The Consumerist taught me, and countless other people, how to get things done. To wit:
Here’s a classic tactic for rattling the corporate monkey tree to make sure your complaint gets shoved under the nose of someone with decision-making powers. Let’s call it the “EECB,” or Executive Email Carpet Bomb…
1. Exhaust normal channels
Have you called customer service? Asked for a supervisor? Hung up and tried again? Give regular customer service a chance to fix the problem before you go nuclear.
2. Write a really good complaint letter.
Be clear, concise, polite, and professional. State exactly what you want. Pitch your issue in a way that affects their bottom line. Spellcheck and include contact information.
3. Determine the corporate email address format.
Look through their website or Google for press releases. Examine the PR flack’s email address. What’s the format? Is it firstname.lastname@company.com? FirstletteroffirstnameLastname@companyname.com? Figure it out and write it down.
4. Compile a list of the company’s top executives
This is often available on the company website, under sections like “corporate officers” or “corporate governance.” You can also look the company up on Google Finance and look under management, although this list tends to only be partial.
5. Combine the names from step 4 with the format from step 3 to create an email list
6. Send your complaint to the list from step 5.
7. Sit back and wait.
Reader Marc has launched EECBs to great effect. He writes, “In every instance that I’ve put together a big list of email addresses and sent it out, I’ve received some sort of immediate reply and eventual resolution.”
Now it’s just a matter of applying this EECB tactic to Zimbabwe. Are the top echelon jacked in enough to be able to respond to this kind of thing, or will you find yourself dealing with an overworked PA with fingers covered in printer toner and a paper outbox full of emails?