Written by ChrisSpera on Thursday, June 3, 2010

Mean People Suck – Don’t e-Mail AT&T’s CEO


randall
AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson

 

…or you’re gonna feel the wrath of their legal department…  Really..?  REALLY..?!?

I saw this on Engadget and just had to say something.  This is probably one of the biggest BONE HEAD moves I’ve seen from a CEO, especially in the wake of AT&T’s controversial data plan fee increase.  AT&T sent their legal team after one of their customers after he sent 2 (yes, just TWO) e-mails to AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson, over the course of two weeks.  This is one of the rudest things I’ve ever seen come from a public figure.

Huh?  Wait… Public figure, you may ask.  Yes, folks…PUBLIC figure.

You see, AT&T is a publically traded company.  Anyone can purchase AT&T stock; and that company’s CEO is the public face of that organization, and is subject to public scrutiny (as the CEO of BP is quickly finding out). For all that Randall Stephenson knew at the time of this incident, the customer in question, Giorgio Galante, could also be a share holder (and I really, REALLY hope that he is).

See, Giorgio Galante sent AT&T’s CEO two emails over the period of two weeks, resulting 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. From the Engadget article,

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.

att-money
AT&T…

Legal action…  Really..?!  LEGAL action?  After only two (2) e-mails..? 

Now, could these e-mails have been sent to some OTHER, perhaps more appropriate AT&T employee?  Could Randall have handled this differently? (Say… passing the mail to a customer service VP/Director..?  Contacting his IT VP so that Giorgio’s e-mail address is filtered and blocked..?  Or maybe just simply IGNORING Giorgio’s just TWO e-mails..?  Just sayin’…) Of course; but that’s not the point. 

Randall Stephenson is the face of AT&T; and one of HIS customer’s was resourceful enough to find his e-mail address and to contact him about a couple of concerns he had.  Again, for all that Randall Stephenson knew Giorgio could have been an AT&T stock holder.

In a world where Steve Jobs ACTIVELY and openly communicates DIRECTLY with customers, (and he likely has a LOT of customers e-mailing him) having one of Apple’s PREMIER partners respond to one of their customers (remember, this guys is an Apple customer too… he has an iPhone…) in such a manner is a bad, BAD move.

If *I* were Steve Jobs, I’d get on the horn IMMEDIATELY and school the pants off of Randall Stephenson and his Executive Response Team.  Randall’s comments lost not only a customer for AT&T, but for Apple as well, as Giorgio (likely) won’t buy a new Apple iPhone after its announced this month.  He just bought an HTC product on a different carrier; and committed to a new 2 year contract. 

That’s NO 4G iPhone, NO 4G iPhone Apple Care, and NO 4G iPhone accessories for Apple (not to mention the really crappy new data plans that AT&T is releasing next week.) Steve… you might want to jump on that…  I mean, how many people is Giorgio gonna talk to?  How many people are going to read this and the Engadget article?  How many other technology sites and blogs are gonna pick up this story..?  God forbid either article gets Slash-dotted…

Randall Stephenson owes Giorgio Galante a personal apology… at the VERY least.  But that’s just me.  I neither love nor hate AT&T as a corporation.  While I left AT&T for T-Mobile about 3 months ago, it had nothing to do with their fees, their policies or their people.  It had everything to do with their poor voice and data coverage here in Chicago.

I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.  Please feel free to add your voice to this story…

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El Marko
Jun 3, 2010

You’re right; this is stupid. Then again, who are we kidding? If you want to go GSM, in the US, you basically have two choices: AT&T and T-Mobile. In terms of coverage area, where I live and work, I have only one choice: AT&T. On the CDMA side, has Verizon treated its customers any better than AT&T? In my opinion, no.

Stephenson seems to be acting as if AT&T’s position in the marketplace, with respect to how its customers feel they are treated, is unassailable. And, c’mon, is he wrong? Nobody should be surprised if Stephenson’s attitude actually was, “Just give me your money and shut the f*ck up.”

Now, if JAMM is suggesting that a few hundred of AT&T’s customers might want to email Stephenson, just to see if they all get similar threats, then that’s okay with me; I’ll participate.

But, when push comes to shove, I’ll probably not cancel my AT&T mobile service. And, in the end, isn’t that what Stephenson really cares about?


ChrisSpera
Jun 3, 2010

You may be right; and in the end people do vote with their wallet. If people don’t like what they’re getting (product or service) for their dollar, then they are definitely going to make their feelings known by cancelling a service or returning/refusing to buy a product.

What’s at risk here is the Suave Shampoo effect – they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends and so on, and so on…

I’ve already left AT&T (as I noted above), so I’ve cast my vote. In Chicago, my situation is exactly the opposite. T-Mo has a much better network, even though they are a smaller, national carrier.


brian_houghton
Jun 3, 2010

Good writeup and very true comments, guys. I’m kind of in the same boat as Chris in regards to AT&T. While I don’t really have anything against the company, their service just wasn’t any good where I live at even though the sell it as though it is.

I ended up going with US Cellular, a CDMA provider, and couldn’t have been happier.


blah jones
Sep 7, 2010

mean people don’t suck….people that say “mean people suck” suck.
That being said, AT&T sucks. Not because some stupid liberal retard said that “mean people suck”, but because their service (internet to be specific. how can you **** up phone service) sucks. They need to spend less time sending me flyers, and more time keeping me connected to the internet. I’ve got “broadband”, and I’ve been offline more than online for the last 6 days.

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