Positive customer service stories

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

People always seem to complain about getting screwed over by various businesses. (nope. Not gonna cite it) How about some good stories? Here’s mine:

I got my cell phone bill from Spunt yesterday. The total amount due was $298.89. I was surprised, as my bill is usually around $50, but not shocked. I had added another phone to my plan, and I assumed they had messed up the billing in some spectacular way. I called them up, and a very nice lady listened very patiently to my ranting, and then we walked through my bill. It turns out that when you add a phone during a bill cycle, it doesn’t go through until the next cycle begins. So my gf had been using her new phone without a plan for it, and had still been taking minutes away from me. They also charged me two activation fees ($39 each) and a bunch of other crap. I should have been told at the Spunt Store not to use the new phone, but I wasn’t. I was also supposed to have free calling to anyone else on my plan, but that wasn’t showing up either.

So the nice lady (let’s call her Mary) went through each call (incoming and outgoing) to determine if it involved another Spunt customer. Those calls were removed. We then went through all the calls that were charged to my new line (gf’s phone) and removed those. My bill was now $85, which is my normal bill plus an activation fee. THEN, Mary gave me 300 free minutes to cover any calls I make in my network until my next billing cycle begins, when my free Spunt to Spunt calling should come online. THEN, she apologized profusely for wasting my time, and asked if everything was fixed to my satisfaction. I could have kissed her.

So that’s my story. Any other happy consumers out there?

-tool

2

:: pin drops ::

I’ve been really chagrined over the past several years to see how much the concept of “customer service” has declined. I don’t expect people to bend over backwards or anything in this day of discount store fever, but being able to talk to someone… ANYONE… who knows anything about the products a store sells, is nice. I go out of my way to buy things at places with good salespeople, and good service.

So, all in all, I’m very happy to see your success story posted; makes me want to switch back to Sprint.

3

It’s funny how the best GOOD customer service stories deal with how companies recover when they make a mistake.

Some friends of mine went to a local restaurant, ordered and ate dinner, and asked for the leftovers to be boxed.
A while later, their waitress came back and told them that the kitchen staff threw out the leftovers by mistake. To make it up, the restaurant prepared two more complete dinners, boxed them to go, and gave them to my friends. :cool:

4

Of course people who get me on the Helpdesk always get great service! There are a few others around, too.

Last week I found a lost cell phone on the bus as I got on at the loop, and handed it in to the driver. A few minutes later, the girl who had left it called to see if anybody would pick it up. The driver found out where she was; luckily we were just heading back from the end of his route, so he arranged a spot, pulled in, and delivered the lost phone right into her hand!

A few weeks before, at the same loop, I got off to transfer to a bus that was waiting. My driver honked and waved, I got off and started to run, and the waiting bus pulled away! As I was cursing him quietly to myself, the bus I had just got off pulled up beside me, his sign showing “Not in Service”, and the driver offered me a ride the few blocks I was going on his way back to the barn.

I seem to get pretty good service most places I go. Maybe it’s my approach: chat a little with the people, and treat them as if they really are real people instead of just ‘staff’. Even those who start out cranky will usually come around after a while.

5

My parents took a day trip to Portland, and went into an REI at a location they’re familiar with. They started chatting with the salesman, who mentioned that there was an REI location that would be more convenient for them to get to when they came into the city. My dad mentioned that he didn’t know this, because he didn’t have a Portland phone book, and hadn’t stopped on the way in to check.

The employee took my dad’s address and mailed him a Portland phone book within a week.

I’ve always gotten good customer service at REI.

Also, the carhops at Sonic are exceedingly nice for fast food employees.

6

I ordered a pair of Planar LCD monitors from a retailer, and one of them was defective, having a giant black splotch of dead pixels right in the middle. I called them up, got a human right away, and sent back the broken monitor with an RMA number. I got a new one the very next morning. Meaning they sent it out priority overnight before ever getting the defective one back.

7

My MIL got GREAT service from Kodak last summer.

In the summer of '01, she bought a Kodak digital camera with a $100 mail-in rebate. You had better believe she mailed that sucker in!! She got the runaround every six weeks or so from those idiots for A YEAR (please note: most retailers/manufacturers DON’T do their own mail-in rebates). So, she called them up one day to “check the status” of her refund, and the company no longer existed. Phone numbers disconnected - web site gone. POOF!!!

So she e-mails Kodak and explains what happened. They FedExed her check to her and she got it the next day.

VERY HAPPY mother-in-law!

8

Several years ago I bought an Acer computer at Best Buys. Took it home, set it up, no problems. About a month and a half later, I turned it on and the monitor was suddenly showing everything multicolored. But the colors were not in the right place. I called Acer, they asked me to hook it up to a different system to see if it was the monitor or the video card. So I took it back to Best Buys computer department to see if they would let me hook it up. They did, and it was the monitor. One of the techs asked me when I had bought it and I told him it was about a month and a half before. He said they only had a 30 day return policy, but they could go ahead and replace it for me. I told him thanks, but that Acer was already going to take care of it.

So I went home and called Acer. They said they would send me an RMA number so I could send it back to them for replacement. I was looking forward to a week or so without my computer, but at least I could see everything in the right color. Two days later, FedEx was at my door with a new monitor and the RMA.

So I got good service from both Best Buys and the customer service at Acer Computers.

9

Taco Bell. At the drivethru I ordered, among other things, cinnamon twists and a mexican pizza with no meat. While at the stoplight, I noticed the missing twists and went back. They gave them to me, but they weren’t very nice about it. When I got home, there was meat on my pizza. I took it back and they got me a new pizza and they were really mean about it this time. I filled out the little form on the web site about what happened and they sent me a coupon from the corporate office for a free meal, and a few days later I got a letter from the local manager with an offer to refund my $7 the next time I came in for a meal, which would be free.

So I never thought I’d say this, but yay for Taco Bell.

10

There’s an awesome family owned jewelry store here. While I’m shopping, they take my rings and clean them, no charge. They made my wedding band and when the solder job didn’t hold the two rings together, they fixed it and didn’t charge me a penny.

My hairdresser insists on dyeing my roots instead of highlighting every time, because she wants to save me money. I love her like a sister.

11

I ordered a little de-motivational placard from Despair.com for my brother’s birthday. He’s in tech support, so I thought the “apathy” one would do him a world of good. When it arrived, the glass on the front was splintered in the corner - not very noticible while it was in the frame, but the corner was broken off from the rest of it. I emailed their service about getting a replacement piece of glass, but they sent me another complete placard, and asked me to keep the broken one as a “testament to their incompetence.”

For Xmas, I ordered a PC game from a small company online. In the order form there was a different price for “small business” or “personal” orders (I don’t know why, but there was). The “small business” price was two bucks cheaper, which would have covered about half the shipping. In the comments section of the order, I joked about whether or not I would have gotten a discount for ordering a single game and saying I was a small business. When the order confirmation arrived, after the comment section was: “Yes, you would have, but I’m giving you four for honesty ;).” Lo and behold, I had free shipping.

12

We moved flats last year and needed to get furniture, and the nearest store was Ikea. I’ll mention them only because it was such a contrast to what happened afterwards.

When we turned up, we looked at a sofa-bed to last until the actual bed was ordered, chose a fabric and went up to order. It took half an hour to find an assistant. That’s when we discovered that the sofa bed actually took 6 weeks to arrive, not next-day as claimed. The fabric we wanted was extra, which wasn’t noted on the order form.

The real showstopper was the delivery. Not only was there an unmentioned delivery fee in the small print, but this was not refunded if the store was “unable to deliver”. We explained the flat was up several flights of stairs, and the small print said that, basically, the delivery team didn’t like stairs, and if there was no lift they would put it back in the van and drive away, and we’d lose our deposit.
We asked about giving it to us on the doorstep and were told it had to make it to the front door of the flat, not the building. For these and other similar problems with everything we tried to buy, we left.

There is a small Courts store outside town which we tried as a last resort, thinking it was expensive. Best decision we ever made.

After explaining the situation, our budget, and that we were sleeping on the floor until it was delivered, we were shown several sofa-beds on sale. Although they normally do 6 week delivery, the salesman said he would see what he could do.

We came back the next day to order one with a sprung mattress. On our return, the salesman suggested we took the store model, gave us an additional discount (half the original price) because it was the store model, and arranged for it to be delivered to the flat the next day because it was “in stock”.

The delivery men turned up on time, and carried the entire thing up four flights of stairs, with no complaints.

Not surprisingly, when we furnished the rest of the flat, we went back there.

13

I was flying back from Toronto to Heathrow (on a business trip, though I was flying economy) about 18 months ago. Because I’m an idiot, I had it in my mind that I had to get to the airport for around 5pm for an 8pm flight. Putz. It was a 5pm flight.

I was so annoyed with myself; it was entirely my fault and now I’d have to pay out of my own pocket to get a new one-way to London; that’s if there were seats on the next flight.

So it was with annoyed resignation that I went to the ticket desk, explained my situation and was stunned when the guy just calmly wrote me out a new ticket for the next flight, free of charge!. Now, I understand that if I was a hot-shot frequent flier, or perhaps had been travelling business class, that they might’ve done this as a goodwill gesture, but I wasn’t. I wouldn’t have been in the slightest bit peeved with BA if they’d charged me - it was after all my fault.

Still, maybe it hasn’t done them any harm - the number of people who have now heard that story must run into the hundreds…

14

My SO had a great experince with a local photo desk in a drugstore in our area. For some background, she does portrait photography from time to time for people we know… weddings and such. She usually has a difficult time at the photo hut when she goes because a majority of the time they have someone working who isn’t all that knowledgeable when it comes to portrait photography. Now, one can’t expect the guy working at the photohut to always know everything about photography, or even to be a photographer at all. However, they hired one girl there who is taking classes at the local technical colledge and was the most helpful person she’d ever dealt with there. So, she filled out a comment card and figured that was the end of it. A few days later we got a call from the manager of the store thanking SO for commenting and letting her know that the girl that helped out had been given a promotion as a result! SO now makes a point of commenting on great service, i think she’s trying put another notch in her belt :slight_smile:

15

I had bought a computer game and really disliked it. I noticed on the box they had a satisfaction policy ,so I mailed the game back to Sierra with an accompanying note asking where I could find another game that they put out. They sent me FEDEX a boxed set containing the game I asked about as well as the sequel game, AND a refund check for the game I returned!! They also sent a letter expressing remorse that I had so disliked the game.

16

I love these stories.

A couple of months ago, I had a new bathroom sink delivered to my appartment. As the guys were unloading the stuff from the truck, I noticed one of the delivery men said something to a girl who lives across the street, and had just gotten on her bicycle to leave. Ten seconds later, I see this girl cycling back, and starting to curse at the guy like there’s no tomorrow.

“How would you like it if someone said that to your sister, you disgusting asshole?”, she said.

“Shut up, you fucking bitch”, replied the delivery man.

All right, I was curious what lay at the base of this all. So I walked across the street and asked the girl what had happened. Turns out that as she was unlocking her bike, the delivery man had said to his colleague, “Check out that tasty looking Chinese thing. Nice ass!” (she is, indeed, of Chinese descent). When she commented that she didn’t appreciate them talking about her in that way, the guy commented: “Shut up! You ought to be thankful that someone is complimenting you, you stuck up Chinese bitch!”. Upon which the scene I had witnessed occured.

Rather than wasting time discussing the matter with the delivery men, the girl and I agreed that we would both phone in a complaint to the company rightaway.

So, I called them, and registered my complaint. Not one hour later, I get a call back from a manager saying how deeply he regretted the incident, and how they would get in touch with the delivery company to discuss the matter (it was a different company, although they were driving around with trucks carrying the bathroom company’s titles). I thanked him for his prompt response. An hour later, he calls again, to tell me they have told the delivery company that the delivery man in question was not to be put on one of their schedules anymore (I was able to identify the man succesfully, they matched up my description with the work roster for that day). He also told me that the manager of the delivery company would be in touch as well.

Said manager called me the next day, explaining that this particular employee had caused troubles before, and that they had now taken the decision to fire him. He, too, apologised profusely.

When I spoke to my neighbour a few days later, it turned out that she, too had been kept abreast of all these developments. Moreover, the distribution company had asked for her address, upon which they sent her a bouquet of flowers worth at least $75 or so, as a way of saying “sorry”. We both were very happy the way the matter was resolved.

[sub]Truth be told, she does have a very nice ass, but that’s beside the point, of course.[/sub] :slight_smile:

17

I bought my son a new Mizuno baseball glove at a major sporting goods retailer before the spring 2002 season. While money certainly is an object in my household, I do buy good sporting equipment. I expect my son to take care of it and I expect it to last. About halfway through the season the glove developed a tear between the index and middle fingers. As the spring season wound down the tear grew worse. After repeated pleas of innocence from my son I told him I would get him a new glove after the fall base ball season because there was no time to properly break in a new glove beforehand. After the fall season was over I decided that I would at least vent to Mizuno. A good, well cared for baseball glove should last many years, not half a season. I contacted Mizuno’s customer service line expecting nothing more than a “Gee, thats’ too bad. Your kid probably did it”. What I got was a gentleman who explained that the model glove I had purchased was borderline for my son’s age group and was not built to withstand an 85 mph baseball. Of course, none of that info is on the packaging. He went on to offer to replace the glove in person since I live near Mizuno’s US headquarters. I agreed on a day and time, loaded up my son and the old glove, and headed out. The customer service manager met me at the door, took the old glove and said “Yep, too much velocity. It’ll do it everytime”. He then asked us to follow him to the “display room” where he said “In here is an example of every glove we make”. He then turned to my son and said “Pick one”. Matthew was in severe information overload, and I was astonished. I had expected that Mizuno would replace the glove with a similar model, perhaps with a slight upgrade. Instead they literally opened the factory. The CSM stayed with us until Matthew found exactly the right glove, took us on a tour of the factory, showed us the Major League equipment room (Javy Lopez’ shin guards, Ioki’s bats, etc.), and gave Matthew a product catalog with pictures of all Mizuno’s athletes. I was, and still am, impressed. I can’t commit to only buy Mizuno equipment from now on but they will be the first choice.

18

We recently went on a cruise, which was just fantastic. But (didn’t ya know there’d be a but?)… Getting off the boat was a nightmare. No assistance what so ever. 3000 people fighting over luggage that was just laid out in rows. Then we had to drag the bags (WHY did I pack so much?) half a mile to a bus. Stand in line to get on a bus. Fight to get on same bus as luggage. Then we and luggage are dumped in a tent and have to fight for bags again.

So next day, I call Carnival Cruise Lines. Cruise great! Disembarkation evil! They thanked me for bringing this to their attention and explained probably what led to it, but yes it was badly handled. Then they mailed me a 15% discount off my next cruise and promised to put a “Bon Voyage” gift in my cabin. And when you take into account that once off the boat, it’s the responsibility of the port not the ship. They really went above board!

19

Last summer I built a large skateboard ramp which, obviously, required a substantial amount of wood. While I could have probably saved a decent amount of money going to Home Depot or Lowe’s, I decided to use the local lumber yard as I live in a very small town.

At the help desk I ordered all of the materials. Everything was in stock except for the low-grade masonite that I wanted for a top layer. The salesperson informed me that they only had the high-grade (and more expensive) stuff in stock and that the lower-grade would have to be ordered. One of the managers overheard this and told the salesperson to sell me as many sheets as I wanted of the high-grade masonite at the low-grade price. He told the salesperson (and I quote)–

“It’s not his fault we don’t have what he wants in stock.”

I couldn’t believe it. You can’t get that kind of service from the big box stores.

The unfortunate part of all of these stories is that this is the way things should be but are, rather, the exceptions and not the rule.

20

I put together my own wooden arrows. Last year I went on an arrow-building binge. From Company A, I ordered a bunch of stuff, including a tapering tool. (Think hi-grade pencil-sharpener kinda thingy, for shaping the ends of wooden shafts to receive nocks and points.) From Company B, I ordered some other stuff.

When my shipment from Company A came in, the taper tool was missing the blades.

Well, donut-head that I am, I forgot which company I’d ordered the taper tool from. I email Company B about it. They apologize, and promise to send me the blades in the mail. Later that night, I realize my mistake, and email Company B again, apologizing profusely for my thick-headedness.

Company B writes back and says “No problem – we’re the one who makes the tool, we’ll make it right.” And they sent me a set of blades and a cute little holder of bandaids to “fix the boo-boo.”

I was very impressed by their attitude!