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(Photo: BitchBuzz)
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>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: More »
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>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. More »
—>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... More »
—>It took an Executive Email Carpet Bomb to convince Best Buy to replace Bryan's Panasonic LiFi LCD Projection TV after it ate through four lamps. Bryan had purchased Best Buy's extended warranty, which contains a no lemon clause that promises a replacement after three failed repairs. Best Buy conveniently insisted that replacing the broken lamp did not count as a "qualified repair." Bryan first escalated his complaint through normal channels; when he had no other choice, he launched the mighty EECB. More »
—>We think AT&T just stole about $157 from commenter Spoco. They applied the payment as always via his Amex card, but then said that it was declined and auto-debited it a second time a month later (+ late fees, of course). The only problem is, it wasn't declined, and Spoco has proof. He just can't get anyone at AT&T to care. More »
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—>Corey admits that he messed up. He was the one who didn't keep as close track of his transactions as he should have, and overdrafted his account. It was Bank of America's policies, however, that resulted in his being hit with fifteen overdraft fees at $35 each, for a total of $525 over the course of a weekend. Corey knew that he was in the wrong, but thought that these fees were unfair, and also more than he could afford. So what did he do? He used what he's learned from reading Consumerist to make his case to the people in charge. More »
—>Jiffy Lube agreed to pay Alison over $250 after botching routine work that forced her to interrupt her road trip for emergency car repairs. Alison's mechanic said that Jiffy Lube's attempted transmission fluid flush could have caused "catastrophic car damage" if left unfixed. Jiffy Lube denied all responsibility until Alison fired off an Executive Email Carpet Bomb to C.E.O. Rick Altizer, who agreed not only to reimburse for the repairs, but refunded the original cost of the transmission fluid flush, and tossed in a few coupons for free oil changes. More »
—>Bank of America messed up Andy's credit score by failing to send him credit card statements or giving him online access to an old account he only recently started using again. They also refused to work with him over the phone, telling him each time he called that they had no record of his previous conversations with customer service and therefore no reason to believe him. More »
—>For the past two years, Time Warner has charged Eric $10 per month above its published rates. Eric called and made what he thought was a fair offer: In exchange for refunding only one year's worth of overcharges, he would add a premium cable service. A Time Warner supervisor responded with: "this is not let's make a deal," and then offered to refund three months worth of overcharges. Offended and armed with a reasonable request, Eric decided to unleash the mighty Executive Email Carpet Bomb. More »
—>Consumer affairs columnist (and my former colleague) Dan Higgins stumbled upon a well-guarded secret—the real reason the Maytag repairman has nothing to do. It isn't because the appliances are so reliable. No, apparently it's because Maytag dispatches Sears repairmen to make warranty repairs, then refuses to reimburse customers because Sears isn't an authorized repair provider. At least that's what happened to this nice elderly lady. More »
—>Ryan convinced Bank of America to drop their demand for $315 from nine overdraft fees by sending a well-crafted Executive Email Carpet Bomb. Ryan admitted that he was wrong to expect his checks to clear so quickly, but gently reminded the bank that nine overdraft fees was excessive, and explained that he would consider taking his business elsewhere if they thought this was an acceptable way to treat a long-time customer. Two days later, the fees were gone. More »
—>An anonymous tipster sent in an updated list of contact info for some of the people working at the top of the Best Buy food chain. Remember, don't bug them until you've exhausted all other options. More »
—>Chris was surprised to find that T-Mobile didn't cancel his account as promised a few months ago. What's worse, the note on his account that mentioned his cancellation request was missing, and nobody at customer service would help him. Chri works for a "very large consumer electronics company" that he won't name (we're pretty sure it's Apple) and thinks customer service is important, so he gave up on the CSR angle and instead came to our site to find contact info for T-Mobile executives. One EECB later, Chris is free from T-Mobile and the ETF they tried to apply. More »
—>Here's a big sexy pile of escalated T-mobile contact info in case you have an intractable complaint that regular customer service can't or won't help out with. Besides the senior management and internal reporting division, It includes a way to figure out how to dial a whole mess of executive customer service reps, as well as which specific government bodies to file complaints with the situation warrant. More »
—>An anonymous tipster provides the following contact info for the Kodak executive team. More »
—>You know what they need to make? A zombie film starring reanimated furniture. The whole walking corpse thing is just so done. But an undead end table stalking you through your house and hacking through the closet door to reveal your pathetic hiding spot and devour your flesh? Now that's something I'd pay to see, even if it wasn't in 3- as, apparently, all movies will be in the future. Until that cinematic masterpiece hits the silver screen, I guess Steve's story of how Ashley Furniture wouldn't stop calling him until he sent their headquarters an Executive Email Carpet Bomb will have to suffice... More »
—>An EZ Lube store in California overcharged Timothy for a new cabin filter when he went to get his oil changed. The mechanic managed to do this by quizzing Timothy on his knowledge of air filters, then using that info to make vague assurances that sounded good but didn't convey the actual, final price. Timothy admits that he let his guard down, but when he was hit with the final bill, he regained his consumerist footing and began to take steps to remedy the situation—and he succeeded. More »
—>It's not uncommon to run into a dead end when trying to resolve your Xbox 360 or Xbox Live issues with the official customer support channels, which is why sometimes you have no recourse other than to try to get the attention of the executives at Microsoft. Here are some addresses to try, culled from the Penny Arcade forums. More »
—>Here are 27 email addresses for Citibank execs, in case you need to send them an eecb. More »
—>We all know that just because a rep on the phone promises you something, that doesn't mean it's necessarily true. But in Alan's case, two different United reps both confirmed, repeatedly—he asked several times before completing the purchase and again before canceling—that he could cancel his tickets within 24 hours of purchase without paying a fee. A week after he canceled, he was hit with a $150 non-refundable fee that one United rep admitted was a new policy that wasn't in writing—but United still refused to reverse it. More »
—>R wanted to get started paying off her Capital One credit card but after missing one month's payment she started a fee pigpile. She got overlimit fees, and then so many extra fees started piling on that she wasn't ever able to pay them off enough to bring her balance back under her credit limit. R wanted to get started on debt reduction snowball method but could never get that first ball started because the fees were too high. Tugs at the regular customer service line to try to get some fees waived were fruitless. To untangle this Gordian Knot R had to pull out her mighty sword of executive customer service. Her story, inside... More »
—>Do not launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb against your own company or it will explode in your face. Reader E discovered this the hard way when he tried to use an E.E.C.B. to convince the bank where he worked to reverse $300 worth of overdraft fees. More »
—>Josh chopped down Duke Energy's thicket of phone trees by launching the mighty Executive Email Carpet Bomb. He had a simple request: turn on the power to his construction site. Calling the main customer support number led to a series of thirty-minute waits while listening to Duke's cheerful computer voice promise that he would hold "for no longer than one minute." He also sent six emails to Duke's customer service inbox, all of which were ignored. Finally, after three weeks without power, Josh tracked down executive contact info for Duke's executives and fired off an EECB. Five minutes later, his problem was solved. More »
—>Sounds like that Verizon guy is too busy making commercials to show up and install your DSL. Reader John-Paul just wants Verizon to keep their appointments... is that so much to ask? More »
—>Looking for that info to load your EECB, file a letter of complaint, or reach executive customer service? ExecutiveBomb.com has entries for 861+ companies. Just type in the company name to the search box. If they've got a result, they'll spit it out to you. They also rely on users to submit contact info as well, so get to emptying your rolodexes in there. More »
—>A very nice anonymous reader just sent us contact info for Michael Duke, the new CEO of Walmart (as of February 1st, 2009). Please use it wisely. More »
—>One of the obstacles in sending an EECB is that if you're guessing a whole bunch of executive emails based on a standardized email format, some are bound to bounce. Verify-email.org lets you quickly figure out if if an email address is valid or not. Useful if you want to go through several email permutations fast, without waiting for a bounceback to finetune your results. More »
—>Reader Michael wants to know why it's taking UPS almost a month to ship his daughter's Christmas gift from Los Angeles to Seattle. Michael thinks his package might have been eaten by the snowstorm that broke Seattle a few weeks back, but UPS swears that they have the gift and that this is all a simple matter of "the driver forgot to put it on the truck." Worried that it that it might have been faster for a messenger to walk between Los Angeles and Seattle with his daughter's present, Michael decided to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb at UPS executives. More »
—>While we never like to hear the awful stories that come through our doors, it's a relief to know we can help. Listen to Reader B.J's harrowing Dell tale, and the EECB that saved the day. More »
—>www.EmailNameFinder.com seems to have been made for EECB research; they have grouped basic contact info, as well as corporate email formats (last.firstname@company.com, etc) for many popular and obscure businesses, complementing our own list wonderfully. More »
—>Bill says that an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) follow up to a BBB complaint solved his $500 billing dispute with TMobile, and he couldn't be happier. More »
—>Here's a good example of how to write an effective Executive Email Carpet Bomb, or EECB, to break through the "please hold" purgatory of the company's phone system. Alicia's car's bumper was scratched by a Best Buy employee, and calling consumer relations as directed proved fruitless. Now she's got a check in her hands from Best Buy to pay for the repairs. More »
—>All reader Scott wanted to do was get his daughter a 'Big Girl Bed'. After a nearly 6-hour trek to a nearly empty Ikea, Scott had to grab the name of the bed and attempt to pick it up himself at the 'furniture pick-up'. However, when he arrived home, he was not happy to learn that it didn't come with all the pieces he needed to build it. Stuck in a robot-phone loop, Scott turned to the tried-and-true EECB. See Scott's letter, as well as Ikea's response, inside. More »
—>Enterprise Car Rental charged Mike $560 for a scratch on the bumper he felt was unfair, but after he followed The Consumerist's instructions on sending an Executive Email Carpet Bomb (EECB), all that changed. "Long story short," he writes, "Within ONE DAY, that email was forward with highlights , such as URGENT -PLEASE RESOLVE, and ultimately reached the northeast manager, who called me and apologized profusely for their poor handling of the situation, and WAIVED ALL charges ($560 for repairs). done..all wiped... GONE!!! THANK you for publishing that thread.. it absolutely positively works!!!" More »
—>Inside, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses for over 100 different companies to inject your customer service complaints into their corporate executive offices, and get it well on the way to success. More »
—>Reader Bill was getting the run around from Verizon— but he wasn't even a customer yet! His dramatic ordeal started on October 9th, and by the 16th he'd taken a full day off of work, called Verizon nine times and still he was without FiOS. More »
—>Luisa accidentally overdrafted her checking account with Bank of America, but found that no matter how much money she put in — it was being eaten up by the fee monster that lurks at the bottom of her account. It has big yellow teeth and glowing eyes and only the CEO can control it... Rrraaawwwrrrr........ More »
—>If you have a problem with Blizzard Entertainment, makers of World of Warcraft, among other diversions, and contacting regular customer doesn't help, try some of the contact info inside... More »
—>Rick has been trying for months to get his his credit union, Opportunities Credit Union of Vermont, to pay up for a $125 home inspection, and now, a week after sending his EECB, he prevailed. As we wrote last week, his credit union was supposed to pay for a home inspection but said they didn't have to because the bill was never sent. However, the home inspector uses an electronic billing system and it showed that the credit union rep had in fact read the sent bill. Emails and phone calls between Rick and his credit union rep led to a stalemate. Then Jim sent off an executive email carpet bomb and got the following back from the credit union president: More »
—>The condescending store-manager, irked that your request for them to fulfill their contractual agreement has forced them away from a high-scoring session of Snood. Long have consumers suffered under his reign of caprice and indifference. No longer. A weakness has been discovered. The EECB, a modern version of "taking it to the top." Jim used it and got not only the rare and magnificent personal apology, but a $30 gift card and he was allowed to make the return he wanted to do in the first place. His story follows. More »
—>Disney, inventors of childhood itself, told Daniel they would foot the bill after he got injured on their California Adventure ride. Then when Daniel and his wife Jane tried to collect, they got strung along for months by Garth Steever in guest claims. When they finally locked him down 11 months after the incident, Garth told them Disney changed its mind. By this time, the medical bills had already been sent to collections. Then Jane read about how to send an EECB on The Consumerist, and stormed the ramparts of Cinderella Castle. Here's her letter, and success story... More »
—>If you have a problem with anything in the galaxy of Disney products and regular customer service doesn't help you, and a supervisor won't help you, here are 45 high-ranking email addresses to sent your well-crafted, sensible complaint letter to, what we here at Consumerist call the "EECB" or "executive email carpet bomb." More »
—>In case your efforts to deal with Office Max customer service fail, and you've escalated to a supervisor, here are 13 working email addresses you can use to send off an EECB. More »
—>Chris L. writes in to let us know that the EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) is probably the only way you're going to get Comcast to fix a network problem that affects your entire neighborhood. Calling and talking to the "zombies" at the call center will just result in yet another "truck roll" (where Comcast comes to your house and says everything is fine.) More »
—>Nick was tired of getting the run around from his insurance company, part of United Heathcare, over frequent (and pricey) billing errors. More »
—>Here are 18 working Bank of America executive/employee email addresses. A Consumerist reader launched a EECB (executive email carpet bomb) that got his overdraft fees refunded; these were the ones that didn't bounce back, plus some more we found recently. More »
—>Reader Brandon's Macbook had some cracks and stuck pixels, so he sent it in to be repaired. When he got it back the cracks were fixed, but someone had written on his screen with pen. So, naturally, he sent it back. This time, they lost it. Don't worry, there's a happy ending. More »
—>Joelle expected Acer to repair her chronically overheating laptop, not coat the inside of its screen with "a sort of brown dripping." Acer insists that their shipping company caused the internal screen damage, and won't repair the laptop unless Joelle pays up. More »
—>Chris gave Comcast a heads up that he was moving and wanted to arrange a transfer date ahead of time, and they disconnected his present internet access instead. Gahhhhhhh! Ahhhh!!! When he made various calls to various Comcast departments, various employees agreed it was messed up, but all refused to actually solve the problem. So Chris, using some email addresses we posted, sent out a well-crafted executive email carpet bomb... More »
—>EECBs are scoring direct hits on HSBC and Best Buy. Reader Chad was having the same problem with his Best Buy credit card that reader Jason wrote in about. After he saw Jason's successful EECB he launched one of his own. Reade Chad's letter and Best Buy's response inside. More »
—>Michael launched an Executive Email Carpet Bomb after Home Depot twice failed to deliver an undamaged washer and dryer. Home Depot's CEO Frank Blake quickly thanked Michael for his even-handed letter, and promised that the local store manager would make him a happy customer... More »
—>If you read yesterday's article Best Buy's "Same As Cash" Credit Card Conceals Major Hidden Fees, you should remember Jason who got socked with some serious fees on his Best Buy/HSBC credit card. Jason wrote back to us to say that within a mere 3 hours after the deployment of his EECB, Best Buy reversed all of his fees. Jason's and Best Buy's letter, inside... More »
—>The mighty EECB (executive email carpet bomb) has brought justice to West Chester, Ohio, says reader Drew. Drew was mistakenly charged a $60 restocking fee on a defective bookcase. He wrote to us and launched an EECB on IKEA. The results? A very nice apology letter, a full refund and a $25 gift card. Looks like it's Swedish meatballs for dinner tonight. More »
—>Contrary to published rumors, I did not spend last weekend trafficking Canadian drugs or performing "community service." No, I enjoyed a gluttonous weekend in Chicago thanks to Northwest's generosity. In the age or rising fees, reduced frequent flier miles, and general travel hell, it's still possible to extract favors from airlines, if you know which levers to push... More »
—>Meet Doug Steenland, CEO of Northwest airlines. He and his fellow executives can help fix problems left unresolved by tree-bound call center sloths. Here's how to reach Northwest's executive management team... More »
—>Reader Justin got hit with Delta's new $25 extra bag fee on the way home from his vacation to West Palm Beach. He turned to the dreaded EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) to get his $25 refund. Let's listen in: More »
—>If you plunk down six grand for a refrigerator like the Jade Model #RJRS4870D, you expect it work. And if it doesn't, you expect the three-year warranty on it to cover things like the refrigerator leaking all over the floor, extra ice building up, and exuding the smell of burning rubber. Ron and his parents certainly thought so, but Maytag wanted them to pay for the installation of a new part to fix the problem, even though Maytag admitted it was a known issue with this refrigerator. Read his blog post about how he was able to use an executive email carpet bomb to persuade Maytag to doing the right thing. The end result was more than Ron asked or even hoped for: $6,000 credit towards any fridge they carry from either JennAir or Whirpool, installation included. My favorite line is when he tells them, "If the Whirlpool conglomerate cannot handle all of its customers in a timely matter maybe they should stop acquiring other brands and focus on the ones that they already have." More »
—>A few weeks ago, Zach emailed us to say that his Rewards Zone Mastercard hasn't worked properly in the five months he's had it, and no one at Best Buy had been able to help. We pointed him to our Guide To Fighting Back, and he responded tonight with an update. More »
—>Update: Here's a better list. One good thing about Matt's troubles with his mom's Qwest account is he was able to collect and test various email addresses for their executives. Here's his list of the ones that work and the ones that don't. More »
—>Within 24 hours of our reader emailing the addresses after the jup about a bill Guardian Life Insurance Company was supposed to pay but never did, a charge our reader had been fighting for 2 years and had been sent to collections for, Guardian sent a $850 check to the hospital... More »
—>People often write to us and ask "Hey do you have such and such a company's email address? I didn't see it on your website." More »
—>Here is a story that first came to our attention a few months ago, but that we haven't posted because it just keeps getting worse. Reader Chuck emailed us in January to let us know that his Executive Email Carpet Bomb failed to penetrate the mustachioed walls of DirecTV's headquarters. Which is surprising, considering DirecTV let Chuck's dog escape, signed him up for a service agreement without telling him, refused to provide proof of the agreement to Chuck or his credit card company, and billed Chuck for the amount he recovered after a chargeback. Full story, and an opportunity to leave mustache jokes in the comments, inside. More »
—>Talyor was able to leave his Verizon contract without paying an early termination fee by launching an executive email carpet bomb loaded with a polite email. In it, he says that customer service reps have refused to transfer him to a supervisor and now he needs some help. In the ensuing email exchange with the executive customer service rep who helps him, he tells her how he wants to leave because of the raise in text message rates. Frequent readers of The Consumerist will remember that when a cellphone company raises its text message rates, it's a material change to the contract, meaning that the original contract is void and the other party can walk away from the contract without penalty. Taylor wins because he's polite, professional, persistent, and acts like he's conducting a business transactions, which is exactly what he's doing. Read his blow by blow exchange, inside... More »
—> Seth wrote in to describe the response he got from Dell recently, and compared it to the response he got four years ago. That was a more innocent time, before rags like BusinessWeek blew the lid on our EECB strategy by printing it in old media that execs would read. More »
—>One of the stumbling blocks when launching an EECB is figuring out the company email address format. There is actually a very easy way to do this. Just use wildcards in Google. What are those? We'll tell ya, inside... More »
—>Alexis, who had been fighting for 10.5 months to get United Health Care to pay for her checkup that should have been covered, finally found success after launching an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) with information that we provided her.
A Consumer Advocate named April from the Executive Office left me a message. She said my claim had been "reprocessed appropriately" and that a check was sent to my doctor's office, OB-GYN Associates of Pittsburgh, yesterday with the remaining balance. She said that the doctor I saw was indeed a UHC contracted doctor (no kidding!), and that my only responsibility was the $10 co-pay that I paid at the time of the visit.More »
—>Reader Rob got some bad information from a T-Mobile sales rep and it resulted in a huge text messaging bill. He launched an EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) and got a very pleasant response: More »
—>Should you have just cause to take your complaint with FedEx to the highest levels of the company, load these email addresses into your Executive Email Carpet Bomb (EECB (Confused? Here's How To Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb)). More »
—>UPDATE: EECB Scores Direct Hit On United Health Care More »
—> BusinessWeek's cover story from their March 3rd issue, "Consumer Vigilantes," looks at last year's wave of stories about consumers who took matters into their own hands, either by smashing up a Comcast office with a hammer, starting a "Comcast must die" blog, or sending EECBs to unsuspecting executives. "Frustrated by the usual fix-it options—obediently waiting on hold with Bangalore, gamely chatting online with a scripted robot—more consumers are rebelling against company-prescribed service channels," BusinessWeek writes. What we can't figure out is how they got those three guys to actually pose with those goofy masks on—sometimes it's okay to say no to the photographer. More »
—>FTD.com forgot to deliver flowers to Tip's girlfriend on Valentine's Day, but that didn't stop them from delivering the bill. When calls to FTD.com didn't go through, Tip launched the fearsome Executive Email Carpet Bomb. He wrote:
Perhaps $75 is not a lot to you. Perhaps the happiness of your customers does not mean a lot to you either. Perhaps, for a company that's been around for nearly 100 years, you simply forgot to mark your calendar that yesterday was Valentine's Day. More »
Yesterday I sent an e-mail bomb to several executives at Walmart. The concern was that the store was requiring you to provide your receipt upon leaving the store (as in Sam's club, but at Walmart). As we all know, this is a hot topic issue, and I expected Walmart to ignore my e-mails. But to my surprise, after writing my e-mail on Sunday afternoon, I got a reply shortly after 8am! Here is my letter — More »
—>Here are email addresses you can use to launch an executive email carpet bomb against Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Good for when you've made multiple attempts to resolve an issue with regular customer service but for some reason they just can't get it right. More »
—>Here are email addresses you can use to launch an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) against ACS, a student lending company that's a subsidiary of PNC bank. More »
—>Adam shares his success story in using an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) to get his student loan company to fix his botched loan after a year of runarounds and empty promises:
In January 2007, I took out a Graduate Plus Loan to cover a couple of courses at George Washington University. I was in-school half-time from mid-January to mid-May of 2007. Accordingly, I should have been covered by an in-school deferment through May of 2007. Well, unknown to me, my lender, ACS (as sub-lender to PNC bank) decided that I actually needed to be making student loan payments while in school and never decided to tell me about it!More »
Should you ever have need to send email to a a bunch of people there, the format for Borders Group, which owns all the Borders iterations, Waldenbooks, Schulers Books, and Books Etc, is firstinitinalfirstsevenoflastname@bordersgroupinc.com. More »
—>Reader Alison is enjoying her Sunday morning even though Overstock.com failed to send her the shipping label she needs to return a defective DVD player. At 10 a.m., she launched the feared Executive Email Carpet Bomb at twelve Overstock executives. Shortly before 1 p.m., CEO Patrick Byrne personally responded. Read her story, after the jump. More »
—>Reader G writes in with a success story. After her husband took off work to meet a Time Warner technician, they found out that their appointment time had been mysteriously changed. A quick search on Consumerist for some Time Warner executives and a polite email later, G had a technician at her home. More »
—>Yep, it's another one of those "email Steve Jobs" posts. More »
—>If you have a problem with Comcast, and you've called customer service, and you've escalated to a supervisor, and maybe even hung up and tried a different person, and you're still getting nowhere, here are some executive email addresses you could use to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb against Comcast... More »
—>If you have a problem with Circuit City, and you've called customer service, and you've escalated to a supervisor, and maybe even hung up and tried a different person, and you're still getting nowhere, here are some executive email addresses you could use to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb against Circuit City. More »
—>Reader Matt screwed up. He forgot to cancel his reservation with US Airways when his friend's delayed passport application forced them to change their travel plans. The situation was entirely Matt's fault, and US Airways justifiably refused to reissue the ticket. Matt, however, swayed the airline by wrapping an excellent mea culpa cum plea into the feared Executive Email Carpet Bomb. More »
—>After sending a complaint via Executive Email Carpet Bomb, Arnie says the Pep Boys Vice President of Service called him and has apologized and refunded all his monies. More »
—>Reader Clayton launched the feared Executive Email Carpet Bomb against Time Warner executives after learning that the cable installation he scheduled for this week would not occur until November. Within an hour of launching the EECB, Clayton received a call from Time Warner promising to reschedule his installation for this weekend. Clayton's EECB: More »
—>
A week after we moved and put the new covers on, our IKEA LILLBERG sofa broke. Right in half. The main support beam gave out right at the dovetail joint, and even split a board in the process. We were devastated, but figured that we'd be able to wrangle something out of it. Standard customer service would replace the couch, right?More »
—>
I want to share a recent experience that involves a cell phone spammer. I would never think I'd be writing to tell you a positive story, but in the light of what happened I think it would be worth sharing. Last week, on 8/16 to be exact, I was spammed with an unsolicited text message to my cell phone. I recall reading a post on Consumerist about the Attorney General for Illinois along with Cingular would be suing a cell phone spammer. I also recall your Executive Email Carpet Bomb postings and decided to try it out. More »
—>Roger's bank messed up and his Verizon bill didn't get paid, resulting in his account being shut off for non-payment. While the phone and internet were back on almost immediately, Roger toiled fruitlessly trying to get the TV service turned back on, finally writing to Consumerist in frustration. More »
—>IKEA waived the shipping costs on two Hemnes bedside tables after reader Inderjit loaded the dreaded Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb with the names of 16 IKEA executives. Inderjit's repeated attempts to purchase the tables at IKEA stores over the past two months were unsuccessful, but within thirty minutes of launching the EECB, he received responses from three IKEA execs who promised to ship the tables free of charge. Read Inderjit's complaint letter, after the jump. More »
—>Poor Jason. Eight months after ordering Verizon FIOS, he is still without decent phone, television, or internet service, though not for lack of effort on his part:
I have spoken with 115 service representatives and 44 supervisors over a period 64 hours combined on the phone with Verizon. I have been hung up on 37 times, placed on hold a total of 21 hours, and been promised callbacks, which I did not receive, a total of 18 times. It has been 8 months since I ordered the service, and I still have not been given a single resolution.Jason's full ordeal, after the jump: More »
—>I never thought i'd be writing in to you, but here goes (this starts out like the letter i wrote to Penthouse...). More »
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To Whom It May Concern: More »
—>One of the best techniques for escalating a seemingly hopeless customer service problem is the "Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb," or as we lovingly refer to it, the EECB. Phill ran into some problems with his Office Depot order, so he followed our instructions for launching an EECB. More »
—>Here's a classic tactic for rattling the corporate monkey tree to make sure your complaint gets shoved under the nose of someone with decision-making powers. Let's call it the "EECB," or Executive Email Carpet Bomb... More »
