General

[Critical]

Just in case anyone feels that they've been legitimately shafted by middle/lower management, I recently had a situation, sent a detailed, specific and most of all, polite email to the CEO of the company I was dealing with. Today I received a call from someone from their escalations department. While the issue is not yet resolved, it is now very much on their front burner. Less than 72 business hour turnaround since my initial contact to the phone call today. It has moved me from a "let 'em all burn in hell" attitude to "cautiously optimistic."

Just something to think of if you're at your wits end with middle-management or the IVR of doom.

[desertT1]

A coworker has done that twice for some things that were handled poorly. After that, things were handled much more appropriately.

[moving_target]

My family has no problem doing that.

My grandmother once just called the CEO of a company, she had done some creative digging and got his direct line's number, she called and heard "so and so's secretary how can I help you?" Needless to say, her problems were resolved quickly.

[CJOttawa]

Another vote for that approach here. I bought a digital camera at a local retailer via their website.

It had an issue, under warranty, and they refused to take care of it, after which I emailed the CEO, as follows:

Mr..Silverstein,

It is easy for my spouse and I to justify expendatures on photography as one of our pastimes.

This past winter, we made a relatively small purchase from Vistek, a waterproof Canon D10 for a holiday in the tropics. We purchased through the online store as our local store didn't have the item in stock at the time.

Post-vacation, we returned to Canada, the camera having seen light use. It now generates a "'lens error, restart camera" message and is entirely unusable.

On visiting our local Vistek store, we were told they would not help us and that we had to deal with the online Vistek store. On calling the Vistek "support" line, we were told they would NOT "support" us and told us to deal with Canon directly.

When dealing with your major competitor, Henry's, problems are dealt with in store. When warranty work is needed, for example on an AF-S Nikkor 300mm lens we purchased there, they either replace the item on the spot or handle the transaction with the manufacturer.

The distinction may seem trivial but it is not to us: we pay more to deal with local, Canadian retailers who go to bat for us.

At this point, we have no incentive to return to Vistek.

Not a perfect email, in retrospect, but the wording was carefully chosen to hit several key points.

• We have day jobs and spend money on photography as a hobby. (disposable income)
• We deal with your competitor already and they service us well. (we have choices on where to spend)
• We gave you every chance to make it right. (why should come back to you?)

You should have seen them change their tune after that - holy crap were they all over it. No email from the CEO but one of his VPs contacted me and indicated the local store manager would take care of me personally.

We got a new camera out of it and we will be happy to deal with them again.

As an aside, having run a small business, I imagine all CEOs want to hear about this kind of screw up because they have ultimate power to fix them.

[Lohman446]

I fought with a satellite internet providers call center for weeks. When I was in the courthouse and was told I could not serve the corporation but had to have a name I called corporate offices and explained the situation to them. The fact that I flat out told them I was in the courthouse trying to mail them legal papers may have helped but some fairly high ranking officer was able to rectify the situation immediatly.

[bellicose]

How do you get into touch with a CEO these days?

[HP_Lovecraft]

Same here. Sometimes "escalating" to the top is the only way to fix a problem.

One time, many years ago while in my Junior year in college, I got a letter saying I've lost all my financial aid! holy crap. I call the financial aid office, and I'm told I didn't sign a certain form by a certain date, so I lost it all. And now suddenly, the billing department is now calling.

Trouble was I knew I signed everything. Knowing how poorly run the financial-aid office was run, I had even drove there during the summer and had them confirm everything was filled out and signed.

But now they are telling me something wasnt signed, and there is nothing they can do to help. I keep harassing asking to talk to "whomever is in charge", but they just passed me around saying there was nothing they could do. All the aid was given out to other students. The "jar is empty" as I was told.

I was looking to vent, and wrote a angry letter to the President of the university. I didn't expect anything. A week later I actually received a call from the man himself! He said he did some research and was able to figure out the problem. Apparently I DID sign the document, but it took the financial aid office so long to process, the signature "expired", and was no longer valid. He was able to secure some "emergency aid" to replace what was lost, and promised to make some changes in the system.

So, all worked out in the end.

HOWEVER, everything can be taken to the extreme. I have an uncle that always complains wherever he goes, or buys, or anything. He'll write letters to every ceo/company for everything he buys, sometimes complaining, sometimes enquiring, all to squeeze out free stuff, and other benefits. Its embaressing to go out in public as he would even complain in restaurants, or hotels, all in the hopes of getting some upgrade, or other benefit.

[StJimmy666]

Originally Posted by bellicose

How do you get into touch with a CEO these days?

Google it. Someone somewhere has before and it's relatively easy for most if not all companies to find the appropriate info online. I've dealt with "The office of Michael Dell" personally in relation to a problem with an Alenware laptop that went unresolved for weeks.

The easiest thing is that in email correspondence there's usually a set way reps and managers will have their addresses set up, it's usually possible to figure it out that way. i.e. John.smith@evilcorporation.xyz. If multiple reps or CS managers have that format, it stands to reason the CEO or someone who answers external email to the CEO does as well.

[desertT1]

Originally Posted by HP_Lovecraft

HOWEVER, everything can be taken to the extreme. I have an uncle that always complains wherever he goes, or buys, or anything. He'll write letters to every ceo/company for everything he buys, sometimes complaining, sometimes enquiring, all to squeeze out free stuff, and other benefits. Its embaressing to go out in public as he would even complain in restaurants, or hotels, all in the hopes of getting some upgrade, or other benefit.

My M-I-L has a friend like this. Well, more of a former work associate that she used to go to dinner with. She would complain and bitch at everything to get free stuff. Would it shock you to find out that she's single?

[ginger ninja]

In my old job as a retail manager it was my job to make sure that issues didn't escalate.

If the store manager (large store) got roped into a complaint or issue his response would be "just fix it already I don't care how" as it wasn't his job to be involved. I would say as long as you can say you have tried thier traditional points of contact and did not get satisfaction most higher ups would be more concerned with PR and thier time spent on solving an issue than the smaller stuff middle and lower management has to concern themselves with.