Here's Philip's tale of amazing customer service:

Today I witnessed what has to be some of the most outstanding customer service ever offered.
 
This past Saturday my wife & I purchased a large amount of garden furniture at Costco. One of the items was a marble topped table and chair set. When we got the pieces home we discovered that the table top had a flaw and there were critical pieces missing from the hardware. Compounding the problem, we had returned the rented truck we used to move this very heavy piece and no longer had any help either. My wife called the store to find out what our options were. Steve called her back and said that he would come by our house Monday morning with a complete replacement set of furniture.
 
True to his word, Steve and Jay arrived Monday at 11am and proceeded to unpack a new tabletop. The replacement was also slightly marked but not as deeply as the original and a little time and elbow grease had it good as new. We then started searching through the new boxes for the missing hardware. Eventually, we all agreed the hardware was not shipped either with my original purchase and the replacement they brought out. With the Costco guys standing there, I contacted the manufacturer and was told I would have to fax a receipt and to expect a 10 day turnaround for their missing hardware!
 
At this point Steve and Jay said this was not acceptable to them and they headed off to Home Depot to see what they could source themselves. They returned about 20 minutes later with a bag of parts and proceeded to assemble the table perfectly. In all the process must have taken at least 2 hours and they would accept nothing but a glass of water. We now have a beautiful table in our backyard.
 
I really can't thank Steve, Jay & Costco enough. We have always been big fans of Costco but this really went above & beyond.

Benny writes:

18 months ago I bought 3 hard drives from Seagate. Very quickly, they began to fail under regular usage due to ye olde Clicke of Deathe. This last month, another drive failed with all of my iTunes data that I'd just transferred for safety. I located Seagate's Data Recovery department and found out that the bill for recovery starts at $1700, even for a home user. I then wrote to Apple's tech support and told them what had happened and asked if they could re-enable my purchases (which totaled less than $500 over a couple years). This morning I woke up to a great email from an Apple guy who re-enabled almost everything I'd purchased! The only omissions were some episodes of The Office, which isn't so bad considering the scale of the purchased amount.

Naturally, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Mark one up for Apple.

Back at the Wilderness Lodge resort, executive housekeeper Drew Weaver realized that trash from the Campanales' villa hadn't reached the industrial-size compactor yet. He and seven other volunteers donned protective clothing, emptied a parking lot bin and waded through bag after bag of rubbish to find the rings. And they did.
 
"That's not the first time we've gone through trash — oh, no," Weaver said. "We don't always find things. Many times we come up empty. But we didn't this time."

So I had an issue with FIOS - my router just seemed to go bad. I called in Friday night and spoke with "Eric" who confirmed that and set up a dispatch to get me a new router. "Eric" told me someone would be there between 8 and noon on Saturday. I got an automated call from Verizon around 9am asking me to call them regarding my "cannot connect" issue. I called back and got James at the Fiber Solutions Center. He wasn't sure why that call came in, but he took a look at my ticket and suggested I wait for the tech as it was still early in the window. His first act of awesome customer service happened when I asked about ordering new services. He said that department was closed, but he would have someone give me a call in about an hour, when they opened.

An hour later, phone rings, and it's James. He greets me by name and has someone from the orders department on the phone. He introduces us and then drops off. I was already amazed by that level of personal service.

Around 12:15p I started thinking about calling Verizon back, since it was now after my scheduled window. About five minutes later, the phone rings. It's James again. Again, he greets me by name. He tells me he was looking at my ticket again and noticed that the dispatch was not set up correctly. He apologizes profusely (even though he didn't set it up) and tells me they will have someone out there that day. He asks for my cell phone because he doesn't want to inconvenience me any more than necessary and tells me that we can leave the house if we need to - he'll have the tech call when he's 20-30 minutes out.

James amazes me again! About five minutes after I hang up with James, I get a call from a cell phone. It's the repair tech. He asks if we are home and tells me that he can be at my house within 15 minutes. He shows up about 10 minutes later, switches out the power adapter for the router, and we're in business! All in all, that level of customer service was amazing! Unfortunately, it's few and far between, but James certainly went the extra mile several times. He could have easily left it as the first call, and I probably would not have thought bad about him. After all that effort though, that man deserves a raise.. or at least a cold beer!

- Jeff

Drew write:

Hey guys!

I really enjoy your site and always love to see articles about companies going the extra mile. I thought y'all would enjoy this.

Background: I'm 24 and in law school. I was cruising through life when about a month ago I was diagnosed with cancer (pre-b cell acute lymphoblastic lymphoma). This has definitely put a kink in things but the outlook looks good!

For Valentine's Day this year, I bought tickets for Laura Beth (the girlfriend) and I to go to The Lion King when it came to Atlanta in April. On the day of the show, April 5th, I had been on chemo for three days and there was no way I was going to make the show. I tell her to take one of her girlfriends and they love the show, of course (it is pretty spectacular). On the way out Laura Beth stops by the show's management office to see if they have anything special that they could give her to bring me in the hospital. She tells her story about how her boyfriend bought the tickets for Valentines Day but now has cancer and is in the hospital and missed the show to these three girls who were described as "young and just married." They said they didn't have anything on hand but promised Laura Beth they would do something special.

Fast forward to this morning when DHL pulls up with a package. Inside is a Lion King coffee mug, sippy cup, t-shirt and note from someone at the production company. Pretty cool, huh?

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.

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.

He tells me that since they're open box he'll sell one for $99 which, IMO, isn't bad it was $30 off their normal price and $20 off Amazon's price...

So I bit. He headed off to find the remote and power cable, but he came back empty empty handed and expected me not to be interested. I told him I'd still buy one if he could go any lower since I had plenty of power cables and I've had a Logitech Harmony remote. So he took it down to $50.

Still missing an HDMI cable he was quick to recommend me one, but I told him no thanks and I'd just grab one off monoprice.com, which he said he was well aware of since he read about them on Consumerist.

I know Best Buy gets a pretty bad rap around here, but I've always had good experiences with my local store. So I just wanted to pass this along.

Thanks!

Daniel

1) The ends are covered in gold. Gold makes everything better. You should see what it does for bricks.
2) The price. The higher an item's price, the higher its quality.

Irregardless of your blunder, congrats on your successful purchase and the excellent customer service provided by the Best Buy associate who, by giving you the discount, might just as well have cut out his heart and given it to you on a golden platter. Don't be alarmed by the macabre imagery, BBY employees undergo special training that allows them to regrow their hearts overnight. That's how they're able to care so much.

Reader Eric says:

Consumerist,

This is why I love netflix. They had a shipping problem on monday. They didn't make excuses or just try to slide by. They fessed up, and without my even saying a word to anyone at netflix, I receive this prompt email telling me that they are sorry and are trying to make amends. This is an example of good customer service.

Eric

We're Sorry Your DVD Was Delayed

Dear Eric,

As you may have heard, our shipping system was unexpectedly down for most of Monday. We should have shipped your DVDs but were unable to. Your DVDs were shipped today, Tuesday, March 25th, instead.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. We will issue a 5% credit to your account in the next few days. You don't need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.

Again, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1 (888) 638-3549.

-The Netflix Team

The funny thing is, if they hadn't sent this, I would have never noticed a delay.

But I think it's important to recognize companies that are getting it right.

Thank you,

Brad

Got this message in my inbox today....apparently Netflix had some shipping problems and they delayed the shipment of my movie by one day. Big deal, right? I probably wouldn't even have noticed it, since I barely have time to watch my Netflix movies anyway. Well, Netflix still found it appropriate to give me a credit on my account because of the problem. Apparently they think that *they* should be the ones to be charged late fees, not their customers! Just another reason that I give them my business instead of Blockbuster.

Reader Ryan says:

This is great service. I wasn't even aware there was a problem, and yet they fessed up to it and gave me a discount that I didn't even ask for (or frankly, think was warranted). Good work Netflix.

Reader Elana says:

Sometimes it's nice to see a company do something unexpected. To be honest, I didn't even notice the shipping delay from Monday and wouldn't have. The movie was my husband's. He works odd hours and often doesn't
get to his movies for a week or more, so a delay is no big deal. We didn't complain or contact Netflix. Instead, I was totally unaware of the problem.

This morning, I received this message, the only notification I had of the issue. The approximately $.50 refund wasn't necessary, but it's appreciated!

Good job, Netflix.

(Photo:Marike79)

Microsoft Finally Makes Things Right [hawtymcbloggy] (Thanks to Michael!)

The bag contained:

• Legendary Edition Helmet signed by most-if not all-of the studio staff
• Halo 3 Soundtrack (two disc) signed by Marty O'Donnel (with "DO NOT ERASE!" written under his name)
• Bungie Jacket
• Bungie T-Shirt
  
• Halo 3 Messenger Bag
• Two Halo 3 Limited Edition Wireless Controllers (one covenant, one human)
• Halo 3 Faceplate and Skins for Xbox 360
• Four McFarlane Action Figures (MC, EVA Spartan, Brute Chieftan, Jackal Sniper)
• Halo Actionclix Preview pack (Target exclusive sticker on the front)
• Halo Actionclix Game Pack 4
• Halo 3 Wall Graffix
• Halo 3: Ghosts of Onyx Novel
• Halo Graphic Novel
• Halo 3 Wristband
• Halo 3 Hackeysack
• 
  

And finally, to the staff of Bungie Studios:

I cannot thank you enough for the outpouring of support that you have lavished upon me in the aftermath of the release of my story. Long have I known of your dedication to your fans and community, but I find this single act of kindness mind boggling. Apart from the fact that a few of you had signatures adorning my console, you had no involvement in what occurred. As such, you have far surpassed any response I could have anticipated. I don't think I could ever repay you for this.

Thank you all for what you have done for me. I wish each and every one of you continued success in your future endeavors.

P.S. Marty, I love the soundtrack, and I promise you that I will do as you've requested and not erase any of it.

Nathanial's full letter and more pictures of the swag are posted on Hawty McBloggy.

Bungie Unscrews Previously Screwed Gamer [Hawty McBloggy]
PREVIOUSLY: Microsoft Scrubs All The Valuable Signatures And Artwork Off Your XBOX 360 Case

I would like to tell you an incredibly positive customer experience, because I feel like there are so few out there.

In a renovation a few years ago, I installed ~25 expensive Lutron Maestro switches - they are these dimmers that slowly turn on and off your lights and remember the dimmer setting you left. Anyway, these are $30+ switches. Compare that to the 50 cent standard switch.

Regardless, three years after that renovation, a heavily used switch started to fail. Then another, and then another. Based on the pattern, I thought that about three more might go out on me. My house is almost 120 years old and I have original switches from when they first wired this house that still work to this day. Three years for a $30 switch was outrageous!

I packaged up my three switches and sent them to Lutron expressing my disappointment and my concern about the next three switches. I did not hear from them right away.

Much to my surprise, I got a phone call from a product manager at Lutron. He talked to me about my problem, and told me that they had a defect with some of these switches and that he would replace the three I sent and send another three for the ones I thought might go. He then asked me how many I had in the house and when I installed them. I told him I had about 25 and that they were all installed at the same time. He said that was interesting.

A week later, a package arrived in the mail. It contained 25 brand new switches! That's about $800 worth of product!

What's amazing to me, is that as an individual homeowner, my total lifetime value to Lutron could never be that much. How many renovations / builds does one person go through in their entire life? If I were a contractor or designer, sure, I'd potentially be of high value to Lutron. Nevertheless, they chose to serve their customer in the best possible way, and that to me deserves to be shouted from the mountains. Why do only squeaky wheels make noise? We should be sure to celebrate the great stories as well!

Peter

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

I called to verify everything but was given a conversion rate which was 1/8th higher than I expected. I quickly double checked my math and found no mistake. I started asking questions, like where did they get the Fannie Mae rate which was rounded up to the nearest 1/8th. The lady did not know where the rate came from just that her rate sheet said what it said. I then went above her to a supervisor and posed the question why was the rate being rounded up to the nearest 1/8th when the Fannie Mae rates are not rounded at all. She was puzzled as well and asked for the website that was publishing the daily rates I was seeing and told me she would look into this.

The next day I got a call telling me that they had redone their procedures/policies and from now on would be calculating their conversion rates how I was doing it. Oddly enough I was apparently the first person to ever question or notice this discrepancy. In the end we are only talking about $15 a month difference but the lesson here is to always do your research and only work with quality establishments.

The daily Fannie Mae rate can be found online here.

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

Since the trip was in five days, I bought the GPS through Amazon.com, where I could get it in two days without paying an arm and a leg for shipping. I ordered it Monday, it arrived Wednesday, but the box was an older box. It contained Version 6 of the topographic maps, rather than the 7 that was being bundled with the latest retail packages.

I called DeLorme support Thursday morning, in the hopes that there would be some sort of upgrade available. I very quickly got through to a live human in their home office in Yarmouth. I'd no sooner finished describing my purchase before she volunteered that I was eligible for an upgrade to Topo 7! I didn't even have to ask, she said it would go out Priority Mail that day.

I was quite pleased, but figured I'd better plan most of my trip using Topo 6, since I was leaving Saturday and the new version may not arrive in time. I installed it on my desktop computer, calculated the main route I'd be taking, and created mapfiles for the GPS. Saturday arrived, everything was packed, and we were just about to hit the road when the mail was dropped off. Sure enough, there was the new software! I tossed it in the laptop bag, figuring that I'd install it on the road, and tweak the maps from there.

Unfortunately, one thing I forgot to pack was the special USB cable the PN-20 uses (not a normal one, since the device is watertight). And it turns out, you can't create PN-20 map files on the software until it's synced up once with the device, to determine firmware version. D'oh! I'd never synced up 6 or 7 with my laptop before heading out the door, just with my desktop.

I posted to the DeLorme company forums, explaining the situation, and asking if there was any way to spoof Topo 7 into thinking it had already synchronized, since I knew the firmware version for my PN-20. I got a PM back from one of the customer service reps, saying that no, this was probably not possible. So instead, they offered to overnight a replacement USB cable to where I was on the trip!

Sure enough, a FedEx package soon arrived in Louisiana, containing not just a USB cable for the PN-20, but also 3 DVDs of pre-cut maps that were being shipped with the latest GPS units, making drive-planning vastly easier. Needless to say, navigating on the remainder of the trip became much more pleasant.

I felt vaguely guilty, since the problems were due to my forgetfulness. I figured the least I could do was tell others about how they went above and beyond to make sure a stranded customer could still use their product!

-Brendan

(Photo: Getty)

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

Inside were two bottles (~$20 each) of the discontinued oil and a really long apology saying how bad they felt that her favorite scent was discontinued and that they would pass on her disappointment to the people in charge of deciding what is sold. It was a a really friendly note, personal and genuine. The fact that they took the trouble to track down two bottles and send them for free (she had been happy to buy them) with such a nice note had us both feeling all warm and tingly the rest of the day (no easy task with the weather in Michigan these days). Anyhow, I thought that kind of service deserved a mention on your fine site.

Thanks,

Kevin

Ars Tech reprinted Microsoft's letter:

We wanted to provide you with an update on your order status. Due to some issues in our fulfillment center there remains a chance we will miss getting your Zune to you by February 14th. We are working hard to get your order to you as quickly as possible and we currently plan to ship your Zune within the next 3-4 days. Once your order is in transit, we will send you a shipping confirmation with a link for tracking.

Our goal is to provide a smooth customer experience for ordering, customization, and delivery. We sincerely apologize for not meeting that goal in this specific case. We will be refunding the entire amount of your order, which you should be able to see on your credit/debit card within 7-10 days. We hope you love your Zune and that you will accept our sincere apology.

If you have additional questions, please call 1.877.GET.ZUNE. For fastest service, press 5 then press 1 and have your order information ready.

The Zune Originals Team

Microsoft says "sorry" with free Valentine's Zune 80 players [Ars Technica]

She asked Newegg for help:

I sent two inquiries to the address they supply—rebate@astarelectronics.com—and still have yet to receive any response. Is there any way you guys could try to get their attention? I have copies of my submission, and it's done correctly. I have no idea why they won't get back to me. I'm hoping maybe they would pay attention to Newegg since you guys are their buyer.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. All rebates are issued through the manufacturers directly. However, as you are our valued customer, we have made an exception and credited you $20.00 back onto your original payment method since the ASTAR was bank up. Please allow your account approximately 3-5 business days to finalize the transaction and make the funds available. We thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation.

(Thanks to Andrea!)

RELATED
"Newegg Honors Canceled PayPal Promotion Transactions"

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.

Over the last few weeks I have been reconfiguring my home network and have contacted their customer support several times to change my settings, each time I was greeted by a competent employee who handled my request with ease. I finally settled on using an Apple AirPort Extreme and placed one final call to set it all up.

Now, because I am a lifelong Mac user I expected to hear "What is a Mac?" or "We don't support Apple products." Instead the customer service rep said it wasn't a problem and even shared some geeked out fact about the router that I didn't know. He made the changes needed to the account, I didn't even have to touch my keyboard or mouse. At the end of the call he offered to have a technician follow up with a call in an hour to make sure it was working. One hour later the technician called while I was happily surfing the web over my new wireless connection.

An amusing postscript to this story. Right after I had finished setting up the connection, an AT&T salesman comes to my door and I was able to give him an ear full of what I thought of his illegal wiretapping company. It was like icing on the cake. : )

In New York, customers tired of Time Warner, Verizon, and Cablevision can look to independent DSL providers like Bway.net. Frustrated residents of other cities can use DSLReports.com to track down their own local alternatives.

Local (Mom & Pop) ISPs [Broadband Reports]
(Photo: dailyinvention)

My grandfather ordered an engraved Tiffany silver bracelet as a surprise Christmas gift for my grandmother. He had custom engraving put on the bracelet, and had arranged for the bracelet to be delivered to my house about 2 weeks before Christmas. Two weeks after the order (when we should've received the bracelet), there was no bracelet. We gave it another week, and the my grandfather emailed Tiffany customer support. He received an automated response stating that because of the overwhelming Christmas rush, he needed to contact customer support via their 800 number. Of course, the 800 number was impossible to get through to also.

My grandfather, being the laid back man that he is, wasn't really angry, but he wanted to know what was going on with the bracelet. Tiffany customer service ended up calling him on the Friday before Christmas. As luck would have it, he was out fishing, and my grandmother talked to them, thus ruining the surprise. When he returned home, he was able to actually get through to the rep who called him earlier. She informed him that because of a Christmas rush they were not expecting, the bracelet would not be arriving before Christmas. To make up for the fact that they had ruined the surprise and would not be getting the bracelet to my grandfather before Christmas, they would be giving him the order FREE. He asked to clarify, asking if they just meant the shipping or the engraving free, but no, the ENTIRE COST of the order was FREE. Of course, he was blown away (after all, this is a $255 bracelet, plus the cost of engraving and shipping).

Tiffany ended up shipping the bracelet on Saturday, overnighting it to my house where I received it on Monday. There was no invoice or such in the box, so we were still wondering IF the bracelet was actually going to be free (with the final call coming from the credit card bill). Sure enough, when the credit card bill came that would've contained the charge, there was absolutely no charges from Tiffany.

So, it's nice to know that there are indeed some companies who want to keep their reputation that treat their customers well.

Bryan writes:

I have a Garmin Streetpilot c320 GPS unit. In November the internal battery stopped holding a charge, but the unit would work with direct power. This was only an issue when I started the car as it took much longer to acquire reception or if the power cord would get bumped which would occasionally happen with my stick shift transmission.

I knew that my GPS was out of the 1 year Garmin warranty, but I remembered that I bought it with my World Mastercard which has extended warranty protection. The claim process was much more involved than with American Express. After filling out all the paperwork and sending it to Mastercard, I got this response back:

As the claims examiner for MasterCard I have received and reviewed the documents submitted. The repair estimate submitted is for flat rate repairs. According to the Original Warranty you received with this item it was covered for defects in materials and workmanship for 1 year. I will need to see there was a defect in a part or in the workmanship of the item to extend your coverage.

The original warranty also shows there was no coverage for failures due to abuse,accidents,misuse or unauthorized repairs.

We need to confirm the failure of this item was caused by a defect.

Please secure an itemized repair estimate that will show what caused the failure, parts needed to repair and the final costs.

As shown in the Guide to Benefits this is required information for coverage under this benefit. I have listed the guide to Benefit information below.

Please forward the itemized repair estimate to my attention and I will promptly review this claim for coverage"

I contacted Garmin tech support to see how I can get a detailed repair estimate to complete my MasterCard claim. To my surprise I get this response:

"Dear Bryan,

Thank you for contacting Garmin International, I will be happy to help
you with this. The RMA number given you is for warranty repair. You
will not be charged for this. Just send your unit in with the shipping
address as indicated in the email.

With Best Regards,

Damon M
Product Support Specialist
Automotive Team
Garmin International
913-397-8200
800-800-1020
913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Damon M
www.garmin.com

I shipped the GPS and less than two weeks later a I received a replacement unit with a working battery. So I learned two things from this:

• 1. Garmin has some great customer service even through email.
• 2. I'm going to use my AMEX for all my purchases since their claim process is much easier and actually works to help their customers.

Reginald writes:

For Christmas, my wife bought me a lawyer bar hutch (Order XXXXXXXXXXXXXX). She also paid extra for delivery and setup.

The delivery company scheduled the delivery for between noon and 2 p.m. on 2007-12-26. I planned my day (including re-scheduling a family event) so that I could wait for the deliverers.

When I arrived home at noon on 2007-12-26, I learned that the deliverers had dropped off the piece 45 minutes earlier (and it was just pure luck that someone happened to be there to open the door for them). Furthermore, the setup was incomplete.

Needless to say, I was fuming. I called the Pottery Barn number that I had. The call service representative was nice, but apparently this particular call center did not handle this type of issue. She gave me a phone number in case I was disconnected, and of course, I was disconnected.

Unsurprisingly, I was livid and at that moment frankly not someone from whom you'd want to get a service call. Fortunately, I reached Jim. He was polite, sympathetic, and seemed generally concerned about my situation. More importantly, though, he solved my problem: He quickly reached the delivery company and had them return to complete the setup later that day.

What Jim did was great service. Then he provided stellar service. He followed up. He called me to make sure the deliverers had properly set up the bar. He also sent a gift card to compensate me for the inconvenience.

Too many companies view call centers as just cost centers and neither empower nor adequately pay their customer service representatives. But that kind of thinking is counterproductive in the long term: Every company makes mistakes, but great companies fix their mistakes and turn potentially disgruntled customers into their ambassadors.

And Pottery Barn, through Jim, showed me that it was a great company. Before this incident, I was ambivalent about Pottery Barn. The millions the company spent on advertising were mostly lost on me. Before speaking with Jim (and after the deliverers' mistake), I despised Pottery Barn. I planned on telling everyone in the world about how Pottery Barn ruined my Christmas. Then Jim intervened. I hate to sound so fawning, but not only did he defuse the situation, he solved it. I now will tell everyone how great Pottery Barn is.

I would like to thank Jim for his help. I also hope Pottery Barn shows Jim its thanks.

Reginald

No storewide announcement was made and the store ended up giving away groceries worth $4,000.

[Manager Kimberly Hall] said Donoghue did not consult headquarters before making his decision and said she has heard no negative feedback from the top brass.

"They just totally trust us to do what is right for our customers," she said.

It didn't appear to be a big deal to Hall. In fact, neither the store nor the chain sought publicity for what happened.

Whole Foods Shows You Can Get Something For Nothing [Hartford Courant]
(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Dear Dell Customer Advocate,
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....

He paused and continued to end the discussion on the warranty.

Well it turns out, within 15 days I began to receive a couple of Blue Screens of Death. I rebooted and everything was fine. A few days later I received the blue screens again, but this time, when I tried to reboot, the computer sat there with blinking lights. Within warranty period, I called Dell Support multiple times on this problem. The first time they suggested taking out the battery and holding the power button down for 30 seconds. This worked for a few days, but then the problem came back. At the next call they said to remove and reinsert the hard drive. This worked for a few days until we began to receive a "Hard disk drive 0 not found" error. I called Dell support once more, and they stated the warranty period was up and they could no longer help us. (This was on the 31st day.) I asked if it meant anything to them that I had called twice before with the same problem within warranty period, and they hung up.

I then purchased a new hard drive, hoping that it would help the problem. It helped for about a week, then the problem came back. I then purchased new RAM, hoping that would solve the problem. It did not help at all. Finally, I resorted to taking it in to a local computer repair shop. $300 later, they said they had no idea what the problem was. Their guess was "Overheating and chassis bending because of a Dell design flaw."

For the past year, I've been attempting to get the laptop working with different operating systems, hard drives, RAM, and etc. I've tried everything that I thought could help and nothing has. I realize that this laptop is far outside the original 30 day warranty period... but I did call during the warranty, and tech support acknowledged my problem. Apparently this means nothing to the Dell tech support department.

I've spent some time writing to magazines and tech blogs hoping that they could contact Dell and help make this right, but have received no reply. All I ask is compensation for a wasted $1100 on a lemon of a laptop. I hope that you read my story and take it to heart. Please reply.

Thank you for your time

After giving the customer support rep a reply with my service tag I waited... and waited... and eventually sent another email asking if she had reviewed the information. I then received this:

Thank you for contacting Dell Inc. I do apologize for any inconveniences that this issue has caused. I have reviewed your account. Is there a good time to contact you to discuss your issues?

If so please let me know and I will contact you when you are available to discuss your issues with Dell Inc.

It was looking promising! I gave them my number and never got a call after waiting about a week... This wasn't going to be an easy process. There was a direct number to this rep in the first message I received, so I called it. It went directly to a message... I left a message stating my problem and that dell should treat their customers better. I waited... and received no reply. I called again, and I actually got the customer support rep on the line. We discussed the issues, and she said she would look into what she could do and give me a call back within a few hours. Three days passed and I received no call. The next day I planned on calling and saying what I thought about dell's customer support. Right as I was about to call, though, I received an email saying:

Thank you for contacting Dell Inc. I do apologize for any inconveniences that this issue has caused.

I wanted to follow up and advise that I am watching the exchange order for you at this time. We have set an expedite request on the order to get it to you sooner.

However they are still building it, at this time.

If you have any questions and or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

I literally jumped out of my chair. With no warning at all, she decided she wanted to send me a new Inspiron! I went over to Dell.com and figured out my login details. Sure enough, there was a $1200 Inspiron 1420 in the build process set to arrive within a week of that day! I sent a reply thanking her and saying that this has completely changed my view of Dell as a company.

The Inspiron is arriving today after being overnighted to me last night. The specs are better than my original Inspiron, mostly because they don't even build Pentium Ms with 512MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive anymore. They decided to include Windows Vista Ultimate as a replacement for the XP Pro that was on the original laptop and a Core 2 Duo instead of a Pentium M. Needless to say, I'm very happy that I'll be able to sell the $300 Compaq I bought on Black Friday and use the a Dell that I've wished I could use since 2 years ago when it died.

Yay, is that like magic or what? The secret email address for the Dell Customer Advocates is Customer_advocate@dell.com. Have the Dell Customer Advocates touched your life in some way? Leave your experiences in the comments.

(Photo: groovnick)

Cable TV installers save 2 from burning building [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to Dan!)

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

I tried calling regular customer service who offered to refund my account but couldn't help me get another Wii. I emailed Executive Customer Relations at Amazon and they were able to get me another one without having to wait and get lucky again. I wouldn't have known to use that email address to get better service without your blog. So, thanks and happy holidays.

- Kyle

(Photo: funny strange or funny ha ha)

Of course, we tried to fight the city on this, but to make a long story short, we lost. To make matters worse, the city reversed its decision at one point, leading us to believe that they would pay for the repairs, then waited a month and decided again that they weren't responsible. All this time, we were drawing water from my neighbor's service, so his water pressure was terrible (as was all of ours) and there was nothing he could do about it. Thanks to the city's flip-flopping, we were finally able to get the repairs done just three weeks ago, after dealing with poor water pressure for over two months.

In speaking with other neighbors who had seen the same thing happen before, I was told that, in their experience, insurance companies typically don't cover this kind of damage. Nevertheless, I thought it was at least worth making a claim and seeing what happened, so I called USAA (of which we're members because my wife's grandfather was an airline pilot), and to my great surprise was immediately told that it was covered (minus our $500 deductible). We relievedly faxed in the plumber's invoice and waited for the check to come.

A week later (last Wednesday), we got a phone call at 9am from an agent named Lisa, who apologized profusely and said that USAA wouldn't be able to pay the claim, because (as I had initially expected) that kind of plumbing damage wasn't covered. Normally, I might have demanded to know why this differed from what she had initially told me, but she seemed genuinely distressed that she wasn't able to help us, so I just thanked her for letting us know and left it at that.

An hour later, Lisa called again. She told me that she hadn't been able to stop thinking about our case for the past hour, couldn't stand the fact that we were going to have to pay so much money for something that wasn't our fault and seemed like it should be covered, and was now determined to get USAA to pay our claim. I was a little stunned, but told her I really appreciated her extra attention to our case.

We didn't hear back from Lisa for hours after that, and I was starting to figure she had just given up and moved on. At 3:30pm, though, she called back, sounding practically ecstatic: USAA had agreed to pay our claim, and we'd be getting a $1,000 check in the mail in 3-5 business days. I asked her if she'd been working on our case all day, and she admitted that she had. She said that what made the difference in the end was telling her manager that we had been customers for 11 years and had never previously made a claim. In a world where most customer service reps are loathe to spend five minutes of their time on the phone with you, to have someone spend their entire workday on your account was pretty incredible.

We got the check in the mail yesterday, and now I'm wondering how to thank an employee of a company who went so far above and beyond the call of duty because she felt personally responsible to set things right. It certainly wouldn't have changed things for her one bit if she had simply followed standard procedure and denied our claim - in fact, that was surely the politically safe option. I'd like to at least send her a card, but what would really make me happy would be if her great service were to give USAA some good publicity in the form of a Consumerist post about this story. :-)

Matt

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!

(Photo:Rick Takagi)

Needless to say the theater emptied as if someone had yelled Fire! After less than 2 minutes the movie was stopped & we returned to the theater to sit through more coming attractions and finally BEE Movie. Now between the two movies a manager & two other workers came into the theater apologized over & over and handed each person in the theater 2 Free Passes 1 Free Coke & 1 Free Popcorn coupon. WOW I think they handled the situation tremendously.......Kudos to the AMC/Framingham. Also, on the way out of the movie the manager was waiting, apologizing again & handing out free BEE Movie posters. How refreshing........Congratulations AMC on a job WELL DONE!!!!

-William

Well if you have a child (mine is 4) you know having a portable gaming system can make things like Doctor visits and trips to the DMV a lot less fidgety, so I called up Nintendo with Visa in hand ready to shell out at least 80 or 90 dollars. After being on hold for all of 20 seconds a very nice gentleman answered, and asked why I was calling. I explained that my son's DS would not power on and before I could go any further he asked me to provide me with the serial number and after looking up my information (I register all my Nintendo products online) he told me that they would be sending me a replacement DS and all I had to do was ship the old one back to them, they even provided a shipping label. Already happy beyond belief I was even more surprised when they sent it 2 day UPS air!!!! GO NINTENDO! I have had returned my Xbox 360 7 times for repair and never received treatment anywhere near that nice.

(Photo: mightynine)

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.

She was bagging my purchases when she saw the coupon (after I had already paid by credit card.) She removed the coupon, reached in the drawer and handed me a dollar bill. It's my neighborhood store that I've been going to for years and, I guess I don't have to add, I will continue going for years to come with thoughtful service like that.

(Photo: mattieb)

I wrote to Incase asking of I could buy another strap:

"I have a silver case for my 17 inch MacBook Pro - my dog has chewed through the strap. Can I order a new strap?"

I didn't hear anything for a while and then I got this email:

Hello John,

Thank you for contacting Incase Designs Corp. I'm sorry it took so long getting back to you about a replacement strap. Incase does not currently sell replacement parts, but I have found a shoulder strap for your Platinum Nylon Sleeve here in our warehouse. I can send it to you at no charge. I will need a physical address to mail it to.

Again, I apologize for the late response, I actually thought that I did let you know I would look around, but I have checked my "sent" emails and could not find one, so hopefully I am not too late.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns and I promise that I will respond right away.

Sincerely,

Linda
Incase Consumer Support Specialist

Despite the stuffy corporate opening, Linda's response was perfect: she was apologetic, sincere, and offered more than reader John requested. All this without even seeing the picture of the cute dog.

Zaz Lamarr meant to return some shoes to Zappos, but her mom passed away and, naturally, she just didn't have time. Zappos arranged to have UPS come pick up the shoes—and then sent her flowers:

When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn't received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I'd send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn't have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That's going against corporate policy.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I'm a sucker for kindness, and if that isn't one of the nicest things I've ever had happen to me, I don't know what is.

I Heart Zappos [ZazLaMarr] (Thanks, Spencer, Nicole, Tab, Kim, Karen, Michael, and Cheryl!)

I clicked the link for a third-party website to order the part I needed to repair it myself. Unfortunately, they didn't list my reel. I went back to the Quantum Fishing website and called their 800 number. To my surprise, a computer didn't answer, but a sweet woman named Mary did. I explained what happened and that the other site didn't have the part, so she looked it up in the computer. While she was looking it up we talked about the weather, being outside, and other pleasantries. Turns out that particular model is a Bass Pro Shops exclusive, so they didn't carry the parts for it... in their catalog at least. I thought I was out of luck and would have to just buy another reel, but then she did the really unexpected. She said, "I bet even though it's not in our system as something we repair, we probably have a few lying around in the back service department warehouse" and she would check. Next thing I know, she takes my name and address and says I'll have it within a week. Just as I was about to ask her if she needed my credit card info, she said "and that will be no charge, thanks for using Quantum products."

I was amazed, and I'm now a Quantum customer for life. Had she not done that, I would have been buying a whole new reel. Or she even could have charged me for the part itself, and who knows how much that would have been. Thanks Quantum, and thanks Mary!

Quantum offered everything a customer could ask for. No annoying robotic menus, just a kind, helpful CSR who was able to solve reader Jay's problem. Customer service like that is a real catch.

That is nothing compared to the other night. We went to see "Balls of Fury" and found out we were the ONLY people who came to see it. Instead of canceling the show due to low attendance (or establishing a house minimum) the owner, Jerry, greeted us and talked about how he'll run the shows for just one person. He figures that if someone has planned their day around a movie at the Bijou then the Bijou should fulfill that plan. Also, even though we were the only two people in the crowd he still gave us the prize (medium soft drink and popcorn)! We left smiling and it wasn't because the movie was that good.

Ah, the heartland. Nothing rivals small-town person-to-person customer service. To us, family-owned businesses led by a gracious, good-natured owners were dreamt up by Madison Ave fluff-masters and bottled in 30-second segments; something rarely seen flourishing in the wild. Every business should strive to emulate Jerry's exceptional consumer-centric philosophy.

Bijou Movie Theater

Bang & Olufsen America, Inc. 780 West Dundee Rd. Arlington Heights, IL 60004 VIA FACSIMILE (847) 255-7805

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am the proud owner of a pair of Bang & Olufsen A8 earphones. I received this wonderful product as a gift last Christmas. I enjoy the earphones very much and I use them everyday. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the black leather case that comes with the earphones. I would be very appreciative if you could kindly mail me a replacement leather case, as I am a student and do not live close to any Bang & Olufsen store. You would have a very grateful customer for many years to come.

Regards,

Sharad

Hello Sharad:

I just received your fax and you are so in luck! By accident we received from Denmark a shipment of the cases which were supposed to go to a different country and because it would be so expensive to resend them, Denmark made the decision to leave them with us at no charge, so I can send one to you for free. I will be sending it to the address in your fax. Please drop me a line when you receive the case to confirm its receipt. It will be coming to you via UPS.

Yours truly,

Rolland Rahr
After Sales Service
Bang & Olufsen America, Inc.
Arlington Heights, IL

Hi All.

I just got home from work and found a cheque from Lee Valley in my post, apparently I bought a Kreg bandsaw fence from them, that has now had a price reduction in their new catalog and they have refunded the difference.

I must say that I have never before experienced such an extraordinarily good service (I had to sit down and think about it for a minute, because to me it's pretty unbelievable that a store I bought a product from, at a price I was happy to pay, had decided that I was due a refund and sent it without me even having to ask for it).

Anyway, a big thanks to Rob Lee and Lee Valley for their exceptional service to their customers.

Thanks for reading this...Graham

Hi Graham -

Thanks for buying from us in the first place...

Cheers -

Rob

Lee Valley A Very Pleasant Surprise [Sawmill Creek Forums]

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.

I think that your bags need to be made of a thicker material. Gerber makes a bag that is thick and does not leak (at least the few bags I have); however, your bags have the double zipper that I find very important which is why I only used the few Gerber bag. This, of course, was long before I was aware of the leaking problem. My question now is, what do I do about the bag leaking problem, and are there thicker bags in your company's future.

Kymberly,

First I would like to extend my sincerest apology to you for the unpleasant experience you are having with our Milk Storage Bags. Thank you very much for notifying us of this problem. I can only imagine how frustrating and disappointing this must have been for you. This company was founded over 20 years ago by a breastfeeding mothers for the sole purpose of supporting breastfeeding and I am so sorry that one of our products has not only failed to make things easier for you but has created quite the opposite. It takes an enormous commitment to breastfeed, even more of a commitment to provide breast milk in your absence. To know that a product of ours has challenged you even further is a terrible thing for you and for all of us here at Lansinoh.

I would like to try and explain what might be the problem: Our biggest challenge is to make a bag that is strong enough while using a completely safe plastic. There are many types of plastic, most of which would be more pliable and more durable. Unfortunately, this plastic has components in it (called plasticizers) that could leach through into the milk. Only when using virgin plastic (which we do) can we be assured that the milk can be stored safely with no possibility of an undesired element being released from the plastic. Virgin plastic is more rigid and when the milk freezes, it places more stress on the plastic. The development of a breast milk storage bag has been a long and costly project for us, but we are determined to deliver a quality bag made of virgin plastic.

I would like to try and help you salvage the milk you have frozen now. I can get a supply of our bags sent to you for you to use to 'double bag' the milk you are defrosting so that if they do continue to leak, you can at least catch your milk in something sterile so that it does not go to waste. I just need to know approximately how many bags you currently have frozen. I would also like to send you an additional supply of bags to use going forward, or if you prefer, a refund.

Again, I am sorry for the trouble this has caused and if you have any questions or if I could be of any further assistance please feel free to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you soon."

Sincerely,

Machesha Hasty
Lansinoh Laboratories
Consumer Relations

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.

The next day, I took myself off to the doctor's office. My acid reflux was so bad that I needed to seek medical attention.

Since I'd read such good reviews, I was amazed to find this bad of a product. I filled out an online form on their website explaining the problem. The next day, a woman from Trove contacted me and offered to send me a check for the amount I'd paid for the wine, a prepaid shipping box to send them the bad wine in, and if I needed to I could file a claim for the doctor's visit. Since the latter didn't cost me anything, that wasn't a problem ... but I sure do appreciate that the company took time to give individual attention!

Why don't other companies get this?

Why not indeed. BOSE did everything right. Not only did they respond to customer feedback, but they did so without prompting. Companies occasionally replace defective parts, but usually as part of a class action settlement reached after years of litigation that vastly outlives the life of the product. Even more impressive, BOSE is also planning to send a complimentary accessory kit. Such excellent service is truly worthy of commendation.

In August I put my Netflix account on hold, my wife was starting back to school and things were *very* tight for that month. I arranged for the subscription to resume on September 18th, 3 days after payday, so that I could cover the $18.35 fee.

With the dollar$ in short supply I was carefully managing my savings account to keep it in the black. Well, imagine my surprise on September 11th when I discovered my account was overdrawn by $11.45. How could that have happened?

Oh I see ...And then to add to my woes, the bank had to charge me a $22 insufficient funds fee ...So I called up Netflix and explained the situation. "Yes" they agreed, my account was on hold, and "yes", I should not have been charged until September 18th.

I asked for an immediate refund to my bank account of the $18.35 and the $22 overdraft charge. I stated that I did not want the balance credited to my Netflix account, and that an immediate and complete refund was the only solution that would satisfy me. They agreed to refund the $18.35 on the spot, but were hesitant to pay me for the overdraft. After a few minutes the customer service rep came back on the line, apologized for the mix-up, and agreed to cover the $22 as well. They would issue the refund within 24 hours, and depending on my bank, I should have the money within a few days. I thanked him for "doing the right thing".

The balance was in my checking account the following day. Now this is customer service, this is how you keep customers.

p.s. As far as their initial mistake, I understand errors will happen and I can't expect anyone to be perfect. The fact that they so willingly owned up to it and remedied the situation before any further damage occurred made this this seem like an extraordinary customer service experience, when in fact this should be standard service for consumers across the board.