When Kevin found a foreign object in his bag of Utz chips, he wasn’t after a freebie or about to sue for pain and suffering. He just wanted to let the company know. He couldn’t find an e-mail address, so he messaged the company using Facebook. He didn’t expect to hear back from a company VP, or to have his twist tie-filled chip bag replaced twelve times over. [More]
Without An Address, FedEx Still Tracks Me Down In Tokyo
By May 9, 2013
Jeff is an American who currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is a dense and baffling city, and his bank, USAA, created a huge problem when they sent him a check using FedEx but sort of forgot to include his street address. In a city of millions and in neighborhood of 300,000, FedEx’s challenge was to find one foreign dude. They could have just sent the envelope back to USAA. Instead, they accepted the challenge and got the package to Jeff before the original delivery estimate was up. [More]
Papa John’s Delivery Guy Drops Off Pizza On Foot After Getting Carjacked
By April 26, 2013
If the motto for mail carriers involves not getting discouraged by rain or snow or whatnot, perhaps a pizza delivery driver in Atlanta deserves his own saying about not letting a carjacking get in the way of your job. Police say that after the driver was carjacked earlier this month, he still managed to deliver a pizza to a customer. [More]
Celebrity Chef Gives Us The VIP Treatment After We Miss Out On Restaurant Week Deal
By April 23, 2013
Consumerist reader Tom is not the kind of guy who usually goes out for fancy meals. But heck, it was his wife’s birthday coming up and one of her favorite local restaurants was participating in Jersey Shore Restaurant Week. It would be perfect — a nice dinner + plus a great deal = a happy wife and an equally happy wallet. But then Tom realized the deal had just expired, and decided to throw a hail Mary pass via social media. [More]
Delta Employees Dig Through Trash To Find “Daddy Shirt” Worn By 7-Year-Old’s Late Father
By April 22, 2013
Warning, if you have a heart, you might need to grab a couple of tissues before reading this story, which serves as proof that there are customer service reps out there who actually care about customers. A little boy who lost a shirt worn by his late father was reunited with the treasured possession after Delta Airlines employees searched through the trash to find it. [More]
Swingline Replaces Broken Stapler, No One Had To Set The Building On Fire
By April 19, 2013
If you’ve seen the movie “Office Space,” you may have wondered: what’s so great about a Swingline stapler that the character Milton clung to his so desperately? Reader Bradley can’t vouch for the red, small-capacity type of stapler, but his office regularly uses a high-capacity stapler with a broken strike plate. Would they have to replace the whole expensive stapler? Noooo! [More]
Early Roku Adopters Get Amazing Surprise In The Mail
By April 16, 2013
Roku, makers of tiny boxes that stream paid and free content to your television, is a company that has made much of its success on happy customers who evangelize to others. For companies that want to learn how to do that, here’s a lesson. Some early adopters who bought the very first Roku in 2008 received a present in the mail this week: a free Roku 3 with a nice hand-signed card. [More]
Littermaid Replaces Entire Automatic Litter Box When My Repair Goes Awry
By April 10, 2013
Jasmin received the best housewarming gift ever: a Littermaid self-cleaning litterbox. Well, I suppose it’s not a very good gift if you don’t have a cat, but Jasmin was very pleased with it. When the electric adapter’s end got stuck inside the unit, she tried to get it out, but failed. Instead of just running on batteries as it had been, now the whole thing was useless. What could she do? She couldn’t afford a whole new Littermaid, and hadn’t had the new one for all that long anyway. So she checked in with the company to see whether they could just replace the relevant part. They just sent her a whole new setup instead. [More]
Grocery Store Workers Replace Child’s iPad After It’s Stolen Inside Store
By April 9, 2013
While his mother grocery shopped, someone stole an iPad out of the hands of a 6-year-old boy with Down syndrome. The store’s security cameras didn’t capture anything, and the only information the family had was the testimony of his twelve-year-old sister, who also has Down syndrome: “The blonde lady took it.” The story could have ended there, and made everyone sad. Mean person steals expensive but important educational tool from special needs child. Only that wasn’t the end of the story. [More]
Graco Replaces Our Baby Swing That Had Electronic Freak-Out
By April 8, 2013
Joshua and his wife moved their first child’s Graco Sweetpeace swing downstairs from storage in order to rock their adorable new son. They added fresh batteries to the two-year-old toy and fired it up. They were alarmed when the swing began to play music, the lights flashed, and the swing suddenly sped up, all without anyone touching the controls. Was the newest Joshua Jr. some kind of demon baby, or was the swing defective? Had other parents experienced the nightmare of having their newborns in a smoking rogue swing? Josh went online to find out. [More]
Flying The Friendly Skies Friday: Treating Mom Right Pays Off; Open Mic Flight
By April 5, 2013
Around these parts, we hear our share of the frustrating, the woeful and the all-out angry. But when we catch hold of an idea that brings out the happy and rewarding stories of customers, we like to celebrate it. This week in Flying The Friendly Skies Friday: Treat your mother right and when given the chance, grab the mic and sing your heart out. [More]
Flying The Friendly Skies Friday: The Happiest of Birthdays; Upgrades For Everybody
By March 29, 2013
Around these parts, we hear our share of the frustrating, the woeful and the all-out angry. But when we catch hold of an idea that brings out the happy and rewarding stories of customers, we like to celebrate it. This week in Flying The Friendly Skies Friday: The best birthday in the air and upgrades for everybody. [More]
Hanes Apologizes For, Replaces Package Of Shoddy Panties
By March 28, 2013
It’s difficult when a brand or a product that you and your family have relied on for decades fails you. It adds an extra layer of annoyance to a regular old consumer problem. Leslie had a pair of Hanes underwear and the waistband began falling apart after only one washing. She happens to be from North Carolina, and had family members who worked for Hanes. She can’t afford to buy one-use underwear, and it being Hanes added an extra later of sadness. So she wrote to Hanes. [More]
And Now: “Flying The Friendly Skies Fridays” Because Traveling Can Actually Be Fun
By March 22, 2013
Around these parts, we hear our share of the frustrating, the woeful and the all-out angry. But when we catch hold of an idea that brings out the happy and rewarding stories of customers, we like to celebrate it. Herewith, then, the first of a few “Flying The Friendly Skies Fridays.” Or FTFSF, if you will. [More]
ThinkGeek Hears Post Office Lost My Package, Replaces Everything
By March 8, 2013
A UPS/U.S. Postal Service partnership was supposed to bring some totally excellent Star Wars items from ThinkGeek to Michael’s doorstep. It didn’t. The package went missing somewhere in the post office’s custody, never to be heard from again. There was no insurance on it, so he didn’t expect much when he let ThinkGeek know it was missing. He really didn’t expect a total replacement. [More]
Walmart Worker Stops Woman From Wiring $2,100 To Fake Stranded Grandson
By March 7, 2013
With all the news of scammers out there stealing money from unsuspecting folks using the lowdown, dirty “Help, I’m your grandson/niece/other close family relative!” act, our hearts are warmed all the more when observant customer associates stop those scams cold. Here to brighten the day comes the tale of the Walmart employee and the loving grandma. [More]
UPS Driver Delivers Package, Fixes Screen Door, Warms Hearts
By March 7, 2013
The weather was bad, and Sergio’s family all left the house in a hurry. They didn’t secure the screen door properly, and the wind caught it, tearing it off the hinges. When UPS stopped by with an Amazon package, the driver could have said, “Aw, that’s a shame,” tossed their package on his porch, and then gone on with his day. He did not. [More]
Peet’s Swoops In, Makes Up For Delay Before Anyone Can Even Complain
By February 13, 2013
Here’s an example of how even the simplest customer service gestures can make a huge difference in someone’s day, and in the perception of a brand. Heather visited Peet’s for coffee recently, and got her drink a little later than her companion. No big deal: that happens. It was what happened next that caught her off guard and prompted her to write to Consumerist. [More]
