[HN Gopher] I Write Letters to CEOs (2018)
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       I Write Letters to CEOs (2018)
        
       Author : ddtaylor
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2022-05-30 14:25 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.johnwdefeo.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.johnwdefeo.com)
        
       | rmason wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | gnicholas wrote:
       | I imagine the response rate is very different for paper letters
       | and emails.
        
       | edko wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | throwawayricha wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | nubb wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | ystad wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | >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.
        
       | jelliclesfarm wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | gnicholas wrote:
         | Did you use the jeff@amazon.com address? I heard it was manned
         | by a team of customer service people who were not materially
         | different from regular Amazon customer service, at least in
         | recent years. Did you have a different experience?
        
           | jelliclesfarm wrote:
           | sadly, yes. never got a reply. i think i might pen one
           | tonight for old times sake.
        
         | jelliclesfarm wrote:
         | writing letters to public figures..it is an exercise. when i
         | was a youngling, my grandmother and I would write to
         | everyone..letters to the editor in english and to the
         | vernaculars. that's how she learnt english and i learnt
         | tamil(my mother tongue). and we'd read art buchwald columns in
         | the mornings together. i guess that's how i learnt english too.
         | 
         | i didnt really expect jeff bezos to reply back to me. i doubt
         | if trump ever replied to my friend. altho he did show something
         | with the official WH seal..could be a form letter.
         | 
         | i plan to publish all the letters i have written and maybe the
         | replies after i 'retire'. it is fun reading!
        
         | simonswords82 wrote:
         | Your friend wrote to Trump every day? For how long? The entire
         | term? Did he ever get a response?
        
           | jelliclesfarm wrote:
           | every single day. like it was his morning pages. i was very
           | impressed. i think he needed to..it was very important to
           | him.
        
         | LegitShady wrote:
         | you know even minor politicians have staff who handle this kind
         | of things for them, right? Especially if this person is writing
         | very often, it's unlikely to get elevated to trump's actual
         | attention, because the people who handle the mail recognize
         | someone who sends tons of letters.
        
       | pigtailgirl wrote:
       | -- 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 --
        
         | Ma8ee wrote:
         | I guess TFA doesn't stand for The Fucking Article?
        
           | srcreigh wrote:
           | Two factor authentication
        
           | vulcan01 wrote:
           | Two Factor Authentication (though the more common
           | abbreviation is 2FA).
        
           | pmichaud wrote:
           | Two Factor Authentication.
        
       | mathgladiator wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | bitsnbytes wrote:
         | Try that with comcast, lol.
         | 
         | I cancelled my account with them but they kept billing me for
         | months. luckily I saved the chat logs where I opened a chat
         | with them immediately after canceling in order to have some
         | type of written confirmation. I also emailed the support email
         | accounts I found online stating my request to cancel the
         | account, because I had other bad experiences with them
         | canceling services and wrong charges.
         | 
         | So each month I had to get on the phone and go through and
         | explain it was canceled then they would apologize and say they
         | see where i had called to cancel but a mistake was made or more
         | often they would hang up on me when transferring the call even
         | after finding the CEO email address and emailing him directly.
         | 
         | I Got tired of it and I wrote a informal complaint to the FCC.
         | I emailed the ceo and comcast support with filed complaint and
         | cc'd the FCC. Just a day later got a call saying they see that
         | a mistake was made and they are removing all the erroneous
         | charges.
        
       | ki85squared wrote:
       | 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
        
       | WalterGR wrote:
       | If you're curious, the discussion in 2018 got 449 points and 176
       | comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17192926
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | crmd wrote:
       | 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.
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-03 23:01 UTC)