I think the only way that they could have accomplished this is that the sent the CD before you even knew you wanted it.
Then they planted subliminal messages on your computer so that your subconscious was forced to order it. Scary.
Archie McPhee has lightning-fast shipping.
Seventh Avenue catalog is great as well.
AT&T has been a great phone company. When I broke away from the family plan, when I realized that I had signed up for the wrong plan, when I wanted to change the add-ons to my plan, they were always very patient, accomodating, and answered all my questions thoroughly and without a hint of attitude.
Also, bodybuilding.com. Their selection and prices are better than what I can find in any store, the one time I called customer service (for something that was my own fault) they were extremely accomodating, and they have the fastest shipping of any place I have ordered from. Their STANDARD shipping usually arrives on the next day … I’ve even gotten packages on Saturday when I ordered Friday morning!
I swear to God it happened! Besides, they should have known I wanted it before I ordered it, because I’m nuts about the band.
Hasn’t happened again, but I’ve never had a problem with Amazon (be it US, Canada, or UK) delivery times.
There’s a local teriyaki place called Love Love. Chicken and beef are their hot sellers, so you can get that immediately, as there’s always some being made. Pork, on the other hand, takes about 15 minutes to cook to order, but that’s my favorite. I go there maybe once a month during the lunch rush hour. All three servers, when they see me in the back of the line, will give me a questioning look. If I nod, they’ll holler back to the kitchen to start an order of pork cooking, so it’s nearly ready by the time I get to the head of the line.
It’s great to have your usual order remembered, but it’s even better when there’s an advantage to it. 
A while back I bought a Clairol Natural Instincts Shine Happy hair treatment on a whim when I was feeling that I needed a cosmetic pick-me-up. I was underwhelmed with the results, and e-mailed Clairol telling them I was disappointed. The next day I got an overly-apologetic e-mail from them saying they were sending me $10. And they did! I was really impressed.
On the same note, once I bought a box of Quaker granola bars and one bar had no chocolate chips in it. Out of curiosity, and egged on a bit by co-workers (I really didn’t care about the missing chocolate chips), I e-mailed them. They send me 2 coupons good for $4 worth of any Quaker product. I ended up getting 4 boxes of cereal on sale. I felt more than compensated- even a little guilty, actually.
Hmmmm. I was disappointed by this product, too. Never even thought to call them. Guess I should have!
I once bought a box of Lance Peanut Bars (basically, a thick bar of peanut brittle), and out of the box of eight, one was inexplicably moldy! I called the toll-free number, and they asked me to send back the moldy bar (on their dime) so they could analyze it. A couple weeks later, I got a dozen Peanut Bars in the mail, along with a letter saying that somehow, apparently, some lubrication from a manufacturing machine had gotten on the ‘bad’ bar. Go figure. At least they more than compensated me for the bad bar and my troubles!
I’ve also gotten great results from calling toll-free numbers to compliment companies! I called the number on the Freschetta pizza box to let them know that, once a week our family has frozen pizza for dinner, and so far, Freschetta was our favorite. Just wanted to let them know. A few days later, I get two coupons for FREE Freschetta products, and two more coupons for $2.00 off!
I just wrote to Emerald Nuts to say that I like their 100 calorie bags of almonds. My husband is mocking me mercilessly. We’ll see who’s laughing when they send me a coupon for nuts!
This is a small local company, but it’s the right time of year to mention it, and I don’t miss a chance to promote them, because this was so awesome.
Homestead Christmas Tree Farm in central Ohio. It’s one of those places where you go and cut down your own Christmas tree. We went there three years ago for the first time - brought the kids, took the wagon ride out to the tree farm, spent way too long picking out the “perfect” tree, brought it back to the barn on the return wagon ride. At this point, we realized that the tree farm does not take plastic. Checks or cash only. We were not prepared for this, which was just stupid on our part. We should have at least brought the checkbook. But we didn’t.
We were conferring about how best to handle this situation, and had settled on sending MrWhatsit with the car about 15 miles back up the road to the nearest ATM - leaving pregnant me with two small children back at the barn with our tree - when the elderly gentleman who had given us the tractor ride informed us that he was part-owner of the tree farm, and that he was sure we were good for the money. He told us to just go ahead and take the tree home, and then mail him a check.
MrWhatsit and I were kind of like:
:eek: Are you sure?!? :eek:
He said, sure I’m sure, you’re going to mail me the money, right? We said, you bet we are, sir. He said, well, then OK. So we took the tree home, and mailed a check in the next day’s mail. And then we even got a nice thank-you card from the guy several weeks later! I still kind of can’t believe that happened.
They have our business for as long as they are still around, I can tell you that much. And every year when we go back, the guy is still there and still remembers us. Best customer service ever.
DishNetwork has never let me down. The phone gets answered after two rings max. They have a very good automated system walking you through the most common causes of problems. Even better, it lets you skip steps you have tried already. When we had a problem with our replacement DVR, the person I got stayed on the line with me for nearly an hour trying things out, and, even better, didn’t insult my intelligence.
Ditto for AT&T. We had a very complex service change - changing our DSL from one phone line to another, removing the first one, and keeping our internet service with AT&T Worldnet to preserve my wife’s email address - which is our (common) last name, with no numbers of initials. I had to deal with several parts of AT&T, and they all were great, with the last guy telling me about a way to get a hefty rebate. We wound up with faster service for less money.
Our local Safeway has excellent checkers, most of them, who seem to be authorized to make things right - and who care to do so. They are a bit more expensive than the Lucky’s, but well worth it.
This summer, the engine in Airman’s car died. The mechanic we took it to replaced the engine, let us pay it off gradually and waited several weeks while a grant check was processed for the balance. We’ve since taken his car back for inspection and brakes, and the mechanic stayed late so we could pick it up without having to miss work.
My car is coming due for inspection in January, and since it’s an older car, it’ll probably need some work. I know where I"m taking it.
My favorite delivery-Chinese restaurant takes about 25 minutes, on average, to show up at my door with piping-hot food. I don’t care when I call; less than half an hour later, they are knocking on my door with food so hot I can’t even eat it quite yet.
One time I called an hour before they closed, and the lady (it’s always the same brusque, efficient older Asian lady on the pbone) said it might take over an hour to show up because they were so busy.
It took over an hour. They were already closed, but she called me back just to apologize and tell me that regardless of when I placed my order, they wouldn’t start making it til they had a delivery guy to drive it…so therefore it would still be hot and fresh when I received it.
It was an $18 order and when it did show up, it was as hot and fresh as she said it would be, and she discounted $10 bucks off it also for the delay!
I gave the delivery guy the difference on the discount and they still get my money at least once a week since then.
Nothing makes me happier than giving good people my money. 
Hope you plan on giving them a bin of cookies for christmas =) We always bake excess cookies at christmas and give plates of them to service people that do good jobs.
When I was in college, there was a pizza place that would take about an hour and a half to deliver…even though we were just down the street. On one occasion, they didn’t show up at all. So I decided to cut my losses and find something else.
Then I went to Pizza Luce. Their pizza was yum, and I learned they delivered to my area, so I decided to give that a try. They’re farther away than the other pizza place–not MUCH farther, but enough to make me think that this would affect their delivery time–but I’ve never waited more than 25 minutes for my pizza. Ever. I remember them telling me 45 minutes, and then actually getting the pizza in 20. I was very, very impressed. I now live out of their delivery area now, which makes me sad, but I go to the restaurant as often as I can.
I called the number on the bag of Cracker Jacks (that someone in the office gave me) to let them know that there were just 2 lonely peanuts in the bag.
The rep was very apologetic and I gave here the coding information so that the company could make adjustments. I told her that I didn’t buy it and that it was a snack sized bag from Halloween.
She asked for my name and address, which I gave her with no problem.
She sent me a $3.99 coupon for any Frit0-Lay’s product!
Amazing.
I wrote to Fisher Price explaining my dissatisfaction with a baby monitor I purchased. They sent me a certificate worth whatever the monitor cost–$50 or $60–good for any FP products. The only problem I had was that the Toys ‘R’ Us cashier had a lot of difficulty figuring out how to code it into the register to make it acceptable. She worked it out eventually, and I walked out with most of my two-year-old’s Christmas presents taken care of!
Yeah, Pizza Luce has pretty great service. Once my now-husband-then-boyfriend were sitting at home at about midnight. All the sudden there was a loud knock at our door. We were a little freaked, so we yelled through the door “Who is it?” It was a Luce delivery guy- but we hadn’t ordered any pizza. He was apologetic and asked up what we like on pizza. My husband said “Meat.” Dude told us he’d bring us a freebie and 45 minutes later he was back with the biggest, meatiest pizza EVER.
I consider Marathon Sports and not Disney to be the happiest place on earth. The salespeople were hired because of their knowledge of running, not because of their ability to punch buttons on a cash register, and they always spend a good, long time with me helping to find the right running shoes for my feet. I’ve had to return shoes even after I’ve worn them, and they still just want me to be a happy and healthy runner. For this reason, they get my business even once I’m in a shoe for a while and could potentially get it cheaper elsewhere.
I’d love to leave positive feedback for Apple and Logitech, but I can’t figure out how to just send them a nice e-mail. All of their options are for people who are upset about something!
I had bought two Jansport backpacks ( brand new) at a garage sale for $1. One of them had a zipper issue. So I contacted customer service and they gave me info on how to send it back for repair.
I had it back within two weeks. That really blew my mind.
I’ve always had excellent luck with Knitpicks, for all my knitting spasms. Chinaberry for kids books. Isabella for different female stuff.