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Parky · 07:13 AM

I know many peole have their doubts about if Steve Jobs actually reads the emails sent to him, but I have had very positive results whenever I have emailed him directly.

Here are the 3 cases I brought to his attention :-

1. Problems with .Mac and some suggestions in the very early days. I got a response from the .Mac technical manager, who said Steve had passed my email on to him. He resolved the issues really quickly and in fact called me from the USA (I'm in the UK)to dicuss the suggestions, some of which happened. I said thanks and that I was happy and he said he would pass on my thanks to 'the big guy'.

2. Problems with the Apple Store in the UK, especially the late delivery of Panther. I got a phone call from a UK Apple Store manager who said Steve had asked for another copy of Panther to be shipped by courier directly to me.

3. This happened over this weekend, in the UK the iTMS has been unavailable for many UK users. I sent a very contructive email about the efforts we have been going to in trying to resolve the issue ourselves. I got an email this morning from the head of the iTunes engineering team who said Steve has passed my email on to him. I was asked to answer lots of technical questions and provide some ping results from the Terminal.

Now I now that many of you will say, someone else answers Steve's mail and that they will have asked other people do respond. I actually think that Steve may get his mail filtered first, but that he does get to read the one's that his staff feel are important. By the quick response and seniority of the people who have contacted me, someone important at Apple has put them into action.

If you do write to Steve Jobs then I suggest the following :-

1. Make the title of the email precise and relevant to the subject.
2. Keep the contents brief and to the point, bullets are a good idea.
3. Don't rant and rave, try to be constructive. I may rant in here, but I am always polite if I wrtie to Steve.

I just thought I would share my thoughts on the subject,

Ian

Peter · Oct 11, 2004, 07:08 AM

yeah
I got a reply from the head of marketing in UK (or somthing) a while ago after i emailed 'Jobs asking why UK was always last to get everything.
Very impressive

Twilly Spree · Oct 11, 2004, 07:28 AM

Jobs is so cool

ManOfSteal · Oct 11, 2004, 08:26 AM

I wrote Steve asking for money (in a constructive manner) and I never heard back...

Cubeoid · Oct 11, 2004, 08:28 AM

All hail overlord Steve! </sarcasm>

typoon · Oct 11, 2004, 08:46 AM

Great to hear your experiences. It's nice to see that things get done when that happens. Whether or not he actually reads them himself it's still an indication that when you do email him action is immediate. I wonder what would happen if people emailed Gates or his lackey Ballmer.

MacGorilla · Oct 11, 2004, 09:11 AM

I remember when I ran MacGorilla.com I emailed him to ask for an interview and he politely declined in a reply email but wished me and the website good luck in the future.

DeathToWindows · Oct 11, 2004, 09:23 AM

All hail our Jobsian overlord! Hail I say!

that's cool

wdlove · Oct 11, 2004, 10:40 AM

It is nice to know that constructive and polite messages sent to Steve are handled at the highest levels.

i_rooster · Oct 11, 2004, 10:46 AM

Its probably Steves butler handling those mails.

mitchell_pgh · Oct 11, 2004, 10:50 AM

I wonder how much of that is lip service. I mean... how can Jobs run Apple and Pixar... along with reading thousands of email a day...

but then again... I wouldn't put it past him.

brapper · Oct 11, 2004, 11:08 AM

see this is what i like about Apple.
Back in the days of my iBook logic board issues, the head of Apple Canada called me up to discuss the issue and see how it could be resolved to my satisfaction.

Drakino · Oct 11, 2004, 11:23 AM

A few years back I worked for a major PC vendor in a department called Executive Response. We got all the postal mail letters addressed to the CEO and other executives and were set in charge of responding to them. We also got a few e-mails and phone calls, but for the most part delt with the postal mail (since back then the internet wasn't nearly as common as it is now).

The best part? We were granted power to fix the problems we saw. I remember calling a guy up on the shipping floor to see where a machine was. When he heard what department I was with and what I wanted, he literially dropped the phone to go check. If we needed to order a new machine, we logged into the main sales order system, speced out the machine and hit send. The next person that saw it was the first person on the assembly line.

Sadly the CEO stepped down to retire, and the person who replaced him implemented company wide cost savings measures, and that pretty much drove everything into the ground. I'd be suprised if that department survived.

i_rooster · Oct 11, 2004, 11:26 AM

Ok, I will believe it if someone can email Steve Jobs and ask him to post in this thread!

Truepop · Oct 11, 2004, 11:41 AM

Originally posted by i_rooster:
Ok, I will believe it if someone can email Steve Jobs and ask him to post in this thread!

Parky · Oct 11, 2004, 11:44 AM

Originally posted by i_rooster:
Ok, I will believe it if someone can email Steve Jobs and ask him to post in this thread!

Now that would be a waste of his time.

ajprice · Oct 11, 2004, 02:10 PM

But can Windows people email Bill Gates? and does he reply?

Spliff · Oct 11, 2004, 02:51 PM

Originally posted by i_rooster:
Its probably Steves butler handling those mails.

Ask Steve Jeeves

storer · Oct 11, 2004, 03:22 PM

Originally posted by Parky:
Now that would be a waste of his time.

why not do it anyway?

ironknee · Oct 11, 2004, 04:01 PM

steve is ta man

it was so cool when the cube came out and someone complained that his cube had scratches, steve called him and had it replace. (although i remember the new one also had cracks)

then when the guy who purchased the 100mth song and had stve call him up to let him know

how cool is this!

Lancer409 · Oct 11, 2004, 04:15 PM

Originally posted by storer:
why not do it anyway?

i agree!

storer · Oct 11, 2004, 04:31 PM

Originally posted by ironknee:
steve is ta man

it was so cool when the cube came out and someone complained that his cube had scratches, steve called him and had it replace. (although i remember the new one also had cracks)

then when the guy who purchased the 100mth song and had stve call him up to let him know

how cool is this!

I'm mailing him now!

Skip Breakfast · Oct 11, 2004, 04:40 PM

I dare you to ask if you can borrow his salary until tomorrow so you can get a bag of chips from the vending machine.

storer · Oct 11, 2004, 04:42 PM

I didn't really send it to him. I wouldn't know how to, so i sent it to the feedback part of the site.
I wrote:

Originally mailed to Steve Jobs by Storer:
I love iPods, and I have had a play with one of my friends iPod. However, the thing that is holding me back from buying one myself (and I would buy one right now if it wasn't for this) is that the back surface of the iPod scratches too easily. I am a very looks orientated person (call me superficial) and therefore, scratches all over the back of a device I just paid $500 for would not be something that would make me happy. I know this can be prevented by buying an accessory like the iSkin, but I really would like to avoid this. It's just a big thick rubber coating around your iPod and it defeats the purpose of it being so small. My friend's iPod was scratched by simply taking it out of the box, and even putting it in and out of the Apple iPod Cover scratches it (the apple tag inside). It would be fantastic if in a later revision of the iPod, if you could do something to prevent this. Whether it is putting a plastic coating over it or varnishing it or something. I know I am not the only person in this position, and therefore something really needs to be done. Another friends has bought another brand Hard Disk Mp3 player because this bugged him. Please do something about this!

Parky · Oct 11, 2004, 05:08 PM

I have good news about the UK iTMS problem.

I have been emailing the head of iTunes engineering in Cupertino all evening (differing time zones) and we think we have the solution.

I have been sending him tracedumps from my failed UK iTMS sessions and some hints from the Apple discussion board.

I have just had a call from Cupertino who said that they think it is in fact a caching problem with ISP's in the UK. Specifically NTL.

The suggestions got them to look in the right area and they are going to work on changing the headers they use to prevent UK ISP cache's causing this problem in the future.

He is going to email me later tonight and said that they hope to have it fixed by the time we get up in the morning. He can't say that it will be fixed for sure, but I will do some testing for them and see if we can make progress.

I will of course keep you all updated.

My communications with Apple about this started when I sent an email to Steve Jobs yesterday. He (or someone) passed the email on to the iTunes engineering team and I have been working with them since.

It has taken quite a bit of effort as well !! They really wanted to thank me for my efforts, that was the main purpose of the call.

Ian

hardcat1970 · Oct 11, 2004, 05:18 PM

Originally posted by Skip Breakfast:
I dare you to ask if you can borrow his salary until tomorrow so you can get a bag of chips from the vending machine.

but he only earns 1 dollar a year.

SafariX · Oct 11, 2004, 05:30 PM

Originally posted by hardcat1970:
but he only earns 1 dollar a year.

Paging captain obvious.

nate_02 · Oct 11, 2004, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by hardcat1970:
but he only earns 1 dollar a year.

In that case, ask him for a ride in his personal jet.

Lancer409 · Oct 11, 2004, 06:02 PM

Originally posted by SafariX:
Paging captain obvious.

my thoughts exactly haha. bag of chips ... vending machine .. lol