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Complaining To Top Is Easier Than You Think

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By RICHARD MULLINS rmullins@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 16, 2008

For months, Verizon owed Mary Spatz a free HDTV in exchange for signing up for cable television, phone and Internet service. But each time she called asking about the missing TV, she only heard excuses about delays and backlogs.

"I had a day off, so I said, 'The heck with it,' I'm getting this fixed," Spatz said.

She worked Google like a virtuoso and managed to find the office desk number of Verizon's chairman and chief executive officer in Manhattan. She made the call.

Wow, did that work wonders. And it's a lesson for us all that going to the top with your complaint can work magic.

Within an hour of talking to a nice secretary named Laurie, a Verizon vice president in Tampa had a staffer personally drive to Spatz's house, knock on her door, and hand her a free TV, a $200 gift card and sincere apology.

You Can, Too

How did Mary do it?

She found the CEO's number through a basic address search on Google that identified Verizon's Manhattan headquarters at 140 West Street. The phone number listed turned out to be a back-door to an operator who patched her through to the top executive's office.

For anyone keeping score at home, that number is (212) 395-1000. Turns out Verizon has more than 90 employees who answer the CEO's phone and e-mail - a practice that's common at big companies.

And therein likes the key to solving your problems. To find numbers like those, try these steps:

•First, check for profiles of the company on financial Web sites like Google Finance (finance.google.com), or Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com), or Hoovers.com (click "Company Overview") Typically there's a main corporate phone number. Also check Google Maps, at local.google.com, with search words such as "Starbucks headquarters."

•Also, like chatty teenagers, some executives put their personal profiles on networking Web sites such as LinkedIn.com. (For fun, you can also try Facebook.com and MySpace.com. Sometimes they have different contact info.) Those sites often require registration, so consider that route a last option.

If you still can't find a phone number and have to go through a customer service phone number, there are Web sites that list the special codes to type to reach a real, live person. GetHuman.com is one of the best. For example, with Home Depot, just keep pushing the "#" button. For Dell, press 3, then say "agent" over and over.

Then What?

Once you have a real, live person on the line, maybe even the CEO, here's some advice:

Be polite. Be brief. There is just about zero chance that the person answering the CEO's phone is the one who let you down, messed up your bill, or otherwise complicated your life.

Instead, state quickly that you're a customer who has already tried the company call center and received no help. You don't need to re-play every facet of your dramatic saga of injustice. Just say something like, "It's a long story, but the company keeps charging me for services I don't want," or "It's been four months, but that refund still doesn't appear on my bill."

From all the angry customers who call the Tribune to tell me their stories, I've found the higher up the chain you can complain, the faster you get satisfaction.

It worked for Mary Spatz.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919.

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