I Write Letters to CEOs (2018)

I interviewed with Amazon last August. They have a cool of period of one year before next interview. However, their recruiters keep sending spam asking if I am interested in position XYZ. When I say yes, they go and check their database and then send me a "not eligible yet" mail.

I emailed Amazon CEO Andy Jesse about this nuisance. He didn't do anything about this. I still get their recruiter spam.

I wrote an email to Tim Cook in 2018 complaining about the butterfly keyboard on my MacBook and pleading that apple change the design on their future machines. I never got a reply but they did change the design a year later which I’ll take the credit for.

My late father was fond of writing CEO's and sometimes Governors when he had a grievance. He'd always hear back and usually have his problem taken care of by the CEO's, though not always from the Governors.

Following his example I tried it once or twice writing the CEO. Never heard back a single time. I am not speaking of an email which can possibly get lost in the web machinery at most corporations, but a typed letter. A letter can indicate real problems at a location which are hidden from him when he visits.

While it may get ignored by an executive secretary when you don't hear back you hold it against them. It sends the message loud and clear they don't care about the customer.

If you’re curious, the discussion in 2018 got 449 points and 176 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17192926

-- emailed mr. cook a few months ago & had a call back from someone in the apple exec team the next day - problem was solved within 3 weeks - called cineplex HQ number to ask if the number collected online is truly just for TFA or if it's also used for marketing - pushed the directory number for the name of the CEO expecting a voicemail or EA - CEO answered - promised me it's 100% just for TFA - told me he'd pass along to marketing to get something added to the site --

This was a great read.

I email CTOs all the time. Most recently, I emailed the CTO of Cloudflare who put me in contact with their VP, and we had a good Zoom chat.

Sonos publishes an email address for contacting CEO Patrick Spence "directly." [1]

I wrote an email drawing attention to a clunky process for reactivating a subscription to Sonos Radio HD that was cancelled because the credit card had been closed. (Forced to call in and speak to someone, couldn't reactivate it online.)

Sonos did revamp that process so you could reactivate a subscription online, but I never received a reply. I still like to think the few minutes I invested in writing that email saved many others dozens of minutes on hold with support.

[1] https://support.sonos.com/s/contact

i rma’d a 10tb drive (or something) to WD using their Advanced RMA process. WD support gave me a huge nightmare over pictures of the drive. i couldn’t pull the drive without risking down time and data loss. wd support basically told me fuck off. i emailed David Goeckeler and explained the situation and he took care of everything.

i will always be a WD customer as long as he’s around.

> From the time that I mailed my letters, the compound annual return of the respondent group is 8.97% greater than the non-respondent companies.

Sounds like a decent investment strategy. Fire handwritten letters at the S&P500, go long if you get a response and short if not. Weight portfolio by length, timing and sentiment of response.

I emailed Steve Jobs (sjobs@apple.com) in 2009 after a frustrating exchange at the Soho apple store in NY. He or someone using his account replied in less than 5 minutes with a follow up question, and the problem got fixed the next day.

I write to CEOs when I'm frustrated with a product or a service. The fastest response I've received was with Costco. I got a call within 10 minutes of sending an email.

I feel compelled to mention The Laszlo Letters and its sequels. In the 1970s, comedian Don Novello (aka Father Guido Sarducci) wrote a variety of crank letters to CEOs and politicians. He got a variety of responses. He published the letters and their responses in the books. It had sort of a Borat-by-post vibe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Novello#Career

This article feels a lot like CEO worship or LinkedIn Hustle Culture to me.

In my view, the main takeaway about respondents vs. non-respondents isn't dramatic or verified enough to convince me that this letter-writing practice isn't just a giant waste of time.

CEOs aren't particularly gifted individuals, they mostly just come from families with ample connections (Bill Gates), stumble into timing-based opportunities (Mark Zuckerberg, MySpace Tom), inherit the company (Herbert Fisk Johnson III, Meijer and Walton families), or are workaholics who climb the corporate ladder. (Tim Cook) [1]

I don't see much of a reason to actively seek out their thoughts.

Social mobility has been decreasing since the 1970s. To me it's time to drop the hustle and focus on ways we can work and think about work less, not writing letters to CEOs. Less production and consumption, more idle time.

[1] https://money.cnn.com/2008/11/09/technology/cook_apple.fortu... - He starts emailing at 4:30 AM

>Now, I look for companies whose leaders communicate well. Writing is thinking and executives who are clear in their words are likely to be clear in their thoughts.

This one simple trick is real.

I took my laptop for repair to an Apple store in Germany. After that, they kept emailing me, despite me asking them to remove me from their mailing list several times. I then wrote an email to Tim Cook. They never answered back, but did not get any further spam.

It is important here that he wrote LETTERS. Not emails. LETTERS.

Folks are firing off emails all the time. Taking time to write a letter is more likely to get a response, from just about anyone.

Many years ago (10+?) I ran into some complicated travel issue related to my booked travel on Travelocity and I CC'd the CEO on my email trying to resolve it. Got an email back fairly quickly that seemed to be genuinely from the CEO CC-ing some relevant person and my issue got resolved.

Probably wouldn't happen today but who knows.

I imagine the response rate is very different for paper letters and emails.

I emailed Mark Cuban several years ago and had a reply within a few minutes. A friend was buying a basketball club and Mark said he wouldn’t recommend it!

How does one get the CEO’s address to send a letter to? is it the company address?( He says letters many times not email)

Also how does one get the CEO’s email?

I contacted the Light Phone CEO about APN settings for the phone on a LinkedIn comment and he told me to get in touch with support and reference the message but Support refused to do escalate even with the CEO's direction. Must have been more of a "look good" maneuver than anything else.

Once I wrote my prime minister and then got a message saying they’ve sent it to the minister responsible for a reply. Then they have to respond.

I wrote regularly to Bezos and a couple of others I am not going to name.

I have a friend who wrote to Trump when he was POTUS every day..first thing in the morning when he wakes up. I admire that kind of dedication and discipline.