AT&T CEO threatens customer who emailed him

While no reasonable person would expect the CEO of a large company to personally attend to every customer issue that randomly reached them, it's hardly a bad thing if the bubble of yes men is pierced. I can't help but imagine that a company that makes legal threats of this type is also dropping the ball in listening to customer feedback through normal channels, such as tech support or customer service.

Customer complaints are a gift, a point well made in the classic Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Being removed from the voice of the customer is one of the worst things that happens to business leaders as their organizations grow.

If I were an AT&T shareholder I'd be somewhat concerned to have a CEO who thought "hiring someone make legal threats" was a better use of company funds than just filtering the guy out as spam.

Here's the emailer's original blog post that includes the audio from the Executive Response Team member's message:

http://attepicfail.tumblr.com/

You'll also find a link to Stephenson's contact info at the bottom (just in case you're inclined to drop him a line)!

They are the first of all the other carriers to implement this type of billing. Verizon and the others will follow no doubt.

In five to ten years(maybe more) no one will be using cellular service to place calls and thus the carriers have to maintain and grow their revenues somehow.

What a clueless company. Now I know why they bumped the ETF.

Not a good PR day for AT&T today

I bet you he uses the eAt sh*T&T legal department against his neighborhood association too. But we all hate them also.