E-Mail AT&T's CEO, Get A Lawsuit

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Steve Jobs’ personal replies to questions sent to his corporate e-mail address have really captured the imagination of the tech world, which led some sites like the Consumerist starting to publish CEO’s direct e-mail addresses so you can contract. But, whatever you do – don’t contact AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson. A unhappy customer sent a few e-mails to Stephenson’s direct e-mail address and received a legal threat back from AT&T.

Mr. Giorgio Galante reportedly e-mailed AT&T CEO & Chairman Randall Stephenson twice in two weeks. According to Mr. Galante, the first time he requested the option to be able to upgrade his iPhone before the contract date, and also asked for iPhone tethering. Next, he mailed complaining about AT&T’s new smartphone data plans, which do away with unlimited data, but actually should lower phone bills for a considerable amount of AT&T customers (yours truly included).

Did Mr. Stephenson reply with a short and brief message followed by a “Sent from my iPad” signature like Steve Jobs would? No, not exactly. A few hours later, Mr. Galante received a phone call from “Brent” at AT&T’s Executive Response Team, who thanked him for his feedback, but then warned him that if he continues to contact Randall Stephenson, he’d face a cease and desist letter from AT&T.

That was all Galante needed to leave AT&T and get a EVO 4G from Sprint. He sent Stephenson an e-mail, telling him “Please don’t have one of your $12/hour “Executive Relations” college students call me – I’ve found them to be generally poorly informed.”

The website “The Consumerist” currently hosts an information page on Randall Stephenson, including his public and direct e-mail addresses, as well as phone numbers where one can be directly routed to his office. What’s interesting about that, is on the comments for that page, a user named “yoshi” was impressed with Stephenson back in 2007. In a comment dated October 11th, 2007, he writes:

I can assure you, if you send an email or letter to Mr. Stephenson he will contact your personally.

That’s the kind of guy he is.

Looks like Stephenson changed his approach to public relations. If you’re interested in giving it to Stephenson, his e-mail addresses are out there, like on sites like the Consumerist.

How do you feel about AT&T discouraging people from contacting their CEO?