AT&T warns customer that emailing the CEO will result in a cease and desist letter

[The Straight Story]

AT&T warns customer that emailing the CEO will result in a cease and desist letter
By Nilay Patel posted Jun 2nd 2010 9:00PM

Sure, Steve Jobs might be a one-man email PR machine, but his pal Randall Stephenson at AT&T doesn't appear to be quite as gregarious -- as reader Giorgio Galante found out today, sending AT&T's CEO two emails in two weeks results in a phone call from AT&T's Executive Response Team and a warning that further emails will result in a cease and desist letter. What did Giorgio's emails say? The first was a request to bump up his iPhone eligibility date and a request for a tethering option, and today's outlined his displeasure with AT&T's new data rates and ultimate decision to switch to Sprint and the EVO 4G. That prompted "Brent" to call Giorgio back and thank him for the feedback, but also politely warn him that further emails would be met with legal action. Ouch. As you'd expect, AT&T just lost itself a customer. We've followed up with Ma Bell to find out exactly why they went the lawyer route instead of oh, say, filtering Randall's email -- we'll let you know what they say.

P.S.- Amusingly, Giorgio says he emailed both Randall Stephenson and Steve Jobs last year about offering tethering and actually got a response from Steve -- maybe these two CEOs need to talk about more than data rates and service quality the next time they meet up.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/02/atandt-warns-customer-that-emailing-the-ceo-will-result-in-a-cease/

[leftofcool]

1. AT&T, the absolute worst service, no creds, no reliability! Dump them!

[RKP5637]

4. +1, n/t

[hlthe2b]

15. I've had my share of troubles with Sprint (and Verizon before them)

but with this kind of crap from AT&T, I can never see me going with them, no matter how much I would like to have an I-phone.

[Bobbie Jo]

25. Arrrgh....I absolutely loathe AT&T.

Worst. Customer Service. Ever.

[arcadian]

2. Fascism, alive and well in the good ole US of A

[lpbk2713]

3. "We ARE the phone company. "

"And we don't care about your silly little problem. (Snort, snort)"

[Angry Dragon]

5. The CEO credo

Just give me all the money I want for the fine job I am doing.
But never ask me for anything and never, never ask me to account
for for what I am doing....

The King, the King........Long live the King in his tower

[Scuba]

6. Speak up and you'll be locked up.

[Hawkeye-X]

7. Okay. AT&T is now out of the picture.

I will be either staying with Sprint or Verizon when considering the new mobile provider when our 2 year contract expires in August.

[pinboy3niner]

8. Next--the Phone Cops show up at your door

Looks like Doctor Johnny Fever was right! (Cue WKRP theme music.)

[MerryBlooms]

14. One of the best episodes in sitcom history.

The other - the WKRP turkey drop.
Man, I loved that show.

Many years ago when we had AT&T, we decided to change carriers and what a hassle that was. 3 to 5 phone calls a day, multiple daily mailings. We finally had to threaten them with a harassment suit to get them to leave us alone. A few years later, we received a check for .27 as a settlement from a harassment class action suit. heh

[pinboy3niner]

16. Just thinking about those classic episodes makes me laugh

These days, it would cost more to mail your 27-cent "settlement" than it's worth. Not to engage in oneupmanship, but I once received a U.S. Treasury check for 2 cents--my federal income tax refund.

I haven't had AT&T for years, but I recently dumped Verizon for phone service from Time-Warner Cable. THEN I began receiving Verizon letters offering me EXTRA SPECIAL rates for customers who've left, LOL. One thing I hated about Verizon was the constant stream of junk mail solicitations for their other services. The letters begging me to come back have finally tapered off, and I may be done with them for good--I hope!

[laughingliberal]

9. Hayward seems to have made dumbass PR moves fashionable for CEO's this year. nt

[napi21]

10. Since when is it against the law to contaact a corp. CEO?

I've done it in the past! Now I admit I tried to resolve MY problem with the std. CS folks, but when it got out of hand & it was obvious that nothing was going to happen without a much higher authority, I sent a snail mail letter to the CEO & VP of Marketing, and the problem was FIXED after 9 months of haggeling.

I have an ATT GoPhone that is almost 3 years old, but gets used very infrequently, but this post makes me want to go to something else when my minutes are all used up.

[jberryhill]

20. It's not

However, we don't know the actual contents of the communication. There are things one might say, which would provoke an actionable response.

[StopTheNeoCons]

11. We just switched to Credo, very professional interaction,

glad to be with a company that supports our causes.

[Tesha]

12. Let's have the text of the two letters to AT&T; me thinks there's more...

...going on than is revealed in this snippet from Engadget.

Tesha

[jberryhill]

18. Possibly

...like those guys who "express their opinion" to the White House, and receive a visit from the Secret Service?

[Tesha]

24. That's what I was thinking.

It's essentially inconceivable that a company that exists solely to provide
services to their customers would react this way if all you're doing is
sending constructive criticism about how to better-serve their customers.

Tesha

[WhiteTara]

13. what's that address?

he should have hundreds (thousands? millions?) of letters, not just two!

[global1]

19. Exactly - That's The Way To Deal With This......

flood this guy with letters. So many that there is no way they can single out any one to take legal action on.

What is going on with this country where the consumer has no recourse for poor quality and poor service once one purchases an item?

This just galls me. The concept of customer service is a thing of the past.

Let the buyer beware is the mantra of most companies out there. I read the other day where if one posts a complaint on the Internet against a company - that they may try and stop that by claiming - defamation.

Somehow the consumer needs to get their rights back. We should start a campaign for the Congress to enact a "Consumers Bill of Rights".

[jtrockville]

21. The email address was posted here (LINK)

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24333229-Contact-Information

It seems the postal address (and maybe the phone numbers) might not be right, but the email address is probably correct.

[jberryhill]

17. Oh please get me that email address! /nt

[Dorian Gray]

22. I'm so going to email the CEO

just for fun.

I don't have AT&T Wireless. Spotty service is what keeps me from getting the I-Phone. I really want it, but AT&T service sucks compared to verizon in NYC!

But I still want to email the CEO! For shits and giggles.

[Ratty]

23. Sense of entitlement

Big important CEO can't be exposed to the peons, he might catch something. Too good to deal with spam like the rest of us.