It worked better than Twitter!
A 90-year-old California man was so annoyed by slow internet in his home that he ran two Wall Street Journal ads shaming AT & T’s CEO for fixing it – and it worked.
Aaron Epstein from North Hollywood paid $ 10,000 for the matching quarter page ads on Feb. 3, lamenting that the company was unable to provide its neighborhood with internet faster than 3 megabits per second.
“An open letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey,” the ad begins. “AT&T prides itself as a leader in electronic communications. Unfortunately for the folks who live in 91607 North Hollywood, AT&T is now a big disappointment. “
The complaint continues, “While AT&T has ad speeds of up to 100 MBS for other neighborhoods, the fastest ATT now has available to us is only 3 MBS.”
The ads were also printed in the Dallas, Texas, edition of the newspaper, where the company is headquartered – and it appeared to be working.
Epstein told local station KTLA that he was called back from the office the same day.
“We’re going to see what we can do for you,” an AT&T representative told him, adding that the company may be using fiber optics in its region to speed up the Internet.
Epstein, who has been a customer of AT&T 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 response I get… it achieves my goal,” he said.
“The money we could have spent on other luxuries goes to something that also gives us pleasure.”
An AT&T spokesman said in a statement that the company is regularly improving its networks, investing $ 3.1 billion in the Los Angeles area between 2017 and 2019.