@disney.com, preston.padden@disney.com, dennis.shuler@disney.com, brent.woodford@disney.com, george.bodenheimer@disney.com, richard.cook@disney.com, dick.cook@disney.com, walter.liss@disney.com, andrew.mooney@disney.com, andy.mooney@disney.com, jay.rasulo@disney.com, james.rasulo@disney.com, anne.sweeney@disney.com, steve.wadsworth@disney.com, steven.wadsworth@disney.com, john.pepper@disney.com, robert.iger@disney.com, bob.iger@disney.com, thomas.staggs@disney.com, tom.staggs@disney.com, meg.crofton@disney.com, megan.crofton@disney.com, al.weiss@disney.com, roy.disney@disney.com, john.lasseter@disney.com, susan.arnold@disney.com, susan.arneld@disney.com, john.bryson@disney.com, john.chen@disney.com, judith.estrin@disney.com, steve.jobs@disney.com, steven.jobs@disney.com, fred.langhammer@disney.com, aylwin.lewis@disney.com, monica.lozano@disney.com

(Photo: highdef)

williambonner@officemax.com, ryanvero@officemax.com, samduncan@officemax.com, jimdurkin@officemax.com, randyburdick@officemax.com, reubeneslone@officemax.com, reubenslone@officemax.com, customerservice@officemax.com, executivecustomerservice@officemax.com, jenniferrook@officemax.com, sammartin@officemax.com, doncivgin@officemax.com, investor@officemax.com

Need help drafting that letter? Here's a template for writing a good one, and some tips from a professional complaint letter writer.

(Photo: theogeo)

I figured I'd give some props to the Consumerist and their trips on EECBs, as that seems to be the only way to get things fixed with Comcast after dealing with their utterly inept "roll a truck" zombie call center.

So I've been avoiding calling Comcast on a latency issue that only came up between 4:30pm and 8pm for about 2 weeks now. Not because I didn't want it fixed, but because I didn't want to waste an afternoon waiting for a tech to come and say "no problems here". I eventually caved in about a week ago and called. Of course, they wanted to roll a truck because the the CSRs don't have either the authority or the desire to actually check networks for problems and instead just roll a truck regardless of the problem. I tried to schedule a time to do it, but the CSR told me I was trying to do it too far in advance since I could only do it when it was an actual problem. And like it seems how they are trained to do, I felt defeated and just gave up.

Fast forward to last night and I come home to a total area outage. No cable, no internet, nothing. Obviously this is a problem at the node level feeding into the apartment complex. Long story short, I call them, they admit it is a node issue, they say a tech has been dispatched and they have no ETA. 11pm rolls around, it's still down, and I go to bed.

As expected as the time on a Rolex, I wake up to everything still being down. I begrudgingly call again. Except this time, the tech can't even check on the network, either due to laziness or ignorance. Of course, I get the "when can we send a technician to do nothing but waste yours and ours time?" from a decidedly sassy woman, I decide to just do the EECB that I found here.

Now, it's a shame that the only way to get something done correctly at Comcast is speaking directly to VPs, but it is what it is. Within minutes, I get phone calls from a regional escalations manager and the maintenance supervisor. They send techs out and promise if they can't fix it, they'll have as soon as I come home. I open the door and everything is running as it should be. 2 minutes after I get home, a tech comes to verify everything is working. Well, it's up, but I have no idea of the 5pm daily network problem is going to come up yet. He said that the line to the node feeding the apartment was disconnected, causing the outage, and they found a source of major RF interference causing the latency, and I was one of multiple people (including a police officer who lives here) complaining about this problem. He said he'll stay in the area for an hour or 2 to verify everything is good. On top of that, I got a month of free service credit.

All in all, the EECB was a huge success. It taught me that Comcast's biggest bottleneck is their utterly inept and lazy call centers through which all support must initially go. Maybe if Comcast restructures their call centers with people who actually know what they're doing and they minimize truck rollouts they won't be one of the worst hated consumer companies in the country.

But I somehow doubt that.

- Chris L

Here is the letter I wrote to them:

I have been a Comcast subscriber for my entire life. A came home yesterday to the worst outage I have ever experienced with Comast; a total TV and internet outage. Given that I work in the IT networking field, I did all necessary troubleshooting on my end prior to calling Comcast customer support as a last resort, given their past unwillingness to do anything to help me whatsoever besides "rolling a truck" (their default answer to any problem I have). After being on hold for over 45 minutes yesterday evening, I was abruptly disconnected. I called back and spent another 30 minutes before someone finally picked up. I explained my situation to them and she informed me that my node was down, which is exactly what I thought happened. She said that all she could find is that a tech has been dispatched and there was no ETA of a fix (it had already been down for hours). I wrote down the ticket # she gave me (CR131333452), hoping that it would be back up shortly.

It wasn't.

I woke up this morning to all of my services still being down. No morning news, no e-mail, nothing. I was shocked that if the entire node was down, which means at least my entire apartment complex of 800+ tenants was down, that they couldn't have gotten it fixed in 12 hours. But frankly, nothing with Comcast shocks me anymore. I called back while getting ready for work and spoke to another person. I gave her my ticket # and told her the situation. But this time, she said she couldn't figure out of the entire node was down. Now, how can one technician know that there is a downed node, effectively killing the entire area, and the other not? Either the first one lied or the 2nd one didn't know what she was doing or was too lazy to check. Given her flippant attitude towards me and her pushing to get me to agree to a truck service, I'd say the second was true.

I informed her that I work an odd schedule and that the only time I have available anytime soon is this evening. I work 6am to 6pm Friday, 6am to 6pm Saturday, I have plans Sunday, and both Monday and Tuesday I have job interviews. In essence, she did not care about this scheduling problem and insisted I take the Friday service time. Of course, this appointment would solve nothing and only waste both my time and Comcast's time anyway, but since customer service just wants to roll a truck to get off the phone as quick as possible regardless of whether or not it fixes anything, a truck it is.

I asked her about compensation, since I'm paying for a service I can't even use for a week, to which she basically said "call back later and get a credit". After nearly 2 hours on the phone, I need to call and request that I not be charged for services I'm not getting? How absurd. I pay a premium for high speed internet and silver package cable with 2 premium channels and an HD DVR, yet your customer service department could care less.

I'm sending this e-mail because I'm afraid, as it is almost guaranteed to happen with Comcast, that I'll come home and there will still be an outage. I'll spend another hour on the phone only to have another confused technician totally unwilling to help me, or even acknowledge that the problem is at the node level and not my apartment. Prior to this, for the past few weeks, I have HORRIBLE speed issues around 4:30pm-8pm, prime usage time. From the troubleshooting I did, I can determine that the node was simply overloaded and did not have enough capacity, which is a problem that needs to be fixed at the green box feeding into the apartments, not in each individual apartment. I called Comcast about this and once again, they wanted to send a tech. When a specified that I needed them at a time I could show them this, they refused to even schedule!!!

For the past month, I've had horrible network speeds. At least I can say when Comcast was unwilling to fix this I at least HAD internet access. Now I have nothing, except an endless amount of aggravation spending hours on hold to talk to someone whose sole answer is "send a truck because you have nothing better to do with your life than wait for someone to show up and not fix the problem". The fact that I'm being charged out the nose for these services I can't even use just exacerbates the problem.

All I want is my cable TV and internet connection up when I get home at 3:30PM EST, my speed problems fixed when they come up at 4:30pm, and I want to pay a fair price for the service when I actually do get it. I can be contacted at the number below.

I hope that as you are all prominent people in positions of authority that you can actually help me when I need it instead of brushing me off like your call centers do.

Sincerely,

Chris L

Good job, Chris! For more information about launching your own EECB, click here. Here's a collection of posts with Comcast contact information, or you can also contact Comcast on Twitter, which they monitor pretty closely these days.

(Photo: mytoenailcameoff )

He didn't think it would work, but he launched an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) anyway...

Nick says:

For the last 8 months I've been submitting claims online to United Behavioral Health (one tentacle of the evil squid that is United HealthCare), for out-of-network service that I'm supposed to get partially reimbursed for. When they don't go through, I have to call customer service, talk to one of their incompetent reps, be patient while they act like I'm the one who did something wrong, and then wait even longer for my eventual payment. There's absolutely no reason for this — nothing complicated about the claims, they're the exact same kind that have been reimbursed before — except, of course, that no insurance company ever wants to pay anyone anything ever. I don't think I need to elaborate any more than that, since it's the same crap that everyone with insurance goes through.

Anyway, last week I got another one of these EOBs that claimed I was owed exactly zero percent of the several hundred dollars I'd spent. This was even more frustrating than usual because I'd had an expensive month and could really use the money. So, rather than spending time at work on the phone with another prickly-yet-stupid CSR, I decided to check Consumerist to see if there was any executive contact info for United HealthCare.

And there it was!

I fired off a non-threatening but firm email to the CFO, COO, and Senior VP/Treasurer in which I told them what was happening and that from now on, I would be corresponding directly with the three of them about any such issues rather than waste time with their phone support. While it was a satisfying note to write, I didn't really expect anything to come of it. After all, these are some of the most senior people in charge of screwing customers, so they have more incentive than anyone to ignore me.

But lo and behold, I checked my claim status online the very next day (in fact, the same day they would have received the email, since I sent it on a Sunday night) and my reimbursement status for my most recent claim had already been modified. I figured the check would still take a while, but hey, at least I didn't have to get on the phone. Wrong again! I got my checks in the mail yesterday, only a week after sending the email.

And yes, you read that right — CHECKS. A total of three. Not only did they reimburse me the proper amount for my most recent claim; they even sent me EXTRA MONEY from previous claims that they realized they'd screwed me on. Rather than get a couple hundred dollars in exchange for hours of bureaucratic frustration, I got almost $700 for a single email that took me three minutes to write. Frankly, I'm still in shock. If the EECB can get United HealthCare to voluntarily cough up money I didn't even ask for, then its powers truly are limitless.

Thanks for posting that contact information, and for all the other valuable services that Consumerist provides.

—Nick

Good work, Nick! Sometimes all your problem needs is a little TLC from someone higher on the food chain. For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com, colleen.haggerty@bankofamerica.com, britney.w.sheehan@bankofamerica.com, nicole.nastacie@bankofamerica.com, joe.price@bankofamerica.com, keith.banks@bankofamerica.com, michael.jones@bankofamerica.com, liam.e.mcgee@bankofamerica.com, brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com, amy.brinkley@bankofamerica.com, steele.alphin@bankofamerica.com, liam.e.mcgee@bankofamerica.com, bradford.r.dinsmore@bankofamerica.com, michelle.shepherd@bankofamerica.com, maryellen.baker@bankofamerica.com

We have received numerous requests lately for company-specific email lists. At present, we have very few, but that number can be increased if you send in the results of your successful EECBs. Don't be so lazy, here's all the info you need to build your own EECB.

(Photo: Payton Chung)

Brandon writes:

I'll try to keep it short. Last month I went to my local Apple Store to get some cracks on my Macbook casing fixed and the LCD checked out because of the huge amounts of stuck pixels on it. They agreed to send it out for repairs, at no cost to me (I have Apple Care).

It came back half repaired, the cracks were fixed, however, someone WROTE ARROWS WITH A PEN on my LCD. They sent it back to replace the LCD, that was last month on the 7th. Since then Apple has no idea where my Macbook is, they keep basically telling me it's in two places at once or they give me the run around and say "just a few more days". I don't know what to do anymore, I've lost around $400 due to me not being able to work, without my Macbook I can't work. So now I'm writing you, asking for help, if you can spare it. If you have any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

We suggested that Brandon send an email to Steve Jobs. He agreed, and we waited. A few days later we received this:

The email worked! Got a call from my local Apple Store yesterday morning, told me to come pick up a brand new Macbook, so I did!

Hooray! For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

(Photo: C. Barr )

Joelle cc'd us on her Executive Email Carpet Bomb:

Dear Acer,

I have been a long time user and proponent of your products. My friends and family look to me when facing purchasing decisions, and for the most part I have been recommending Acer to them. Recently, I have had some trouble with my laptop, and I am afraid that I will no longer be able to recommend Acer.

I've had my Acer 8204 laptop for a while now, and it has been in for repair more than once. Either due to poor design or poor workmanship, the fan apparently becomes easily fouled and the laptop overheats. However maddening this may be, it is not the reason for this email.

I recently sent my laptop to you for repair, as in addition to again overheating, the sound and bluetooth components had failed. As much as I was not looking forward to being without a computer for two weeks, the overheating had become chronic and the situation was becoming increasingly untenable. I sent my laptop in for repair, and waited.

When I received my laptop back from repair, I turned it on to discover that (yes, indeed) the sound and bluetooth had been fixed. However, the screen was incredibly dirty, a sort of brown dripping appeared to be all over it. I went to wipe the screen and realized that this dirt was on the inside. I assure you that when I sent the notebook in for repair the screen may have been dusty, but not internally coated in grime.

When I contacted your support about this problem, they told me two things. First, I could expect to wait another two to three weeks without a laptop. Second, the screen is not covered under my warranty and that I would have to pay for a replacement. Also, the damage to the screen must have been caused by the shipping company, as rough handling can obviously cause this kind of damage. As I am writing this, the WI-FI has now failed on the laptop.

I believe that it is wholly unacceptable for me to be without a computer for upwards of a month. In addition, by attempting to shift blame from your repair technicians to me or the shipping company, it makes me think that you are not very much interested in customer satisfaction and more interested in the bottom line. I am very much disappointed that your company will not accept responsibility for the products and services that you offer.

A satisfactory resolution for me would be an expedited repair or replacement for my now perennially broken laptop and my warranty extended by the time that my laptop was missing.

I look forward to your reply with a resolution to my problem.

Sincerely,

Joelle

He made a rational business argument. He calmly laid out the problem and course of events. He rationally argued it was both foolish and unacceptable to treat a a high-value Comcast customer in this manner. In an artful and subtle flourish, vaguely referred to how solving the problem would be a good way to avoid more negative publicity for the company.

It got results. A Comcast exec who got the email forwarded to him called the executive customer service department, from his house, and told them to get this solved, pronto. That's the power of the executive email carpet bomb. Just one of your recipients needs to realize how completely stupid and unacceptable it is for a business to be run in the way that caused your complaint.

Chris' complaint letter and followup email below.

June 12

To Whom It May Concern:

Last evening I called 1.800.COMCAST in order to set up a transfer service appointment for my impending move from one county to the next. I have been a loyal Comcast customer despite more than one instance of dissatisfaction over the last year (over billed, poor service, empty offers, followed by more inaccurate bills, etc.). I currently subscribe to the "Triple Play", HBO, HD service, as well as the Center Ice package in the winter time. I have also called and left a message with the executive customer service department, office of the President (215.640.8960), without response. The following, is what transpired happened yesterday

I called the 800 number and navigated my way to the the transfer service department. I spoke with Tony, operator ID UP4. I first asked him if I moved and took Comcast with me, would I be eligible to receive the free 19" HD TV offer that is currently being advertised in the Philadelphia area. He said that I was. We then proceeded to verify addresses, and set up the appointment time for the tech to arrive at the new address to set everything up. This request was put in on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, with service to be disconnected here on the 27th, and reconnected at the new address between 3 and 5 PM on the same day. This was by far my best and easiest interaction with Comcast, ever. I made extra sure to let Tony know this, as I was thoroughly pleased with how easy this process was, as advertised.

I spoke way too soon.

Moments after hanging up with Tony, I realized my internet was not working. I tried fixing it locally on my end first, by restarting my computer and resetting my modem and router among a few other fixes that usually work. Neither worked, so I called back (reference number CR127432486).

To make an extremely long story short, I spoke with Janet, operator ID 29842, who told me that because the transfer service request went in, it put a flag of some sort on my internet account which deactivated it until the transfer date. Because I notified Comcast that I was moving, they disconnected my internet for what was to be over two weeks! I asked to speak with her supervisor, as this answer was highly unacceptable to me. I then spoke with Janet's non-technical supervisor Adam, operator ID 29858 (he was not positive this was his correct ID, and also gave me ID NATG01). He only reiterated what Janet had told me earlier, twice. What I fail to understand is if he is a non-technical supervisor, how is he qualified to answer these types of questions, let alone instruct others? Further more, all he was able to do was reiterate what Janet had told me, which is what he told her. He had no solution, new information, or most importantly, help.

Adam the non-technical supervisor then proceeded to tell me that there was absolutely nothing he could do, and that it was most likely a simple glitch in the system that your IT department would have to look into. He did not offer to escalate this problem to the IT department for resolution. My favorite part of this horrible experience is when Adam actually agreed with me how extremely absurd that this situation was, that my internet was disconnected because I called in advance and notified Comcast of the move. To have a supervisor agree with a complaintant, but not have an ability or initiative to fix the problem, is truly amazing.

I was then transferred back to Janet in order to cancel my transfer service request. After being on hold for what seemed an inordinate amount of time, she informed me that the transfer service department told her that they could not cancel the request, it wasn't their fault, and she had to call the digital phone department in order to resolve. This confused me even further, considering my phone was working fine, as I had been on it for over 45 minutes so far on this call alone. If neither my phone nor my cable were affected, I don't understand how the phone department would be able to cancel this request. Tony, in the transfer service department, never informed me that my internet would be disconnected as a result of the original request.

I feel at this point, I should be able to request a transfer of service for the time and date originally requested (June 27, 3-5PM). I also feel that my internet at my current residence should not be disconnected as a result of this request. I'm paying for the service, I should be able to use it. Additionally, I (according to Tony) am eligible for the free 19" HD TV giveaway. I expect to be eligible for this still, despite what transpired. And most importantly, I expect an apology for more of my wasted time trying to correct my service with Comcast.

I hope a speedy resolution is in your interest, as I'm sure that it will cost far less then even more bad publicity than your company has already endured. I not only ask this for myself, but for what I'm sure are many, many other unhappy customers who have faced the same brick wall in trying to transfer their services to a new address. This is border line false advertising - Comcast has made moving services near impossible, not easier! For as much as I pay every month, Comcast should be very interested in keeping my business, and not losing it going forward. Telling people that the problem is their fault, that there is nothing Comcast can do to fix it, being generally unhelpful and unresponsive are traits which I do not consider good business practices. I believe that one business day is more than ample time to return a call of an unhappy customer. Comcast, obviously does not.

I eagerly await your reply.

Sincerely,
Chris E.

Account Number: [redacted]
Cell Phone: [redacted]
Home Phone: [redacted]
[home address redacted]

June 13

Hi Theresa,

It took Comcast exactly 1 hour and 7 minutes to call me after I sent this email last night. I heard from Courtney, who worked at corporate, who had copy of email in hand. Her boss called her from home, and asked her to contact me ASAP, which she obviously did. Her boss wasn't even on the original email, so the email must have circulated the company very, very quickly. Courtney proceeded to give me her direct number, her boss' direct number, and her boss' assistant's direct number, and assured me that either her boss or his assistant would call me today with resolution. As promised, Michelle (the asst.) called me mid afternoon today. This must be all that Michelle does, because she moved with exceptional accuracy, efficiency, and speed. I think she might actually be a robot. She promised the problem was fixed, that there is indeed a workaround to this massive glitch in their system, I have my original appointment time, and will receive the HD TV offer. And as you can tell from this email, my internet continues to work. So, everything seems to be on course now. Michelle said she would check in with me a day or two before moving day to make sure nothing has changed, and will continue to follow up until everything is done. I was unimpressed that 24 hours was not long enough time for someone to call me back after leaving a v/m at corporate, but the efficiency in solving this in the last 24 hours since, has been impressive when compared against all previous Comcast encounters. It's unfortunate that this sort of service cannot be obtained via normal channels. But, a huge thanks to the Consumerist (I'm an avid work-time-reader-because-there-is-nothing-better-to-do) I got the answer I was looking for.

Thanks!

Chris

If you want to send an executive email carpet bomb of your own, here's how to do it.

(Photo: Getty)

Consumerist,

I read your article about the EECB sent to Best Buy about the “Account Shield” used on the Best Buy Credit Cards. I kind of dealt with this in March and April and decided to give the EECB a try.

Here’s what I wrote:

Hello,

My name is Chad [redacted] I've been a long time customer of Best Buy.
Best Buy has always been my first choice when it comes to consumer electronics. I almost always buy my video games, music, movies, and etc at my local Best Buy.

I happen to be an active reader of The Consumerist. I recently read about a Best Buy customer that was sucked into an Account Shield service that was automatically enabled once he signed up for a Best Buy credit card. I learned that this is a type of insurance for the purchases used with the Best Buy card.

In March, I believe, I called the Best Buy customer service line to get more information on this. After getting transfered a couple times I was connected with someone and asked what this "Debt Cancellation" was. The person was explaining it and after they finished I told them that I wanted to cancel this service as I did not need it. They kept saying why I needed to keep this service only to have this explained to me why I need it. I decided I would try my luck with someone else at a later time.

In April I gave the customer service line another try and was met with the same situation from before. I had to be a little rude and interrupt the employee I was speaking with to tell them that I did not want this on my bill anymore. I was relieved to finally get that removed from my statement, but now I've ran into another problem.

After reading the article posted on The Consumerist I decided to take a look at the online statement for my card. I was looking over my statement and seen that the promotional rate that ended this month actually ended on May 8, 2008 and I was charged interest on my previous balance. I had just sent in $400.00 to pay off this promotional amount yesterday with an electronic check from my bank, Chase, only to see that I had already been charged because the promotion ended. What I don't understand is why this ended on the date it did intstead of my bill's due date. This date was before I had even received my statement.

Now, not only was Best Buy profiting off this Account Shield that cost me $20 a month which I did not sign up for, but I was just charged $75 for not paying a bill that was due 20 days before my actual due date. I estimate that Best Buy made an extra $175 off me just because I decided to sign up for their credit card and make quite a few large purchases at their stores.

Today, I spoke with Shabham through the customer service line. I was trying to get some information on my current balance and had a question about the recent purchase I made using my Best Buy card. I wasn't sure if this Account Shield was going to come up again or not. I had a hard time understanding him. I thanked him for his help and wished him a good day.

I've never had a problem with Best Buy until these last few months. The in-store customer service has always been great when it come to returns which defective products. Recently, with the Account Shield problems setting me back about $100 and the random date of my promotional six months no interest ending setting me back about $75 from what I'm told, I'm not sure how I feel about Best Buy anymore.

Sincerely,
Chad [redacted]

Here was their reply:

Dear Mr. [redacted]:

I am writing in regards to your email dated May 23, that you directed to the multiple Executives of Best Buy. The Executives have referred your correspondence to my attention to investigate and respond accordingly.

I'd like to apologize on behalf of Best Buy for any difficulties you may have experienced regarding this matter, but I appreciate the time you took to voice your concerns to allow the company an opportunity to properly address them. Indeed, Best Buy values this sort of contact as it provides the corporation with important feedback to make decisions regarding its future direction.

I am sorry for any disappointment that surfaced from this situation. As you are probably aware, Best Buy's credit cards are administered through HSBC, and you can contact the latter for any questions or concerns relating to your account via the customer service phone number referenced on your billing statements. Since I do not have direct access to your account for privacy reasons, I forwarded your complaint to my contact within HSBC upon its receipt to look into the issue. She reviewed your file and told me that HSBC's records indicate that you first called the organization about the Debt Cancellation program on March 11, 2008. According to the documentation from that interaction, the Customer Service Agent explained the benefits of the program to you and you decided to retain the service on the account. The next note regarding the Debt Cancellation benefit was on April 5, 2008, and the coverage was cancelled at that time. As of that date, you were charged
$108.56 in Debt Cancellation fees, but my HSBC contact waived these charges and assured me that no additional fees will be assessed for this coverage since it was cancelled.

Regarding the promotion, your particular incentive expired on May 8, 2008, as you mentioned, but payments were not received to pay off this plan by that date, so finance charges of approximately $72.80 will be charged to the account on June 1 when the statement cycles. However, since you initiated a total of $400.00 to pay off the plan, my HSBC contact will make sure that this amount pays off the promotion for you and waive the finance charges as a courtesy (when they bill in June).

Thank you again for allowing Best Buy to respond to your concerns.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. [redacted]

Sincerely,

Michael Arrighi
Senior Executive Resolution Specialist
Best Buy Corporate

As you can see they pulled through and helped me out by crediting me $180. This has been my only problem with Best Buy and they fixed it for me. They have kept my business.

I want to thank Mr. Arrighi for doing everything he did.

Thanks,
Chad

For more information about launching your own EECB, click here.

The store manager gave Michael two options: he could keep and use the dinged-up appliances until Home Depot found suitable replacements, or he could come back to the store and pick out new models that were in stock. She "even offered that should the only models they have in stock be slightly more expensive, that I would be upgraded free of charge."

The 'slightly more expensive' models ended up being $800 more expensive, a difference the manager approved "without hesitation." She then refunded the delivery fee.

Here's what Michael wrote to Home Depot'