AT&T sorry it warned customer who e-mailed CEO
AT&T sorry it warned customer who e-mailed CEO
Love him or hate him, you have to give Apple chief exec Steve Jobs credit for responding to all those e-mails from everyday Joes. Apparently, however, the CEO of AT&T Wireless doesn’t share Jobs’ enthusiasm for e-mail from random customers, and now AT&T corporate has been forced to apologize after threatening to send a “cease-and-desist” letter to a subscriber who’d send a couple of innocuous messages to the carrier’s big cheese.
TechCrunch reports that AT&T has, indeed, issued a bowing, scraping apology to a certain Giorgio G. (who has a Tumblr site you can check out), saying in a statement that “this is not the way we want to treat our customers” and that “AT&T strives to provide our customers with easy ways to have questions answered.”
The trouble started after Giorgio sent a pair of e-mails to AT&T Wireless CEO Randall Stephenson — one asking if his eligibility date for a discounted phone upgrade could be moved up in time for the expected next-generation iPhone (he currently owns the iPhone 3G), and another a week later, complaining about AT&T’s recent move to phase out its unlimited data plans.
Giorgio posted the two e-mails here and here, and I have to say, there’s nothing objectionable about them: no four-letter words, no creepy “I’m watching you right now” talk, no threats at all — well, besides one to switch to Sprint in order to snap up the new HTC Evo 4G.
In response to Giorgio’s second e-mail, however, he got a voicemail from a staffer on AT&T’s “executive response team,” first thanking him “for the feedback” and then issuing a warning: “If you continue to send e-mails to Randall Stephenson, a cease-and-desist letter may be sent to you.”
Um, say what?
Naturally, the blogosphere erupted after Giorgio posted the voicemail on his Tumblr blog, with bloggers drawing plenty of unkind comparisons between Steve Jobs’ willingness to engage with ordinary folk and Stephenson’s (or his executive response team’s, at any rate) tin ear for public relations.
In any case, someone in AT&T’s executive group wised up and issued the apology, pronto (and yes, the word “apologizing” actually appears in the statement), and Giorgio reports on his blog that a senior VP for the carrier called him personally to “sincerely” apologize for the PR blunder. Giorgio writes that he “accepted her apology” but later notes that “I really wish that Mr. Stephenson would have made the phone call.”
Meanwhile, it looks like AT&T may lose at least one subscriber in the wake of the snafu. You guessed it: Giorgio, who appears to have his eyes set on the Evo 4G.
Related Posts 
-
Top-secret America: A hidden world, growing beyond control [/caption] top-secret america: part 1 of a 3-part series from the Washington Post By Dana Priest and William Arkin The... -
Tiger Wood's Mistresses [/caption] Poor old Tiger Woods, his last few weeks have been full of scandal and innuendo, with rumours flying about... -
Legendary John Wooden dead at 99 [/caption] Swing open the door to John Wooden’s tiny two-bedroom condominium, and first thing that stands out is that there’s... -
Man Buys Police Website After Speeding Ticket [/caption] Nobody likes getting a speeding ticket. But when Brian McCrary, 33, received a speeding ticket in Bluff City, Tennessee,... -
Tiger Woods well endowed tells Mindy Lawton [/caption] Mindy Lawton, a 34-year-old waitress, claims to have had a year-long affair with Tiger Woods filled with regular sex...
-
Facebook Helps Find Long-Lost Brother Facebook has proven that it can not only help its users keep in touch, but can also reconnect users with... - Frugal Father's Day Gifts I usually give you very little notice on how to plan for an upcoming frugal holiday. I'm trying to be...
- Does taking it to the top do any good? A colleague at work has recently taken it upon himself to be proactive in voicing his dissatisfaction about customer service...
- My Tough Love Campaign Against Credit Score Obsession (Part 1) I have observed that too many Americans are now obsessed with their respective credit scores, sometimes also referred to as...
-
That's the way (uh-huh! uh-huh!) I like it: Best of Money Carnival I've hosted a number of blog carnivals over the years, and I really like the way FMF has set up...
