Getting to the CEO for customer service

I was recently involved in a situation where I had problems with the service I received from this company. I was calling the company's customer service department almost every week. Every time I called I was assured that my problem will be taken care of in the next 15 days. Much to my annoyance, nothing happened for months. I was at my wits end and did not know what to do. I entertained thoughts of suing the company. Of course there was no guarantee that I would have been successful, especially because this was a large company.

Luckily for me, I came in touch with this person who helped me solve the problem. He asked me to call up the CEO and tell him the problem that I was facing. Initially, I was very skeptical. Why would a CEO help me solve this tiny problem? But guess what, it worked! And it is much more effective than trying to sue the company

Here is how I was able to solve my problem:

1. I found out the name of the CEO of the company. If this is a public company, you can easily do this by going to the company's website or Yahoo Finance. If the company is private, it is going to be harder. Try to use Google to find this information.
   
2. Once I had the name of the CEO, I tried to look for the phone number of the CEO. I found that this was next to impossible. It is almost impossible to find the phone number for the CEO. Instead, I found the corporate number. Once again you may find this on company's website or Yahoo Finance.
   
3. I called up the corporate number and asked for the CEO by name. The operator was taken aback a little and asked me if I was sure I wanted to talk to him. I said that I was sure and that I was a customer who wanted to talk to him.
   
4. The operator transferred me to the CEO's office. The call was handled by someone in the CEO's office. I told this person that I wanted to talk to the CEO because I was having trouble with customer service and I wanted my problem to be resolved. She gave me the number of the point person who deals with all complaints that come from the CEO's office.
   
5. I then talked to the point person and told him that I was forwarded to him by the CEO's office. I explained my problem to him. He promised to contact the relevant departments and assured me that there will be action within a week. It worked. My problem was solved by the following week.
   

Here is what I concluded from this experience:

Customer service departments are overworked and have little authority. If you have been struggling to get your problems resolved through customer service, do what I did and talk to someone in the CEO's office. CEO's of large companies have people whose only job is to handle complaints that have reached the CEO's office.