Good Customer Service

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Last month I bought a used Kitchenaid mixer for my step daughter, she has been off work while she battles cancer. She has taken to baking cookies and such for her kids school activities and all she had was an old hand held mixer. The Kitchenaid mixer worked okay except for a clicking noise and the power cord needed replacement.

I took it apart and found a gear with a couple broken teeth. I called Kitchenaid to inquire about replacement parts. While on the phone with a nice lady named Joan, I told her why I bought a used mixer. She was able to determine by the serial number that the mixer was about 18 years old and was way out of warranty.

She then stated with and audible “wink wink” that the part I needed was not available and that she would send me a replacement mixer instead. 3 days later I received a replacement (in pink too). I returned the old unit. My step daughter was thrilled with her Kitchenaid. Then last week I recieved a questionaire from Kitchenaid about my experience along with a coupon for $50 off any Kitchenaid mixer. I am now the proud owner of a professional series Kitchenaid mixer.

42

It’s nice to hear they have good customer service for their high-end products. I bought a set of scrubbing brushes (for the dishes; you know, sponges that automatically dispense detergent as you wash, etc.) One of the brushes broke the third or fourth time I used it (the plastic in the handle cracked completely, destroying the ability for the handle to hold detergent), one of the sponges fell apart immediately. I contacted KitchenAid, made my complaint, and heard nothing. I emailed them again, sending a copy of the original email, and adding that if they weren’t going to respond to my complaint, could they please at least advise me where I could buy replacement sponges for the handles? That time I got an auto-response that said something like “Thank you for your inquiry; a representative will contact you soon”, but no one ever did. I tried one more time, still got nothing, and gave up. At the same time, I vowed I would never buy from KitchenAid again, because their customer service sucked so bad.

But it really is nice to know that they’re not like that all the time! Nice job on landing a mixer! :slight_smile:

43

>Despite hearing the opposite, I’ve always had a decent time dealing with Verizon.
>I took my car to a local garage for a tune-up. They called me back and said they pulled the plugs, everything looked fine, so they recommend not getting a tune-up at this point, and there’s no charge.
>When I used to travel, I flew Northwest Airlines a lot (A LOT!). They had this habit of doing something stupid on almost every trip, to which I would respond with a well worded email. I swear they had a folder with my name on it that was a foot high. One time I show up at the airport for a trip, and found out I had booked it for the day before by mistake. The reservationist said there’s not much they can do on the outbound flight, and the new price would be like $700 more. I pleaded with her, saying I can’t miss the flight (business trip), and I can’t afford an extra $700. She got an associate to help, and together they spent about 20 minutes or so figuring a way to get me on the flight. When they were done, I told them how quick I was to complain, and how I wanted to get their names and send NWA the best letter of praise I could write. They looked at each other then said they’d appreciate it if I didn’t, because what they did for me didn’t exactly follow the rules! The one time I wanted to say something nice about this airline, and I couldn’t.

44

I went into my bank to deposit a check and inquire about switching back to paper statements because I’m too dumb to use the online banking and locked myself out. After askinig a few people she told me they couldn’t do it there but I had to do it over the phone, and gave me a special card with the number. While cashing the check (it turns out my atm card was expired and I hadn’t gotten a new one) she noticed I wasn’t earning any interest on my checking, and it was free to use one of the interest-bearing accounts, so she gave me a list of various accounts they had. When I went back two weeks later to deposit another check she said “Oh hi - did you get your new card yet?” !!! The fact that she remembered me after all that time was mind-boggling to me!

In more modern “good service”: we’ll be staying at the Wynn Casino over Thanksgiving and had never been there before so I tweeted them to ask if the rooms had DVD players or if the TVs had jacks to hook one up. Within two hours they responded that the rooms didn’t have DVD players but weren’t sure about the jacks and would get back to me. A few hours later they responded that the TVs did have jacks and engineering could hook up my player free of charge if I brought one.

On the writing to companies front, I once wrote to Bazooka as a joke because their comics still had “value one coupon” on them but didn’t have the little items you could order in the corner. I asked if there is some secret Bazooka catalog now to order from. They responded that the prize program had been discontinued, but hoped the free jumbo box of Bazooka (enclosed) would make it up to me. (!)

45

My wife and I registered for Denby mugs and plates for our wedding two years ago. Two of the mugs have broken in that time (presumably due to a defect and not through normal use). We were pretty disappointed as these were expensive quality mugs and should not have cracked or lost their handles.

I found a Denby brochure and called the US number on the back. I could tell it wasn’t a call center, but rather probably just one lone girl answering phones over the weekend. She took down all my information and promised that her boss would e-mail me on Monday.

Sure enough, on Monday I get an e-mail from her. Denby normally has a one year warranty on product and this was therefore outside warranty. But because they stand by their product and want us to be happy, we just needed to send her the info on the style and type of mugs they were and she’d replace them free of charge! We did and in less than a week we got our two replacement mugs!

46

I ordered a leather jacket from NewStyleLeathers.com. I needed it relatively quickly, so I emailed about shipping times. The shipping time was very quick, and the person who responded to my email also made sure to hold the inventory for me, checked to make sure what I wanted was available in the size that I wanted, and helped me to decide what the best size/cut would be based on my desires and measurements.

I was very, very pleased with their service.

47

I’ve always had fantastic customer service from Safeway.

I went to the butcher’s counter and asked about some steaks for grilling. They asked me lots of in-depth questions about my event to determine which kind of meat would be best. Then they went in the back and got several cuts of meat and showed each to me and let me chose which one I wanted. Then they cut them all just how I asked, trimmed them, and marinated them, all just to order. And none of this cost me an extra penny.

The best part was just their attitude. They were so friendly and helpful and eager to please. I made sure to talk to their store manager and compliment them.

48

Last Monday I went to our local sports store to order TheKid her letter jacket. I knew that while they say it takes only two to three weeks to finish it, it always takes considerably longer (a month or two, according to people I have talked to). I asked if there was any way to have it done by her birthday, December 5th. “We should be able to get it done” was the response.

I received a phone call this morning. Her jacket will be in Wednesday.

Now to see if Jostens can do her class ring by XMas…

49

Long, nice story:

So there I was, 100lb female, just scored one ticket to my all-time favourite band - my lifelong dream come true - in Cleveland, OH. I’m from Ontario. The show was at the Agora Theatre, so I went to their website to check out nearby hotels, etc. While on the site, I e-mailed the venue to ask a few questions and the events manager responded very quickly and was quite helpful. So I e-mailed back, thanking them for having such a helpful and informative website. Concert time rolled around and I took the bus all by myself (it was my dream, damnit, I didn’t want any friends tagging along!) to Cleveland. The show was incredible of course, and afterwards I sought out the events manager. I found her and said, “Hi - I’m Juicy from Canada.” She said, “Juicy!! It’s so nice to meet you!” Turned out that nobody ever e-mails them something nice, so she had printed my e-mail and had it up in their staff room. Then I went to get my jacket from the coat check. I was wearing my “Canadian Girls Kick Ass” t-shirt and the coat check guy said, “Are you from Canada?” I said yes and he said, “Did you happen to e-mail us?” I said yes, that was me. He said, “Can you stick around for a while? I have something for you.” So I said sure. When he was off work he gave me his souvenir wristband, then offered me a ride back to the hotel “…because this is NOT a safe neighbourhood.” He ended up taking me on a 1-hour tour of downtown Cleveland, telling me history of the Agora Theatre and of the city itself and dropped me off safe & sound at the hotel.

But it didn’t end there: a few weeks after I got home I received a package in the mail. Inside was an Agora Theatre t-shirt, tank top, sticker, and a Christmas card thanking me for being “…such a great customer - we love you!” :cool:

50

Just this past weekend I was working on a project wtih my Craftsman scroll saw. The saw has a little port on the top arm; there’s a small hose that attaches to the port and then to a rigid tube which blows air onto the sawdust created by the blade, making it easier to follow the line you’re cutting. During our recent move I must have lost the little piece of hose, so I had to keep blowing the sawdust off myself. I nearly passed out.

Armed with the model number, I called Sears. A woman answered on the 2nd ring and I can say without hesitation that she was the best customer service rep I’ve ever dealt with. I gave her the model number & described the part I needed, and in a couple minutes she had narrowed it down and sent me a confirmatory email that it was on its way to me. It wasn’t just her efficiency, positive attitude and pleasant demeanor; she also had the perfect voice- no regional accent, happy without being annoyingly chipper, and genuinely interested in helping me. She should do voice-overs, she’s so good.

Then we had this exchange:
CSR: “Can I ask what you’re using to keep the working surface of the saw from rusting?”
Me: “I just wipe it down regularly, it’s good.”
CSR: “OK. Now, with winter coming, it’s a good time to order new air filters and winterizing materials for your Craftsman lawnmower and trimmer- are you interested?”
Me: “No, thanks.”
CSR: “No problem. But please tell me that you have a fire extinguisher near your workbench.”
Me: [with a chuckle, as I leaned against the bench while looking at my extinguisher] “I do, actually.”
CSR: “Great!” [chuckling herself] “Now, is there anything else I can try to talk you into buying today?”
Me: “No, I don’t think so.”
CSR: “OK! Well, you should get your PVC hose in about three days. Have a great Thanksgiving!”
Then she reached through the phone line and gave me a handjob*.

*Not really. But she left me with the impression that if I had asked for one, she’d respond “OK, that’s on its way out to you right now. Is there anything else I can help you with?” Something about her voice and how pleasant she was and our shared awareness that she was following a script just made the whole transaction really enjoyable. When I hung up I said to my wife “that was the most enjoyable customer service call I’ve ever made. She should hold a clinic.”

I’ve also always had excellent service from Crutchfield.

51

My family had something similar…we booked a flight to Miami and accidentally turned up a day too early. (We’d meant to book our flight for THAT day, but ended up actually booking it for the next day.) We went up to the counter, sheepishly explained our situation, and the TSA lady started working away at two computer screens she had in front of her (she would switch from one to another). After about five minutes or so of anxious waiting, we asked what was up, and, frowning, she goes “oh, I’m trying to get you guys seats near each other.”

We were flabbergasted. We thought she was having a hard time trying to get us on the same flight! We explained to her that that wasn’t necessary–we’d all flown separately before, and didn’t really have seating preferences–but all the same, she whipped up some boarding passes and got us in close proximity to each other. Our flights ended up being overbooked, but we figured that was our goof, not the airline’s.

52

It was at this point in the anecdote when i expected it to turn into a GREAT customer service story…

53

I don’t think this thread’s old enough to be a zombie yet. . .
I had a great customer service experience last night.
Driving down the highway, got a flat tire. Had my 9YO in the car with me. I have a hernia, so changing tires myself is not recommended. I used my cell phone to finally track down a towing company that, for $50.00, would come change my tire for me. The driver changed it, but the spare is one of those “temporary” tires, and not in great shape anyway, and he didn’t think I should chance driving all the way home (24 miles) on it. So he called the nearest NTB (National Tire and Battery), who said they were only open until 9PM (at this point it was about 8:40, and I was 10 minutes away from the place), but send me in, they’d wait for me.

I arrived at 8:50. I told the guy (Dave was his name) that I was sure it was a puncture, and maybe it could be repaired instead of getting a new one (that one was only a couple months old!) The NTB was in the annex of a large mall, so I gave Dave my cell phone number and asked him to call me when the tire was done, but if it couldn’t be patched, put a new tire on, and I took my 9YO to the mall to find a little snack.

At about 9:10, Dave calls, says my car is ready to go. We go back over to NTB. Dave says it was very patchable, so I didn’t need a new tire! Yay! I asked him how much I owed him, and he just waved his hand and said “Ma’am, you’ve had a rough enough evening already; no charge”. Seriously. Not a dime. No charge for the repair, no charge to put it on. Nothing.

I am seriously going to write a letter of commendation to the manager letting the manager know how awesome Dave is. (I won’t mention the “no charge” part, because the manager might not like that. But I will say that Dave was willing to keep the store open late to take care of me, and couldn’t have been nicer!)

Awesome customer service. NTB has a customer for life!

54

This is rather old, but bears remembering.

I’ve used Thegrocerygame.com for years. When I was in Tampa, Winn-Dixie was my list store. Basically, this means I’m a coupon queen. Now, not only was I routinely saving 50+% off my groceries every week, my information was usually more right than theirs was. I had several conversations with the Store Manager about what I used and I’d showed him the list before, I pointed out to him that this list made him a far better bargain that Wal-mart could ever dream of being.

I always tried to be a polite couponer, having them organized and ready. Typically, I could check out faster than most folks. I wouldn’t even enter a line until my ducks were in a row.

One year, the week prior to Thanksgiving (a Tuesday actually) My mother and I had a huge, huge cart stuffed to the gills with stuff. The store manager walks up to me and asks if I have my free turkey. Turns out, if you spent more than $75 you got a free turkey. I told him I had not, he looked at my cart and says “The way you shop, that probably isn’t $75 worth of stuff, tell ya what, I’ll go get you a turkey, when you check out, if it doesn’t total $75, have them call me over.”

when you It didn’t total $75, he brought me a HUGE turkey, I didn’t have to have the girl call him over, because he opened a register to cash me out.

My experiences with them were always like that, even though I was a nickel and diming coupon queen, they treated me fantastically. Heck, once the girl saved some Catalina coupons for me because she knew I shopped on Tuesdays. How about the time the Catalina machine was broken so I got a $20 Winn-Dixie gift card? Dude, Winn-Dixie rocks!

ETA: on the flip side, I was always extremely polite considering I was committing legal highway robbery. If something rang up wrong, I’d cash out and head over to customer service. Trust me, when you are using upwards of 30 coupons a week, you don’t want to be a pain in their butt, you WANT them to accept them. :slight_smile:

55

Cool story! But don’t leave us hanging… what band?

56

When I bought my first handheld GPS this year, I picked up a DeLorme PN-20. I figured DeLorme makes great printed maps, they must make great GPS mapping units. They do.

It came with an upgrade coupon from their Topo v7 software to Top v8. Small shipping & handling, wait 6-8 weeks.

I dropped the card, with the check in the mailbox on Sunday evening, and on Monday afternoon, an email arrived saying the software was on it’s way. It arrived on Tuesday. Granted, I’m fairly close to them (Southern NH, and they are in Portland ME), but that’s amazing turnaround.

The software also came with an additional $40 credit towards more maps for the GPS (NOAA harbor maps, aerial views, USGS topo quads, etc).

57

I bought some yarn from WEBS, an on-line yarn store I’ve used a couple times before. When it came one skein of yarn was missing. This is very close to xmas and I figured them to be busy busy, but I e-mailed to let them know. I got a return e-mail within 3 hours and the yarn came in 2 days. No questions, no hassles, just an apology. Great service.

A few months ago I ordered some CDs from Amazon. The imbicile mail carrier left the package on the front step, which is right on the sidewalk and this ain’t a great neighborhood, AND the package would have fit under the security door and onto the porch. When I e-mailed Amazon to say that the PO said they delivered it but I never got it, they replied right away to say they would re-ship the CDs, via UPS. No charge. Wow. I expected to have to argue or have some letter from the PO or something, but no. Just, fixed the problem. Awesome.