T-Mobile Trolls Verizon HQ With Skywriting, Verizon VP Fires Back With Legere-Worthy Insults
T-Mobile CEO John Legere
T-Mobile CEO John Legere is no stranger to the limelight. He is a heavy user of Twitter (he has 1.74 million followers) and he absolutely loves to throw daggers at the competition — especially America’s two largest wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
But no matter how much Legere ribs the competition, they rarely engage him to trade insults so it’s often a one-way street (with the exception of a tiny spat with Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure). However, that all changed this morning when Legere retweeted the following image out to his followers in an attempt to mock Verizon Wireless:
Can you see us now @Verizon? Good. #AbolishOverages pic.twitter.com/VIdH9OyOUE
— T-Mobile (@TMobile) October 26, 2015
Skywriting over your competitor’s headquarters is a pretty ballsy move. In this case, T-Mobile is talking up its lack of overage fees for blowing past your data allowance; fees that companies like Verizon Wireless still charge. Usually, lesser stunts from T-Mobile spark no response from the big guys, but it appears that at least one Verizon VP has had enough of Legere’s antics.
Jeffrey Nelson, Verizon Vice President of Communications, took to Twitter to cut Legere and T-Mobile down to size.
That time when your wireless company's CEO did a circus act to deflect the real problem: a lousy network that doesn't meet your expectations
— Jeffrey Nelson (@JNels) October 26, 2015
OK, that wasn’t exactly a knockout blow, but it was pretty biting nonetheless. T-Mobile can’t touch Verizon Wireless’ network when it comes to coverage, and Nelson is playing up this fact. Nelson goes on to state:
That time you found yet another form of communicating more reliable than the TMobile network. #SmokeSignals #Skywriting #PonyExpress
— Jeffrey Nelson (@JNels) October 26, 2015
Now that is a John Legere-level tweet if I’ve ever seen one. Make a crack at your competitor, toss in some humor, and follow it up with some hashtags. And for the icing on the cake, Verizon tweeting out the following:
We get it, sometimes messages are unclear when you're not on America's
best, most reliable 4G LTE network. pic.twitter.com/5NR7f8CeBt
— Verizon (@verizon) October 26, 2015
Legere rattled the hornet's nest, and perhaps he got a little bit more than what he bargained for this time. Tread lightly.
