It has worked better than Twitter.
A 90-year-old California man was so irritated by the slowness of the Internet in his home that he pulled two ads from the Wall Street Journal to embarrass the AT&T CEO for fixing it, and it worked.
Aaron Epstein of North Hollywood paid $ 10,000 quarter page ads on February 3, realizing that the company was unable to provide its neighborhood with faster 3 megabits per second internet.
“An open letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey,” the announcement begins. “AT&T prides itself on being a leader in electronic communications. Unfortunately for people living in North Hollywood 91607, AT&T is now a major disappointment. ”
The complaint continues: “While AT&T announces speeds of up to 100 MBS for other neighborhoods, the fastest we have now at ATT is only 3 MBS.”
The ads were also printed in the Dallas, Texas newspaper edition, where the company’s executive offices are headquartered, and appeared to work.
Epstein told local broadcaster KTLA he received a call from the office the same day they ran.
“We’ll see what we can do for you,” said an AT&T representative, who added that the company could put fiber optics in its area to speed up the Internet.
Epstein, who has been an AT&T customer since 1960, said he used the old-fashioned newspaper method to get the executive’s attention because he doesn’t use social media.
“With the answer I have … it’s achieving my goal,” he said.
“The money we could have spent on other luxuries will go to something that also gives us pleasure.”
An AT&T spokesman said in a statement that the company is frequently improving its networks and investing $ 3.1 billion in the Los Angeles area from 2017 to 2019.