(If you came across this post looking for Priceline's executive customer service number, it's 1-866-966-7187.)

I had a much-better-than-expected experience with Priceline's Customer Support and I thought it would be worth passing on, especially in light of the company's bleak customer service as reported in previous Consumerist posts.

Basically, I forgot to use $50 in bonus cash I had waiting in an e-mail on a hotel reservation I made on Sunday night. I realized the snafu as I was falling asleep, and decided to call Priceline's customer service department in the morning. I did just that, but the helpful rep on the other end of the phone let me know that he couldn't do anything to help me over the phone, but that submitting a request through their online help would yield a response from their corporate HQ. Indeed it did. As I was drafting my request, I thought about fudging the truth to say that the bonus cash should have showed up but it hadn't, but I remembered what I've read on your site (as well as what I learned in Sunday school!) that being truthful and honest is always the best course.

My web form submission was as follows:

Hi, my wife and I are planning to visit Washington, DC, for my birthday
this weekend and I made our hotel booking last night. Using your site's
Name Your Own Price service, I secured a reservation at the Hyatt
Regency Bethesda (Itinerary #XXX-XXX-XXX-XX). I am a student and I was
in a hurry to book my reservation last night since I have class during
the weekdays, so I forgot to redeem the $50 bonus cash e-mail I received
on 4/30/09. I don't know how to prove that I have the bonus cash, but
the date stamp on the e-mail is 04/30/2009 @ 09:06:19 a.m, I received it
at [omitted], and the numbers at the bottom of the e-mail are
[omitted]. Please, I was wondering if there is any way I can have the
$50 credited toward this stay or have the amount credited to my credit
card. I called your toll-free number and spoke with Fernando
(#[redacted]) and he said you might be able to cancel and re-book the
reservation with the bonus cash. I've been waiting to use this bonus
cash for months and I thought my birthday would be the perfect
opportunity. Please note that I do NOT want to cancel my reservation, I
only want to have the bonus cash credited to my booking/credit card.
I'm sorry I forgot and I hope you can help me out. Please let me know
if you have any questions. I can be reached at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or
[omitted]. Thank you.

Their response:

Thank you for contacting our corporate office in regards to your concern
and feedback with the Hyatt Regency Bethesda for Request Number
XXXXXXXXXXX.

We are writing to let you know that we have received your email in our
Executive Offices.

We do understand that you forgot to use your bonus cash for your
reservation and would like to have it added to your current reservation.
We do apologize; however, we are not able to add bonus cash once a
reservation has been purchased. If you bonus cash has not expired you
can use it for your next purchase. Since we are not able to apply your
bonus cash to your current reservation we are sending you a coupon for
$10.00 off of your next hotel stay that can be worth up to $50.00 for a
five nights stay.

If you have further questions please reply by e-mail or call
1-866-966-7187 Monday through Friday between the hours of 9:00am and
6:00pm EST.

Please note that the number provided above is a United States phone
number, and you may incur toll charges when calling from outside the
United States or Canada.

We are sorry we did not provide you the answers you were looking for and
we thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Scott Weaver
Executive Offices

I thought this was quite flattering since after my web form submission, I didn't do anything to escalate my request, yet the response came from Priceline's Executive Offices. Am I bonkers, or was this really a much-better-than-should-have-been-expected response? Either way, this time, my props to Priceline!

It's an impressive response, even if the executive office staff were unable to undo Mohamed's mistake. Other Consumerist readers have learned in the past that Priceline sometimes responds well to polite, well-crafted letters.

(Photo: therichbrooks)

Kathy Kelley
Director, Keurig Customer Service
At Home Division
(866) 901-BREW (2739)
csrah@keurig.com

katie.mccarthy@keurig.com, chrisc@keurig.com, jenn@keurig.com, kelly.cuoco@keurig.com, darius.dilmaghani@keurig.com, Kevin.Sullivan@keurig.com, Michelle.Stacy@keurig.com, Ian.Tinkler@keurig.com, Bob.McCall@keurig.com, Dick.Sweeney@keurig.com, Basil.Karanikos@keurig.com, Chris.Stevens@keurig.com, Mark.Wood@keurig.com, Mike.Degnan@keurig.com, John.Heller@keurig.com

866-246-7344

(Photo: walkerspace)

paul.j.lawrence@us.hsbc.com

Paul J. Lawrence
President/CEO
HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
452 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10018

(Photo: Maulleigh)

Michael Johnson
Senior Director of Customer Service Communications
michael.johnson@directv.com
310-964-8153

Donna Sadlouskos
Senior Manager Customer Satisfaction
dlsadlouskos@directv.com
310-964-4466

You can also try them on Twitter
or emailing some upper-level DirecTV VP's
or emailing or calling the CEO's office.

Amusing sidenote, not just consumers, company employees are also using our contact info database to send their own gripes to the top of the totem pole. I was checking the comments on an old post with the DirecTV CEO's number on it and there was a comment from a DirecTV tech who said he would be using the info to complain about his manager giving too much work to out-of-state techs.

(Photo: DSmous)

From: Kelsey
Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Subject: Two important consumer issues
To: colleen.haggerty@bankofamerica.com, britney.w.sheehan@bankofamerica.com, nicole.nastacie@bankofamerica.com, joe.price@bankofamerica.com, keith.banks@bankofamerica.com, michael.jones@bankofamerica.com, brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com, steele.alphin@bankofamerica.com, maryellen.baker@bankofamerica.com

Good afternoon,

My name is Kelsey. I have been a loyal B of A customer for years. I'm enrolled in Keep the Change, have two credit cards with BofA, and have my first savings account (I've been with BofA since college) and a checking account. I have recommended BofA to my boyfriend and my roommate, both of whom have switched and also enjoy keep the change and the Add it Up program. The online banking setup is superb, and your ATMs are everywhere...hard not to like BofA. However, in the past few weeks, there have been a few instances making me question my relationship with the bank:

/snip/

Recently, I left town for my grandfather's 90th birthday. My rent check cleared a few days before, but apparently the first purchase I made once I was in Connecticut overdrafted my account. Mea culpa. I was out of town and not checking my account balance, but was still, as mentioned before, under the impression that I was covered by overdraft protection. Apparently this was not the case. I got paid in the interim so the paycheck corrected the overdraft. I log in to find that there is a significant amount of money missing. I look at the statement. Eleven overdraft fees; one for each time I used my debit card while I was out of town or once I got back and needed to buy groceries. That's a total of $385. I was told on the phone that I could be refunded $140 as a courtesy, but since I believed I was enrolled in overdraft protection I don't really see how that is a courtesy.

I told the customer service woman I spoke with (who to her credit was very nice despite my tears/frustration) that I thought I was enrolled in overdraft protection. She told me several things: First, that if I were enrolled, it would say that on my statement. How do I look for something on my statement that I have never seen on another one of my statements and don't know to look for? Second, she told me that since I had overdrawn recently, and didn't say anything about overdraft protection at the time, she really couldn't believe my claim that I requested it when I opened the account. I'm sorry, but this seems ridiculous to me. One fee is easy for me to overlook, slap myself on the wrist and move on...11 is off-the-charts and warranted an immediate call to customer service. I have no recourse here: it's my word against your computer system, which "has no notation" that I requested overdraft protection. How am I supposed to prove that, when the person I asked to set me up with it undoubtedly doesn't even work at that branch anymore? Basically, what she is telling me is that because someone messed up on B of A's end four years ago, I am out $245.

I'm a reasonable person, and I can admit a mistake, but 11 fees is something I cannot afford. With the $245 that has still been deducted, I could pay off half of my Komen Visa balance (a card I gladly and PURPOSEFULLY opened with B of A), but these two events have me contemplating moving my money elsewhere. I may not have millions in the bank, but I think that my loyalty, especially during some of these more trying times, should count for something.

Best,

Kelsey

Two hours later, Kelsey got a call from someone who said she would investigate the checking account complaint. Two days later, all the overdrafts fees were refunded.

"Although at the time I believed it was 11 overdraft fees total, it was actually 15, totaling $525 of my hard-earned money...The woman from the executive office thanked me for reaching out, and being polite and proactive, and told me that by looking at my accounts she could tell this was a one-time thing and that I am a responsible banking customer," writes Kelsey.

"I never expected that response, especially from BofA, but plus one to Consumerist for teaching us all that a level head and a fair request can help the consumer come out on top."

Jim Weeder
Corporate Escalations
National Customer Service Deployment Center
720-268-8800 ext. 53233
1-800-718-7419 ext. 53233
M-F 6AM to 2:30PM MTN

(Photo: flaimo)

212-364-8300, option 2.
twc.cotp@twcable.com remains the email address.

The number goes straight to the customer care advocates in the TWC Office of the President. Thanks to TWC Director, Digital Communications Jeff Simmermon for proactively keeping us up to date. He writes, "Your posts help us get help to customers that need it, and we appreciate all your efforts." Yay. (Photo: billaday)

(Photo: Schröder+Schömbs PR)

Craig writes: "I read consumerist on and off over the years, but never had to use any of the advice.  I recently got my first debt card from Bank of America . Shortly after I incurred my first overdraft fee. I assumed canceling over-draft protection would just cancel the transaction if I did not have enough money. I first followed my Dads advice and tried to get the fees at the bank, in person, but was unsuccessful.  After a quick search of consumerist.com, I got the number for Executive Customer Relations and got all the fees waived. So a very big thank you, from a teenager with their first debit card."

That was probably good advice when banks weren't staffed with the modern equivalent of the eunuchs who tended the harems of old, but we're in modern times, baby, and the 3-ring binder says no.

p.s. I love Craig's Freudian slip of calling it a "debt card."

(Photo: emuphoto)

Last week, I fired off an email to Cablevision voicing my displeasure at their apparent inability to keep up with the competition. I complained about things like the lack of remote access to my DVRs, their hideous interface and their repeated practice of pushing marketing over substance. I also took the time to give credit where I believed credit was due, commending them for their internet and phone services, which in my opinion are solid. To my surprise, within the HOUR I received a call from "Cablevision Executive Relations" confirming that my email had been received and that someone would be following up with me within 72 hours. Yikes. And follow up they did.

Within the 72 hour period, I received an email from a very high ranking individual in product management. He thanked me for my email, assured me that Cablevision was working hard to supply their customers with new technology, and that I should stay tuned. Form letter? Appeasement? I replied, inquiring about the web-dvr technology I'd been reading about. Sure enough, he replied, tipping me off to Cablevision's new feature of being able to access your DVR(s) remotely via the internet. I checked it out, and instantly one of my biggest complaints was addressed and satisfied. I also mentioned my frustration with their On-Demand and Enhanced TV services, both of which have broken up/failed miserably in the past. He checked into my levels remotely and scheduled their head tech to visit my home. The head tech did indeed come out, on time, and checked everything. He was polite, courteous and answered every one of my questions. My levels were on the low end - he changed the connections on the outside of my house and said that someone would have to check the pole, something that would happen within a few days. Sure enough, when I arrived home after work the next day, a Cablevision tech was working on the pole. That night, I did everything I could to make my converter box/DVR fail. It could not be done.

I implore you to share my story with the Consumerist Universe. I never expected a reply, much less the intense, excellent customer service I was given. It's difficult, if not impossible, for me to recall a better customer service experience. Don't get me wrong, they're still on the hook - they've promised me better technology and I'm going to hold them to it - but they have genuinely made me feel that they value my business, and that goes a long long way.

So did Cablevision solve all of David's problems? Not yet. We can't be entirely sure that they'll follow through, but as David said, taking the time to respond immediately and address his concerns showed that Cablevision does value one little customer like him.

That number is: 888-545-4199.

"No hold time. No annoying menus. Fast, courteous service," writes tipster Bob. They do not, however, offer customer bailouts. We can only wish.

(Photo: rmgustaf)

Reader Adam was given this number after calling the CEO.

(Photo: meghannmarco)

Aaron J. Fischman
Northeast Area Executive Relations
Laurel, MD
240-568-2459 - Phone
240-568-2726 - Fax
240-568-1771 - Secondary Fax

(Photo: Mat Honan)

No, it was not.

We contacted GoDaddy last week to ask for a clarification, and over the weekend they responded with the following explanation:

We appreciate you bringing this matter and the customer's concerns to our attention. Go Daddy does provide customer support for not only its own customer base but for Go Daddy's many sister companies as well. One sister company for which Go Daddy does provide customer support for is Wild West Domains, which has many resellers and reseller customers. In order to prevent confusion or frustration, we do keep the answers vauge to not induce conflict with our resellers and their customers.

Please know, Go Daddy does not outsource its Office of the President staff or any other position. This topic has even been addressed by Go Daddy's CEO, Mr. Bob Parsons, at BobParsons.me stating that we do not outsource a single job (article found at link below).

It's true, Parsons states explicitly on one of his blog posts that he's not a fan of outsourcing and doesn't practice it:

GoDaddy.com doesn't outsource a single job.
Wayne liked the fact that GoDaddy.com is first and foremost an American company. With one minor exception, GoDaddy develops all of the technology it provides its customers right here in America by Americans. We don't out-source a single job overseas, and all of our over one thousand customer service representatives are located right here in the USA – all in Arizona, in fact.

So there you have it—GoDaddy doesn't oursource overseas, and their "Office of the President" is a rather nebulous catch-all group that supports GoDaddy and its other companies and resellers. That explains why Cyberguy couldn't get the CSR to give him a straight answer.

It doesn't explain why the CSR wasn't empowered to provide more help to Cyberguy, but that's a separate—and sadly, not unique—problem.

RELATED
"Web Host Outsources Their 'Office Of The President'?"

Cyberguy gave us the phone number and name of the company, but we're holding off until Monday to see if we can get some sort of response from the company first. (We tried the number at 4pm ET and our call was routed to a voicemail account.)

Here's what happened:

Here's a good one! Had a problem with [redacted]. Exhausted avenues with Customer Support. Asked for the email of the "Office of the President" and was told it was president@[redacted]. Wrote an elaborate discussion of the issue. To my delight, the next day I got a call from Rod in the "Office of the President." He was apologetic, but after going around in circles, was unable to offer any remedy at all for my inconvenience. When asked 4 separate times what he could offer, each time he told me what he COULDN'T offer. Sounded like typical canned corporate lip service! Couldn't get him off-script!

INTERESTINGLY, when I called back on the ID Tel #, I got right through to another gentleman who annouced "Office of the President." I asked of what company this was the "Office of the President." SILENCE! Asked again. The stuttered response was that they worked with a number of companies bla bla bla.

BRILLIANT! A company called "Office of the President," to which you can outsource your "Office of the President" inquiries, employing top notch lip service folks who have no real power to do anything but molify and offer scripted apologies! HA! Professional Apologizers!

"Hate those nasty inquiries to your Office of the President? Hate to constantly apologize for your Corporate failings all day long? Let our Office of the President be yours. We excel at apologizing, and will do it all day long for you!"

(Photo: bschmove)

Call the corporate office at 212-817-4200. This number goes to a receptionist instead of a phone tree.
Ask to page Annie Rizzo.

(Photo: slgckgc) (Yes, that's a Weight Watchers logo tattoo.)

Ann Anderson
Executive/Regulatory Escalations Analyst
Qwest Executive Office
Customer Advocacy Group
877-440-8959
ann.anderson@qwest.com

Annette Herman
Executive Escalations Manager
Qwest Executive Office
303-965-1469 or 877-440-8959
Annette.Mattingly@qwest.com

(Photo: Peter Kaminski)

Be sure to 1) be nice and professional ! and 2) read our tips on what to say when you call.

Sprint
703-433-4401

Verizon
845-365-7700, 908-306-6750, 910-794-6200

T-mobile
877-290-6323 Ex. 8025, 8025, 8024, 8023, 8021

AT&T
Eastern States: 877-707-6220
Western States: 800-498-1912

(Photo: helgasms!)

(Photo: LancerEvolution)

If you have a claim you think was unfairly denied, it's worth giving them a shout.

Reader Bob, who contacted us about the manufacturer/third-party vendor bribing Amazon.com customers with free anti-snoring mouthpieces for five-star reviews and removing any reviews mentioning the free merchandise offer, heard back from Amazon's executive customer relations department. His e-mail after the jump.

The article certainly lit a fire at Amazon!

I just hung up from a phone call from Peg Anderson in Amazon's Executive Customer Relations department, and it went far better than I would have expected.

Amazon considers "Pay for Play" a violation of a third-party seller's terms of service, so sales of the Anti-Snore have been suspended. I reviewed those terms, and they say: "Furthermore, any attempt to manipulate ratings of any participant is prohibited, please note that this also includes posting ratings to your own account." Right on!

Peg said she hoped the seller would come back into alignment with the terms of service, so they could start selling the product again through Amazon. I quite agree with her, because I actually like the Anti-Snore a lot, and I think it can easily sell on its own merits without attempts to manipulate the reviews.

As far as the review deletions and ignoring questions in emails, that was a failure in the Customer Relations department. Per Amazon policy, the CR reps should have flagged the astroturfing and ethical problems raised in the reviews and emails, and escalated them. Peg said Amazon is making some further policy changes and doing rep re-training so that's what happens in the future.

Peg also said while Amazon should be paying attention to complaints like this from any venue, the most effective way to tell them about problems with third-party sellers is via the "Report A Community Rules Violation" page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/reports/contact-us

I am completely satisfied with Amazon's response - given what happened, they seem to be doing everything possible to correct it and prevent a repeat.

Let's hope so!

(Photo: luckypines)

Tmobile
Stuart, Executive Assistant to the Vice President
1-877-290-6323 ext. 341-8025.

Glenn A. Zaccara
Sr. Manager, External Affairs
425-378-4982
glenn.zaccara@t-mobile.com

Michael Butler
Chief Marketing Officer
Michael.Butler@T-Mobile.com

Bryan L. Barkoff
T-Mobile Wireless
Regional Retail Manager
Detroit North
Office # 248.465.1756
Fax # 813.353.6711

Kelly Spindle
Executive Customer Relations Coordinator
T-Mobile USA
877-290-6323 Ex. 8082

Avelar, Mercedes
Mercedes.Avelar@T-Mobile.com'

Clelland, John
John.Clelland@T-Mobile.com

Carney, John
John.Carney@T-Mobile.com

Otley, Casey
Casey.Otley@T-Mobile.com

Brodman, Cole
Cole.Brodman@T-Mobile.com

Corporate Responsibility Department
corporate.responsibility@t-mobile.net

Deutsche Telekom AG (owns T-mobile)
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 140
53113 Bonn, Germany
Fax: +49-228-181-8872
www.telekom.de

Investor Relations E-mail: investor.relations@telekom.de; investor.relations@usa.telekom.de

Other e-mails:
'hamid.akhavan@t-mobile.com'; 'michael.guenther@t-mobile.com'; 'rene.obermann@t-mobile.com'; 'robert.dotson@tmobile.com'; 'robert.dotson@t-mobile.com'; 'robert.p.dotson@t-mobile.com'; 'Kai-Uwe.Ricke@telekom.de'

T-Mobile International (T-Mobile's parent company)
Landgrabenweg 151
53227 Bonn, Germany
Fax: +49-228-936-31719
www.t-mobile-international.com

File a complaint against T-Mobile with the Washington State Attorney General's Office
[www.atg.wa.gov]

When you file this complaint, use this address for T-Mobile on the form:
T-Mobile USA, Inc.
12920 S.E. 38th St.
Bellevue, WA 98006

File a complaint with the New Mexico Attorney General's office
[www.ago.state.nm.us]

When you file this complaint, use this address for T-Mobile on the form:
T-Mobile
Customer Relations
PO Box 37380
Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380

"You can try dialing 1-877-290-6323 x341-8025 and changing the extension to do an EVCB (Exec. Voicemail carpet bomb) buy reducing the extension by 1 (i.e. 341-8024, 8023, 8022) so far i have been doing this and it seems to be connecting me to various executive customer relations personnel."

(Photo: Greg Easton Photography)

(Photo: bluepoint951)

Eric writes:

After being an XM customer for 6 years and seeing the programming slide steadily down hill, I decided to cancel my XM account (2 radios). Besides, I have other uses for the monthly subscription fee in these fun economic times!

After collective hold times of over one hour and fifty minutes, I had never reached the so called cancellation department. Naturally, I got frustrated so I called the Sirius Executive Customer Service number as listed on your website. They could not help me but gave me a critical bit of information: the XM Corporate Customer Service phone number!

(877) 967-4672.

After less than 10 seconds on hold I was on the phone with a US based CSR who was extremely pleasant and helpful. She canceled my account and ensured me that the account would not auto-renew.

Please share this vital data with your readers so that they may avoid the XM customer cancellation hell.

RELATED:Be a Customer Service Ninja

Chris writes:

I would like to thank you for your posting of Hewlett-Packard's Executive Customer Service number. They were able to help me obtain a new laptop battery free of charge after my warranty had expired. My laptop battery would no longer hold a charge after just 13 months of use. The warranty was for 12 months. I contacted HP customer service and was told there was nothing they could do.

Having been an avid reader of Consumerist the last year, I searched your site for help. I was originally going to send an EECB but stumbled across this number. They picked up the phone on 1 ring and proceeded to put me in touch with a case manager. The case manager had no problem replacing my battery and even expedited the shipping. Thanks again for your help and keep up the great work!

Glad to hear it, Chris! That number once again folks can be found here. When in doubt, take it to the top.

(Photo: Scott Ableman)

408-349-3300 Corporate headquarters
408-349-5151 Billing customer service
408-349-1572 Customer care
866-800-8092 Small business services 8a-5p M-F (Pacific)

And here's how to reset your password if your Yahoo email address gets hacked.

(Photo: Morton Fox)

kenneth.I.Chenault@aexp.com, kenneth.Chenault@aexp.com, daniel.t.henry@aexp.com, daniel.henry@aexp.com, edward.p.gilligan@aexp.com, edward.gilligan@aexp.com, alfred.f.kelly@aexp.com, alfred.kelly@aexp.com, l.kevin.cox@aexp.com, ashwini.gupta@aexp.com, john.d.hayes@aexp.com, john.hayes@aexp.com, judson.c.linville@aexp.com, judson.linville@aexp.com, louise.m.parent@aexp.com, louise.parent@aexp.com, thomas.schick@aexp.com, steve.squeri@aexp.com, douglas.e.buckminster@aexp.com, douglas.buckminster@aexp.com, william.h.glenn@aexp.com, william.glenn@aexp.com

(Photo: Andres Rueda)

Alberto.J.Verme@citi.com, Richard.Evans@citi.com, Gustavo.Marin@citi.com, Mary.McDowell@citi.com, Vikram.Pandit@citi.com, Michael.L.Corbat@citi.com, James.A.Forese@citi.com, Jane.Fraser@citi.com, John.C.Gerspach@citi.com, Douglas.Peterson@citi.com, Charles.D.Johnston@citi.com, William.Rhodes@citi.com, Mark.Rufeh@citi.com, Deepak.Sharma@citi.com, Stephen.Volk@citi.com, Paco.Ybarra@citi.com, George.Awad@citi.com, John.Havens@citi.com, Bonnie.Howard@citi.com, Lewis.Kaden@citi.com, Brian.Leach@citi.com, Paul.McKinnon@citi.com, Shirish.Apte@citi.com, Suneel.Bakhshi@citi.com, Stephen.Bird@citi.com, Nicholas.Calio@citi.com, Don. Callahan@citi.com

(Photo: GarotaDesastrada)

Hi Ben!

I had missed a payment last fall in October, due to a tough month personally, which had caused my small Capitol One card ($300) to go overlimit due to finance charges. Since then, the fees have been mounting and my small monthly payments ($30-$40) were barely covering the fees. As you can imagine, my balance continued to balloon out of control over the next three months.

In order to get myself out of this month, I started doing my research, including becoming an avid Consumerist reader, and decided that in order to start making snowball payments (using the awesome snowball debt reduction spreadsheet!) on all credit card debt, I had to get these fees under control. I tried calling customer service several times, to no avail, other than to offer waiving the check by phone fee - nice but not the issue. I finally emailed Capitol One's CEO directly (rich.fairbank@capitolone.com) and received a call the next day (within 12 hours of my email!) from an executive customer service representative.

Unlike other customer service reps, she was very friendly and eager to help and was very understanding of how this situation had happened. She was able to credit back all fees on my account since October (almost $300), which puts me back under my credit limit! She also lowered my interest rate (down from 18% back to 7.56%) to help make sure my monthly payments go further!

I was absolutely blown away with how easy it was to resolve this issue once I sent the email. The best part was talking to someone who didn't make me feel like a criminal for getting behind and someone who was genuinely interested in helping. Capitol One's exemplary dedication has made them the one credit card that I will keep - frozen in the freezer, of course!

Sidenote - I used the letter that Louisa (name?) had written to the BOA CEO as my template. Clearly there's something about that style that works!

Thanks for writing a LIFE-CHANGING blog and for all the great work you do!

Congrats! Way to rock your debt!

(Photo: Menage a Moi)

(Photo: thivierr)

Here's his story:

In November when the online Black Friday deals were starting to heat up, I saw that Office Depot was running a sale on XBOX 360 bundles with BioShock for $199.99. (It was item number 0519380.)

Their current page for this item is here: http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=519380

On Friday, Nov. 21, I went on the Office Depot website and tried to order this item. Every time I tried, it told me that the item was invalid for my area, and it wouldn't allow me to put the item in my cart.

So, I called Office Depot's telesales number. There, I spoke to a girl who was very friendly. She put me on hold for about ten minutes while she tried to place the order for me. When she came back on the line, she told me that she could see the item, but she wasn't allowed to place orders for it. When I asked her what I should do, she told me there's a chance my local store manager can order it for me.

Then I called the Layton, UT Office Depot. I spoke to Matt, the manager there, and he was very friendly. I told him the item number for the XBOX 360 I was trying to buy, and that telesales had told me that he might be able to order or reserve it for me. Instead of putting me on hold, Matt looked at his in-store system with me on the line, and found that he also could see the item, but he couldn't order it. He said that he wasn't sent any to stock either, so he couldn't help me get one.

I was almost ready to give up, and I asked Matt if there was anything else I could do.

"Look", Matt said to me, "It's there on the website, so you should be able to order it, right? So why don't you just call that telesales number again, and tell them to order it for you, and if they say they can't, escalate it until whoever you're talking to can."

I was amazed to hear one of Office Depot's store managers telling me this, and I felt that he was absolutely right.

I called the telesales number again.

This time, I got Michelle. I told Michelle about the website, and about my first call to telesales, and about the store manager, and that she should take a look at the item number and if she can't order it for me, please escalate the call.

Michelle was great. She found that she was not able to order the item, and escalated me to her supervisor right away.

I waited on hold for the supervisor for about five minutes, and when she came on the line, I forgot to write down her name (oops). When I explained the situation to her, she told me that she was going to send my call to executive customer care. She said I might be on hold for a while, but to wait, because the person I would get on the phone there could help me.

I held for about fifteen minutes, and then someone answered with, "Office of the Chairman, this is Margaret."

Margaret listened to all the things I'd done to try to order the XBOX 360, and then she told me that she would have to research it.

I told her that would be fine, but I had already done all this work, and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't hang up and then never hear from her again. So, Margaret gave me her full name and phone number.

That was Friday the 21st. I knew that I wouldn't hear from her during the weekend, so on Monday, Nov. 24, I waited all day for her call. Around 3:00 pm, I called her number and got voice mail. I left a message that I just wanted to follow up with her and was looking forward to her call.

A few minutes later, she called me back. Margaret told me that she was unable to find an XBOX 360 in any of her warehouses, and she was very sorry. Then, she said, "To make it up to you, I'd like to send you a $260 shop card. Would that be ok?"

I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say, and I think I stuttered that it would be great. I gave her my address and thanked her several times, and that was it.

And since then, I've been waiting for the promised card to show up. I figured there might be a delay, because things take time to process, so I've kept telling myself to be patient. I've tried to call Margaret a couple of times, and I've left her one or two upbeat voice mails asking if she could check on the status for me.

But Margaret hasn't called back, and now it's February.

I was really blown away by how every single interaction I had with an Office Depot employee was excellent. They were always nice, and they always tried to help. And I never expected to be offered a shopping card, but a broken (or delayed, hopefully) promise is hard to overlook.

So I'm hoping that writing this to Consumerist will get Office Depot's attention. And I'd really like to see the card come through, but failing that, just an explanation would be nice.

Thanks!

(Photo: dev null)

One reader had tried contacting Bank of America a dozen different times and three different ways, but one tweet to BofA_help got him in touch with executive customer service.

Elle got some fees refunded:

I contacted him a few days ago about a couple overdraft fees I got this month — the fees were both completely justified and completely my fault, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if he could do anything (who doesn't want an extra $50 back, right?). He responded within 10 minutes of my tweet, got my contact information from me, and forwarded it onto a BoA rep in my area. I missed their first call, but before I even had a chance to call them back, I saw that both my fees had been refunded.

fauxtale wrote in the comments:

BoA actually helped me through Twitter..they were really good about fixing it, too...I got the fee I was disputing canceled, and they promised to send me a gift certificate. We'll see. BoA has been just wretched in the past, so if they keep up this level of customer service I might not switch banks when I move this spring.

Their presence is still new but the initial results seem very positive. If you're listening to the elevator music on the phone with Bank of America, why not shoot a tweet over to twitter.com/BofA_help? Maybe he'll solve your problem before you get off hold. It'll only cost you a few seconds and 140, or less, characters.

I googled this HP number I found in our comments, and got a whole bunch of results for other case managers, VP email addresses, and, eventually, the direct line to HP executive customer service, which I ended up posting.

A useful tool to use to expand the scope of your escalation attempts, or uncover more addresses to add to your EECB.

(Photo: zenera)

(Photo: SkyShaper)