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Going to the Top

Andrew Forsythe

WE INCREASINGLY DO business with gigantic impersonal companies: banks, insurers, credit card issuers, cable and phone companies, utilities, and huge retailers like Amazon, Home Depot and Walmart. Often, we deal with them at a distance—by phone, mail, and especially online or via email.

When disputes or problems arise, we’re typically forced to contact their so-called customer service departments, which are often sorely lacking in service. Even before getting to a human, we have to run the gauntlet of an annoying robot, and once we have a human on the phone, the canned response tends to be, “Sorry, but our policy is….”

I’m not interested in what the usual policy is. What I want is to speak to somebody who has the power to ignore it. And what I’ve learned from many experiences over many years is the benefit of going to the top.

My eyes were first opened in the prehistoric early days of cellphones. I’d been convinced by my wife and teenage daughters that the latter each needed a cellphone “for emergencies.” This was way before “unlimited” plans. You were billed—and a goodly amount—per minute. It was hard enough dealing with all the “emergencies” that our dear girls racked up, but I also got hit with some big charges that I truly thought were a mistake.

After the usual frustrations trying to straighten things out with Verizon, I decided on a Hail Mary pass and made my first serious attempt to go to the top. I managed to find an email address for Verizon’s chief executive and sent a long, detailed (and courteous) message to him explaining the problem. To my surprise, shortly thereafter, I received a telephone call from an extremely nice man in the “executive escalations” department. Not only did he fix my problem, but also he invited me to keep his contact information and let him know of any future issues. He probably regretted that. I contacted him several times over the next few years, but he always graciously came to my aid.

This was a lesson I didn’t forget. In the ensuing years, I had similar experiences with Home Depot, Honda, Chase, Bank of America, Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum), our local water utility and many others. I wasn’t successful every time, but often enough I was and, on occasion, the results were head spinning. A few years ago, PayPal was driving me crazy with something. I found an email address for the chief operating officer. I sent him a message on a Saturday morning. Two hours later, he personally replied, offering to intervene. I gladly accepted. He assigned someone on his team to help me, and help me he did.

You’ll seldom get a reply from the chief executive or chief operating officer him or herself, of course. More often, it’s from a member of some type of executive escalation team. These folks tend to be pretty good. My guess is that it’s a plum assignment, and I’ve generally been impressed with the people from that group. In fact, the Bank of America team member I dealt with on a small matter was so good that now I ask for him by name—and usually get him.

Often, the hardest part of this whole process is kicking it off. You need a good email address for the brass. There are some websites that can help, such as this one, this one and this one. But often, the best method is simply to locate the corporate officers on the company website and then figure out the email structure the company uses, such as Bob.Smith@xyz.com. You may have to guess how the executive lists his or her name for email purposes. Is it Bob.Smith or Robert.Smith, or does the executive have a middle name or use an initial? One method is to send the same email to every possible variation. Some will bounce back, but the one that doesn’t probably got through.

Another key: Once you get through to someone in the executive suite, keep his or her contact information—forever. I prefer an email address because of the value of having a paper trail. If someone calls, I’m usually cheeky enough to ask for one. Recently, I emailed a gent in HP escalations, who had assisted me almost four years ago, and asked for his help with a current laptop issue. He had left HP, but another team member promptly responded. Even though my computer was three years out of warranty, I ended up with a generous gift card to use on my next one.

I likewise had kept the email address of the chief executive of our local PBS channel. When the sound and picture scrambled during a recent NewsHour, I shot him an email. To my surprise, I had an almost immediate reply—at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday—from him and from the engineer he’d assigned to the problem.

You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m a world-class complainer. But there’s an important flip side: If a team member is helpful to me, especially if he or she goes above and beyond the call of duty, I make a habit of singing his or her praises to the higher ups in the organization. If I’m going to complain when something is done wrong, it’s only fair to praise and say “thank you” when something’s done right.

Andrew Forsythe retired in 2017 after almost four decades practicing criminal law in Austin, Texas, first as a prosecutor and then as a defense attorney. His wife Rosalinda and he, along with their dogs, live outside Austin, at the edge of the Texas Hill Country. Their four kids are now grown, independent and successful. They’re also blessed with four beautiful grandkids. Andrew loves dogs, and enjoys collecting pocketknives and flashlights. Check out his earlier articles.

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Brian White
3 years ago

I’ve only used this strategy once: Back in 1994, before you could easily look up people’s contact info, I was overcharged and treated shabbily at the Marriot Hotel in Cancun because we had made our reservation at a discount rate with credit card benefits. Using a glossy circular from their lobby, I found the location of the corporate headquarters and the name of the CEO, and I mailed him a letter detailing the problems. My letter was courteous and complemented the hotel’s beauty and the service we received from everyone other than the person at the front desk, who felt we should be treated as second-class customers since we got the room at a discount. I got a letter back with a check for the amount of the overcharge plus a refund on the crappy room we were given on the first night there. The letter purported to be from the CEO.

I’m going to save those links you included in case I need to go to the top again in the future. That could be very useful!

mjflack
3 years ago

Excellent article. In the past, I have generally written a letter, but the email route is definitely more efficient.

Mark Royer
3 years ago

Glad this has worked for you, Andrew. Still, if everyone complained to the CEO about everything, well, we would all be back to square one. I like to give the Customer Service people a chance to solve my issue, and they do so more often than you might expect.

Having worked for a major insurer and a major brokerage all the way from entry level to Director level, I can tell you we already have too many people who like to make unreasonable demands to pay them for things that were not insured, etc. and think they can get what they want if they scream loudly, up the line of management. If there were a way to separate the reasonable from the unreasonable customers, life would be good for us all.

Mr Moderate
3 years ago

Thanks, Andrew! I’m “singing your praises” for your article! 🎶

Guest
3 years ago

Thanks Mr. Forsythe. I have also had excellent results with this method but a bit different. I’m not interested in writing an email so I find the best way to get the phone number of a very high level executive and always end up with the executive service/escalation team who are always VERY willing to help me solve my problem satisfactorily. It works best when I am really annoyed as that’s when I’m at my most calm and courteous but most persistent with that team. Try it HD friends. You may be surprised how easy it is.

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