Jeff Bezos's email address
My leaf blower, Jeff's email address, the connection, and 7 other things worth your time.
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A few years ago, when we moved out to the suburbs, I bought a lawn mower.
Our yard isn’t huge, so I went with an electric one. But, when I went to use it for the first time, the battery was a dud.
Thus began a customer service oddyssey.
Eventually I gave up and sent an email directly to the company CEO. To my slight surprise, I got a call a day later from a top executive apologizing, offering to replace the battery, and throwing in the additional product of my choice as a way of making it up.
I went with a leaf blower. They assured me that as a first time suburban homeowner, I would find it useful.
Warning: Apparent nonsequitor coming up, but it will hopefully make sense in a minute.
I’ve written a lot of articles about Jeff Bezos over the years: more than 150 according to Google. And when I do so now, I try to remember to email him directly beforehand.
At first, I did this to try to short-circuit Amazon PR, and ask for comments. Since I never got a reply, and yet the emails also never bounced back, I kept it up.
I started to find the whole thing funny. I liked imagining Bezos out there somewhere, running a meeting or counting his billions, when his phone buzzes and he looks down to see yet another email from that Murphy guy.
OK, so how did I get his email address in the first place, you might ask?
Actually, it’s kind of an open secret. I am sure he has multiple other addresses, but I’d always read that you can reach him at “jeff@amazon.com.”
In fact, it’s been said (actually, I reported on it myself) that Bezos sometimes has a habit of reading customer service emails and forwarding them to different departments or leaders at Amazon with a single character added: “?”
Getting a question mark email is "a ticking bomb” for people within Amazon, according to Brad Stone’s book, “The Everything Store.” It "elicits waves of panic," as Amazon employees scramble to explain what went wrong--and make it right.
This is what I had in mind when I emailed the CEO of the lawn mower company. I wondered if I could craft an email that would prompt some version of a Bezos-style “question mark.”
I don’t think I realized it at the time, but it turned out this CEO had previously been an executive at Amazon, so maybe that’s why it worked.
Anyway, I thought of it all again for two main reasons.
First, I stood in our driveway yesterday, noticing all the leaves that had fallen around the pool. Ah yes, I thought, the leaf blower.
(I really don’t get as much use out of it as the lawn mower company insisted I would, but the price was right.)
Second, I recently wrote yet another story about Bezos for Inc.com.
This one was based on an anecdote that a former employee shared, about the time Bezos stopped a meeting and demonstrated a “5 whys” analysis, as they investigaged how a minor injury happened at an Amazon fulfilment center.
I think it’s a legitimate and interesting story, but when I emailed Bezos (as always), this was not the story I thought would prompt my first ever reply.
Lo and behold, it did — not from Bezos himself, but from an assistant:
“I really appreciate you thinking of Jeff and offering the opportunity to interview him.
I’m afraid Jeff’s schedule is busy enough these days that he’s unable to participate in as many events as he would otherwise like to and I’ll have to respectfully decline.
We do appreciate the opportunity, though, and wish you all the best.”
So, finally: proof that jeff@amazon.com still works.
Bezos’s net worth increased by an unbelievable $13 billion yesterday, which is the single largest amount of money anyone has ever made during the eight year history of the Bloomberg billionaires index, which tracks the net worth of the mega wealthy.
Me, I got a free leaf blower. But more important, a story.
7 other things worth your time
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I wrote this a few months ago, but suddenly it’s trending all over social media. In short, Elon Musk’s mom wrote an essay, and shared five parenting “tips” that she says helped Elon grown into — well, grow into Elon Musk. (Inc.com)
Florida teachers sued the state’s governor to try to overturn his order that all schools have to reopen. (ABC News)
A couple who pointed guns at protestors in St. Louis have been charged with felony misuse of a weapon, but the state’s governor hinted he’s likely to pardon them. (Buzzfeed News)
The fraud trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes trial has been postponed until next year due to coronavirus. (Bloomberg)
This is senseless, but as it happened not far from me I want to mention it: A U.S. district judge’s son was shot and killed in her home and her husband wounded, apparently by a self-described “anti-feminist” lawyer who had a frivilious lawsuit in her court, seeking to prohibit the wartime military draft because it doesn’t provide for conscription of women. The gunman later died after turning his weapon on himself. (New York Times)
Republicans and Democrats meet today to start trying to hammer out a new coronavirus recovery bill. They’re far apart, and an insider says if a deal happens it will be at the 11th hour.
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One-click review and feedback:
Hi Bill, I have an email story. About a year ago the engine on my 2013 Triumph motorcycle experienced catastrophic failure at 23000 miles. I had bought an extended warranty through a 3rd party, but since the repairs were going to be more than the bike was worth they balked. However, they were nice enough to work with me for months in trying to find a used engine or somehow make my bike whole again. (different story of good customer service). As the months dragged on I realized we weren't getting anywhere so I asked the warranty company to cash me out, but they held a party line stating that they did "repairs" not cash outs as they were not an insurance co. I then decided to get triumph involved. I sent a nice long email to Triumph North America explaining the story, what had happened and how and that I loved the bike and wanted to get it back on the road. Lo and behold, Triumph NA agreed to forward it on to the Corporate HQ in the UK, but a few days later their request for a "Good Will" repair was denied. I worked with the warranty company for a little while longer (3 months had probably gone past by now and the whole time my bike had been sitting at a local dealer) and then decided as one last ditch effort I would send the same email I wrote to Triumph NA to Triumph UK. I found an email address and sent the message off. Less than a week later, a nice gent in the UK replied that they needed the warranty company contact because they were going to work with my warranty company and repair my bike. This involved, assembling a new engine on the production line in the UK, shipping it to Kentucky, then across the country to my dealer in Seattle, and finally having them install the engine. The entire bill for this endeavor was over $10,000, of which the warranty company paid approximately half, I paid $600 and change and Triumph picked up the rest of the bill and gave me a 12 mo factory warranty on the new engine. I believe all this happened because I took the high road and rather than berating anyone involved (it wasn't their or anyone's fault, it was a mechanical mishap) I praised Triumph, explained how much I loved the bike and told them how I had told that to anyone and everyone I met while riding. (I really do love that bike). I can only think that the email fell into the right hands at Triumph UK and they decided to help because of my story, especially since someone there had already denied the request once. How we approach things in life can certainly pay dividends if we choose to approach them from a positive perspective!!
Wanted you to know how much I missed your daily posts while you were on vacation. Glad you got some time to be away and take a break!