Every week, the Pit is full of angry rants about incompetent companies, poorly trained employees, and shoddy merchandise. I just wanted to give a big imaginary cookie to companies who do what they’re supposed to, and do it well.
Netflix. I love Netflix. I want to have Netflix’s babies. If Netflix drives every Blockbuster Video in the country out of business, it’ll be only right and fair. I only occasionally get my DVDs on time from them- they’re almost always at least one day early. Reasonable prices, fast turnover of movies, an easy-to-use website that doesn’t even try to hide how to cancel the service, and when the neighbors stole some DVDs out of my mailbox, Netflix didn’t even make me pay for them.
Chammps. Chammps food is pretty good (they have the best French Onion soup on the planet), but what I like is their servers. They’re cheerful without being annoying, always polite, and very competent. And you can cut their chicken with a spoon, it’s so tender.
When my mom was working at a Sam’s Club back in the late 90s, a manager at a Sam’s in Texas was murdered while leaving the store one night. Every Sam’s Club in the country took up a collection and gave this guy’s wife a ton of money. I know it was at least 100k, maybe more (I’ll ask my mom next time I see her).
Virgin Blue. In the wake of the demise of Anset, they’ve entered the market for domestic Australian flights and have given Qantas a good run for their money.
When I can book a $99 (sale price) five hour flight to the other side of this country on the Internet, I’m well impressed.
Further, Virgin’s check-in flight staff are uniformly friendly and cheerful. They even make an effort to be amusing and witty in flight.
Another praise for Netflix. May Blockbuster burn for eternity in the flames of love generated by Netflix subscribers.
Land’s End rules. Their returns policy rocks the block, the quality of their merchandise is unfailingly high (which is refreshing in this era of shoddy crap made by sweatshop labor) and their customer service people are polite, funny, professional without being stuffy or pushing hard P-O-P sell tactics on you like some other catalog companies I could name. (Yes, Domestications, I’m looking at you!) Can’t say enough good things about Land’s End.
Wolf Films. What’s Wolf Films, you ask? That’s the television production company run by Dick Wolf, the man responsible for all of the various flavors of Law & Order. I love those shows. I will admit to having a few political issues with him, but darn if that ain’t consistently great TV.
Waffle House is good, you won’t find better road food or atmosphere. And I’ll second Amazon, I’ve been a customer since '97 and never had a complaint.
CiCi’s Pizza! All you can eat pizza for about $4 a person. It’s brilliant, and the pizza is pretty good.
The Kroger by my apartment. Clean, decent layout, and the staff knows where stuff is. If they don’t know where stuff is, they’re willing to wander around with you until they or you find it. And their prices are pretty good.
NewEgg.com is the best place, period, end of story, for computer parts. They win on price, selection, service, and speed.
I second Lands End, Southwest Airlines, Waffle House, and Cici’s Pizza. I’ve had nothing but great service, delivering exactly what they promise with a smile, from all of them.
Omaha Steaks – they have great meat, their customer service people are terrific and even when they call with an offer (which Papa Tiger asked them to do) and you say no they take no for an answer, and their shipping is almost always faster than expected.
Thanks for the correction. You are correct, I do know better. Sometimes I fear that I have been assimilated into Columbus’ neutral-vanilla culture a bit too much.
So, yunz from dawn’tawn an’nat?
MeanJoe - Who leapt in glee when Columbus, Ohio opened its first Gi’niggle last year. We now have 4 of them!!!
Garderner’s Supply Company. Good products, interesting merchandise (including giftable stuff) that is often hard to find elsewhere, and good clearance prices.
And here’s the kicker: earlier this spring I found that my water spouts for my reservoir planters were broken. I contacted Gardener’s Supply to see if I could reorder those parts separately, without buying new planters. The agent I talked to mentioned she didn’t have in my customer record that I’d actually bought planters from them, but she said she’d look into the parts.
I mentioned this to my husband, who reminded me that I was a dingbat and that we’d bought my planters from another place. I immediately contacted Gardener’s Supply to apologize for my goof. Then I contacted the other place where we had purchased them. They took forever to answer, and when they finally got back to me they told me I could reorder those parts for a fee. In the meantime, Gardener’s Supply had contacted me again, said they found the parts I needed, and they would send them to me. The parts were free and the shipping was free even though they knew I hadn’t bought the planters from them. Amazing.
