Stunning (in a good way) customer service

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

We have an adorable 1 year old puppy, named Llewellyn - or Louie, for short. A few months ago he decided to get picky about his kibble. But at a friends house, he scarfed the friends’ dog’s food - so we asked for the brand. Some expensive imported stuff…not sold at our local PetSmart, but available online at chewy.com.

So we got a 5 lb bag, and Louie seemed to like it – and so we transitioned from his old food to his new. That went well, so we ordered a 26 lb bag from chewy ($83).

Well…we’re approaching the end of the 5 lb bag and the little bast…excuse me, adorable little guy has gone back on a hunger strike.

So I emailed chewy and asked if I could return the unopened 26 lb bag. (I dreaded the thought of shipping a giant bag of dog food, but hoped it would at least be < $83.) They responded by saying they’ve issued a credit to my credit card … and to keep the food. Donate it to a shelter, or give it to someone who might need it.

I’m gobsmacked.

When did a merchant last say … “Nah, you keep it. We’re good.”

2

That’s actually not uncommon, among mail-order merchants. Sending it back would be a huge hassle for everyone involved, and they likely wouldn’t even be able to do anything with the returned product due to quality control standards. So they have the choice of getting panned for not offering refunds at all, or getting glowing posts like yours that are worth a lot in word-of-mouth advertising. And they do keep track of such things, so you’re not going to be able to take advantage of them to a significant degree that way.

3

Hold on to your hat: Walmart grocery pick-up has done just that for us several times. They pull the wrong item, we get home and find the wrong item, call Wmart who credits the original item to our CC and says use the wrong one or donate it, our choice.

4

I’ve encountered that with Walmart or Instacart deliveries.

5

The policy certainly makes sense. I’m just surprised that companies are able to accurately weigh the intangible benefit (customer satisfaction) vs the tangible cost. I don’t expect any faceless corporation to be that smart.

6

Chewy has awesome customer service! I have had to report problems a few times and they never quibble. They go above and beyond to satisfy. Once I left a review on a trackball toy that was a bugger to put together and then so small the cats couldn’t play with it, so I donated it to the shelter. I wasn’t complaining, just informing folks that it’s a small toy better suited to kittens, and have patience when putting together. Chewy emailed me and said they’d credited my account with the amount, plus an additional amount so that I could get a different toy for my cats. I was pretty amazed.

7

This is gonna take me a bit, so I apologize for the length even before I start typing. :smiley:

A musical instrument company called Remo used to make an awesome drum called a Klong Yaw:

I found out about the drum when a friend purchased one exactly like the one in the picture above. I played his for about an hour and was seriously impressed with the low tones it produced, so I decided to get one for myself.

I went to Guitar Center (we didn’t have a Sam Ash in Las Vegas yet) to see about one but they didn’t have any in stock. But I was able to order one and to make sure I could distinguish mine from my friend’s, I ordered a purple one instead red.

3 months go by. I call GC and ask about it and after a day or two am told that it is still on order; it should arrive any day.

This goes on for weeks, like 6 or 8 of them. Finally they arrange that the drum will be shipped right to my house, so at least I won’t have to drive over to pick it up. Great!

Finally, more than 6 months after I ordered it, I arrive home one evening to find a large box on my doorstep. Hooray! My drum is here!

I take it inside an open it and find a red Klong Yaw.

I call GC and read them the riot act. They refer me to Yamaha (who owned Remo at the time?) so I call them and explain what happened. They get my number and promise to get back to me after they look into things on their end, etc.

The next day I get a phone call that goes like this:

Me: “Hello?”
Voice: “Please hold for Mr. -----”
New voice with thick Japanese accent: “Hello, this is Mr. ----, I am the President of Yamaha USA and I am calling to apologize for our error. A new purple drum is being sent to you; please enjoy both drums and our sincere apology, again.”

That’s right: the president of the company called me personally to apologize and make things right. Not only did they send me the correct $300 drum, they let me keep the other one too.

I still have them, too. And they are still hands-down the best tribal-type drum I have ever seen & heard.

That phone call made me an instant Remo/Yamaha customer for life; I trust them.

8

I haven’t used them myself, but I’ve heard enough about them that it didn’t surprise me that they were the thread-starting example.

9

Jiminy Christmas @Snowboarder_Bo what a story!

Y’all ever get insurance service on your phone from Verizon? My mom’s phone was stolen a couple months ago. We paid the $50 deductible and within 4 hours someone came to mom’s house with a brand new phone and set it all up.

Pretty cool. I told the woman who came that her job must be like being Santa Claus. She delivers happiness!

10

This is a different kind of customer service, but no less remarkable:

When my mother-in-law died several years back, my wife and I flew up to Pittsburgh from Houston to close up and clean out the family homestead for eventual sale. This necessitated lining up a U-haul truck and a car carrier (We were getting MIL’s car along with some furniture and what have you.). When I called to reserve the vehicle, the extremely nice lady on the phone listened to the crazy requirements I needed and didn’t bat an eyelash. The U-haul rental joint was right behind the airport – a 10 minute, $10 cab ride. The family homestead was 50 to 60 miles into the country; we wanted to drive into downtown Pittsburgh for dinner on the way there, but towing the car carrier? No thank you. I wanted to avoid the liability of the carrier sitting at the “spread” – unneeded and unguarded (at night) for three days plus the hassle of towing it into Pitt. I asked the extremely nice lady if it was possible to get the truck at the airport then pick up the carrier at a different location closer to the family farm three days later. It took her maybe a whole minute to locate the proper screen to set it up. The secondary pick-up place was about a quarter mile from the hotel we stayed at; car carrier and moving blankets were secured at this location and toot sweet, too. Phone lady was very pleasant to talk to and U-haul, Inc. should bust their butts to keep her.

Three days later, the truck and car are packed up, snugged down and ready to go. We experienced an additional bout of customer service after the nightmare of traveling through Wheeling, WV. Turns out something was wrong with the car carrier, so we pulled into a rest stop and called the road service 800 number. Twenty minutes later, a young man shows up to fix the problem. While waiting for him to arrive, I discovered the trouble – the parking brake had been engaged the whole way because the cable was broken. A quick tap with a hammer on a screwdriver and the brake was fixed. I was still concerned about possible damage to the brakes, so the service guy gave everything the once over and sent us on our way (after receiving a decent tip, of course). Say what you will about U-haul trucks (an incident years before had soured me on them), their road service feature is first rate.

The rest of the trip went by without a hitch :rofl:.

11

Bought a Toastmaster coffee maker 3 months ago at Dollar General away from home. It stopped working. There was a number to call for warranty service but I figured it would be easier to take it to my local DG. Called the number anyway. Had to leave a message and wait for a callback. New one on the way. I have the receipt but they didn’t ask for any proof.

12

I “bought” a used Kokatat dry suit for winter kayaking many years ago, paying only for the shipping. It turned out that it was a bit too large but useable and the gaskets (neck, wrist and ankle seals) were a bit dry rotted. I emailed Kokatat inquiring about having the gaskets replaced. Instead, they sent me an entire new suit in the correct size. This suit was $750+ at the time - probably 15 years ago. Now that is customer service. Funny thing is, I never used the new one. I still have it with the tags on it.

13

I had the occasion to visit the British Museum (twice!) for the first time last week. Everything about that place is extraordinary: the collections, the hubris, all of it.

But anyway, I was having trouble finding my way to an exhibit of Japanese stuff on the upper level. I asked a little old lady in museum attire where to find it. She assured me that it had literally just opened for the day. She walked me most of the way there, pointed me around a corner, and wished me a good day. But the staircase was still roped off - it hadn’t actually been open.

So I went on about my business, gawking over this and that. Maybe 20-30 minutes later, the same little old lady bustles around a corner and waves me down. The gallery had opened in the interim and she’d been looking for me so that she could be certain I wouldn’t miss it before I left.

It almost made up for my bitter disappointment that I missed out on seeing the Rosetta Stone because it’s been paywalled behind a special exhibit I wasn’t able to get into. Almost.

14

Me, again, with a two-parter:

We bought an entertainment center from the Sauder folks back in 1998. It served us well for 18 years. Several times we’ve had to relocate and I could take it apart and shrink wrap the pieces for longer moves or leave it intact for shorter ones. Once, a shelf in the base broke, and I called them and ordered a replacement – 15 years after we bought it! We finally gave it away three moves ago because we were downsizing; you should have seen the looks on the faces of the guys that took it when I told them the age and handed them the manual, telling them they can probably still order parts. We had a good laugh when I said I was coming back in 18 years and expected to still see it in use! :smile:

Part II:

We ordered some bookshelves from Sauder a few years back and they’re great, too. This most recent move, the movers were less than competent and messed up two of the units – a strut and a shelf. To their credit, the Mover-in-Charge offered to reimburse us for damages. I contact Sauder again and using the live chat function “talked” to a nice lady named Tanya who sent me the parts free of charge (free shipping, too)!

Hey, Sauder, if you’re reading this YOU GUYS ROCK!

15

Outstanding customer service when I wasn’t even a customer!

In the 1997, I somehow learned that my favorite Taiwanese actress, Joey Wang Tsu Hsien / Wong Jyo Yin, appeared in the Japanese magazine, Wacatta. I was extremely excited because she had disappeared in from Hong Kong cinema in 1994 after news of her affair with a married man was revealed.

I visited the Japanese bookstores in my area in the hopes that they somehow had or could get me the issue which was a few months old at the time. They weren’t able help me directly, but one of the worker’s gave me the name and address of the publisher. With that, I was able to find their email and heartbroken and desperate, I wrote an email in English asking if I could buy a copy of the back issue… To my utter surprise, I received a response from the President of company! He explained that the magazine wasn’t a success, having only six issues, but he would gladly send me the issue I requested at no expense!

I cried with joy when I read the response and cried again when I received it!

Sadly, I don’t have the email and don’t remember the company, but domo arigato to the publisher for his generosity!

16

I’ve had this happen once or twice with Amazon.

We ordered a muffin pan.

They sent us 6.

I checked the order, and I had indeed only ordered 1. I contacted customer service, and they said to keep the extra 5. I gave the others away to neighbors and to my daughter.

On the flip side, the time they sent the wrong item, and I tried to initiate a return online, I got told, repeatedly, that the item was not returnable (it was an OTC medication). It was a huge hassle tracking down how to get a message to a human. They ultimately did fix it. I don’t recall whether they credited us, or just resent the correct item. I know we did not have to return the wrong thing (though we couldn’t use it, either).

17

When our son “Dweezil” was a wee misspelling, his lovey toy was a plush rabbit from San Francisco Music Box company. Just like this one: Mercari: Your Marketplace | Mercari Bunny went everywhere with him. Including when he had a stomach bug, and he barfed all over it. Surface washing would not do the trick - poor Bunny was at ground zero. After the other cleanup, we sealed poor Bunny in two plastic bags, and went to the SFMBC store in our nearby mall to buy a replacement. I brought it with me so we could get the same toy.

The woman at the store said it was still within warranty, and they’d replace it for free. I said it’s not broken or defective, it got vomited on. We want to buy a new one. She insisted on exchanging it for a new one. I told her for all that is holy to not open the bag, and we purchased a second one to have as a spare. (Parenting protip - get at least one spare lovey doll when your kid chooses one. Lets you clean the main one, and you can swap in the spare when the main one goes missing and the kid can’t sleep without it!) Over 20 years later I think this is customer service far above the norm!

18

I have to correct this anecdote: Typo Knig stopped by SFMB to purchase a spare, at my request, on his way home from work. He did NOT have the unfortunate toy with him at the time - but must have said that the one we owned had been ruined. They insisted that they would replace it free. He tried arguing that it was not defective at all. (it was perhaps 2 months after I’d bought the original one; Dweezil instantly fell in love with Bunny and it went everywhere with him).

So we went together the next day with the bag o’ hazmat. Again we tried arguing, but they insisted on replacing it for free.

As noted, we bought a second one in addition to the freebie - and I’m pretty sure we purchased yet another one a couple months later to have a spare.

Bunny is still around, somewhere. Pretty sure one spare is as well, though I think the third went missing before we moved to the current house.

19

This is a story I’ve told before, but it fits the thread. When we moved into our current house, the HVAC system was run off a heat pump unit installed outside. We moved at the end of summer, and in the middle of our first winter, the heat stopped working. I called the service number shown on the little sticker on the inside part of the system, and a service guy showed up an hour or so later and managed to get it going again. Not anything special, you would think, but this was outdoors in an Ottawa winter, with a temperature about -15C, in a near-blizzard snowstorm, at 2:00 on a Sunday morning. I was holding a light so he could see to work, and he was telling me jokes! He’s been our HVAC person for 30 years, now.

20

I think this qualifies as “customer service”. A couple weeks ago I took the afternoon off to hit the DMV for my driver’s license renewal, then to the county courthouse to take care of a license tag renewal for my motorcycle, which it wouldn’t let me do online with my other vehicles.

I had a 3pm appt at the DMV, and even though I checked in 15 minutes early, I still had to wait 45 minutes before they called my number. By the time I got out of there, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough time to get through the line at the courthouse.

They have a little kiosk when you walk in where you check in and it gives you your number. There was a gorgeous young redhead standing there and I thought she was ahead of me in line but she was actually an employee. She asked me what I was there for and I told her, and she helped check me in at the kiosk. But the little printer that prints the ticket got jammed, so she had to clear it and then check me in again. “See the 18 on the ticket?” she said. “That means there are 18 people ahead of you in line.” Then she noticed a lady at one of the windows frantically waving at her, and she pointed me to her window and said “Oh, she can help you over there.” I noticed she had a sign on her window that said “In Training”, but that still didn’t explain why I was able to jump 18 other people in line.

When she was done with my vehicle registration, I noticed the redhead sitting in the next window (which was closed), looking at something on her phone. I leaned over and said “I don’t know how I got lucky enough to jump the line, but thank you!” She just smiled and said “You’re welcome!” as I walked away.