We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: A well-executed Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb is your best bet when you’ve exhausted all the regular customer service avenues. In this latest example, Serena tells Consumerist how, after weeks of phone calls, missed appointments and general hair-pulling and screaming at walls, she employed a strongly worded EECB that had Verizon out to fix her Internet connection the next day.

According to Serena, the problem began when she made the mistake of moving across town into a new apartment. Before the move, she’d made arrangements with Verizon to transfer her DSL service to her new pad. She was given a date for when the service would kick in and everything seemed fine. Until it wasn’t.

Suffice it to say, her DSL did not turn on when it was scheduled to, and she quickly found herself caught up in a Byzantine maze of finger-pointing and buck-passing, all of it very aggravating, and probably familiar to anyone who’s ever had to attempted to navigate these treacherous seas.

So rather than break down all of Serena’s back-and-forth with Verizon, let’s skip ahead to how she resolved the matter.

Using Verizon executive contact information posted on Consumerist, Serena sat down and composed an e-mail to:
A) Everyone on that list
B) Her attorney
C) The Consumerist tipline

And in that e-mail, she walked the executives through her entire ordeal, including as many details as possible. Here’s just a taste:

The next morning, I spend nearly three hours on the phone with Verizon. I give them my old address, my new address, my cell phone number. I explain about the lost move order. Give them my social security number, the name and address of my employer, my date of birth. Why do they need that information? “I don’t know why I need to get it,” says the woman on the phone, “but it’ll help me process your order.” So I give it to her.

I get hung up on twice, disconnected a third time. I try every Verizonbranch I can think of. I write down account numbers, inside lines that I’m supposed to call, extensions. I doodle angry black clouds bursting with angry black rain.

The result: “I can’t believe this worked, but moments after I sent my angry mass e-mail, I received two very conciliatory phone calls from the folks at Verizon,” Serena told Consumerist, adding that they had scheduled a technician to come out early the next morning. “Maybe it’s Consumerist they’re afraid of? Or maybe they just liked my epic e-mail.”

Regardless, Serena’s DSL was fixed the very next day. And after the situation was resolved, an executive contacted her directly to let her know that not only was her February DSL bill being wiped off the books, she was receiving an additional two months of free service for her troubles.

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