Esquire: Why are you hiding your customer service phone number?

Everybody’s heard a story like this. I’m going to tell mine anyway. I needed to change the address on my Esquire magazine subscription. Dutifully, I went online and found that I needed an account number, which I don’t have, or I could put in my name, which didn’t work. Alas, there was no phone number for customer service anywhere on the web site. I had an old issue (with the mailing label torn off, so I couldn’t find my account number) and there was no phone number for customer service anywhere in the magazine.

Folks, this is 2010. The old days of hiding behind a web site are so, well, 2000.

I searched Google and the first link returned the appropriately titled “Gethuman.com,” where I found Esquire’s customer service number, which is 1-800-888-5400. Called, punched through the convoluted menu to get to a human and got my address changed. The customer service, by the way, was excellent. As I was being sold on another product from Esquire, I did chip in that hiding the number was a bad idea. The person on the other end, while polite, stated: “That’s the way of the future.”

Let me explain the “way of the future”: word of mouth. Continue to use antiquated methods to run from customers and find yourself, and your “secret” phone number, in a blog somewhere — like this one.

Just for good measure, I’ll repeat: Esquire’s customer service phone number is 1-800-888-5400. Press 0 to reach a human.