Even the biggest and scariest corporations employ compassionate people who put customers first. You just have to find them. David was lucky enough to find one such employee at Microsoft. He received a free Dell netbook after purchasing Office 2010, and set it aside as a Christmas gift for his mom. It was defective. David thought that the gift would be late…until a Microsoft employee went above and beyond, saving Free Netbookmas.

I know you probably get numerous hate emails regarding large corporations like Microsoft, but, in the spirit of Christmas cheer, I figure I’d offer a happy story.

Recently, Microsoft had a promotion where, with the purchase of Microsoft Office 2010, you received a complementary gift of a Dell Mini 1018 netbook. My mom has been complaining for a few months about her aging laptop, so I thought this would be a great deal.

I bought the package deal about a week and a half before Christmas online and received it with their free 2 day shipping. Unfortunately, the netbook appeared defective. The netbook ran fine, but when shook, you could hear a screw rolling around inside the case. I immediately called Microsoft support who informed me that they could send me a return shipping label for the netbook and, after inspecting it to make sure the netbook was indeed defective, they would ship a new one back to me.

Clearly, that would mean no netbook for Christmas morning. Fortunately, they elevated my call to the supervisor, Ron, who decided to bend the rules slightly by sending me a new netbook, free of charge, with my word that I would send my defective one back simultaneously.

Everything worked out perfectly and soon, my mom will be able to surf the web on her new netbook. Ron even called me after they received my defective netbook to confirm they got it and wished my family a Merry Christmas.

I hope you post this story to let people that know big, faceless corporations are still run by people who care.

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