Emailing a company about a product problem via their front-facing email address usually has about as much effect as wishing your way out of debt (just don’t tell the producers of The Secret). But Steve emailed Panasonic and instead of getting nothing or a generic response back, he actually ended up sending a series of emails back and forth with a product engineer who solved his consumer conundrum. Amazing! Here’s his story.

Steve writes:

So I received a Panasonic TH1211B Link To Cell For Christmas from my mother. It allows you to pair cell phones to home phone and vice versa. I couldn’t get the base to pair with either of the 2 iPhones I own. I searched the forums, all over the net, and couldn’t find much help, figured it boiled down to a bluetooth issue with the iPhone. Not one to give up, I searched around Panasonics website, and emailed the generic customer service, figuring I would never hear back from them and my request for help would end up in the abyss of auto reply never-ending emails, etc.

A week later, Kevin Crowley, a Product Engineer emailed me back, and we exchanged about 5 emails back and forth troubleshooting the issue. He upgraded and tested with their in house iPhone and swore it worked, he even offered to let me call him to work through the issues. I explained more of my issues and he ended up resolving the problem over email and my link to cell stuff works great.

I haven’t dealt with anyone in recent memory over email or phone from such a huge company, that actually helped me, and actually took the time to understand my problem. Maybe the fact that he is a product engineer and not customer service is the reason? Who knows, but I am grateful to Kevin at Panasonic, without him, my Christmas present would be in a box in the basement.

Cheers to you, Kevin Crowley, and the Panasonic front-line email readers who forwarded the message to him. You are customer service winners.

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