1) Do you have a business account?

Far more leverage.

My brother Rob has a problem with his local cable company. He had a business account that he paid 3K for over a 6 month period. When the techies were working on his line started making noises about leaving at 5PM he raised hell. They worked all weekend, replacing almost every piece of equipment between him and the headend.

The service manager called him and bitched about him demanding people work all weekend and the costs involved. Rob responded: Gimme your boss. He then raised hell concerning the intermittant problems and outlined how much money he lost (or claimed to have lost) due to the crappy service. They wrote him a check for $2,200.

2) Keep the executive level letter under 1 page. You can have up to 4 pages of supporting detail, but do NOT overhwhelm them.

3) The master cover letter should include a list of everyone else who is receiving. Let them know who is involved. Let them shake in terror. Let them start scrambling to cover their asses. The initial reaction will give the other guys ammo, or it may lead to solving your problem.

4) Follow up with phone calls. Try to get reactions. Call each person who is not in the direct line of fire and ask their opinion and if they recommened you speak to someone else. Be happy to be their weapon in their quest for corporate domination. It may help you later as a contact.

5) Keep a really good log of every conversation. As you move through the list, drop an occasional name of the other people you were talking to. This willl give an appearance of connectedness and people will be more likely to talk to you in order to further their own careers.

6) Be cordial. Do not insult any of the techs. When speaking to the execs, stress that you understand getting reliable tech people will always be a problem, and you will be happy to work toward a resolution with whoever they direct you to. For all you know, you will get a high level job out of this.

7) Don't claim to be a technical person who can solve their problems. You don't TRULY know their internal systems so what should be a simple fix to you could be horribly complex. Even if you are right, it will not matter since you have no internal standing. Simply state you have faith their ability to solve the issue and keep pushing.