Mike was having trouble getting Verizon to actually show up and install his FiOS. He wasted two Saturdays and a Sunday waiting and fruitlessly calling Verizon customer service. But after a nice e-mail to the CEO, Mike says his FiOS was installed immediately. [More]
eecb
How To EECB Sirius XM Radio
By 4.14.10
If you have an issue with your Sirius XM Radio service or a billing problem, and vanilla customer service behind the 1-800 number just can’t seem to get it right, no matter how hard you try, you might try emailing the people running the company. Here are their email addresses: [More]
Emailing Acer Results In Glorious Out-Of-Warranty Laptop Repair
By 4.6.10
Reader Dan writes in with the tale of his friend Jack, who he helped with an Acer laptop that broke only two days after its warranty expired. Geek Squad was no help, but launching an email carpet bomb on Acer did the trick. [More]
EECB Gets United Healthcare To Cough Up $1,100
By 3.29.10
Reader Monica used a trick she learned on Consumerist and got her health insurance company to pay her more than 11 big fat Benjamins. [More]
Microsoft EECB Saves The Day When Zune Leaks Battery Acid
By 3.14.10
Tristan tells Consumerist that his Zune was about two years old and out of warranty when it began leaking battery acid on his hand. Appalled at the options that regular customer service offered, he used techniques from the Consumerist toolbox and empowered himself. He used our guide to crafting an Executive E-mail Carpet Bomb, and found contact information for Microsoft executives on the site as well. Getting his case in front of a person with actual authority earned Tristan a free repair of his obviously defective Zune. [More]
Reach The CEO's Office At TiVo
By 3.3.10
Are you struggling with a problem with TiVo that regular customer service can’t solve? Send your complaint to the office of President and CEO Tom Rogers at trogers@tivo.com, and you’ll hear back from someone in the Executive Relations department. (Thanks to reader IndyJaws for the info!) [More]
Hey, Best Buy, Way To Drive Another Customer Away With "Optimization" Nonsense
By 2.27.10
J. in California tells Consumerist that he liked Best Buy. He was a loyal customer until he attempted to buy a laptop there for a friend, and ran up against a brick wall of strangeness and dysfunction, all in the name of… Geek Squad optimization. [More]
I Got Verizon To Fix My Internet With An Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb
By 2.19.10
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. [More]
Some Best Buys Still Forcing Computer Optimization, Being Jerks
By 2.14.10
Michael just fired this EECB off to Best Buy. Apparently, not all stores have received the metaphorical (and literal) memo that they shouldn’t (1) Geek Squad optimize every computer in the store, and (2) be total dicks about it. [More]
Reach Acer Executive Customer Service
By 2.4.10
Acer’s customer service is so horrible that even if you manage to escalate to their corporate and executive offices, you may not get anywhere. But if you’d like to try anyway, here’s a phone number and executive emails that may work: [More]
EECB Gets Logitech To Replace 2-Year-Old Remote
By 1.11.10
On a lark, Shawn called Logitech when his old universal remote stopped working to see if there was anything it would do for him. After some resistance, he launched an Executive Email Carpet Bomb, which paid off with a free newer, better version of the remote. [More]
EECB Succeeds Where Stupid Sony Techs Fail
By 10.20.09
Remember back when some individuals referred to good things as “da bomb?” They probably didn’t have the Executive Email Carpet Bomb in mind, since Consumerist didn’t yet exist, but they should have. Here’s to re-branding “da bomb” as shorthand for the EECB. Just look at what it did for c0crusader, a spurned Sony laptop customer who used da bomb to shake Sony down for $99.
EECB Changes Price Tag To Fix Zune From $160 To $0
By 10.5.09
Brian believes a firmware update made his 80gb Zune give up the ghost, so he called customer service asking for a repair. The CSR’s idea was for Brian to send the Zune and $160 so Microsoft — new 80gb Zunes are going for $217 on Amazon — but Brian had a different idea: call in an EECB airstrike.
EECB Ends Yearlong Dell Notebook Debacle
By 10.2.09
Greg struggled for more than a year to get Dell to solve myriad issues with his notebook, but moved things along real quick-like once he ignited an Executive Email Carpet Bomb. He wrote us the following, summarized from two separate messages:
Bank Piles On Overdraft Fees Due To Merchant Error, Doesn't Seem Too Keen On Refunding Them
By 9.10.09
Here’s a story from a reader about a bad bank practice that we hear about too frequently—a bank cascades hundreds of dollars worth of overdraft fees on an error that’s beyond the customer’s control, but then is unresponsive or uncooperative on refunding those fees.
Reader Says HP Knows Old Laptops Are Rotten, Doesn't Care
By 8.31.09
Bobby thinks he’s spotted a widespread problem with the HP laptop he bought a year and a half ago. His computer runs too hot and burns itself from the inside out, roasting its innards.
EECB To Toys R Us Results In Refund, Personal Apology, Free Toy
By 8.30.09
Seth had what should have been a fairly simple problem. His son’s radio control car broke after only a few weeks of use. The toy was purchased at and manufactured by Toys R Us, and an e-mail to the support address included with the toy bounced. No one in the company’s usual customer service channels could resolve his problem, and the people whose job it was to help customers in this situation never managed to contact him.
WSJ Discovers EECB, It Works On Insurance
By 8.27.09
The venerable Wall Street Journal recently discovered the classic “EECB” technique we’ve been telling you about for years. This time, it’s health insurance companies, an industry so predicated on denial-of-care-for-profit that a few years ago a class action lawsuit based on RICO statute, invented to prosecute Mafia families for racketeering, was able to make significant headway. Lucky for you, email is much faster than the wheels of justice…
