AT&T's iPhone Customer Lesson

In a debate over communications, one would expect a giant communications company like AT&T to generally take the "pro" side of the argument. Explain, then, why AT&T recently told a customer writing to its chief executive, Randall Stephenson, that if he did so again, he risked incurring the wrath of company lawyers.

The customer is Giorgio Galante, who like just about everyone with an iPhone, isn't particularly happy about the service he gets from AT&T. Over the course of two weeks, Galante sent two e-mails to Stephenson making sundry complaints about the issue.

The e-mails weren't remotely threatening or offensive; in fact, by the standards of the average AT&T -related blog comment, they weren't even particularly snarky.

A typical passage: "Please don't have one of your $12/hour 'Executive Relations' college students call me. I've found them to be generally poorly informed (Engadget.com readers know more than they do about AT&T) and they have little authority to do anything sensible."

Galante promptly heard back via voice mail from someone identifying himself as a member of the company's "Executive Response Team."

"I want to first thank you for the feedback," the person said, cheerfully. But then he continued, "Going forward, I need to warn you that if you continue to send e-mails to Randall Stephenson a cease and desist letter may be sent to you." He also left his name and contact number.

Galante promptly did what any normal person would do under the circumstances: He blogged about it, posting the text of his e-mails as well as a recording of the voice mail. The note quickly zoomed its way around the blogosphere, prompting AT&T to issue a statement, this time eating crow.

"We are apologizing to our customer. We're working with him today to address his questions and concerns. This is not the way we want to treat customers."

To read more of Lee Gomes' stories, click here. Contact the writer at lgomes@forbes.com.

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AT&T's iPhone Customer Lesson