American phone company AT&T has apologised for threatening legal action after a customer e-mailed its CEO twice.
The incident occured when AT&T customer Giorgio Galante sent two e-mails to Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, over a period of two weeks, complaining about not being able to upgrade to the next version of the iPhone and general discontent with the company.
Galante's first e-mail revealed that he would have to wait until March 2011 to get an upgrade, which he was not happy with considering he was paying $110 per month, $80 on the iPhone and $30 on the iPad. He complained about the delay of tethering and the price hike for ETFs to $325 for new contracts. He asked if his upgrade eligibility date could be bumped up to the iPhone 4G launch day and said he may leave AT&T and join Sprint instead, dropping the Apple products for Android equivalents, if AT&T did not give him a compelling reason to stay.
He got a cordial e-mail response from someone going by the name Brent saying that they could not upgrade his eligibility date due to contractual problems with Apple. The disillusioned Galante responed with a few complaints about 3G usage and said he'd be soon leaving AT&T.
Little did he know he would then receive a voicemail from the same Brent threatening Galante that if he e-mailed the AT&T CEO again the company would bring the legal guys in to send him a cease and desist order.
After Galante blogged about the experience and it received some media coverage he received an apology from a Senior VP at AT&T and an offer to do anything to keep him as a customer, which is certainly a complete reversal from the earlier stance taken. If only that had been the original response.
Galante had been a customer of AT&T for two years, joining for the iPhone 3G, which AT&T had exclusivity on, but despite the apology he received he is now leaving them for Sprint. He said: “So in the end, I’m definitely switching to the HTC Evo, and cancelling my iPhone & iPad 3G AT&T services - I don’t want to give my money to a company that is bothered by its customers, and threatens them legally to prove it.”
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I wish more people had the tenacity of this man, to not only verbalize his concerns to the CEO, but to then follow-through and set the example.
AT&T is not a nice company overall. This only proves it. In my area I heard if you complained they cut the speed of your DSL connection - so it is better just to be quiet.
What country do they think they are in anyway???
Machinery replaced me? I can't take another heartache, though you say you're my friend; I'm at my wits end.
I not a glutton for your
randy bovver-punishments;
I'm just on the mend.
caolled sick
And when I ask you to explain,
You refrain you gotta be:
"it was a courtesy opt-in
that did your sin to me"
Cruel to be kind,
in the right measure
Cruel to be kind,
take it butt leave it!
milked of kindness, drained.
Out of me gourd, and robbed in
the Friskered State,
'cos it's a mean mean business
You say you want my money,
I say you've got no sense,
You just want to bleed me dry
No mercy can you see?
The great telco vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel
down the throatz
into anything that smells
like a living breathing
poor old son of sod.
All that sucking
smartz to the bone
Here's an "incentive" for you to use:
"Effing leave me the heck alone!"
I've a new "hands-free" device
still that only needs use 3 digits.