Papa John's Really, Really Cares That They Gave Me Wrong Pizza Crust
The complaint behind this story was not, at its core, a serious consumer problem. Chris ordered a pizza that was missing a few toppings and on the wrong type of crust. What's notable is that the regional management of Papa John's treated it like it was. Well, eventually. After the local store manager insisted that the error was Chris's fault, he fired off a quick complaint on the website. And that's when corporate solicitousness and free pizzas rained down upon him. Not literally. That would be kind of scary.
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My Dad's Neighbor Ate His Delicious Birthday Steaks, Omaha Steaks Fixes My Error
Kara is a totally great daughter, which is why she sent her dad a box of Omaha Steaks for his last birthday. She isn't as great at typing in his address, though, and the box had been delivered to a neighbor's house. This neighbor quietly signed for and ate $70 worth of gift meats. While the good news is that Omaha Steaks went above and beyond, correcting Kara's error and sending replacements, this still means that her dad has to live next to some jerk who ate his birthday present. Maybe this neighbor will invite him over for an incredibly awkward barbecue.
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New Shoes Hurt, New Balance Replaces Them
Sean's new shoes hurt his feet. When he realized that this wasn't because he was out of shape or had bought the wrong size, he figured it had been too long since buying the shoes, and he wouldn't be able to return them. Not so when the shoes were from New Balance, purveyors of sneaker awesomeness.
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Coldwater Creek Goes To Amazing Lengths To Get Discount For Tall Customer
Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek didn't have to do anything for Peri. She found a pair of pants that she liked in a retail store had the clerk order them in "tall" length for her. She couldn't use the 40% off coupon she had brought for the special order, since it wasn't considered an in-store purchase. Officially. She bought the pants anyway. Normally that would be the end of it, but then something really great happened. he sent a quick e-mail to the company, and received a response from corprorate...then a phone call from the manager of her local store, offering that 40% off retroactively. And a gift card.
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How Amazon Was Amazing To Kindle Customer
Mike wasn't looking for a freebie. He just had a few cosmetic scratches on the touchscreen of his Kindle Fire and wanted to know if there was a way he could minimize them or buff them out. He called up Amazon to ask, and their solution wasn't a healing screen cover or a special polish. They shipped out a new device to him the very next day.
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This Cosi Restaurant Is The Best Stalker Ever
Nick orders the same lunch every Wednesday from the Cosi nearest his office: turkey and corn chili. That sounds really tasty, but Nick was unhappy because he wasn't getting all of the soup he paid for. When his soup cup wasn't full a few weeks in a row, he sent a complaint through the chain's website. The area manager sent a nice letter back offering a free meal at any location. Then things got weird.
And awesome. The manager tracked him down using LinkedIn and had more soup delivered to his office.
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P&G Apologizes, Has An Actual Reason For Old Spice Deodorant Shrinkage
Consumerist reader Jordan recently copied us on an email he wrote to Procter & Gamble, shaming them for performing the grocery shrink ray on his favorite Old Spice deodorant. But before we could even post his tale of outrage, he received a reasonable explanation and an apology from P&G. Imagine that!
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Rite-Aid Delivery Guy Saves Elderly Customer's Life
Automated prescription refills and deliveries have probably saved patients' lives by insuring that they got their medication on time. But this time, it wasn't the pills in the bottle that saved a Pennsylvania woman; it was the man who delivered them.
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Netflix Saves The Day, Overrides Disc Limit To Send Me Martial Arts Movie To Watch With The Guys
For all the rotting fruit hurled at Netflix over the whole
price-doubling thing and the
Qwikster debacle, it is easy to forget how much some people used to adore the company and its customer service.
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SquareTrade Learns 'Defective' iPhone Is Really Damaged, Replaces It For Free Anyway
Dan decided to buy a SquareTrade warranty for his iPhone because, unlike AppleCare, SquareTrade also covers damage to the phone at a good price. This warranty turned out to be a wise investment, since he dropped the phone and cracked the screen. When the replacement phone stopped working, he called them up for another replacement before noticing that the glass was cracked. No more free replacement. How sad.
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Babies "R" Us Manager Saves My Daughter's First Birthday Party With Free Shoes
As all discerning one-year-olds know, one simply cannot show up to one's own first birthday party shoeless. Such was the situation for Larry's daughter, when his daughter's birthday party was only 25 minutes away and her party shoes were too small. Off he sped into the dark of night (or afternoon, more likely) to procure new footwear from Babies "R" Us.
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More Businesses Should Under-Promise & Over-Deliver
There's a tendency on the part of many businesses to sell their product or service based on a price, time frame or level of service that sounds great in marketing materials but which often requires an asterisk because it only tells part of the story. But these companies are playing a short con game that consumers will eventually figure out.
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Pair Of Positive Experiences Reminds Chase Customer That Good People Work For Bad Companies
JPMorgan Chase is a regular fixture in our annual
Worst Company In America tournament, but like most of the businesses in the WCIA brackets, there are a lot of decent people who truly want to help their customers.
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Wells Fargo: Good For All Of Your Banking And Personal Printing Needs
Nick was giving a presentation at a conference in Albuquerque, and needed to print out a revised version of his notes. He didn't count on the printers in the business center of his hotel being out of order, and the downtown devoid of life, retail, and even Kinko's outlets. Lacking transportation away from the hotel, he tried to think of alternate ways to meet his printing needs. That was when he saw the shimmering green Wells Fargo office tower... and formulated a wacky plan to put his bank to work for him.
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Maglite Manufacturer Is Quite Magnanimous
Jason really likes his mini Maglite, but the part that holds the bulb is corroded. Instead of buying a new one, he wanted to fix and keep the light he loves. He wrote to the company, Mag Instrument, asking whether he could buy a replacement part. Terrible news: that wasn't possible. But they could send him one for free.
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Sick Customer Throws Up In Kroger, Employees Still Treat Her Like A Human Being
Reader Bugpaste is not feeling well. She's been hit with a vicious stomach bug. While picking up some medicine and supplies at Kroger yesterday, the worst happened: she threw up in the dairy aisle, a situation that could have been a lot worse if employees and fellow customers had been rude. But they weren't at all. They cleaned up after her, and were genuinely concerned for her well-being. She was so impressed with the kindness she encountered that she took some time out from her recovery to write to the general manager.
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(mine)
Outback Steakhouse Manager Overreacts To Spilled Beers -- But In A Good Way
Most of the e-mail we get into our tip line, especially with regards to restaurants, is about rude waitstaff, awful food and uncaring managers. So it was a very pleasant surprise to hear this story from Consumerist reader Rob, whose visit to Outback Steakhouse started sourly but ended happily.
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U.S. Airways Does Me A Solid & Waives Change Fees Even Though I Booked The Wrong Flights
Marc was in a jam after he accidentally booked his mother on the wrong flights to come visit — he had her starting in her destination city and going back to her starting city. In short, it was a big ol' mess and he was facing change fees and a fare difference of around $200. But luckily, U.S. Airways reps felt like being kind.
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Game Company Apologizes For Failure To Upgrade Purchases Without Being Publicly Shamed First
We love the rare instances where a company makes a proactive effort to fix a problem before customers have to resort to a barrage of complaints. In this case, Mojang apologized for an upgrade glitch for Minecraft users, and as reader Derick puts it, "You just gotta love it when a company assumes responsibility for a billing mistake without the need to be publicly shamed first."
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Amazon Does Me A Solid, Pays International Shipping Fees & Gives Full Refund
In a world where mega-retailers trying to make a buck anywhere they can will resort to terrible tactics (say it in a movie trailer voice and it sounds cooler), any examples of companies going above and beyond to serve the customer warms the cockles of our very cold and jaded hearts. Michael wrote in to shed light on one such positive experience with Amazon.
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Circle K Staffer Fired For Foiling Armed Robbery
Imagine you're working at a Circle K (or any other store of its type) when a trio of wannabe robbers enter and begin waving a gun at you. What do you do? And more importantly, are you thinking about company policy or your own safety?
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(Tashi & Wash)
ThinkGeek Makes Christmas Possible For Cancer Patient & Family
For Consumerist reader Tashi and her husband, Wash, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer only a few months after they wed, perusing the ThinkGeek catalog was something they would do to amuse themselves and keep their spirits up — even if they couldn't really afford to buy most of the items they coveted. But when the people at ThinkGeek got wind of the young couple's ordeal, they decided to play Santa.
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Lego Plays Star Wars Secret Santa
K's kid has a Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, most likely because K. is awesome. One of the pieces went missing, and she sent a quick "hey, how much would it cost to replace this thingy?" query on their website. She expected to hear back perhaps after the holiday toy rush. She didn't expect to get a free replacement piece in the mail within a few weeks.
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Microsoft Spreads The Holiday Spirit By Telling Me To Donate Extra Xbox At Their Expense
Timothy wasn't sure what to do when an extra Xbox360 landed on his doorstep, along with the one he had ordered for his girlfriend for Christmas. He figured Microsoft would recognize their mistake soon enough and send a packing slip for its return. But instead, he says he's amazed at their response.
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Is This Normal? Cracker Barrel Gives Me A Free Meal To Make Up For A Short Wait
It's refreshing to read about good customer experiences, and in this case, we're just as happily baffled as our reader Nicole. She's looking for some consensus regarding Cracker Barrel — you see, she and her sister got a free meal, without asking for it or even complaining to wait staff after waiting a short time to get their food.
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Best Buy Pulls A Rare Move And Actually Makes A Customer Happy
We get a lot of customer service complaints about Best Buy. So much so, that when a piece of reader mail comes in commending them for doing something good, well, it's an event that needs to be remarked upon. That's where James comes in.
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JCPenney Employee Checks Store Surveillance Footage To Return Lost $300 To Christmas Shopper
A grandmother shopping for her family's Christmas presents was given the gift of the holiday spirit, in the form of a JCPenney employee who did a little detective work to return $300 she'd dropped at the store.
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McDonald's Franchisee Raises $14,000 In One Night For Families Of Car Crash Victims
Earlier this week, five teens were killed in a car crash in the town of New Oxford, PA. In an effort to bring the community together, the owner of a local McDonald's franchise hosted a fundraiser last night, where 100% of his proceeds for the evening went to offer financial support to the families of those lost in the horrible incident.
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Guitar Center Fixes Mistake, Apologizes And Offers A $50 Credit
In a world of disgruntled customers and unhelpful sales associates, hearing a consumer's story of a bad experience turned good makes our insides all warm and melty. Akshat wrote in to tell us of a recent interaction with Guitar Center that started off on the wrong foot before ending happily.
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Home Depot Staff Makes 8-Hour Trip To Find Me A Snow Blower
Consumerist reader Matt and his wife recently went to Home Depot to try to purchase a snow blower for the coming winter. But that Halloween weekend snow storm apparently caused an early run on the machines and no one could give them a clear answer on exactly when they would be back in stock.
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Hillshire Farms Compensates For Your Forgetfulness With Free Sausages
Admit it, you've done what Matthew did at some point in your life. You've left perishable food in your car for an extended period after coming home from the store. He left a few packages of Hillshire Farms sausages out overnight. He wondered whether the sausages, being precooked and smoked and all, might be able to survive a night in his vehicle. So he called to ask. He expected advice...not coupons for free sausages.
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Which Companies' Policies Do You Love & Which Do You Loathe?
All commercial businesses are in it to make a dollar, but they go about it in so many different ways. Some retailers (and airlines, banks, hotels, food services, etc.) see the customer as a money sponge from which they can — and should — wring every cent through consumer-antagonizing fees and policies. And on the other end of the spectrum are companies that keep their customers happy and coming back with policies that favor the consumer.
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NewEgg Drops The Ball, Gamestop Saves The Day. Wait: Gamestop?
Two months ago, Nathan took advantage of a Newegg promotion for $10 off his pre-order of the collector's edition of the game Dark Souls, which was released on Tuesday. Ordering ahead and getting a discount: points for planning and for shopping prowess. The day before the game was to be released, Newegg (and other retailers, Nathan later learned) had to cancel their pre-orders because they just didn't have enough product. This left him without a collector's edition on release day...unless he could find one in his city, in person. Was such a feat possible? Yes, as it turns out, with some luck and the help of a heroic Gamestop employee.
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Milk Storage Bag Company Does Right After Mom Finds Defect
After Jessica discovered holes in the plastic milk storage bags in which she kept her breastmilk, she emailed the manufacturer, Lansinoh, about the defect. Jessica got back a heartfelt apology. On top of that, they also sent her several times the amount of replacement bags than she would have ever expected to make up for the defective bags. This makes Lansinoh the newest entrant in our "Above and Beyond" hall of fame.
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Charles Schwab Bank Helps You Avoid Overdrafts And Pay Your Bills
When Art received an unexpected e-mail about his account at Schwab Bank, he assumed it was some kind of phishing attempt. Aren't all messages that say "Time Sensitive Information about Your [Bank Name] Bank Account?" But it wasn't. Schwab wanted to let him know that he didn't have the funds to cover an impending auto-debit, and he needed to transfer some cash over.
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OpenTable Rewards Loyalty, Refunds Loyalty Points After Coupon Expires
As a frequent user of online reservation service OpenTable, Ben's girlfriend had earned a fair number of loyalty points. She turned these in for a $50 voucher, which she promptly forgot to use. Oh, well, her loss, right? Not exactly.
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Amazon Gives Me Price $50 Refund On PS3 Even Though It Doesn't Have To
As you may have heard, Sony has slashed the price on its PlayStation 3 gaming consoles by $50. For Consumerist reader DT, who had just received a PS3 from Amazon earlier this week, this good news came a few days too late. Or did it?
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Dyson Fixed My 5-Year-Old Vacuum For Free Without Receipt
As anyone who ever looked at the price tag on a Dyson knows, the vacuum cleaner company charges a premium for its devices. But for Consumerist reader Matt, his recent customer service experience with Dyson has him believing the high sticker price was worth the investment.
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Fisher-Price Replaces Broken Bouncer, Shocks Customer
When the Fisher-Price Bouncer that Allison had received as a gift for her son stopped vibrating, Allison contacted Fisher-Price to see whether she could have the item repaired or replaced. Instead, the company turned around and just sent her a new one, no questions asked!
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Restaurant Apologizes For Mistake With Free Chocolate Cake For New Mother
A little bit of kindness will get you far. A little bit of chocolate cake will get you even farther, as one restaurant manager, a husband, and his wife who had just given birth found out.
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Starbucks Goes Extra Mile To Make Up For Employee's Ignorance
We've all had experiences with store employees who have a unique interpretation of company policy. And while it's nice when the customer is proven to be in the right, it's even nicer when the company goes above and beyond to apologize for an employee's behavior.
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Warby Parker Replaces My Broken Glasses For Zero Dollars
For those of you of the four-eyed persuasion, you may have heard of Internet eyewear company Warby Parker. Not only do they supply stylish glasses for $95 a pop, complete with prescription lenses, but they also give out a pair to someone in need for each they sell. And to top it all off, it seems they're a business with happy customers. Refreshing to hear, isn't it?
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Applebee's Gives Free Meal To Man With Terminal Brain Cancer
Tashi has an incredible above and beyond letter of accolades for Applebee's. Her husband has terminal brain cancer and they don't have much money. How would they celebrate him being alive 500 days after being diagnosed? A 3rd party who knew about their situation contacted the local Applebee's and arranged for part of their meal to be comped. But then the manager went above and beyond even this fantastic gesture and really made their night special. Here's the letter she sent Applebee's headquarters:
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Bank Of America Employee Does Something That Resembles Good Customer Service
With all the horror stories we read and write about Bank of America, it's easy to forget that there are BofA employees who understand the value of treating the customer as something other than livestock.
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American Express Amazes Family After Cardholder's Death Abroad
Let's travel back in consumer history to 1989, a time before widespread Internet access, when she shopping and financial landscape was recognizable, but still different from what we deal with today. One thing that doesn't change is that true "Above and Beyond" service leads to customer loyalty, and reader Margaret remains loyal to AmEx because of how they came through for her family in a time of crisis and grief.
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EECB Leads To Dazzling Best Buy Service, Fridge Upgrade
Best Buy? Above and beyond? Yes, it's possible! The new refrigerator that Sandy ordered was delayed by several days, leaving her fridgeless for a week. She wasn't thrilled at the prospect of feeding her family without the modern appliance, so she fired off an email to all of the executives she could get her pixels on, copying us on all correspondence. Suddenly, she was summoned to the store to pick out any fridge she wanted for no extra charge, with immediate delivery. And a present for her son, too.
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HP Gives Gal Warranty By Accident, Knows It, Lets Her Replace Laptop Anyway
Donni is totally stoked! She bought a refurb HP laptop that kicked the bucket after its 90-day warranty expired. She gave up hope but then HP randomly sent her an email asking her if she wanted to renew her warranty. Donni called them up and they scratched their heads and said, yeah, that shouldn't have happened, but they went ahead and let her get the warranty and replace her laptop anyway. For this reason, Donni is very happy with HP.
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Alaska Airlines Offers Free Tickets & Miles To Passenger Stung By Scorpion
There's nothing in the Alaska Airlines contract of carriage about arachnid attacks, so when a passenger on board one of its planes was stung by a scorpion, the airline could have easily shrugged it off as one of those crazy things that happen when you're a world traveler. Instead, someone at Alaska Air realized this was an opportunity to go above and beyond.
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Simplehuman's Customer Service Is Simply Wonderful
Simplehuman's X-Frame laundry hamper isn't cheap, but it's a quality item and looks really cool. Like an X-Wing Fighter, notes tipster Will. But after a simple washing, something terrible happened to the bag of Will's hamper. He wrote to them asking where to purchase a new bag, and instead received a new, free bag in the mail.
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Lush Agrees That My Pot Of Ocean Salt Is Lacking
Mike B. likes to get a nice scrub on with Lush Cosmetic's Ocean Salt, so when he opened up his newly-arrived pot of said product and saw a gaping hole where product normally would've been, he was understandably a bit miffed.
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J. Crew Replaces Dress Stained In Kindergarten Marker Mishap
Some of the stories of good customer service that we post are simply tales of good customer service executed by competent employees. These deserve praise, but don't compare to true "Above and Beyond" consumer experiences. That's what Jeremy's family experienced from J. Crew after a terrible fate befell their daughter's new dress (not pictured.) They called the store to see whether the dress was in stock so they could buy a replacement. Instead, J. Crew stunned the family by exchanging the damaged dress for a new one at no charge.
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Vibram USA Doesn't Like Pouting Customers, Replaces Busted Shoes
I hear from runners I know that Vibram 5 Fingers shoes are the greatest invention since... well, shoes. Reader Mark agrees, and when his pair developed burst seams and some other holes, he was unhappy. He would miss his unbelievably dorky-looking but comfortable shoes. So he did the only logical thing: he posted a photo essay online of the wonderful times that he and his shoes had together, and sent a link to Vibram USA.
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Calphalon Replaces Flaky Omelet Pans, Delights Customer
When the non-stick coating began to flake off Denise's set of Calphalon omelet pans, her first plan was to get rid of them and buy new ones. Then she had a different idea: pack the old pans up and send them to Calphalon in an attempt to get a discount on a new set. They sent something back, but it wasn't a coupon.
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Roku Replaces 3-Year-Old Streaming Video Box That Stops Streaming
When James's father gave him one of the original Roku units from a few years ago, he couldn't get it to connect to his house's network... or to see any networks at all. He gave the company a call for help, not expecting much because the unit was well out of warranty. A short time later, a brand-new replacement box was on its way.
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Amtrak Charters Sweet Bus When Tracks Are Unsafe
An exemplary customer service experience....with Amtrak? It's possible! Thomas was traveling from Boston to Buffalo, NY, and learned that some of the track in New England was impassible, so passengers would be taking a bus for part of their trip. He expected to be put on a Greyhound bus...not a travel experience to look forward to. But Amtrak had something nicer planned for its passengers.
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Seattle Mariners Beer Guy Now Taking Orders Over Twitter
After five seasons of scaling the steps of Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team, selling beers to fans in their seats, one suds vendor is giving customers the chance to notify him directly of their beer needs via Twitter.
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Would You Like A Picture Of Yoda Riding A Tauntaun On Your Pizza Box? Just Ask
Domino's is making an effort to win the hearts of American consumers by improving their food and their service. So what happens if you order online, adding a note that you would like a picture of Yoda riding a tauntaun on your pizza box? What you ask for is what you'll get.
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Sephora Replaces Fancy Skin Care Stuff Broken In Mail, No Questions Asked
Alexis ordered a few bottles of, in her words, "fancy skin care stuff" from Sephora, and one bottle arrived broken and making a huge, soapy mess. Preparing to fight for a replacement, she was pleasantly surprised when the Sephora representative told her that they'd send her a replacement: no need to return the bottle.
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Clarks Stands Behind And Replaces Leaky Shoes
Keeping your feet dry is sort of a key feature of shoes, so Justin was disappointed when the sole of his Clarks boots cracked and leaked whenever he wore the boots in the rain. He contacted the company and learned that their shoe soles have a five-year warranty, and mailed out his broken shoes and had a replacement pair within just a few weeks. Hooray!
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Congressman Beats Smartypants Jeopardy-Dominating Computer
In a match that must have played like Rocky's takedown of Ivan Drago, New Jersey congressman Rush Holt managed to stifle
Watson, the Jeopardy-juggernaut computer, at his own game.
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AT&T Workers Rescue Woman From Burning Building
A pair of AT&T employees were working in a suburban Chicago town yesterday morning when they heard an explosion down the block. But rather than wait for authorities to show up or run for cover, they ran toward the scene to rescue the woman who had been trapped on the building's second floor.
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Domino's Delivery Driver Saves Life Of Regular Customer
Imagine you work at a pizza place and an elderly customer has been ordering from your store every day for three years. What do you do when that customer suddenly stops calling? For one Domino's driver in Memphis, TN, the answer was clear: Go out and check on her.
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Lost Wallet Returned To Man After 40 Years
If you lose a wallet and can't find it for a few decades, that's usually a sign you won't see it again. But a 77-year-old former New York Times employee managed to recover a wallet he lost at the paper 40 years ago.
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Plumber Pulls $10K Wedding Ring From Bathroom Pipes
Every time a certain Pennsylvania woman gazes at her $10,000 wedding ring, she'll think of her plumber, who managed to scavenge it out of oblivion after she accidentally flushed down the toilet.
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Heroic FedEx Guy Brings Own Truck For Snowy Delivery
It's not just
pizza delivery guys who can be heroic. Ken lives on a rarely plowed dirt road, and a snowstorm made his house unreachable for most vehicles. That included the FedEx truck with a package meant for him on it. He planned to meet up with a driver elsewhere or pick up the package, but instead the driver employed his personal vehicle to forge through the snow and bring Ken his new monitor.
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Papa John's Delivery Guy Rescues Trapped Customer
We've written about Domino's drivers who
braved floods and
scaled icy inclines all to reach a customer, but a Papa John's driver in Michigan has topped them both by actually rescuing his customer.
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Inventor Makes Fuel Out Of Brewery Waste
Beer is known for fueling ill-advised hook-ups and spontaneous bar brawls, and now the waste that breweries produce can result in fuel for operating the plants.
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LCD Soundsystem Fights Back Against Scalpers By Adding More Shows In NYC
You're not the only one who hates scalpers who drive up the price of tickets from say, $50 to $500 — even the bands with the show in question get ticked off, as is the case with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem.
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Home Depot Employee Makes Good On Delivery With His Own Vehicle
When a Home Depot associate promised Rose M. and her husband that the items they needed on a deadline would arrive on time, they were worried that their project would be left in limbo if those pieces failed to appear. So when the store didn't, in fact, have their items, they were bummed. But just temporarily!
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New Balance Swaps Split Sneakers For New Ones With No Hassle
Jaime liked New Balance shoes, and bought a pair to replace her beloved retired ones. When the new ones failed only after a few months, she was disappointed, but didn't get around to contacting New Balance about it for months. When she finally did, she expected perhaps a coupon or another small discount for her trouble. Nope.
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Libbey Offers Stemless Wine Glasses, Flawless Service
Mark bought a set of a dozen stemless wine glasses made by Libbey, but discovered that one of the red wine glasses was missing when he unboxed it. He contacted Libbey to see about obtaining a single replacement glass. This was no problem for Libbey: they promptly sent him another set of twelve glasses to make up for the oversight.
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Zappos CSR's Kindness Warms Our Cold Hearts
For every frustrating, demoralizing, infuriating customer service phone call we've ever had to suffer through, it's nice to be reminded that there are individuals out there actually trying to be of service to customers — and beyond. A reader alerted us to just such a tale about a Zappos rep going that extra bit to help.
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Letter To Home Depot CEO Gets Dishwasher Replaced In 12 Hours
Last August, Consumerist reader Dan bought an LG dishwasher from Home Depot. When the unit began to exhibit issues, his attempts to deal with LG were in vain. But a well-worded letter to the CEO of Home Depot got the ball rolling and had a replacement dishwasher ready for him the next day.
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Southwest Pilot Holds Plane For Murdered Child's Family
Elliott.org has the incredible story of a grandfather who was trying to race through the airport to get to the hospital to say goodbye to his 3-year old grandson who being taken off life support after being body-slammed by his daughter's live-in boyfriend. Despite getting to the airport early, long lines were going to make him late for the plane and all the TSA drones couldn't give a damn. Finally through security, he ran through the airport in his socks, clutching his shoes, before arriving, gasping at the Southwest gate—12 minutes late.
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BlueAnt Cares When Bluetooth Fails And Police Caught You
The BlueAnt Bluetooth headset that Bixby's wife normally uses to talk on the phone in the car failed to connect one day...which just happened to be the day that a police officer saw her holding her phone, which was on speaker phone at the time. She received a ticket. Bixby wrote to BlueAnt about the situation, and received a surprise.
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Seagate Replaces Suspiciously Sparking Power Plug
It's a common theme in "above and beyond" posts: a customer contacts a company asking where he or she can buy a certain small part for their widget, and the company sends the part for free—or a new widget entirely. Today, we honor Seagate, which sent globe-trotting academic Donna a new power cord and international plug thingies for her external hard drive when her American plug began to misbehave.
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Apple Replaces The Out-Of-Warranty iPod Touch I Broke For Free
Unlike houseplants, iPod Touches don't take kindly to watering. After Emily accidentally victimized her device in such a manner, she contacted Apple to see what it would cost to replace it. When she balked at the price, a helpful customer service rep sent her a free one.
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Yankee Candle Too Swamped To Answer Phone, Sends Free Candle Instead
Is a company that goes the extra mile to fix their own error during the key holiday season really going "above and beyond"? I would have to say "no," but Robin was still impressed with the way that Yankee Candle handled an error they made with her order. Except for how they wouldn't have had to send a replacement item had anyone been available to answer the phone when Robin called.
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7-Eleven Clerk Saves Customer's Life With CPR
Correct change for a Slurpee is all you'd expect from a 7-Eleven clerk, so you could say a Pittsburgh employee of the convenience store went beyond the call of duty when he administered CPR when a customer fell into cardiac arrest.
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Retailer Makes Up For UPS's Botched Delivery Of My Laptop
M ordered a MacBook Pro as a Christmas gift, but he says it didn't show up when it was supposed to, despite UPS's online report that it had been delivered to the "front door" of his apartment.
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OtterBox Replaces iPhone Case With No Questions, Amazes Customer
Andrew's OtterBox Defender case (not pictured) for his iPhone 3Gs protects his phone tirelessly, but it's seen better days. After using it for about a year, he noticed some ordinary wear problems with the case, including a missing headphone jack flap. When he contacted the company about their warranty requirements, they simply turned around and shipped him a new case.
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BofA Charges Me $35 Overdraft Fee After Identity Theft, But Twitter Rescues Me
An identity thief robbed Scott's Bank of America account of $600. Adding to the pain, the bank spun its wheels on offering a refund, bludgeoning him with a $35 overdraft fee.
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Geeks.com Gives Full Refund When New Ubuntu Distribution Breaks Netbook
Adam ordered an older netbook from geeks.com. When it arrived, the wireless Internet didn't work, so he upgraded the version of Ubuntu Linux from 8.04 to 10.04. This just broke almost everything else on the computer. He returned the netbook to geeks.com, but didn't expect them to offer a full refund of the purchase price
and shipping — which goes against the stated return policy.
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Zippo Understands When Your Lighter Just Doesn't Work Like It Used To
The Zippo lighter that Mark has carried around the world with him for the last 30 years just wasn't working like it used to. (I would say that it "lost its zip," but that's a stale pun and The Consumerist is
far too dignified for that kind of thing.) He theorized that the reason could be the off-brand flints and fuel that he purchased for it locally. Zippo's representative agreed, and to test that theory, sent him some free genuine Zippo brand fuel and flints in the mail immediately. "You're probably the 'most-best' company in the world!" Mark wrote back to them.
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This Is What Fantastic Service From Verizon Looks Like
We've shared plenty of Verizon Wireless defective phone nightmare stories from readers recently, but maybe things are changing over there. Several Verizon employees went out of their way to be helpful to Chris—which, as the person who screens Consumerist tips, I find completely shocking. Or it could just be that Chris was lucky. Either way, here's his Verizon nightmare that eventually turned into a success. For now.
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Cabela's Hooks Me Up With Out-Of-Warranty Replacement Gun
A couple months after Jon bought a gun from Cabela's, the finish started wearing off. Since he'd fired the gun several times, Jon said he'd rendered it ineligible for return. The manufacturer wanted to charge him $100 to refinish the firearm, so Jon took it back to Cabela's, where a manager replaced the gun.
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Eddie Bauer Goes Above And Beyond, Even To Afghanistan
Derek is serving in Afghanistan with the U.S. military. He writes that he ordered a fleece jacket from Eddie Bauer, but didn't provide a necessary part of his APO address. Eddie Bauer came through with fantastic awesomeness and sent a free replacement fleece....with two-day shipping
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Samuel Adams Comes Through, Replaces Reader's Shattered $150 Super-Beer
About a month ago, we published the story of a premium alcoholic beverage cut down in its prime—
a bottle of Samuel Adams Utopias that broke near the end of its cross-country journey. Many of you were deeply concerned about the situation, and we're happy to report that the folks at The Boston Beer Company came through—reader Z. now owns a beautiful new bottle.
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MasterLock Replaces Busted Padlock, Secures Customer Loyalty
Adam bought a Speed Dial padlock from Masterlock. The product promises to be more secure, and also looks really cool. Someone managed to get through the lock and steal his things. It wasn't a huge loss, but he wrote to the company to let them know what happened to his lock. Master Lock responded by offering him a free replacement lock.
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OXO Spins Broken Product Into Customer Loyalty
OXO makes some cool and innovative household products that you didn't know you needed until you see them in the store. But it's good to know that after that surprisingly easy-to-use gadget stops working, the company will stand behind it, too. That's what Dan learned when his salad spinner broke. They shipped a new one off to him after his first message to customer service.
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GRE Score Disaster Averted By Helpful, Competent Employee
Some institutions aren't part of the government, but are still monopolies or so ubiquitous that they can't be avoided. The Educational Testing Service, which administers the GRE, TOEFL, and other scary and commonly accepted exams worldwide, is one such company. Reader Katstermonster recently had an infuriating encounter with ETS...which had a happy ending when she finally located a customer service representative willing to go above and beyond to actually solve a customer's problem.
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Blue Nile Sends E-Mails From Actual Human, Provides Free Earring Back
Steve purchased diamond earrings from Blue Nile for his wife back in January, and contacted the company because the back of one earring was starting to turn black. Concerned that there might be a problem with the metal, he contacted Blue Nile, and was thrilled that an actual human responded to him, and offered to replace something as simple as an earring back.
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Helpful Best Buy Employees Recycle Van Full Of Computers, Delight Customer
Mindy writes that she had all of the elements for a disastrous morning lined up: she visited Best Buy with a preschool child, an infant, and a van full of old electronics for recycling. However, she found herself in a parallel universe full of helpful Best Buy and Geek Squad employees willing to accept more electronics than the usual limit and give helpful advice.
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IAMS Sends Coupons, Free Food When Your Mom Can't Afford Cat Food
Suzanne writes that when her mother was short on money but needed high-quality food for her sick cats, Iams was a reasonable choice but still outside her budget. So she called the company's customer service, explained her situation, and was rewarded. She not only received coupons, but she cultivated a friendly relationship with the customer service reps.
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Weber Offers Free Parts After Customer Neglects, Burns Up His Own Grill
Brad screwed up his Weber grill, and it caught fire. He admits that it's his fault for not cleaning the grill properly for three years, which led to fires under the control panel. When he called Weber to ask for an explanation of what could be wrong, the company not only helped him, they went
way above and beyond and offered to send him—for free—replacement parts that would make his grill functional again.
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Papa John's Gives Me Free Pizza, Soda To Make Up For Closing Early
Mike's late-night call to Papa John's yielded no immediate cure for his munchies because the store had closed early. But due to a guilty employee and a screw-up the next day, the call yielded a bounty of free lunch.
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Rogue Wallet Replaces Entire Batch Of Bad Wallets, Stuns Customer
Michael writes that his wallet, which he purchased over a year ago, was starting to fall apart a bit. He recently received a new wallet in the mail from Rogue Wallet, the small company that manufactured his, but.... he had never contacted the company. He wasn't dealing with a psychic wallet maker. (That would be awesome.) Instead, he discovered a company that very candidly owned its mistake and wanted to please customers even if nothing had gone wrong with their personal wallets yet.
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An Unexpected Win At TD Bank's Penny Arcade
At some heartless banks, a malfunctioning self-serve coin counting machine could lead to lost money and general sadness. Not at Flexo's local TD Bank branch, however. A malfunctioning machine meant $32 more in his account. Unfortunately, this windfall came at the expense of the unknown previous customer to use the machine, to whom the $32 actually belonged.
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Sonic Alert Doesn't Want You To Sleep Through Class, Sends Free Alarm Clock
Justin writes that he is a college student and a heavy sleeper. Ordinarily, these are not a good combination, but he has a special weapon in the war on slumber: the
Sonic Bomb alarm clock from Sonic Alert. The product is designed for the hard-of-hearing as well as sound sleepers. He explained his issues with the clock that led him to sleep in, and suggested some ways to improve the product. Instead of brushing off his concerns, Sonic Alert expressed concern that he was sleeping through class. They sent him—for free—a different clock with one of the features that would help Justin actually get up in the morning.
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Ultra Pet Rewards Loyal Customer Generously For Kitty Litter Complaint
Liz writes that she tried a different type of cat litter from UltraPet, the manufacturer of her regular brand. The new litter didn't work as well as advertised, and she contacted the company about the issue. They offered her a refund or a free bag of her regular litter, but she couldn't produce the original receipt. Liz didn't expect that the company would send along something better instead.
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eBags Happily Replaces Worn-Out Laptop Bag
James writes that he bought a great laptop bag made by eBags.com in 2008, and it has served him well all of that time. When some of the stitching came loose and the zipper fell apart, he contacted the company about a repair or discounted replacement. eBags went beyond what James expected, instead offering him a refund for the bag's full purchase price to buy a replacement.
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Ford Sends $50 Gift Card To Make Up For Delayed Fiesta
Leslie has been waiting for her Ford Fiesta for quite a while now. She's been patient and not too sad, but was still delighted when the automaker sent her a letter apologizing for the delay, including a $50 Mastercard gift card. "Fifty dollars is no lottery win," she writes, "but hey, it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day." Very wise, Leslie.
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Gourmet Settings: "We're Only Selling Knives And Forks - How Hard Can It Be To Make Sure Our Customers Are Happy?"
Sandra and Owen couldn't believe that they stained their new Gourmet Settings flatware just by washing it with mild soap. Disturbed and worried about the rest of their 40-piece set, Owen wrote to Gourmet Settings asking for advice. He didn't expect the company to respond by dishing out such deliciously honest and helpful customer service.
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Accidentally Break Your New Air Purifier? BlueAir's Service Will Keep You From Feeling Blue
Andreas' mother-in-law accidentally broke his brand new BlueAir AirPod purifier by tripping over the unit's power cord. Andreas tried to superglue the unit's fan blades back together, but when that failed, he asked BlueAir if they could sell him the needed replacement parts. Their response blew him away.
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Longhorn Steakhouse Serves Up An Anniversary Dinner To Remember
Rachel and her husband had an underwhelming first anniversary dinner at the Longhorn steak house. The next day, she wrote to the corporate office to express her disappointment. The local restaurant's manager quickly called to offer what Rachel thought was a complimentary apology dinner, but ended up being a whole lot more.
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The Post Office Wants You To Know They Caught The Thief Who Stole Your Shirt
Someone at the post office poached the Villainous Victorian Velociraptor Matt had ordered from Shirt.Woot. Woot sent Matt a new Velociraptor shirt and he figured that was that. Not so! He recently received a remarkably detailed letter from the post office's Inspector General, complete with an added surprise.
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Pottery Barn Picks Up Stinky Rug, Brings New One For Free
Have you ever heard of latex decay? Apparently, it's a problem that plagues area rugs from Pottery Barn manufactured during a certain period. It happened to Victoria, and a simple call to the company got her a replacement rug costing $100 more than the one she already had. Not only was there no charge to her, but since Victoria doesn't have a car, Pottery Barn paid for UPS pickup of the old rug and delivery of the new one. Lovely.
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Canceling Your Clear Wire Service? How About A Refund And Free Service?!
Rich decided to cancel his Clear Wire internet service to help cut his household costs. Most retention representatives would handle the request by kicking and screaming like angry toddlers waiting for a blood test. Not Clear Wire. After hearing that Rich had fallen on hard times, they offered to refund a month's worth of service charges and kick in two free months of service to boot.
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Mr. Coffee Replaces Missing Parts For Free, Keeps Sweet Caffeine Flowing
C. bought a Mr. Coffee espresso machine on clearance, but discovered that a few parts were missing. Specifically, the filter basket. Deciding that it was probably easier to buy a new filter basket than to deal with returning a small-scale
Box of Crap, C. contacted Mr. Coffee. And Mr. Coffee provided.
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Dog Chew Toy Can't Withstand Chewing, Hartz Issues Refund Without Receipt
Dogs sure can chew. Taryn's puppy, Bacon, destroyed a stuffed toy in a matter of minutes. The toy's packaging claimed that it was able to endure sustained nomming, so she complained. An e-mail to the manufacturer, Hartz, led to a refund for the toy's purchase price, even though they had misplaced the receipt.
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Macmillan Publishing Writes Happy Ending For Damaged Thrift Shop Book
An anonymous reader picked up a copy of Ben Bova's
Mars Life from the Salvation Army without realizing that it was missing thirty-two pages. Books don't come with warranties, but our reader wanted to know how the story ended. Would the New Morality conservatives stop people from examining that eerie Martian fossil? Would the U.S. government ever solve the pressing environmental crisis? How would our reader know without the missing pages?! Macmillan publishing had the answer.
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Sam Adams Offers Personal Note, Refund For Gross Spoiled Beer
Ryan writes that he bought some Samuel Adams beer, but it wasn't up to his expectations. That is to say that it tasted so bad, it made everyone who tried it physically ill. The grocery store wouldn't offer a refund, so he decided to contact the company, receiving a refund and an unexpected personal reply.
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Cross Honors Lifetime Warranty, Repairs Priceless Antique Pen
Andy always carries his father's old 50-year-old Cross pen. It's the only everyday item he has that belonged to his father, and he was devastated when it broke. He contacted Cross to see about getting the pen repaired, and the company sent it back: the same pen, good as new, in a spiffy little case.
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Publix Takes Moldy Garlic Even More Seriously Than You Do
Ian and his family love garlic, but he tells Consumerist that his favored Publix store seemed to have trouble stocking garlic that wasn't either moldy or sprouted. Neither of these are good qualities for fresh garlic, so Ian e-mailed the chain's corporate office about the situation. Eventually, he received a response with an almost
Wegmans-like level of class and problem-solving.
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Ames True Temper Replaces Broken Decade-Old Shovel
As consumers in modern America, we often cynically assume that "Lifetime Guarantee" is just a something companies slap on products with no basis in fact, like "New and Improved!" or "
With Calcium." But there are companies who take the lifetime warranty concept seriously, and will replace a ten-year-old shovel after its handle breaks just as garden season begins. Matt discovered that a shovel he picked up at Home Depot a decade ago carried such a guarantee...and the company replaced his broken shovel even though all proof of purchase was long gone.
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Sorry Your Flight Was Diverted, But Have Some Pizza
When a Southwest flight from Fort Lauderdale to Denver was diverted last week, stranding passengers in Pueblo, Colo. for a couple hours, the pilot ordered pizza for all the passengers. True, it was Little Caesar's, but it's the thought that counts, right?
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Nutella Loves Loyal Customer Back, Sends Merchandise Variety Pack
Kevin discovered something totally awesome about Nutella. Maybe they were being generous, maybe he sent them such a stack of seals that they couldn't help but reward him. Or maybe this was all a massive Nutella Store mixup. Whatever the case, Kevin has a huge pile of Nutella merch and a renewed love of the company.
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Design-Your-Own Shirt Site Turns Consumers Into Designers
Customers can be picky — who wants to buy something that you only kinda sorta like — so it only seems logical that companies are coming up with ways to let the consumer custom-order things like men's dress shirts, all with a few clicks of the mouse. Enter Blank Label, a site that lets you co-create a dress shirt down to every last epaulet and cuff detail.
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Costco Really Loves Your Mom, Buys Her A Coffee Machine For Mother's Day
Joshua received such stunningly good customer service while shopping for a Mother's Day gift at Costco that he had to share his story with Consumerist. He writes that he located a store that had the specific coffee machine that he wanted in stock, called the store to verify, and drove some distance to the store to pick it up. When he arrived, he learned that the store didn't have the machine in stock after all...but it's what happened next that makes this a true "Above and Beyond" story.
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Kohl's Replaced The Shoelaces My Daughter Snipped
Many things can happen when you give your kids scissors, none of them good. Greg learned the lesson when his daughter severed the special, glittery laces on her new shoes. Being a good dad, he headed to Kohl's hoping to buy replacements, which the store doesn't sell. Luckily an employee grabbed a display shoe, pulled out the lace and sent Greg on his way to his relieved daughter.
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Send Your Defective Plants Back To Sea Life And You Will Be Rewarded Twofold
Luke writes that he bought some aquatic plant bulbs that failed to sprout. He was sad, but then he saw the company's promise of replacement bulbs on the back of the box. He sent the dud bulbs back to the company, and was surprised to receive back twice as many bulbs as he sent in. They even replaced bulbs for which he hadn't saved the receipt.
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Zappos Steadfastly Refuses To Stop Delighting People
Yes, here is another happy Zappos customer. Reader Sarah's son's shoes broke and she asked to exchange them... but they just overnighted new ones instead.
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Isotoner/Totes Refunds Warranty Replacement Shipping, Sends Bonus Umbrella
Tracey tells Consumerist that she bought an emergency Totes umbrella which broke disappointingly soon after purchase. She sent it in for a warranty replacement, and was surprised when the company not only refunded her shipping, but sent two new umbrellas to replace her defective one.
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Kleen Kanteen Sends New Bottle Cap, Packs A Snack
Omar recently had a great experience with Kleen Kanteen, makers of fine,
Meg-approved stainless steel water bottles. He tells Consumerist that they replaced the cap of his bottle free of charge. They even enclosed a delicious snack for him in the package. What? Amazing!
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Walmart Receipt Checker Helps Customer, Justifies Existence
Wes writes that he has discovered a previously unknown use for retail receipt checkers. They can help you to determine when a store is ripping you off, rather than the other way around.
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Walgreens Takes Pity On You When You Get Mugged For Your Wallet And Prescriptions
Tabitha and her husband were part of a horrible chain of events. She was ill, and her husband was mugged on the way home from the pharmacy with her prescriptions. With his credit cards, cash, and his wife's medicine all gone, her husband went back to the pharmacy...and received true above and beyond service.
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Schering-Plough Cares That Your Pet Ate Your Claritin
Dogs are wonderful creatures to have in your life, but they have a serious vice. They like to eat things that should not be eaten. Like paper wrappers, light bulbs, socks, and human medications. Matt's puppy somehow got its paws on and ate seven Claritin tablets. When she called up the SPCA's poison control center for help, Matt's wife learned something downright heartwarming about Schering-Plough, the maker of Claritin.
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Moen Keeps Excellent Customer Service Flowing
Jim recently learned that Moen actually believes in the whole "lifetime warranty" thing. Or at least is willing to support their products for ten years. He writes that he contacted the company asking for a specific o-ring to fix his faucet, and instead the company went right ahead and sent him an entire new shower head.
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Amusing Complaint Gets Wild Wings To Fix Tiny Wings
There are many kinds of complaint letters. I like the funny ones the best, like Tracy's. Usually a nut for Wild Wings Lunch Buffet's wings, she was sorely saddened to get a plate of "micro wings" foisted upon her. And instead of celery and dressing - tater tots! Tracy dashed off an amusing complaint letter, and they actually investigated it and will be fixing the wing deficiency!
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Old Navy Refunds Entire Coat Purchase Price When Buttons Fall Off
Old Navy produces solid, inexpensive clothing, but isn't a brand that one normally associates with high-end customer service. Yet Ashley had such a great experience after a catastrophic coat button loss, she just had to share. She tells Consumerist that after some decorative buttons fell off her coat, the company simply gave her a store credit for the full purchase price of the coat.
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5-Year-Old Speaker Dies, Logitech Replaces Entire System For Free
Sifting through readers' customer service stories, it seems that Logitech has really great customer service, and the company stands by its products: once you're actually able to
get hold of them. Reader Matt writes that when he called in looking for a replacement for a dead speaker, expecting to pay for it, Logitech simply shipped him an entire new system instead. For free.
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Oneida Actually Means The Whole "Guarantee" Thing
Thomas bought a set of Oneida flatware about a dozen years ago. He writes that he assumed that he just needed to buy new knives when his came apart at the handles, but someone advised him to contact the company. He did, and was amazed at Oneida's response to his request.
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AT&T Credits New Customer's $200 T-Mobile ETF Just To Be Nice
Mike shared with Consumerist a story that is almost baffling for many reasons. First, he writes that T-Mobile charged his wife a $200 ETF when there were only 90 days left on her contract. But then a delightful, wonderful AT&T customer service rep offered a $200 credit for AT&T service—effectively paying her T-Mobile ETF and earning themselves two delighted customers in the process.
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Oscars Give In To Viewers, Tell Winners To Save "Thank You" Lists For Backstage
The stores you go to might not be listening to your complaints and suggestions, but someone is — the producers of this year's Academy Awards broadcast. In a move sure to please the viewing audience and outrage the celebrity publicist community, the folks behind the Oscars have asked winners to prep two speeches: One for their on-air acceptance and one for a separate backstage webcam.
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Brookstone Replaces Broken Electronic Thingy, Delights Skeptical Customer
Reader Deejmer had a lovely experience at Brookstone that he couldn't help but share. He writes that he received a wireless speaker as a gift and grew to love it. When the device died, he couldn't produce the receipt, but his local store was happy to exchange it out for him. Yay!
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Mysterious JetBlue Creature Offers Free Tix To Passengers
If you wish hard enough on your next JetBlue trip, maybe the airline's People Officer will magically appear and hand out free tickets. That's what happened on David's flight home over the weekend. To be fair, the free ticket giveaway probably happened because JetBlue asked everyone to show up two hours early due to a computer glitch. It's still a much nicer airline story than what passengers usually send us. Also, this People Officer hinted to the OP about the airline's future Wi-Fi plans.
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Beauty.com Facebook Revolt Quelled Within Minutes With Free Stuff
Kim's Beauty.com order was eligible for a pretty neat "free gift with purchase" deal, but the free item ran out before her order went through. She, and other customers, took to the company's Facebook page to complain about the situation. A company representative reached out on Facebook, offering to send a new free item out to the dissatisfied customers. This representative turned out to be the company president.
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My Kindle Breaks, Amazon Overnights Me New One, Lets Me Take Time Returning Old One
Sam is so elated with the way Amazon handled his broken Kindle complaint that he's almost happy it broke in the first place. The CSR overnighted a new device to him and gave him 30 days to return the busted one.
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Best Buy Employee Surprises Customer With Free Replacement Earbuds
Gonzalo went in to buy some replacement earbuds for his iPhone, and recieved some pretty amazing customer service from an anonymous Best Buy employee.
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JetBlue Responds To Tweet, Goes Looking For Passenger's Sunglasses
David Friedman, a photographer and blogger of
cool ideas, was at JFK airport in New York City earlier today and realized he'd forgotten his sunglasses at the security gate. He
mentioned it in a tweet, and to his surprise someont at JetBlue saw it and investigated for him.
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Playtex Came Through Where Toys R Us Failed In Replacing Broken Breast Pump
The thing about breast pumps is when they break, you can't exactly sit around for several weeks waiting for a kindly CSR to get you a replacement. Kids need bottles and moms need to relieve the pressure so they can get work.
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Newborn And Mountain Dew Ruin Macbook, Applecare Goes Above And Beyond
Mark's MacBook had an unfortunate run-in with an open container of Mountain Dew while he was holding his newborn daughter. He called Apple, but expected no help from the company, and certainly not an exception to Applecare's accidental damage rules. He was wrong, and surprised.
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Radio Shack Goes To Great Lengths To Please Customer With Dead Phone
Bill wants to publicly praise a store that went above and beyond to make him happy after his Palm Pre failed during the holidays. He writes that the store employees put in extra effort on December 26th, a hectic retail day, to make sure that he received the phone he needed in a timely manner. That store was... Radio Shack.
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Godiva Trades Plastic Shard For More Delicious Chocolates
Hannah tells Consumerist received an unexpected present over the holidays: a brown plastic shard inside the Godiva chocolate she was eating. She contacted Godiva, and after the company checked out the incident, she received a box in the mail that contained four times as much chocolate as she had originally purchased. It's paying it forward, but with more calories. Lots and lots of calories.
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NYC Cabbie Returns $21,000 Left Behind In Cab
An Italian grandmother was visiting family in New York and forgot her handbag in the backseat of Mukul Asadujjaman's cab. Inside the purse was about $21,000 in cash, as well as jewelry and passports. Asadujjaman found an address in the bag and
tracked down her family in Long Island, about 50 miles outside of the city, to return it.
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Be Jealous Of The Woman Whose Purse Was Slimed By Chipotle
Tanner says Chipotle hooked her up big-time after she bought a burrito bowl in San Francisco only to have the bowl come apart and splattered all over her purse.
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Fluevog Offers Great Service, Free Slightly Scuffed Shoes
People seem to either love or hate the odd designs of Fluevog shoes, but on a visit to one of their retail stores, Lee learned that the company's retail customer service went well above and beyond to make a customer with a problem happy.
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South Carolina Cops Rewarding Seatbelted Drivers With Chick-Fil-A Coupons
Getting pulled over in South Carolina has its benefits. If a highway patrolman pulls you over and finds you wearing your seatbelt,
he can reward you with a Chick-Fil-A coupon, the Greenville News reports:
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Lorac Replaces Entire Makeup Kit After Two Eyeshadows Smashed In Transit
Lizbeth ordered an
eye makeup kit from Lorac Cosmetics, but two of the eyeshadows in the case were smashed when the kit arrived. She contacted their customer service about replacements for those few colors, and got a lovely surprise in return.
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LEGO Shop Rushes Watch To Child's Door For Christmas
At the last minute, Andrew ordered what must be the
coolest watch ever created as a Christmas gift for his eight-year-old, watch-fascinated son. He planned to leave an IOU under the tree, but
LEGO Shop had other ideas.
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United Airlines Calls Up Delayed Traveler, Offers Compensation
We've brought you plenty of airline horror stories recently, but Marine officer Christopher's experience is positively heartwarming in comparison. After the East coast snowpocalypse canceled his original flight and he was forced to wait on the tarmac for three hours due to a baggage handler shortage, United Airlines contacted him to offer a $250 travel voucher. No
EECB needed.
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Snapfish Gives Customer Free Prints For Bad Weather
Troy in Texas ordered his photo Christmas cards a bit late from Snapfish, and experienced something beautiful and unexpected: the company offered customers store credit to make up for weather delays that weren't even the company's fault. Gasp!
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Apple Genius Insults Customer, But Apple Corporate Steps In To Fix Things
Frank, one of the Geniuses at Tim's nearby Apple store, was kind of an ass to Tim and his wife when they brought in their iMac to replace it. Luckily, a woman at Apple's corporate office actually responded to Tim's complaint and provided excellent customer service.
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Comfort Inn Driver Rescues Abandoned Holiday Inn Customers, Then Takes Them To Wendy's
Here's a nice holiday-themed story of how a kind Comfort Inn driver not only helped out a group of stranded travelers, but even agreed to take them to get food after they checked into their hotel. Maybe he was hoping for some big tips, or maybe he's got some grudge against the local Holiday Inn. (Or maybe he's a nice guy.) Whatever his motivation, he probably just earned some repeat business for Comfort Inn.
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Apple Replaces Shattered iPhone After Customer Drops It
Someone in Apple's iPhone Support department just got the crap haunted out of him by three ghosts, I'm guessing, based on what happened when David called to explain that his wife had dropped and ruined her brand new iPhone.
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Merrick More Than Makes Up For Unacceptable Cat Food Can
Monica received a bad can of cat food from her usual company,
Merrick Pet Food. But what began with a foul stench ended with her not just staying with the company, but sharing her story with Consumerist.
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Comcast Lets You Stream Shows Online For Sorta Free
Fancast Xfinity TV, Comcast's online on demand service, is
up and running, Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily reports. (We told you this was coming
a while back). If you're a subscriber you get access to tons of shows for no additional cost.
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Heads-Up FedEx Driver Makes Bonus Delivery Attempt
Reader Chris and his girlfriend were spared a long rush-hour drive through hideous Boston traffic because a FedEx driver making a large delivery to a single location had the good sense to load up his spare truck space with packages bound for nearby addresses.
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Amazon Handing Out Digital Flicks As Bonuses For Disc Buys
In a push to get people buying DVDs and Blu-rays online rather than off shelves, Amazon is tossing in a nice little bonus:
a digital copy of the film to rent or keep, HD Digest reports:
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TracFone Offers Delightfully Competent Customer Service
Perhaps Greg is just lucky. Or it could be that TracFone's customer service has improved quite a bit since we posted their
executive customer service number a little over a year ago. Whatever the case might be, Greg had an unexpectedly hassle-free experience with the prepaid mobile phone provider, and wanted to let Consumerist know about it.
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Hard Rock Sends Collectible Glasses To Make Up For Gaffe
A mix-up at the Hard Rock Cafe gift shot left Simon with different keepsake booze glasses than the ones he tried to buy. He sent a letter to the restaurant's GM, who made things right. Simon writes:
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Lowe's Travels To The Future To Discount Your Appliances
Mary was purchasing a washer and dryer set for her home at Lowe's. Just as she was finalizing the purchase, a sales circular with a lower price on the very appliance she was buying dropped through the time/space continuum, and visited the store from the future. Or maybe an employee put it out early. Either way, the store's manager very generously let Mary buy her washer and dryer for the much lower future price because of an employee's mistake.
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Best Buy Holds Discounted Netbook, Delights Customer
A story about a great customer service experience at Best Buy? On Black Friday? It doesn't seem possible. And yet, it happened to Brian and Briana when they shopped the early sale for Silver Reward Zone members.
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Duck Tape Determined To Make Up For Defective Roll
"Above and Beyond" stories can come from the most mundane sources. Such as this e-mail that reader MJ sent in praise of the customer service for Duck Tape brand duct tape.
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Hyundai Replaces Car Destroyed In BMW Parking Lot Attack
—>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 »
Canon Is Far, Far Nicer To You Than They Really Need To Be
—>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 »
NeatReceipts Offers Extra Neat Customer Service
—>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 »
Citibank Shocks Reader With Consumer-Friendly Policy
—>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 »
You Accidentally Forget You Don't Live In Baltimore, And AirTran Fixes It
—>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 »
Radio Shack Acts In Consumer's Best Interest, Hell Freezes Over
—>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 »
*Guy Finds Customer Service For Bogs Walks On Water
—>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 »
Canon Replaces Lazy Reader's Printer 6 Months Out Of Warranty
—>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 »
Squishable's Cuddly Customer Service Resolves Website Bug
—>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 »
JetBlue Is An Excellent Airline
—>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 »
Walmart Manager Is Super Helpful, Saves Dead TV
—>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 »
Amazon Does A Solid For Student Who Suffered Bungled Textbook Orders
—>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 »
Free Ice Cream Doesn't Heal Broken Leg, But It Helps
—>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 »
McDonald's Workers Rescue Marine From Hungry Thug
—>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 »
Thermos Replaces Travel Mug That Lost Its Way
—>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 »
Customer Complaint Leads To Sincere Apology, Actual Change At HyVee
—>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 »
Complaint E-mail To Cablevision Results In Immediate Response, Cool Insider Info
—>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 »
LG Electronics Offers Customer Amazing Service On Broken Plasma TV
—>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 »
Amazon Replaces Delivered, Stolen Package
—>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 »
Schwab Bank Gives Man Excellent Customer Service
—>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 »
Apple CSR Ignores Company's Warranty To Recharge Customer's Love
—>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 »
Friendly, Logical Customer Service From TiVo Keeps Annoyed Customer Loyal
—>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 »
Domino's Uses Pizza Tracker To Track You, Deliver Forgotten Soda
—>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 »
AppleCare Is An Extended Warranty Worth Buying
—>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 »
ThinkGeek Embraces Accidental Giveaway, Lets People Keep Freebies
—>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 »
Slingbox Offers Fantastic Post-Warranty Service, Wins Customer's Love
—>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 »
Reader Gets RC Helicopter For $6 After Incompetence Discount
—>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 »
Sunbeam Shows How To Do Customer Service Right
—>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 »
V-Moda Replaces Headphones After Wear Leads To Static
—>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 »
Amtrak's Exemplary Service Saves You Time And Money
—>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 »
Chantal Cookware Keeps Your Tea Kettle Whistling
—>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 »
Men's Wearhouse Alters Your Suit Early So You Can Attend Your Grandmother's Funeral
—>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 »
Trek Bikes Demonstrates How To Handle The Occasional Bad Product
—>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 »
Sears Customer Service Runaround Results In New Sander
—>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 »
Reader Gets Free HBO, Cinemax And Showtime For Suffering Internet Outage
—>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 »
Cotton Babies Stands Behind The Cloth Diapers They Sell
—>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 »
Adobe: We Can't Activate Legacy Software, So Here's A Free Copy Of Dreamweaver
—>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 »
Bacon Love Story: A Man, A Dream, A Salted Meat
—>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 »
Gourmet Settings Dishes Out Excellent Customer Service
—>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 »
Pixar Arranges Home Screening Of "Up" For Dying 10-Year-Old
—>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 »
Saved From Flat Tire Hell By The CVS "Samaritan Van"
—>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 »
PopChips: Turning Loyal Customers Into Cult-Like Snack Food Following
—>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 »
Men's Wearhouse Helps Non-Customer, Gains New Customer
—>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 »
Timbuk2 Really, Really Wants You To Be Happy With Their Bags
—>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 »
Threadless Replaces Stolen Shirt With Style And Grace
—>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 »
Don't Be So Shocked: Excellent Service From Citibank CSR
—>"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 »
"Frighteningly Loyal" Jack in the Box Employee Now Working A Sane Schedule
—>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 »
Reader Has Amazing Best Buy Experience
—>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 »
Gander Mountain Fixes Your Flat Tire, Apparently Also Sells Stuff
—>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 »
Seizure Prompts Wonderful Service From United
—>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 »
Pinkberry Apologizes For Website Error By Offering To Shower Your Office With Freebies
—>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 »
IKEA Flies Your Sofa Cover From Philly To LA In Their Luggage
—>IKEA isn't really known for their customer service, but apparently one location in LA is trying to change that. More »
T-Mobile Provides iPhone Support Despite Not Offering iPhone
—>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 »
Above And Beyond: Canon Replaces Broken 5-Year-Old Camera For Free
—>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 »
Jack in the Box Employee Provides Great Service, Frightening Company Loyalty
—>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 »
Paper Moments Understands Senior Moments, Reprints Cards For Free
—>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 »
Costco Fixes Customer's Botched Electronic Prescription
—>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 »
Walgreens Pharmacist Sends Hand Written Thank You Note To Customer
—>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 »
Consumerist Sleuths Track Down Offending Domino's Store
—>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 »
Unexpected Starbucks Apology Overflows Your Rewards Card With Delicious Credits
—>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 »
Sylvania Lights The Path To Good Service With Bulb Replacements
—>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 »
Victoria's Secret Hunts Nationwide To Find Your Panties
—>In this latest Above and Beyond story, Victoria's Secret conducts a nationwide search to find the Chris and Becka's panties. More »
Senate Sergeant at Arms Joins Facebook To Apologize To Inaugural Ticket Holders
—>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 »
Mint Alerts Users Whose Accounts Were Fraudulently Charged
—>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 »
L.L. Bean Refuses To Let You Be Unhappy -- Even Though It's Your Own Fault
—>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 »
EA Games Tech Support Actually Listens, Bends Rules To Help You Solve Problem
—>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 »
Nintendo Trusts Their Users, Goes Above And Beyond
—>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 »
Buried Under Books, Borders Goes Above and Beyond
—>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 »
Amazon Replaces And Expedites Order That USPS Lost
—>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 »
Aliph Quickly Replaces Melted Jawbone
—>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 »
Nintendo Goes Above and Beyond for Globe-Trotting Gamer
—>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 »
EECB Cures Ikea Phone Loop, Induces Mass Customer Service
—>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 »
Logitech Helps You Out Just Because They Feel Like It
—>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 »
FedEx Rep Steps Up, Makes Buying Car 1000% Easier
—>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 »
Zappos Continues Awesomeness
—>Zappos online shoe store, famed for its amazing customer service, has done it again. More »
REI Gives Great Customer Service, Refunds 4-Year-Old Skis
—>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 »
Home Depot Helps With Tornado Damaged House, Just Because
—>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 »
Who's Got Good Service? Does Summer Infant Have Good Service? Yes, They Do! Yes, They Do!
—>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 »
USAA Lays Smackdown On Shady Enterprise Rental
—>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 »
These Costco Guys Are Going To Assemble Your Table No Matter What
—>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 »
Apple Replaces Hundreds Of Dollars In iTunes Purchases After Hard Drive Crashes
—>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 »
Disney Employees Dig Through Trash To Find Couple's Lost Wedding Rings
While on vacation at Walt Disney World, Paul and Karen (well actually just Paul) accidentally threw out their "engagement, wedding and five-year-anniversary rings."
More »
James At Verizon Fiber Solutions Center Deserves A Cold Beer
—>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 »
Spreadshirt Inc. Spares Frat From Dressing Like Girly Men
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.
Nice work Spreadshirt! As for Alvin, we think his frat's pledge class would look just fab in the original sweatshirts.
More »
Best Buy Provides Excellent Customer Service!
—>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 »
You Love Netflix And Have Flooded Our Inbox With Compliments
—>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 »
Microsoft Sends Free Swag To The Gamer Whose XBox 360 Artwork They Destroyed
—>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 »
Bungie Sent All This Free Swag To The Gamer Whose XBox 360 Artwork Microsoft Destroyed
—>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 »
Lutron Brightens Up Your Day With Good Customer Service
—>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 »
Microsoft Is Very Sorry You Won't Receive Your Valentine's Day Edition Zune On Time
—>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 »
Newegg Honors Rebate For Out-Of-Business Company
—> 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 »
Tired Of Your Entrenched Service Provider? Consider A Local Alternative
—>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 »
Tiffany's Dazzling Customer Service More Than Makes Up For Shipping Snafu
—>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 »
Garmin Puts Good Customer Service On The Map
—>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 »
Pottery Barn Saved Christmas With Good Customer Service
—>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 »
Whole Foods Computer Crash Results In $4,000 Grocery Giveaway
—>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 »
Dell Replaces Out Of Warranty Computer Messed Up Since The Day It Was Born
I understand that Dell is an enormous company that does not make any of it's profit from customer service, but I hope that maybe you'd like to help your PR... at least in my mind. My name is Dave S and I purchased an Inspiron 600m directly from dell a year or two ago for $1100. The man on the phone was pushing very hard to sell me the extended warranty. I asked if he had so little confidence in the product he was attempting to sell that he insisted it would break within 30 days....
More »
Comcast Installers Save 2 From Burning Building
—>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 »
USAA Pays Excluded Claim Because You've Been A Customer For 11 Years
—>"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 »
Costco Finds Item You Accidentally Left In The Parking Lot And Holds It For You
I wanted to let you know that Costco customer service is awesome. Last Sunday, My family went to Costco to shop. I saw they had a good deal on a chair mat. Right before we checked out, I went back to get it. As we were headed to the exit, my wife figures out they overcharged her for something. So (with help from a CSR) we split up so I could load the car. Well, I put the chair mat somewhere and forgot about it. (probably against the car) I realized it later that night that I had forgotten it, and had written it off. Today, I went to Costco to get a prescription filled and I thought I would ask about it. Apparently an employee found it, logged it, and put it back on the shelf. The CSR told me to get another one off the shelf and gave me a note to get through the cashiers with it. The cashier then radioed to the receipt checkers, so I didn't even have to wait in the exit line! Well, damn. That's really nice! Good job, Costco.
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AMC Plays "SAW IV" Instead Of "Bee Movie"
—>"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 »
Nintendo Replaces Soused DS Lite Free Of Charge
—>"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 »
Eagle-Eyed Safeway Cashier Catches Bobbled Coupon
—>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 »
Incase Replaces Strap Ravaged By Cute Dog
—>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 »
Zappos Sends You Flowers
—>We get nice stories about Zappos' customer service all the time, but this one seems to have touched a lot of our readers. More »
Quantum Fishing Catches A Lifetime Customer
—>I have a Quantum Kevin VanDam Signature Series fishing reel I purchased a few months ago from Bass Pro Shops. It was a mid-range model that I paid around $80 for. Last night, I was fishing at a local pond and managed to snap the bail arm (connects the bail to the reel itself and holds the yo-yo shaped part that guides the line back onto the reel) clean in half while making a cast. I was horrified, especially with a fishing tournament a week from Saturday. I went to the Quantum Fishing website and saw that their policy is for warranty repairs, if it's not back in the mail on the way to the customer within 48 hours, you get a free hat. Pretty cool, but no way would a warranty cover me putting too much pressure on the bail (this isn't the first reel that snapped at that point for me—I'm working on not putting so much pressure on it when I cast). More »
Empty Room? Bijou Theater Screens Movie For One Couple
—>I had a great customer service experience and I thought I would share it with you. My fiancee and I live in Mount Vernon, Iowa and like to frequent the old-school, single-screen movie theater in town called the Bijou. It's a family run theater with cheap prices ($4/movie) and a great reputation as a family-friendly place. Before each of the showings the owner/manager greets the crowd, gives out prizes, and welcomes any first-timers in the audience. More »
Bang & Olufsen's Bang-Up Customer Service
—>Reader Sharad misplaced the leather carrying case for his Bang & Olufsen A8 headphones. Rather than leave his headphones exposed to the elements, or worse, the inside of a backpack, Sharad sent Bang & Olufsen a fax asking for a replacement: More »
Don't Bother Asking Lee Valley To Match Their Newer, Cheaper Prices - They Issue Refunds Automatically
—>Satisfied consumers have banded together over at the Sawmill Creek woodworker's forums to praise Lee Valley's excellent customer service. One poster, Graham, received an unexpected refund after purchasing a Kreg bandsaw fence. Lee Valley issued the unsolicited refund after cutting the fence's price in their latest catalog. Graham posted: More »
Lansinoh Preserves Customer's Faith, 163 Bags Of Breast Milk
—>Reader Kymberly sent Lasinoh Laboratories a concerned email after noticing that several of her 163 Lansinoh breast milk storage bags began to leak while defrosting:
I have in my deep freezer 163 bags of breast milk. I am a working mother and I rely on the frozen milk in order to ensure that my son can have breast milk while at daycare. Unfortunately I an having a problem with bags leaking. I have a serious problem with this because I pay for a product that is supposed to freeze and store milk. The bags are not much use if they leak half the milk they store while they are being thawed. As a Military member who constantly has the possibility of deployment, having a large stockpile of milk is more important to me than most. Every bag of milk that I have in the freezer is one more meal that my son will not have to come from a can. More »
Trove Offers To Pay Medical Bills After Their Wine Triggers Acid Reflux
—>We approach wine in a bag in a box with great caution. So does reader Karl, who only purchased a box of 2005 Trove Chardonnay from his local Kroger supermarket after reading uniformly positive reviews. The wine was so acidic that it triggered acid reflux that sent Karl running to his local doctor.
Bringing it home, the first glass had a bunch of sediment, and the wine was VERY acidic — my girlfriend didn't drink any of it because it burnt her throat. I, on the other hand, needing a good drink and possessing the intestinal fortitude of a bull, drank a few glasses. More »
BOSE: Customer Service Never Sounded So Sweet
—>I wanted to acknowledge something I thought was very cool. I purchased a pair of BOSE TriPort IE headphones about ($99) a year ago. The Silicone earbuds are interchangeable for different sized ear canals. After some use the earbuds fall off quite easily, and rip. I chalked it up to my frequent use and was planning on buying replacements. More »
Netflix Restores Confidence, Bank Account
—>Reader Josh sent us an account of Netflix's pro-consumer, 'just-say-yes' customer service that we have lauded in the past. Josh had asked to suspend his account until September 18, but Netflix unexpectedly reactivated his account on September 11, sending his bank account into overdraft. Josh called customer service to ask for an explanation and a refund. He writes: More »
Intermatic Replaces Your Functioning Timer Free Of Charge, As A Precautionary Measure
—>Reader Ryan installed an Intermatic Wall Switch Timer to control the lights on his porch, but was forced to reset the unit when the lights began to flash inexplicably. Ryan called Intermatic to make sure the problem wasn't indicative of a larger issue that could, say, burn down his house. He was blindsided by Intermatic's response. More »
DHL: Our Drivers Went Home For The Night, But We'll Deliver Your Package Anyway
—>Kyle expected DHL to deliver his package by 3pm. When DHL failed to show, Kyle called to ask for an explanation. Without any argument, DHL refunded Kyle's full shipping costs and promised to track down his package.
Well on rolls 4:30 and I don't have a call yet, at this point I am a tad frustrated. I call them back and tell them what is going on. The customer service representative is very understanding and calls the local office. Normally a company would put you on hold and get back to you with an answer. I was very surprised when he 3-way called the local office and told them what was going on. I was told that the truck had broken down. They said they were trying to get the packages loaded on another truck to continue delivery. Well it was getting late in the day so I prepared to have to wait until monday for my package. More »
Son Keeps Retired Mother From Boiling In Atlanta By Beseeching WaMu Executive Customer Service For Overdraft Mercy
—>"I'm not quite sure how my almost-septuagenarian, fastidious, wheelchair-bound, Social Security Disability-stipend mother did it, but she forgot to list a large utilities check in her register and managed to spend over $400 that she didn't have. For a total of TWENTY overdraft and NSF charges (at $32 a charge). Between the overdrafts, the unpaid checks (and the bounce fees on the payee side of the equation), she's managed to tally up more than $1800 in unforeseen debt in the last two weeks. She only gets about $1000 a month, and her last check was deposited before we knew how much trouble she was in, paying this emergency debt down to about $-330 in her checking account and $500 in outstanding bounced checks and fees, and leaving her no money for utilities and no friends or relatives to beg for help from..." More »
Leaky Mug? Contigo's Senior Engineer Can Explain The Problem And Send You A Replacement
—>Joe's auto-sealing Contigo mug wasn't working properly. Moisture was getting caught between the mug's layers, causing leaks. When Joe wrote to Contigo, he quickly received an unexpected reply from the mug's designer. Joe writes:
I've been using your Autoseal mug for a few months now, and have some quality concerns regarding the product. I've already owned two of them - I had to return the first one, and will now likely have to do the same with the second. More »
Dyson Sends You A New Vacuum Because You Broke Yours
—>Reader Daniel is overjoyed. He broke his Dyson vacuum and when he called to see if he could buy a replacement part, he found that it was too expensive because you have to buy one whole half of the vacuum. So he said, "No Thanks." More »
BC Credit Union Apologizes To Customer With Humble Pie
—>Paula wrote to BC credit union to let them know their website gave her inaccurate directions to a nearby ATM. Within a few days, she received a personalized apology note and a little something extra. More »
UPS Supervisor "Exceedingly Helpful, Concerned, And Very Proactive." Really? UPS?
—>Andro ordered several props on Wednesday that he needed for a seminar this weekend. He paid extra for 2nd day air, but on Thursday, he noticed an odd error on his package's tracking information: "LATE TRAILER. GROUND MOVEMENT CAUSED THIS DELIVERY DELAY"
Along with that, new delivery date on tracking page was listed as July 23rd, the Monday -after- my seminar. Alarmed, I dialed the 800 UPS line in hopes of expediting the shipping, or even upgrading it to overnight if possible. The first representative I reached was very unhelpful - I was told that 'UPS commits to deliver packages within set timeframe, but takes no responsibility for delays.' - I was told there's nothing he could do for me; an inquiry about his name or service number went ignored, and upon asking for call to be escalated, he hung up on me. More »
iTunes Support Is Music To Our Ears
—>We regularly receive emails praising Apple's customer support for the iTunes Store. Apple's standard, often proactive, response is to offer a flexible credit. Below is one story from reader Evan:
"I have read many horror stories online of the iTunes customer support department. I just wanted to share my excellent experience. I was attempting to use the Complete My Album feature, but I continued getting an error message. Here is an email thread from me to Apple."
More »
The Combs Company Supports Feet, Customers
—>Aaron's feet were irritated by the stitching on a pair of Rafters sandals that he purchased last year from Dick's Sporting Goods. Aaron tried to break in the sandals over the course of a year, but they still felt "like needles" in his feet. Aaron sent an email to The Combs Company, maker of the sandals:
I am just writing you folks because I am rather disappointed with the Rafters Sandals I purchased from Dick's Sporting Goods approximately one year ago. When I tried them on at the store, they seemed like very comfortable shoes for the summer months. However, my first extended period of wearing them, I have realized that the stitching for the leather panels (the ones located directly below where the feet rest) are very irritating, to the point where if you walk for even a short period, the stitching feels like needles in my feet. More »
JetBlue Pilot Refuses To Return To Gate, Fights To Keep Flight From Cancellation
—>"Hello, I've been seeing all these negative stories about airlines on your site, and I just thought I would share 1 positive one. Well, I have been flying jetblue since 2001, even before they had the TV's installed in their planes For years, I have taken jetblue only, but recently they have been pretty hit or miss, really disappointing. More »
Did A Continental Flight Crew Order Pizza For Grounded Passengers?
—>Sam's Continental flight from Massachusetts to New Jersey touched down at a remote airstrip to refuel after bad weather forced his plane to circle for over an hour. After two hours on the ground, the flight attendants made a surprise announcement... More »
5 Business That Were Nice to Us Lately
—>5) Anata Jones at the Hilton in Fort Wayne, IN made us an awesome omelet. She talked to the eggs and coaxed the omelet into folding perfectly without breaking. More »
Sierra Nevada's Cool, Refreshing Customer Service
—>Marty recently bought three cases of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for his wedding, only to have his fiance discover that the beer had been bottled almost two years ago. Marty would never serve his wedding guests skunky beer. We would have returned the beer to the store, Total Wine & More in Alexandria, VA, but Marty decided to call Sierra Nevada. Their response, after the jump... More »
ShopLego.com Gives Customer "A New Hope"
—>ShopLego is super nice about sending you out new Legos for free when your mail truck plunges into a gorge, writes Anne: More »
Dear OXO, XOXO
Mustafa's OXO Soap Squirting Palm Brush broke less than a year after purchase. The once-shiny bristles not only fell out, but the entire bristle assembly cracked in half. Mustafa called OXO and asked for a replacement.According to OXO's Satisfaction Guarantee:"We guarantee everything we make!
More »
Sprint Sets Up Consumerist Reader Executive Customer Service Hotline
Sprint has set up a special phone number directly to the executive customer service queue just for Consumerist readers. Use this number
1) For good
2) If you have a major problem with Sprint
3) After you have communicated with at least two different customer service reps and asked to be escalated to a supervisor at least once.Magical number, inside...
Hotels.com Succeeds Where Priceline Fails
—>Jim traveled to Miami to pick up a car he was importing from abroad. He booked stays at several hotels through Priceline and Hotels.com for the drive home, but when customs wouldn't clear his car on schedule, Jim needed to change his plans. Priceline didn't help, but Hotels.com did.
Ginger from customer care took my call. I explained my situation and let her know that I was aware that these cancellations were last minute, but asked if there was any way to cancel or get a voucher or possibly reschedule. Right away she told me that booking for the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel had a no cancellation policy, but offered to see what she could do. *Bonus* Before putting me on hold she let me know that it may take a long time, but reassured me that if I hung on she would be back. She was back about 5 minutes and told me that she was able to cancel the Sheraton and give me a full refund. She put me on hold again to look into the booking for today. A few minutes later she came back to let me know that she was able to cancel and refund that booking as well.
Jim's full story, after the jump...
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J.W. Marriott Saves The Day
—>Eric flew from Portland to Washington to give a presentation, but forgot to bring the DVI-VGA adaptor needed to connect his MacBook Pro to his client's LCD projector. Eric caught the mistake at the Portland airport, so he looked up the number of his hotel, the J.W. Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue, and asked for their help.
The operator was very patient with me as I quickly summarized my situation. She connected me with HD at the Marriott's Audio/Visual Department. I spoke with HD regarding my rookie Mac mistake. HD informed me that one of their staff would go out and purchase the cable for me.
Eric wasn't staying in the Presidential suite, nor was he a VIP, even though he was treated like one. The adaptor he found waiting for him at the front desk bore a J.W. Marriott sticker, and was lent to Eric free of charge. "I think their idea was that they probably needed that cable anyways and if they could help a customer out then it was a win-win situation."
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Go Big, Go Gnome, Go Glarkware
—>Josh tried to buy his girlfriend a "Go Big or Go Gnome" shirt from Glarkware.com, but they sold out before they could ship the shirt. Leah from Glarkware emailed Josh and offered to either issue a refund, or send a different shirt. Josh picked out a different shirt, but come on, what could replace a "Go Big or Go Gnome" shirt? Right, nothing. More »
Kensington Sends Free Replacement Of Discontinued Trackball
—>Kensington customer service is nice. George searched all up in the internet's biznatch but could nay find another trackball just like the one he had. More »
Streamlight Flashlights Keep The Torch Burning For Lifetime Warranty Service
—>Kristoff got a Streamlight flashlight from his cousin but the switch wasn't working quite right. More »
Lights, Camera, Great Customer Service
—>An anonymous reader, who we'll call J, had an upsetting experience at a Movie Gallery in Orlando. J dropped five movies into the after-hours drop box at 9:30pm, thirty minutes before the store was scheduled to close. The next day, late fees were charged to J's account. More »
eVGA, A-OK
—>'Omaha Corrections Guy' purchased two 256MB eVGA 7900 GT video cards. He was reveling in his "SLI-fueled gaming joy," which can only be enjoyed with two video cards, until he began to notice artifacting, explained below:
I can't game for 20 minutes without spikey jagged graphical flickering obscuring my view. I finally get annoyed enough to start fixing the problem. Evidently, 7900 GT's, such as mine, are now notorious for memory problems which are causing (gasp) artifacting. They're being RMA'ed left and right. So I pull out one card, test the remaining 7900 GT...yup, it's....artifacting. I pull out that card, put in the other one...it's fine. Ok, this is workable, I can still play on the one card while I send back the other for replacement.
The replacement that arrived was not the 256MG 7900 GT he sent away.
More »
Publix's "Awesome Response!"
—>Red_eye and his wife shop at Publix, but the ATM outside the store seems to break on a weekly basis. He asked Publix to look into the situation:
Hello, More »
A Cautionary Note Regarding Above And Beyond
—>Above and Beyond highlights exceptional and extraordinary acts of service performed by individuals. Several emails and comments have misconstrued our posts as tacit endorsements of the featured companies. They are not. More »
Above And Beyond: Southwest Melts Customer's Heart After Deicing Snafu
—>Dan's family changed planes in snowy Chicago while on their way to sunny Orlando. Before taking off, their Southwest flight spent three hours awaiting deicing on the tarmac. Dan's family took the delay in stride.
The pilot kept us informed (he even said at time he would pull back into the gate if we were there much longer) and the flight crew were very helpful and understanding. No one got upset, we all just tried to make the best of it.
After returning from Orlando, Dan did not complain about the delay to Southwest. That did not stop Southwest from apologizing...
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Above And Beyond: Baseball Edition
—>Tom attended opening day at RFK Stadium to see the Washington Nationals, but couldn't get a hot dog. What is baseball without a hot dog? Is that cricket?
At no point during the game were the lines shorter than two innings. When I tried to go back in the 7th, there were hotdogs, but no buns. Who the fuck orders more hotdogs than they order buns? I mean, I get that they come 8 buns to a pack, but 6 dogs to a pack, but the solution here is to use combinatorics, a word which I alone learned on Square One back in the late 1980s, and come up with an equal fucking number of hotdogs and buns. Folks, this is not rocket surgery. It's fucking concessions. Owners were supposed to fix this situation, not carry it forward. Yet, this opening day, much like the previous two, have brought concession lines that were unacceptably long, and concessions unable to cope with the demand of a full stadium.
Tom forwarded his concerns to Stan Kasten, President of the Nationals. Stan's response, inside...
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Above And Beyond: Stikfas Restores Ailing Dragon To Health
—>Paul's Stikfas dragon looked "sad and kind of pathetic" after losing the joint connecting the dragon wing to the dragon. Though television tells us dragons are sturdy and difficult to defeat, we cut this particular dragon some slack because it was guarding a desk, not a 'high value target' like a princess or castle. Paul was upset because "what's a dragon without wings?" More »
Above And Beyond: Smartbargains.com Helps You Sleep Well At Night
—>Stephanie was dissatisfied with a set of 1200 thread count sateen sheets she purchased from smartbargains.com. After "a few" washes, they felt more like a set of 800 thread count sheets she owned. Stephanie wondered if perhaps she had received the wrong sheet set, one with a lower thread count. She wasn't sure, so she wrote smartbargains.com a letter. More »
Above And Beyond: Verizon?
—>Verizon actually helped someone. His name is Matt, and he lives in Texas. Of course, he might be a fiendish undercover Verizon mole hiding behind a normal-sounding name. "Matt" claims to have purchased a Treo 700p on eBay, which was quickly felled by a faulty memory chip. Matt brought the paperweight to one of the notoriously unhelpful Verizon stores, where he got... help?
He said they didn't have any 700p's in stock, but he could offer me a 700w, the Windows version. I said no thanks, I want the same phone. He apologized profusely, told me they could ship me one, and that I'd have to talk to someone on the phone. He dialed a number, handed me the phone, and a customer service guy took all my information. He told me they'd ship me a new phone and a prepaid address label — all I had to do was send the broken phone back. "How long will it take?" I asked, expecting to hear "7-10 business days." More »
Above And Beyond: Here's Looking At You, Casablanca Fan Company
Cheers for Casablanca!There is nothing about Arthur's story we don't love. The quick service, the free replacement, the fan older than us that is still going strong. Casablanca Fan Company, we congratulate you.
— CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
Above And Beyond: KitchenAid's Sharp Customer Service
—>Despite proper care, Hexum2600's 4.5 inch KitchenAid Santoku knife began to rust four months after purchase. Hexum2600 sent KitchenAid an email.
"I explained that I have purchased a lot of KitchenAid small appliances and other products and that this was the first that I had a problem with. I said that I was disappointed because I had purchased this product from them without researching the quality of the product or reading any reviews on it based on my continually positive experiences with their company."
KitchenAid's response, inside...
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Update: Micro Center Funds Spurned Gigafast Rebate
—>Micro Center has funded a rebate offer abandoned by consumer electronics manufacturer Gigafast. Reader Mitch received the good news from rebate-processor OnRebate.com.
Although Gigafast Inc.'s unresponsiveness to OnRebate's repeated funding requests has delayed your rebate we are pleased to inform you that the above rebate claim has been funded by Micro Center. Micro Center wants to be sure that their valued customers receive their promised rebates and has arranged to fund the Gigafast rebates. This extraordinary gesture will allow OnRebate.com Inc. to issue payment to you in a prompt manner.
This incident only ends well because of Micro Center's exceptional and unexpected intervention. We implore you, do not purchase products because of a rebate. All together now:
rebates are scams.
— CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
Above And Beyond: Etymotic Keeps The Music Flowing
—>Reader John's $150 ER6i headphones broke over one month out of warranty. He sent Etymotic an email.
I have a pair of ER6i's with a loose connection in the miniplug. They are out of warranty by a few weeks (I bought them from BH Photo Video February 2nd 2006). The sound to the left earplug goes completely out until I tweak the wire going into the miniplug a bit. What will be the cost of getting these repaired?
Etymotic's surprising response, inside.
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Above And Beyond: Home Warranty of America
—>We didn't know homes had warranties, but according to Brad, they do, and they rock. Brad's house came with a warranty provided by Home Warranty of America. He has used them three times, "and they've blown me away each time." Brad's heater "decided that heating just wasn't its bag anymore." A serviceman examined the heater and warned it would soon break. When it did finally quit, the serviceman wasn't available, so Brad called Home Warranty of America.
[The] lady I spoke to not only sympathized with my plight, but actually had me hold on the phone while she looked up and called another service company to verify they could take care of me right away. Not 10 minutes after I got off the phone with HWA, I received a callback from the A/C service company, and they were at my house within the hour.
We might not caution against warranties if they all provided this level of exemplary service.
More »
Above And Beyond: Pur Customer Service
—>Pur surprised reader StructuralPoke by sending him a free new aerator for his faucet-mounted purifier. He expected some charge to replace the broken part, which he couldn't find listed on Pur's website. After filling out a form on Pur's website, he received the following response:
I am sorry to hear of the problem you had with our product. The quality of our products - their content, performance and packaging - is very important to us. We have many quality control checkpoints along the manufacturing line because we want each of our brands to be in perfect condition when purchased by our consumers. I'm sharing your comments with the rest of our team. More »
Above And Beyond: Eddie Bauer Won't Leave You Out In The Rain
—>An Eddie Bauer in downtown State College, Pennsylvania replaced Anne's pricey old umbrella without any charge or hassle. Anne purchased the umbrella several years ago, and was assured Eddie Bauer would "take care of it" if anything went wrong. In accordance with Murphy's law, the umbrella broke one rainy day.
When I get to the desk, I proffer it and say that it's broken, and that I was told that they'd deal with it, but I don't know if that means that they'll fix it, or send a replacement, or what. The girl checks with her manager, who's standing right next to her, but is on the phone. The manager interrupts her phone call to tell me to go pick out another one. They don't even look at it to see if it's actually broken. More »
Above And Beyond: Disney Makes Canceling Easy And Fun!
Disney: "Thanks for calling"Mike writes, "I love to go off on bad service more than most because of my job, but here's to your frozen head in jar Walt, that rocked."
More »
Above and Beyond: 1-800 CONTACTS Restores Vision, Faith in Customer Service
—>1-800 CONTACTS restored Kim's vision, and her faith in customer service. Kim ordered four boxes of contacts, but received the wrong lenses, a fact she discovered when she tried them on and the world went fuzzy. "Way fuzzy. Like more more fuzzy than with no contacts at all."
So I started comparing my old boxes to my new boxes and discovered that while the power of the lenses was correct, there was a plus sign (+) on the new boxes and a minus sign (-) on my old boxes. The order form had a plus on it so whoever fulfilled the order (probably a machine since the boxes are bar coded and we use a similar boxing system at my company) did their job properly. I came to the awful realization that I had filled the order form out wrong. It was all my fault and a fairly expensive $200 mistake.
Ouch. Kim made the mistake, so Kim should pay for new lenses, right?
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Above And Beyond: Office Depot CSR Saves The Day
—>Michael would have lost an incredible deal on laptop memory were it not for an Office Depot CSR. He was prepared to pay $139.99 for a 1GB stick of Kinston PC2700 RAM; when he added the RAM to his cart, the price plunged to $39.04. Michael verified the price with Office Depot and purchased nine sticks.
To my dismay, however, the store called me [the next] morning saying that they would not be honoring the price. I asked why she and she said "I cannot let that many go at that low of a price." So I start politely arguing with her and insist that she honor the price, she settled on one and she would give me free shipping to my house. Well I figured I was getting hosed but at least I wouldn't have to drive and get it.
Free shipping does not make up for the loss of an incredible deal. Michael called Office Depot, and to his delight, enjoyed "THE BEST CSR experience I have ever had!"
More »
Hell In A Bloomingdale's Handbag Turns To Heaven, But It Takes Steering
—>Jack was trying to replace the second of two defective Kate Spade handbags from Bloomingdale's. More »
Above And Beyond: JetBlue Recap Edition
—>(Disclaimer: The author owns JetBlue stock.)
With JetBlue back in the air, we wanted to commend their ability to make the best of a horrible situation. Before we do, Mark Ashley pointed out several weaknesses in JetBlue's Bill of Rights that we must first address. More »
Introducing Above And Beyond
—>Corporations don't work for us. They work for their shareholders, and even if you own a share, you can still get screwed. More »
