COWARDLY CEOs HIDE BEHIND PHONE(Y) SHIELD.
Today's business world is a lot different than it was in my day. Customers were treated with courtesy, their complaints listened to, their letters usually received an answer, and they could speak to live people on the telephone. And, at least some of the Corporate executives were accessible. But all that has now changed, and not for the better.

Corporate executives today are like Kings and Emperors now, each with his own little feifdom, and underlings are often little more than serfs. The Executives have their privacy guarded by security teams, they're cut off from dealing with the real world by electronic devices that deny access to all but a select few. It's something like a King living in a castle, cut off from the common people. Surely you've noticed. Surely it has bothered you as well. Surely you've tried to dial a company office in order to make a complaint, only to be met with disembodied voices (Phone Trees, requiring you to complete a series of steps, only to often find that you cannot get the answer you desire nor contact anyone who can help resolve your problem. You hit a brick wall.

At times you might be asked to dial your party's special number, but AHAA, if you are not an insider who has been given that number, you simply cannot get through to their corporate offices. IT IS CLOSED OFF TO YOU AS IT IS TO ME. IT IS CLOSED TO ALL OF US WHO ARE BUT ORDINARY MORTALS. IT'S AGGRAVATING, CERTAINLY, BUT THAT IS THE STATE OF THE BUSINESS WORLD TODAY.

If you write a letter, you'll find that it probably won't be answered. Not a word. You don't have access to those you do business with, even by mail. There may be a chain of command, but you will be limited to one or two steps, usually one they call a CLIENT CARE (oh, yeah) REPRESENTATIVE, but that pip-squeak often makes the final decision and you have no right of appeal, or access to one higher up in the chain. Those to whom you wish to appeal to have all entrances to their domain blocked!

It's possible that they might even out-source your calls to India or Pakistan, and there, those lovely people won't even know the name of the CEO of the company they represent, which simply means that the CEO doesn't give a damn about you when it really comes down to it.

So, that's why I wrote a poem for DELL CORPORATION and posted it. DELL, THE COMPUTER FROM HELL (see below), because Brandon, of Client Care at Dell, made a decision for Dell and I did not agree with it. But, how could I reach higher on the chain of command, I thought, and then, "Perhaps a poem will help me do that."