You know what they need to make? A zombie film starring reanimated furniture. The whole walking corpse thing is just so done. But an undead end table stalking you through your house and hacking through the closet door to reveal your pathetic hiding spot and devour your flesh? Now that’s something I’d pay to see, even if it wasn’t in 3- as, apparently, all movies will be in the future. Until that cinematic masterpiece hits the silver screen, I guess Steve’s story of how Ashley Furniture wouldn’t stop calling him until he sent their headquarters an Executive Email Carpet Bomb will have to suffice…

Steve writes:

I was having a great deal of trouble getting Ashley Furniture to stop their robo-calls to a pay-as-you-go cell phone. I’ve never given them this number, don’t know where they got it, and couldn’t make them stop using it. After repeated calls to the local Ashley Home Store and repeated assurances that the number would be removed from their list, I finally sent an EECB to the corporate manufacturers in Wisconsin and they have since tried to make things right (FYI: I used “Dear Sirs” because they were in fact all men):

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Dear Sirs,

Please remove my name and phone number from whatever automated lists, mailing lists, or any other lists upon which I’ve gotten sucked into.

I do not appreciate the automated phone calls to my cell phone. I do not appreciate receiving them when I am at work, in staff meetings, playing with my children or having dinner with friends. I don’t even appreciate them when I’m not doing anything in particular. Your company does not have permission to interrupt me at any time. Ever. Make. It. Stop.

I have tried repeatedly to call your company and have my name and number removed. I have been told repeatedly that this would be done. So far it has not. The calls show up as coming from this inoperative number: 256-xxx-xxxx

These obnoxious calls cost me both time and money. Perhaps you have plenty of both, but I do not. If these calls do not stop, I will have little choice but to contact Troy King and the Alabama AG office, and to file a suit in small claims court in order to recoup the costs – thus far totaling around $4.35 in cell phone charges.

The number I want you to remove is: 256-xxx-xxxx

Do not ever call this number again.

As you can imagine, I am relating my unpleasant Ashley Furniture experience to everyone that I am able to. The sooner these robo-calls stop, the sooner I’ll stop warning people to avoid your stores.

Thank you for your attention to this matter

Steve Tanner
Huntsville, AL

Within minutes two things happened:

1) I received a call to that number from someone at corporate apologizing for the inconvenience. That’s right, the number I told them to never call again. But to be fair, they were trying to fix the problem.

2) I received the following email from Terri:

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Mr. Tanner

Your name has been electronically removed from our list. I removed it personally and confirmed the action via email through the provider. We apologize for an inconvenience this may have caused you.

We have this number assigned to another customer that purchased with us last year. Perhaps this number has been recently reassigned or was keyed incorrectly into our system. Either way, please note that 256-xxx-xxxx will no longer receive automated calls.

Feel free to send me your mailing address, and we will gladly reimburse your $4.35 in cell phone charges.

Kindest Regards,

Terri Moore
Marketing Director
Huntsville Wholesale Furniture, Inc. dba
Ashley Furniture HomeStore

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So after sending an EECB, they made every attempt to make it right. The cost of the minutes wasn’t actually much of an issue for me, but I am glad they made the offer. Perhaps I’ll shop there in the future after all.

Steve

(Photo: faeryboots)

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