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I'm honestly suprised EECBs work. Obviously Consumerist has proven they do, but I'm still amazed to see corporate giants, especially at an executive level, go out of their way to help an individual consumer when all it means one little tiny drop in their financial buckets, relatively speaking, and a little PR on the web not likely to get any attention from MSM or large numbers of people [no offense, Consumerist mods.] But bravo to all who pull it off or facilitate it!
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I'm starting to get sick of EECB stories. It's good to know they can work, but it seems like they're being abused and will become ineffective. It should be a total last resort.
@BayStateDarren: Why are you suprised that EECBs work? It's rarely the actual C*O of the company who does any work, but it does get you through to folks who can cut through the red tape and lies. Take Ian in the story, he got through to the \"Office of the President\" for AT&T mobility (nevermind the fact that AT&T has an Office of the President for each major item and that the agents there are merely tier I and tier II level personnel with authorization to say yes.) In the end, the company that responds is only doing what it should do anyway, and they get some good press about it.
@Vanvi: The problem, as I see it, with an EECB being the last resort, is that there aren't too many options ahead of it anyway.
What can one do after weeks of zero help from customer service? Escalation to supervisors is often spotty, we have seen insider accounts that tell us these \"supervisors\" don't even have any extra power in some companies. And even though just about every account supposedly has notes or service tickets you end up having to explain the problem from scratch every time you call, usually racking up hours of time on hold or being transfered.
If customer service would properly escalate difficult issues to people empowered to resolve them, instead of dealing with them through delays and passing the buck, the EECB could be a truly \"last resort\" tactic. As it stands now, however, if your problem is anything other than the most routine, in many cases there is no next step other than an EECB.
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I think they are becoming abused too. The large company I work for got an EECB for the most ridiculous issue possible. This person launched the EECB within minutes of his order before s/he could even wait to see if there would actually be a problem. Yeah it made everyone jump into action, but if this person had waited he would have seen that there would have most likely not been an issue at all, s/he was just impatient. That ticks me off. Now I would have no problem launching my own EECB if there was an issue that had taken a really long time to resolve and I was getting nowhere, but (luckily) I've never had to resort to it. I just think people are abusing the tactic because we live in such an instant gratification society.
EECB didn't need to be done on this AT ALL. Speaking to the High Usage Team would have had this resolved...
I don't want to get into the argument about if it was ok to send an EECB but I thought I would offer a different solution. When I had problems with AT&T I simply filled out a complaint with the FCC. It's really easy to do online. It does get their attention and motivates them to resolve the problem. This suggestion was given to me by my mom, who happens to work for AT&T. It did take some time but I got a call from AT&T's executive complaint department and was told that everything was taken care of and it actually was.
[www.fcc.gov]
EECB's will be viewed as spam and stop working within 24 months, just watch. And that makes me a sad panda.
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The guy is paying $200 a day to refill his GoPhone account so he can use his iPhone and when he has to resort to an EECB you think it's an abuse?
I'd want immediate resolution if I had to fork over $200 in a day - every day - to keep my service going.
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@tmlfan81: thank you, at least someone gets it. i would have had no problem waiting if it wasn't for the magnitude of the charges and \"oh well, just wait\" attitude on the part of all the phone agents
@tme2nsb: ps: that phrase you mention? \"high usage team\" gets 4 hits on google. one of them is this entry.
sorry i'm not carnac.
@tmlfan81: if you use the service, pay for it. duh.
but for all those who question EECB's, think of it this way... it's a positive for both parties. the consumer doesnt send out a negative impression that could impact hundreds who read it, and the company gets a free ad showing glistening customer approval.
if EECB's were used properly, the customer would get what they want AND prevent this type of abuse from happening... by way of reporting negatively regardless to shine light on the issue.
but of course only on an issue that is truly a \"wrong-doing\" and not in any way facilitated by the consumer's actions. like this example.
in the military, we called this \"bucking the chain of command\", and people who did it faced unofficial retribution by the hands of their immediate supervisors.
way to go AT&T. sorry it took BOMBS