When I first got out of engineering school, my first job was in product development for a major consumer appliance company. I worked at the company headquarters and along with all of the engineers, there were thousands of non-engineering people working on the same corporate campus. All of the phone numbers had the same area code and prefix, with the last 4 digits being unique to each phone. Mine was 1327. The non-toll free customer service number was 1325. We had been told that should any employee answer a customer's phone call, we could not simply tell them they had the wrong number and hang up, we were to direct them to the toll free customer service number where they would get help from one of the CSR's working in the call center (or more likely they would get put on hold until they got mad and hung up.).

I got a call from a really angry customer (AngerLady) who was upset that her washing machine was broken and even more upset that the call center kept disconnecting her.

Me: XXXX corp, this is DLS3141.

AngerLady: ranting My washing machine is broken and I need someone one to come fix it. more ranting

Me: Ma'am, I don't work in the customer call center, I can't help you. You can call our service department at 1-800-XXX-XXXX and they should be able to take care of you.

AngerLady: I'm not calling them again, they either don't answer, I get put on eternal hold or they transfer me all over until I get disconnected. I need YOU to help me.

Me: Ma'am, I have no way to help you, have you tried calling the direct line, XXX-XXX-1325?

AngerLady: No one answers that number, I started calling numbers up and down from that one, you're the first one who answered, so you're going to help me.

I have a genius idea, devious, but also genius. I look up a number in the company directory.

Me: Well, I can't help you, but I can point you to someone who can, but you have to do me a small favor.

AngerLady: A favor? What?

Me: I'm going to give you a number to call, but you can't tell anyone I gave it to you.

AngerLady: Ummm OK I guess...

Me: XXX-XXX-XXXX is the direct line for the VP responsible for customer satisfaction, his name is "Bob Jones". Call him, tell him everything you told me, especially the part about getting the run around from the call center. That's his area of responsibility.

AngerLady: Wow. Thanks I won't tell anyone it was you.

Evidently, she kept her promise, but what she did was to share VP Bob Jones' contact information online with hundred of other customers who were also dissatisfied with the response from our call center. How do I know? A week or so later, everyone received a company-wide email demanding that under no circumstances are we to supply Bob Jones' contact information to customers. A couple of weeks later, there's an announcement that they were hiring more people to work at the call center.

You go AngerLady!