Above and Beyond

About a week ago, a woman tried to park her BMW X5 in a gym parking lot in Thornhill, Ontario. For some mysterious reason, she instead drove over two other cars and sat on top of them for a few seconds, like a big game cat savoring her kill. Then she drove off.  More Â»

Reader Kelly writes in to share her positive experience with Canon. She used one of our posts as a guideline before calling in to Canon with an issue with an out-of-warranty printer. Let's see how it went...  More Â»

Christopher made a mistake when he ordered a NeatReceipts scanner from Woot. He made some incorrect assumptions and ordered the Windows version of the device when he uses a Mac. But even though he was the one who made the mistake, the neat people at NeatReceipts happily swapped scanners with him—for free.  More Â»

Anthony received a Newegg rebate in the form of a prepaid debit card. When he went to use the $15 card for a $15.93 purchase, he received an unexpected and wonderful surprise.   More Â»

Here's a heartwarming email from reader Joy. She accidentally booked tickets from Baltimore instead of Philly and AirTran not only fixed this mistake — they didn't charge her extra.  More Â»

The Shack Radio Shack is not known in these pages for its high level of customer service. That's why we were stunned and impressed with Chris's story, where Radio Shack salespeople were not only knowledgeable and immensely helpful, but sent him to a competitor.  More Â»

Sergio writes in to gush about exchange service he received for Bogs waterproof shoes. The pair he ordered didn't fit right, and the company sent him out another pair immediately, not even requiring him to send back the original order.   More Â»

Canon is apparently a very nice company. So nice, in fact, that they will apparently replace a product out of warranty even when it's the customer's own forgetfulness that led to the delay. That's what reader Chris reports happened when his Canon printer broke down.   More Â»

Jonathon wanted to give his girlfriend the gift of a large, cuddly stuffed animal, but the gift certificate to critter maker Squishable.com was causing strange transaction problems. He called the company up and received not only friendly service, but a free critter upgrade.  More Â»

Having taken JetBlue for the first time last week, I must say I throughly enjoy their services. First, I got a round-trip non-stop flight to Seattle for only $279.20, tax included. Awesome.  More Â»

A few weeks ago, Kaleb wrote to us with a tale of television woe. The Polaroid TV he purchased at Walmart on Black Friday 2008 simply died, and Polaroid wouldn't perform warranty service without his receipt. All was lost, until a Walmart manager went above and beyond to save Kaleb from his defective television.  More Â»

If Microsoft is serious about getting people to host wild, enthusiastic Windows 7 parties, the company should get potential hosts psyched up the way it did this guy who lives in the Caribbean.  More Â»

Robert ordered a defective textbook from Amazon, which let him return the book outside its 30-day return policy. Amazon let him do so without trouble, but that wasn't even the coolest thing the e-tailer did for him. When Robert received the next book, with the same defect — it too was missing codes he needed for his lab — he decided to go to the school bookstore to buy a copy with the codes he needed. The CSR told Robert he could keep the second book and gave him a full refund. He writes:  More Â»

As summer winds down, Michael from Maryland shared with us a delightful story about an ice cream chain going above and beyond. It shows the lengths to which people will go in order to get something for free, and the thoughfulness of a company after the pursuit of free stuff went wrong.  More Â»

We assume that the typical, well-prepared, parking-lot kidnapper eats lunch before deciding to look for a victim. But Anthony Gibson clearly wasn't well-prepared, and that's a good thing. According to police reports, Gibson kidnapped a Marine from a Georgia Walmart parking lot, and after failing to get any money from him, decided the best thing to do would be to have his would-be victim drive him to McDonald's. Where the staff recognized him as a frequent customer. And where the Marine was able to ask the drive-through attendant to call the police. Oops.  More Â»

Brent's excellent Thermos travel mug lost its rubber bottom somewhere in its travels, making it difficult to use. Instead of throwing it away, he contacted Thermos to see about a replacement part. He ended up having such a great experience that he had to write in and share what happened.  More Â»

Matt complained to his local Hyvee grocery/gas station about the excessive holds they place on gas customers' debit cards. The company apologized, offered him a gift card, and changed their signage to prevent further customer frustration.  More Â»

Do you know how powerful just one dissatisfied customer can be? David, a telephone, internet, and cable TV customer of Cablevision, didn't know until he was finally frustrated enough with the company to send a very honest e-mail detailing his issues with their service. He received a response that he hadn't expected at all.  More Â»

If you owned an expensive TV that stopped working, and you were years out of warranty, you'd assume the manufacturer would have nothing to do with you, correct? LG doesn't play that game—Tim's experience with them when his LG set went kaput is a mind-blowing example of a company practically coddling its past—and almost certainly future—customers.  More Â»

Sarah ordered a book on Amazon, but the package was stolen before she could get to it. She called Amazon and was pleasantly surprised with the results. She writes:  More Â»

Josh would like everyone to know that Amber Beyer, Schwab Bank customer service rep, is awesome. Recently he called the bank to tell them about his travel plans. He was so impressed with her knowledegeable and kind service that he was compelled to send a laudatory email to her supervisor, and cc Consumerist. Thus, we enter this chronicle into the halls of legend, the pantheon of excellent customer service known as "Above and Beyond." Here lies the tale:  More Â»

Sometimes the way to get sweet consumer justice is a series of pushy calls on the phone with CSRs or even the EECB route. But other times, probably more often, a sugary sweet touch and some good luck will get you farther faster.  More Â»

Sean is a loyal TiVo customer, and has been for years. He's even recruited others into the TiVo cult. It was this recruiting activity that allowed him to find out that he was getting a bad deal due to when he originally signed up for service.  More Â»

Do you ever wonder whether post-transaction customer satisfaction or feedback surveys get lost somewhere in the ether, and have no impact on the local branch of the company you're dealing with? Thomas didn't think that his feedback mattered all that much, but his local Domino's surprised him with a nearly instant response to their Web feedback.  More Â»

I asked Apple this morning to replace my broken laptop now that they've reintroduced the anti-glare option on their 15" MacBook Pros. Apple agreed, and soon a new laptop will leave China destined for my apartment. This isn't the first laptop Apple sent me this month. It's the second. Here's why...  More Â»

What do you do when your server suddenly contracts swine flu and starts giving away free merchandise? If you're ThinkGeek, nothing! The geek toy store celebrated a server glitch by announcing that anyone who picked up free schwag would get to keep it, no questions asked. Why? Read on for the awesome explanation...  More Â»

After reading dozens of stories about companies doing whatever they can to get out of honoring a customer's warranty, it's a relief to find a situation which is the exact opposite of that.  More Â»

S. is living the dream. My dream, at least. The dream of using one's grown-up status and money to buy an awesome toy that our parents wouldn't buy us in our childhood. In S.'s case, it was even better, since a strange pricing system error meant that he got a $6 remote control helicopter.  More Â»

Too often, it seems that long-running companies shave away at customer service in an attempt to remain profitable. Sunbeam, however, proves that there are still companies out there who take pride in their products, and who make considerable effort to keep the customers they have.  More Â»

Xavier bought a pair of nice quality headphones from V-Moda, and liked them so much that he carried them along everywhere he went. When he started having problems with the device, he inquired about repairing the earbuds, but V-Moda had a better idea.  More Â»

Bob didn't realize that his Amtrak train from Syracuse would be delayed for more than an hour until an Amtrak agent called him up and offered to upgrade him free of charge to an earlier and pricier train. Bob initially declined, but later called back to change his mind. When he got to the station, the same agent realized that he qualified for a cheaper ticket and refunded the difference on the spot.  More Â»

After two years, the whistle on Ruby's Chantal Cookware Livestrong teakettle finally gave up its zest for life. Chantal Cookware's cleaning recommendations couldn't revive the ailing whistle, so Ruby resigned herself to buying a whole new kettle. Before pouring another $60 down the drain, she emailed Chantal Cookware to ask if it was at all possible to replace just the whistle...  More Â»

Reader Michael emailed to let us know that Men's Wearhouse, for no extra fee and with no hassle, bumped his suit alterations ahead in the schedule so he could make his grandmother's funeral on time.  More Â»

Tony had a lot of problems with the build quality of his new bicycle, so he finally wrote to Trek Bikes and told them all the things going wrong with it. Unlike Comfort Select, which denies manufacturing problems even as it replaces broken units with a less defective version (that you pay for), Trek contacted Tony and treated him like they actually wanted his repeat business.  More Â»

Can we tag a story "above and beyond" if the customer service cycle is so screwed up that it eventually works out in the customer's favor? When jpodbuild tried to get his Craftsman sander repaired or replaced, he couldn't get anyone on the phone who could actually help him—eventually he would end up back at the first number he'd called. He decided to show up in person and let the store manager handle the phone calls. New sander!  More Â»

We Consumerist bloggers just love those stories of reader complaints that are generously solved by customer service before we even get around to posting the gripes.  More Â»

It's great to find a company that stands behind the products that they sell—even beyond the stated warranty is over, and even after the products have been used for their intended purpose for an extended period. Rachel learned that online diaper retailer Cottonbabies.com is one of those companies, and wanted to share her experience with Consumerist readers.  More Â»

After an iBook-death forced her to migrate to another computer, Lisa found that she couldn't activate her legally-purchased copy of Macromedia StudioMX 2004. Adobe insisted that the software was too old to be reactivated. Too old? It's software! It took several calls and emails before Lisa found an employee who was able to help, not by activating her old software, but by sending her a free new copy of Dreamweaver CS4.  More Â»

Jim,  More Â»

Brooke's husband, like many sensible people, loves bacon. As a gift, she bought him a subscription to the Bacon of the Month Club. For a few months, they received fantastic bacon and whimsical bacon-related merchandise through the mail, just as promised. Then, suddenly, things went awry in mail-order bacon paradise.   More Â»

Jeanpaul wanted to buy several replacement spoons for his Gourmet Settings flatware set, but the company didn't seem to sell the pieces individually. After fruitlessly searching both the company's site and eBay, Jeanpaul wrote in asking if there was any way to replace just his missing spoons. Rather than turn him away spoonless, Gourmet Settings asked for Jeanpaul's address and then offered to send the replacement spoons free of charge.  More Â»

We know, that headline just oozes treacle. But it's for real! The family friend of a dying child cold-called Pixar's offices and guessed her way through the phone tree to a live person, then pleaded her case: the child desperately wanted to see Up, but was possibly days away from death and too sick to travel or sit in a movie theater. The next day, a Pixar employee arrived with a DVD of the movie and sat with the family while they watched it. Sometimes people can be really decent to each other.  More Â»

Did you know that there was a fleet of CVS "Samaritan Vans" that patrol the highways looking for motorists in need of help? We didn't, until reader Danielle let us know she'd been saved by one.  More Â»

If you're wondering how to build a cult-like following for your product, take some lessons from snack company Popchips. In this case, a small amount of free stuff went a very, very long way.  More Â»

Josh in Pennsylvania was in a bind, and needed his suit pressed for a job interview on short notice. Very short notice—he was called on Sunday afternoon for an interview on Monday morning. The store where he originally bought the suit offers free lifetime pressing, but they weren't open on a Sunday. Trying to find a place that would help him, he made a useful discovery.  More Â»

Jennifer had some problems with a bag she acquired from high-end baggery Timbuk2, and when some stitching started to come out, she sent it in for repairs. When some of the bag's stitching came out, she was treated to a great big pouch full of "above and beyond" customer service.
  More Â»

Matthew isn't sure who got his order from Threadless.com, but it wasn't him. UPS claims they delivered the package to Matthew's apartment, but the reception desk would've been closed during the supposed delivery time, and Matthew doesn't have his package. Rather than wait for UPS to complete its investigation, Threadless dug up an extra print of their sold-out design and sent it to Matthew, along with a little something extra...  More Â»

"Above and Beyond" service often comes down to the management of a particular location, rather than an individual employee, no matter how big or otherwise problematic a company may be. Fred had such an experience with Venkatesh, the overseas customer service rep he reached when he called to cancel his ancient Citibank account. Venkatesh not only talked him out of canceling the account, but was so competent and nice in the process that Fred felt compelled to speak to his supervisor and write to Consumerist.  More Â»

Remember Blake, the north Texas Jack in the Box employee Consumerist featured and described as "frighteningly loyal" a few weeks ago? Kevin, the person who originally introduced us to Blake, printed out a copy of the page and drove around with it in case Blake happened to serve him on a snack run. A few days after we posted the story, he did!  More Â»

Our reader The_Lone_Gunman just had a great experience with the Best Buy in Irving, Texas. Snark fails us at a time like this, so we'll just humbly print his email.  More Â»

This may be the bizarro world version of the Bed, Bath and Beyond store that wouldn't let a customer use their phone to dial 911. North of Houston, Thomas witnessed employees of a Gander Mountain outdoor equipment store come to the aid of a motorist with a flat tire. A motorist who, as far as they knew, wasn't even their customer.  More Â»

United couldn't have been more understanding and helpful after reader Chris' wife had a seizure as they flew from Sullivan's Island, SC to Winnipeg. The flight attendants onboard offered to divert the flight to Chicago, but the couple decided instead to power through. United's staff met them at the gate along with paramedics, and offered to rebook them on the flight of their choice. If they wanted to stay the night, United said they'd be happy to pay for a hotel room. Chris' takeaway perfectly captures the spirit behind our Above and Beyond posts: "Even if United is a horrible company," he writes, "there are still nice people there, and sometimes even big companies surprise you." Chris writes:  More Â»

To thank Kelly for pointing out an error on their website, Pinkberry offered to come to her office bearing "a few yogurts and toppings for some of the hard working people that you work with." What error could prompt such an over-the-top apology? Kelly tried to visit two separate Pinkberry locations at 11:30 a.m., which Pinkberry's website lists as the store's opening time. But! The store's don't open until *gasp* noon!  More Â»

IKEA isn't really known for their customer service, but apparently one location in LA is trying to change that.  More Â»

When a system update caused service failures and bugs in T-Mobile customers' unlocked iPhones, the users emailed T-Mobile to alert them to the issue. Even though T-Mobile doesn't offer the iPhone, they fixed the bugs and gave the users a service credit for the inconvenience.  More Â»

It shouldn't surprise me when a company stands behind their products' quality, but it really does. One reader was so happy with her experience with Canon that she had to share it with us.  More Â»

I believe that it doesn't really matter what you do for a living, as long as it fulfills you, and you try your best to be good at it. (But then, I blog for a living, so what do I know?) Kevin had an experience at a Texas Jack in the Box that combined "Above and Beyond" customer service with unusual dedication to a company.  More Â»

In a post-birth haze, Suzanne accidentally ordered birth announcement cards from Paper Moments listing the wrong birthdate for her two-week old son. The site has a clear policy regarding customer errors: mistakes are worth a 50% discount on reprints, and nothing more. Accepting the policy as immutable, Suzanne called and left a polite message asking Paper Moments to reprint the cards with the right birthdate. The company responded with an unexpected bundle of joy.  More Â»

If you get your prescriptions filled electronically, always double-check the dosage. Kimberly's prescription was recently screwed up somewhere between the physician filling out the order online and Costco's pharmacist receiving it. Luckily for her, the Costco pharmacist was incredibly helpful and fixed the problem for her, so Kimberly didn't have to waste her copay or deal with the issue on her own. He also explained, however, that the current state of electronic prescriptions is a big mess.  More Â»

Whether it's rational or not, there's something very satisfying when your pharmacist acknowledges you personally—it makes you feel like this expert you're placing such trust in takes the job, and you, seriously. In our experience it's a rare thing to see from pharmacists at chain drugstores, but Mike just had a great encounter with his Walgreens pharmacist when he moved to a new town.  More Â»

Within only a couple of hours of our posting some gross-out videos of bad Domino's employees last night, our readers Amy Wilson and whyerhead managed to track down the location, call the store directly to alert the manager, and send the address to Domino's corporate. The only two clues they had were the YouTube handle of the uploader and a quick glimpse of the surrounding area as viewed through the drive-through window in one of the clips.  More Â»

The Starbucks at the Joyce Kilmer rest stop along the Jersey Turnpike refused to honor Jason's 10% Starbucks gold card discount because they are a franchise location and not a corporate-owned store. Jason asked to cancel his drink order, but Starbucks had already brewed his drink and refused to refund his $6. Defeated, Jason called Starbucks corporate to share his disappointment. Their response provided a flavor shot of surprise.  More Â»

SJ replaced his Volkswagen's bulbs with Sylvania Silverstar lights that were twice as expensive, only to watch them fail after three months of use. Disappointed, since the standard bulbs lasted for three years, SJ wrote to Sylvania telling them that he expected, at a minimum, a voucher for new bulbs. Sylvania's response managed to brighten his day...  More Â»

In this latest Above and Beyond story, Victoria's Secret conducts a nationwide search to find the Chris and Becka's panties.  More Â»

The Senate's Sergeant at Arms, Terry Gainer, joined Facebook to deliver a picture perfect apology to the survivors of the so-called Purple Tunnel of Doom, a group of several thousand people who were kept out of President Obama's inauguration even though they had tickets. It takes a superior apology to address a colossal failure, and Gainer certainly delivered. The sincerity and completeness of the apology easily make it one of the best mea culpas we've ever seen.  More Â»

A couple days ago, we wrote about a fake company called Adele that was fraudulently charging 25 cents to credit cards. Personal finance site Mint heard about the scam too, and they reviewed their users' records and notified them if they found a fraudulent charge.  More Â»

L.L. Bean just wants you to be happy, ok? Even if your unhappiness is entirely your own fault because you ordered the wrong size shirts and had them monogrammed. They don't care. You will be happy or else.  More Â»

Mike had an increasingly rare experience with EA Games tech support: the customer service representative listened, empathized, and made an exception to the rules in order to please a customer.  More Â»

Nintendo, apparently forgetting that they are a large corporation, went out of their way to make sure all the variables that caused John's Wii to glitch were addressed. Read his full letter inside.  More Â»

Reader Katie writes to us with an amazing Borders customer service story, full of love, loss, credit, and a fiery inferno of possible death. Katie's letter inside.  More Â»

Our reader ordered some gifts from Amazon in early December, only to have the post office lose them right before Christmas. Amazon saved his Christmas by overnighting a new package at no charge.  More Â»

Marc is happy to report that Aliph really came through for him after he complained about Jawbone smoking and melting after he plugged it into his computer:  More Â»

When you have a Japanese Nintendo DS and it breaks while in America, who do you send it to? Reader Drew expected high repair fees, but got a surprise when he spoke to Nintendo of America Representative, Amanda.  More Â»

All reader Scott wanted to do was get his daughter a 'Big Girl Bed'. After a nearly 6-hour trek to a nearly empty Ikea, Scott had to grab the name of the bed and attempt to pick it up himself at the 'furniture pick-up'. However, when he arrived home, he was not happy to learn that it didn't come with all the pieces he needed to build it. Stuck in a robot-phone loop, Scott turned to the tried-and-true EECB. See Scott's letter, as well as Ikea's response, inside.   More Â»

Here's a nice story! Cody bought a refurbished Logitech remote from an Amazon reseller -- which he says had no warranty of any kind. When it broke, he called Logitech and they decided to replace it for free. Just because!  More Â»

Jeff has a big sweaty hug to give FedEx after their customer service rep Leslie personaly intervened and saved his car-buying transaction from getting 1000% harder. Read his happy tale, and another addition to the "ABOVE AND BEYOND" files, inside...  More Â»

Zappos online shoe store, famed for its amazing customer service, has done it again.  More Â»

It sounds like sports-equipment company REI actually enjoys providing good customer service—their official Return policy seems pretty lenient, and it turns out they stand by that,at least for Tom's family:  More Â»

Reader Jim wanted to share with us a pleasant experience he had with a crew of helpful Home Depot employees in Winsdor, Colorado which was recently hit with a tornado. Fortunately, Jim was ok but his house was not. While surveying the damage to his house, a truck filled with a crew of helpful HD employees arrived who volunteered to board up the broken windows on Jim's house since he had no lumber or power tools. Jim's letter, inside...  More Â»

Eric's Summer Infant baby gate finally broke after four years of pummeling from his two hyperactive little gate crashers. When Eric called to ask about a replacement part, Summer Infant's response caught him off guard...  More Â»

USAA is like a unicorn in a pack of walruses: a financial services company that truly cares about its customers and really helps them out. Not as some kind of lucky exception, but as a matter of policy. Reader "Mary Marsala With Fries'" story, about how USAA opened up several cans of whoop-ass on an Enterprise facility that was trying to screw her over on charges, is yet further proof.  More Â»

Unlike Drew's story about IKEA from earlier today, Philip had what sounds like insanely good customer service from Costco—which is a good thing, since both the original table he purchased and the replacement table Costco's delivery guys brought were missing key pieces.   More Â»

Like any responsible computer user, Benny regularly backs up his data. Unfortunately for him, the three Seagate external hard drives he used failed, and he lost about $500 in iTunes purchases. Seagate wanted $1700 to recover the data. Fortunately, Apple saved the day.  More Â»

James at Verizon Fiber Solutions Center, this is The Consumerist calling to say that you deserve a beer. One of our readers shared with us a story about how you went above and beyond the call of duty to get his router fixed. You could have just left Jeff with "the tech should arrive," but instead you took a personal interest in Jeff's case and got his problem solved. You rule. Jeff's story, inside...  More Â»

Drew write:

Hey guys!   More Â»

Alvin writes:

I wanted to praise an online company that I happened to order custom printed apparel from. Spreadshirt Inc.or spreadshirt.com is one of many online services that customize shirts for a low price. I have used many of these sites because I graphic design on the side and enjoy putting some of my work on the clothes I wear. I want to let you know of the numerous sites I have used Spreadshirt has shown the greatest consideration of their customers. I made a mistake of getting one of my designs in a "silver" flex print which really ended up being a glittery reflective print. It made my fraternity letters look, lets say less manly. It was at my bad judgment but they were more than willing to redo it for me at no charge. I called them and left a message the night before and I am happy they were willing to call me back the next day. Hopefully, someone would recognize this great company too.

You don't become the number one retailer of electronics to American consumers without getting a few things right awesome, as Daniel shows us in this letter of compliment he sent The Conglomerist about a recent experience at Best Buy:

I stopped in the other night because my old HD DVD player died so I went in hoping to get a deal. On the shelf I found 2 open box Toshiba HD-A30 HD DVD players. Looking around I found the department head Derrik and we went back over to the DVD player aisle.  More Â»

Netflix was having some serious shipping and website problems Monday, and today our inbox is flooded with happy customers asking us to congratulate Netflix. Why?   More Â»

Remember that video game fan who sent in for repair an XBOX covered in all sorts of priceless art, along with the express instructions for it not to be washed? And then it was washed? Well, he already got a nice box of goodies from Bungie, but now Microsoft has stepped up and sent him their own prize package which includes a faceplate signed by Bill Gates. Nothing like a frag marathon officially endorsed by the second-wealthiest man in the world! Woohoo, game on!  More Â»

Remember Nathanial? Microsoft's repair center senseless erased the valuable signatures and cool artwork he had painstakingly collected on his XBox 360. When Bungie, the maker of Halo, saw what happened, they wanted to help—even though they had nothing to do with the calamity. They decided to ship Nathanial an awesome swag bag stuffed with signature-adorned freebies.  More Â»

Peter noticed that several of the 25 Lutron Maestro dimmers he installed three years ago while renovating his 120 year-old home had started to fail. The dimmers were expensive, $30 a pop, so Peter sent them back to Lutron expecting some sort of response. Soon after, one of Lutron's product managers called with a seemingly innocuous question...  More Â»

Keith writes:

My adjustable rate mortgage with Verity Credit Union is due to reset next month. As part of the note there is an option to convert to a fixed rate. The calculation of this fixed rate is clearly defined as equal to Fannie Mae's required net yield for a 30 year fixed rate covered by an applicable 60-day mandatory delivery commitment plus five-eighths of one percentage point, rounded to the nearest five-eighths of one percentage point. So take the Fannie Mae 30 year 60 day rate add 5/8ths and round to the nearest eighth. The note said the note holder got to decide the day of the rate but Verity was nice enough to let me pick which day I wanted as long as I gave them 15 days notice before the reset date. I patiently watched the rates every day and fortunately right before I was to give them notice rates were steadily declining...

Brendan writes:

My wife and I had a trip planned to drive south from Illinois to Louisiana. The trip included a number of side-journeys, so I decided to upgrade my GPS from an older laptop-tied unit to a hand-held. After looking at various devices on the market, I decided on the DeLorme PN-20 GPS; it had similar features to most of the Garmin GPSMap units, but included full navigation and topographic maps of the United States.

Kevin writes:

The other day my wife called up customer service at Bath & Body Works to ask about a scented oil she loves that they didn't have at any local stores. Turns out it was discontinued and when they checked the computers they couldn't find any in stock anywhere. They apologized and offered to send out a coupon which made my wife happy. She gave them our address and forgot about it. Yesterday, I went out to get the paper and found a box at our front door...

Cupid is helping Microsoft whisper sweet apologies to customers who may not receive their Valentine's Day edition Zune until after February 14. Even though the players are en route, the company has promised full refunds to any scorned Zune buyers.  More Â»

More praise for Newegg, one of those rare retailers with an exceptional customer service record. Andrea bought an Astar Electronics HDMI Player with DIVX and sent off her rebate request, but never received the promised rebate.   More Â»

Few consumers realize they can ditch their monopolistic service providers in favor of local, independent telecoms that often offer similar services at competitive rates. These smaller outfits depend on service, not size, as reader Sharpstick recently discovered:

In the Charleston SC area we are fortunate to have local a internet / phone / cable provider called Knology that has made customer service an art form.  More Â»

Ritzy Fifth Avenue jeweler Tiffany & Co. failed to ship Chris' grandfather a bracelet for his wife in time for Christmas. We expect a certain level of service from high-end stores, but Tiffany's extravagant amends caught us by surprise.  More Â»

The battery on Bryan's Garmin Streetpilot lost the will to hold a steady charge. Figuring that the unit's warranty had expired, Brian asked for a replacement through MasterCard's extended warranty protection. MasterCard required documentation from Garmin, which Bryan requested. Instead of providing the documents, Garmin responded with something else.  More Â»

Pottery Barn rescued Reginald's Christmas gift from the clutches of incompetent delivery people who forgot to hand over all the pieces to his Lawyer's Bar & Hutch. Reginald was fuming, ready to tell Pottery Barn that he would never shop with them again—but then he spoke to Jim.  More Â»

What did Whole Foods Associate Manager Ted Donoghue do when his West Hartford store lost its computer system during a major snowstorm? Nothing! After realizing that the registers were down for the count, Donoghue issued simple instructions to his cashiers: bag the customer's groceries and wish them a happy holidays.  More Â»

Comcast gets a lot of knocks around here but you gotta give a thumbs up to these three Comcast installers who saved two people from a burning building building in Chicago. The contractors were on their way to install when they saw flames coming from a building with a pharmacy downstairs and residences upstairs. They turned around, got a ladder off their truck, and started banging on the windows. "If it weren't for the cable workers, I'd probably be burnt up," said one of the tenants. The fire department says the fire was started by a thrown Moltov cocktail, but perhaps they should also check if any FiOs trucks were in the nearby vicinity.  More Â»

I read consumerist everyday and your tips help me procure a Wii for xmas. I had bought one through Amazon, and it was delivered when I wasn't home. By the time I got home, someone had stolen it off my porch...  More Â»

"A few months ago, the pipe under my front lawn which leads to the water main, as well as two of my neighbors' pipes, burst as a result of city firefighters cleaning the hydrants and shutting the water off too quickly. There was a nice little stream going down the street until the city came and shut off our water the next day, routing our service through a different (unaffected) neighbor's pipes. The Water Services Department informed us that we were financially responsible for hiring a plumber to make the repairs, and that if we failed to do so within 30 days, we would be disconnected from our neighbor's service. All of the estimates we got from plumbers came in around $1,500."  More Â»

"I went to the AMC Theater in Framingham MA Sunday night with my wife, 27 year old daughter & 12 year old son to see Bee Movie. After sitting through the 10 minutes previews for coming attractions, it's on to the Feature Presentation. Well, to everyones shock & awe what is the opening scene? There on the big screen in front of the mostly "G" audience what do we see? A naked male corpse on a slab being autopsied..............yes we were watching SAW IV!"  More Â»

"While moving to our new house last week a friend who was helping us accidentally spilt beer on my son's DS lite and it stopped working. I knew that his DS was still under warranty, but I also knew that I would not cover physical damage caused by neglect. After checking Nintendo's website, and confirming that spilling liquid on it would not be covered and that I would have to pay for the repair."   More Â»

Reader Amy writes in to praise a Safeway cashier that saved her $1. One dollar might not seem like much, but it shows how little is required for someone to go above and beyond. Amy writes:

I went to my local Safeway today and picked up a package of Boboli bread that had a $1 off coupon attached. I made a mental note to remember to remove the sticker and hand it to the checkout clerk, but forgot.   More Â»

I have an Incase bag for my MacBook pro. In May I adopted a dog from the San Francisco SPCA (see photo) and he decided that the strap was a chew toy.  More Â»