Letters to the Editor

(Re: Loose Cannon: Cold Calls, Direct Newsline, Monday, Mar. 10, 2008 [http://directmag.com/opinions-columnists/loosecannon/loose-cannon-cold-call-0310/]):

This is really an amazing story. I am wondering if you might ask an attorney about it, and if AT&T has any liability in this matter, if in fact Sue is attacked after trying to get help from them.

I often wonder about the voice messaging prompts we get even in small companies. I think they are annoying and many people abandon the calls because of them.

I was calling my doctor the other day, and got the ten questions...about which department I wanted (a small group of internists), and after I pressed the button, and waited...I got a commercial for their practice, and their location, and the hours they are open (closed from 12 to 1:30).

Never did speak to anyone about an appointment, as I'm working on a campaign with a tight deadline. Instead, over the weekend I searched for a new doctor on United Healthcare's website. I called this morning for an appointment and lo and behold a real person answered. I like this doctor already.

As far as Sue is concerned, I hope she's okay. I'd have the police call AT&T to trace the call....maybe they can sell the cops the wireless service. At least though on TV, they usually get the trace.

My creative director, Mike McCormick, just passed my office and he says, "Pay a lawyer $100. to send a registered letter to the President of AT & T today". Mike says they're shielding a criminal.

Your column sure got us angry this morning!

Lois K. Geller
President
Mason & Geller Direct
Hollywood, FL

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I read your report on Susan's experience with AT&T. They are the worst and deserve the full wrath of the press. If you have ever had to do anything other than send them, a check, you will never forget the experience.

AT&T, I assume from the people I have spoken to, is one of the companies outsourcing jobs overseas and getting tax benefits for the insult. But there is clearly no internal quality control for their service, or what masquerades as service. Put the heat on them.

Dick Gary
Chairman
The Gary Group
Santa Monica, CA

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Absolutely spot on. All of my recent dealings with AT&T have been uniformly unhelpful experiences. I must say that everyone I spoke to was quite pleasant and friendly while telling me they couldn’t do anything for me.

Cheers to AT&T’s call center organization for their good people, and jeers to the managers who set the actual “customer service” policies; they ought to put a few of THEM on the front-line phones and let them find out what their decisions are doing to actual customers.

In my case, I was given what turned out to have recently been a fax line for a residential phone number. I kept getting calls at odd hours from all over the place and there would just be a beep or an electronic squeal, to the point where I had to turn off my phone’s ringer at night. AT&T would do nothing (at that point I had them for both local and long distance service) since it wasn’t actually a ‘harassing’ call.

I switched providers, and when AT&T bought my new provider, I dispensed with the landline altogether and went with my cell phone (Verizon, by the way, and I’m quite happy with it).

Mark F. Jenkins
Information Analyst
Cheryl&Co.
Westerville, OH

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Fascinating story about AT & T. I can fully imagine every detail happening.

The only thing they left out was, "have a nice day."

Rick Hyman

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Re your advice to AT&T to "check your service, because there’s definitely a disconnect here" ... Bravo and well said. It's very frightening to receive these kinds of phone calls, if not possibly life threatening.

Are the service reps so brainwashed that they can't respond with some sense of urgency and concern? Priorities very amiss here -- it would be laughable if it weren't so serious.

Lauretta Harris
Write Communications Inc.
Scarsdale, NY

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One wonders about the managerial expectations of AT&T, the food chain at AT&T that spawns up-selling and cross-selling during emergencies. I look into the piece of pyrite (my personal crystal ball) I keep on my desk for such occasions and I see a chart on the sales room wall at AT&T. The names of reps are down the left side, the type of emergency is down the right aside, and the chart is filled with Gold, Silver and Bronze stars, and black circles.

The emergencies start with lower end and move up: domestic violence, fire, threatening calls, etc. The reps get a gold star in the appropriate box for a sale of multiple services, a silver star for the sale of a single service, a bronze star for finishing the pitch and a black circle (representing a black hole) for passing the call on to the appropriate person, who is in an office with a chart on the wall...

Three black circles and you get a private meeting with the sales manager, Jabba the Hut.

Not that I have an opinion.

Mark Amtower
Highland MD
www.EpiphanyBook.com

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(Re: Loose Cannon: Google Knows Best, Direct Newsline, March 3, 2008 [http://directmag.com/opinions-columnists/loosecannon/loose-cannon-google-knows-best-0303/])

One's "well-meaning yet uninformed letter" is another's "pay us an shut up." I'm stealing the variant "pay me and shut up." -- a salutation and closing for any circumstance.

Pay me and shut up,

Phil Claiborne
Director of Circulation
(The) Elks Magazine
(Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks of the USA)
Chicago, IL

P.S. Another I like: "Are you hearing my message?"
P.P.S. Now, pay me and shut up.