When you can’t get what you want from a company, there are many bad ways a customer service representative can respond. Ahem. But in a bit of refreshing news, one Airbnb employee recently showed just how good customer service can be, even while having to reject that customer. Warning: before you keep clicking: Two attractive men in a shower. No genitalia shown, but NSFW. [More]
good customer service
Nalgene Assumes I Made Mistake, Warms My Heart
By 1.17.14
The people who make Nalgene water bottles assumed that J. made a mistake, and J. doesn’t mind at all. “Empower every employee to make timely decisions and do what is right for our customers,” reads the note that the company sent along with his order. What wonderfully empowered thing did they do for him? [More]
Dyson Fixed My 5-Year-Old Vacuum For Free Without Receipt
By 8.16.11
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. [More]
Pizza Hut Cares, Offers Gift Card When You Misunderstand Survey
By 7.22.11
This is a story of a small thing going wrong during a pizza order, and a relatively small gesture from the company to make things better. No, it’s not a large, earth-shattering problem. Jay took a survey on the Pizza Hut web site, and wasn’t entered in the drawing that enticed him to take the survey in the first place. Why was that, he wondered? So he used some Consumerist resources and got on the phone. [More]
Simplehuman's Customer Service Is Simply Wonderful
By 6.2.11
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. [More]
Clarks Stands Behind And Replaces Leaky Shoes
By 3.3.11
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! [More]
Procter & Gamble Keeps Delicious Customer Service Flowing
By 9.1.10
David and Alan don’t know each other (we assume) but they have both recently had problems with their Pur brand water filters. Now, Pur is a brand from Procter & Gamble, a company not really noted for their attentive customer service. However, both readers had such positive experiences that they just had to share them. [More]
Fry's Exchanges Empty Box For Phone Without Batting An Eye
By 7.12.10
Talk about buyer’s remorse! Troy bought a new Wifi Skype phone from Fry’s. Upon opening the box at home he discovered that the box had all the accessories in it, but no phone. He girded himself for an epic confrontation when marched back to the store. Something involving shooting ball lightning and calling forth minions, but he ended up not needing any battlemage skills whatsoever. [More]
Geek Squad Agent Doesn't Have Time To Look For Multimeter, Let's Just Send Off Laptop For 3 Weeks Instead
By 11.11.09
The usefulness of Best Buy’s Geek Squad depends entirely on the competence of the employee you get when you go in for help, and unfortunately Scott landed one of the lazier ones. Here’s his sales pitch to Scott over a laptop that wouldn’t start: “It’s going to take at least 10 minutes for me to get the multimeter or another adapter. It’s going to be a problem inside the computer, let’s just send it in.”
Trek Bikes Demonstrates How To Handle The Occasional Bad Product
By 7.17.09
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.
Indie Music Retailer Wins Our Award For 'Most Delightful Shipping Confirmation'
By 6.11.09
A Consumerist reader (actually, several of you) e-mailed us the shipping confirmation message that is sent out by CDBaby, the ‘utopian’ online music site that promotes independent musicians (yet is partnered with Best Buy).
Don't Be So Shocked: Excellent Service From Citibank CSR
By 5.26.09
“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.
Paper Moments Understands Senior Moments, Reprints Cards For Free
By 5.3.09
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.
Trader Joe's Salmon Comes With Delectable Organic Free-Range Worm
By 4.24.09
Reader David was eating his dinner of Trader Joe’s Chimichurri salmon when he found an unexpected garnish: a rather dead and fully cooked worm. It was brown and roughly an inch long. He e-mailed the company, then brought the fish (and worm) back to the store for a refund. While the store supervisor’s handling of the situation was stellar, the reaction from Trader Joe’s corporate has been…nonexistent.
Carbonmade Quickly Responds To Error, Fixes It In Less Than 4 Hours
By 1.23.09
As the economy tanks, we keep seeing examples of companies cutting more corners on customer service, and especially becoming less cooperative when it comes to resolving a problem that involves billing. That’s why it’s nice to see a business not only respond quickly, but in favor of the customer. (It’s probably no surprise to you that it’s a small business and not a corporation.)
Restaurant Chain's Prez Mails Handwritten Apology For Botched Wedding Dinner
By 9.25.08
Consumerist reader MunkyBoi had a terrible experience at Tahoe Joe’s, where he and his fiancee held their wedding dinner. He tried to follow up with the manager of the restaurant, both to explain what went wrong and to commend the one waitress who saved the day, but the manager kept brushing him off. Finally he wrote a letter to corporate, and was surprised to receive a very personal response—along with a $250 gift certificate—a few days later. We’d love to know if that $250 came out of the manager’s profits.
Simplehuman's Excellent Customer Service Makes Other Companies Look Like Garbage
By 6.12.08
Pani just had an astoundingly good bit of customer service from aptly-named simplehuman—makers of those elegant-but-expensive trash cans—and wrote to let us know about it. Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and every cable, cellular, and telephone company, you might want to print this out and pass it around your CSR executive offices.
ProFlowers Screws Up Order But Refunds Entire Purchase
By 5.11.08
This Mother’s Day story is a bit of a mixed-bag—ProFlowers clearly failed to deliver the arrangement they sold to M., but they refunded him the entire amount of his purchase when he contacted them about the issue. It’s a “fail” for execution, but a perfect example of how to own up to and correct a wrong for your customer.
