Alfred Valrie of Los Angeles is a loyal AT&T customer, paying for pretty much everything the company offers: cellular service, a landline, home Internet, and TV.

But Valrie recently made the mistake of sending a polite e-mail to the CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson. (Stephenson's e-mail address, rs2982@att.com, and other contact information have been online for a few years.) In the e-mail, Valrie suggested that AT&T should offer unlimited data to DSL customers and cheaper, limited text messaging plans for people who don't need unlimited messages.

Valrie signed the message, "Your lifelong customer, Alfred Valrie."

What CEO wouldn't want to hear from a lifelong customer? Stephenson, apparently. Valrie wasn't expecting a response at all; he got one, but it came from an AT&T lawyer rather than the CEO.

"AT&T has a policy of not entertaining unsolicited offers to adopt, analyze, develop, license or purchase third-party intellectual property... from members of the general public," AT&T Chief Intellectual Property Counsel Thomas Restaino wrote to Valrie, according to The Los Angeles Times. "Therefore, we respectfully decline to consider your suggestion." (Restaino also thanked Valrie for being a lifelong customer.)

Times reporter David Lazarus assumed the response to Valrie was just a mistake, but it wasn't.

"In the past, we've had customers send us unsolicited ideas and then later threaten to take legal action, claiming we stole their ideas," AT&T spokesperson Georgia Taylor explained to Lazarus. "That's why our responses have been a bit formal and legalistic. It's so we can protect ourselves."

Taylor said that AT&T "will take a look at our processes to see where we can do better going forward." AT&T had no further comment when contacted by Ars today.

Something similar happened more than five years ago when an AT&T customer e-mailed Stephenson a couple of times to complain about iPhone upgrade eligibility dates and data plans. AT&T threatened to send a formal cease-and-desist letter unless he stopped contacting Stephenson but then apologized to the customer after his story was reported by various media outlets.

Lazarus pointed out that AT&T's actions seem to be inconsistent with the company's code of business conduct.

"Our customers should always know we value them," the AT&T code says. "We listen to our customers... We earn and preserve their trust by treating them with honesty and integrity and in a professional, courteous manner."

Just be extra careful about e-mailing the CEO.

UPDATE: A day after the Times story, Stephenson admitted to the newspaper that "We blew it, plain and simple, and it's something I've already corrected."