Tell me about GOOD customer service you've received.

In My Humble Opinion
1

'Cause, frankly, this thread has me depressed.

Surely someone out there is doing something right, right? Doesn’t have to be huge earth-shattering, write to the CEO customer service, just things that made your day a little easier or happier for a few minutes.

Me, I like it when I’m ordering a slew of non-value meal items and the cashier works it all out to be the cheap way. Y’know, I want 4 cokes and 3 cheeseburgers and one chicken rings and 5 fries, two with cheese, and she somehow works that out into value meals or whatever’s cheapest for me. Without me having to figure it out on my own.

Not going to change the world, I know. But I appreciate it.

I like waitresses at casual dining restaurants who make me feel like they recognize me even when they probably don’t. Not a creepy stalker thing, just a “Hey! How have you been? Great to see you, what would you like today?” That’s it, no long cross-examinations about my kids, just a little recognition, well-faked. Makes me feel like Norm on Cheers.

I liked it when the guy at the Pier One last week helped me carry my bags out to my car, and then skeedaddled quickly enough that I didn’t stand there wondering if I should tip him. He wasn’t rude (quite the opposite - very friendly), he just did it and said good-bye and that was it.

So who else has one?

…

Anyone?

…

crickets chirping

2

Here’s mine from this other thread! Apparently I killed the thread by being positive :frowning: .

3

About a year ago I was at a McDonalds in a mall.
I was dead tired, too hot, and in the middle of a long and cranky line.
The manager took a till and blasted us all with a sunshiney smile and proceeded to doubletime everything while charming the cranky kids and efficiently serving us all. She impressed me so much I went and bought a stack of thank you cards and left one for her to let her know someone noticed and appreciated it.

I still have the rest of the cards but I try not to spend much (and hence witness fewer acts of good customer service) anymore.

-DF
(Jobless and looking)

4

I was just talking about this with a friend last night. I come from a city known for its rude people and poor customer service (Miami), and moved to a tourist-friendly city that is very service-oriented (Orlando). I love it. I consider myself a patient and polite person, and I am always very appreciative of good service. At restaurants, I am a great damn tipper, I don’t mind saying. I leave 20% AT LEAST, and I will often call over a manager after my meal to tell them that the server was excellent (if they were excellent, of course). I figure it can really make someone’s night, and it encourages better customer service across the board.

I am always patient with retail workers, and I never get huffy or rude–I know they have to deal with that enough from everyone else. If someone goes to the trouble of helping me, I will always thank them profusely. I never, under any circumstances, raise my voice. If you holler at someone, you automatically lose all credibility, and that person’s desire to help solve your problem is gone. I’m finally going to a good comic book store where the workers are friendly and cool and happy to have my business, whereas in Miami they were all assholes and jerks and elitists who take their customers for granted. If I have a Target employee check in the back room for a particular action figure for me, I am thrilled, and I’ll let them know that it is unnecessary, but greatly appreciated. I just like this town and the people in its stores and restaurants–I treat them with respect and politeness, and I feel that I am generally treated extremely well in return.

5

Some years ago I ordered software for my blood glucose monitor. The software worked fine and did what I wanted it to.

A year or so later, they released an upgrade to the software and sent me a free copy.

6

Just last night.
10 of my family met up and went out to dinner last night. 1 long table, 5 on each side.
One of my uncles decide he wanted a picture, so he starts trying to get everyone, seated at the table, into 1 shot. It wasn’t working. The table was long and the room was short. Our waitress walks in, and offers to take the picture, so my uncle could be in it too. She also finds that she can’t get far enough back to get everyone in.

Now outside the room is a hallway, a couple feet lower then the room, and with an opening/window (no glass) in the wall. The waitress grabs a chair, drags it into the hall, moves all the stuff in the window, stands on the chair and takes the picture through the openning in the wall. All that, and good food too.

7

One time I ordered a couple LCD monitors from Planar. One was busted. It had a big splotch of dead pixels in the upper left-hand corner. So I called Planar and they happily agreed to replace it. I boxed it up and made an appointment with the FedEx man to come pick it up the next day. Sure enough, the FedEx guy shows up. I’m just about to hand him the box, and he gets a confused look on his face. “Oh, sorry, sir,” he says. “I’m not here for a pickup. I have this for you.” And he hands me a box with my new monitor!

I expected I was going to have to wait for them to receive the busted one before sending the new one. Instead they sent the new one right away at near light-speed. Needless to say, I was impressed.

8

This winter I hit a DEEP pothole in the road that gave me an instant flat tire.
I pulled over immediately because I know if you drive on them too long the sidewalls break and the tire is deemed unrepairable. In fact it seems every time I take a tire in for repair they deem it unrepairable and want to sell me two new tires (cause you can’t replace just one) with installation and balancing.

I took the tire in to a TiresPlus to see what they could do.
I was ready to have to fork over some bucks for new tires.
Not 5 minutes later the tech returned.

“Your tire is fine.”
“Really.”
“Yep. But your rim is bent.”
“Crap. How much is a new rim?”
“Oh, I can just bend yours back for you.”
“Really. Then by all means go ahead.”
10 minutes later.
“Thanks. You just saved me form having to buy new tires or a rim. How much do I owe you.”
“$10”
“DEAL!!”
“Oh yeah, and if it seems like it’s losing air bring it back to me and I’ll help you out.”

9

Along the same lines, Nintendo’s been replacing anyone’s DS (it’s like a GameBoy) for free, whether it be a dead-pixel related problem or not. My unit had three dead-pixels on the lower screen. After contacting Nintendo, which was painless, I received the inspected replacement two days later. They even provided the box and covered the shipping costs to send my unit faulty unit back.

Comparitivly, Sony has no such replacement program for the PSP (their GameBoy equivalent), and I’ve heard reports of people with 6 or 7 dead pixels not being able to replace their unit. That is why I won’t purchase the PSP.

Getting back to Nintendo, I’ve had many other outstanding customer service experiences with them. Another that comes to mind is their replacing one of my games - which could no longer save files properly, and was also out of warrenty - for free.

And one of my friends called Nintendo’s official store to purchase some GameBoy components and Nintendo didn’t even charge him for the $5-10 worth of items.

Good customer service goes a long ways, and that’s one reason why I’ve been so loyal to Nintendo.

10

Here’s one for the books: I actually got good customer service at a CompUSA store! In a rare coincidence, the clerk who approached me actually knew quite a bit about the kind of software I was looking for. He was friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. What a concept.

11

I had a good one recently. I recently bought a box set of *The West Wing * on impulse, but then got home to discover it was £20 less on Amazon. It’s still in the cellophane wrapping, still has it’s price label on it, I still have the receipt, so I figure I’ll try to take it back.

Next day, in the store:

Me: “Hi, I bought this yesterday and discovered I can it get cheaper on Amazon, I’d like to return it please”.
Assistant: “That’s fine, but we can only give store credit. Store policy”.
Me: “Oh. The thing is, it’s still in it’s wrapper, I have the receipt, don’t you think…?”
Assistant: “Would you like to speak to a manager?”

Manager comes over and reiterates the store policy:-

Me: “Yes, I understand that, but the thing is…”
Manager: “Unless of course you scream and shout at me.”
Me: “Eh?”
Manager: “If you scream and shout and make a scene and upset the other customers, I’ll have to give you a refund, won’t I?”
Me: “Well…”
Manager: “Go on, scream and shout at me.”
Me: (by now suffering from performance anxiety about my screaming ability) “Well, er - I still have the receipt, and, um, it’s not been taken out of the wrapping, and er, I think it’s a bit unreasonable, really.”
Manager: “Absolutely. Let me give you a full cash refund. Good screaming and shouting, btw.”
Me: :confused: :smiley:

12

I’ve always gotten good service from my local bike shop. Sometimes when I bring my bike in for a minor matter, they’ll fix it for free. Even when it’s something bigger, they’ll often top off the air in the tires, or lube the chain, or something of the sort, extra. If it’s something that can be fixed in a few minutes, they’ll do it right there, and if it’ll take longer, they say just how long it’ll take, and they always have it done when they say. When they didn’t have a part I needed, they referred me to another shop, down the road.

The one time I tried to tip them, they got so confused at the notion that I was paying extra, so I just try to make sure to recommend them to others whenever I have the chance.

13

A few months ago, in a fit of illness induced insanity, I accidentally spilt a glass of water on my laptop’s keyboard. I called up Dell to find out about repair costs (it isn’t under warrenty anymore) and spent a fair amount of time on hold only to find out that I might as well buy a new laptop rather than repair my broken one. Then, my dad suggested calling a repair place that he had worked with and I couldn’t have been happier with the service. There was very little hold time (under thirty seconds), the person I talked to answered my questions thoroughly, and he remembered who I was when I called back a little later. Overall, the whole experience was delightful!

Plus, I got a good deal on the repair.

-Mosquito

14

About four times I’ve left the grocery without remembering to take the $50 cash I got back when using my credit card. Three of those times I’ve had to make the return trip to get the money. (I do keep my temper because it was partially my fault and there’s never been any real difficulty with getting the money, just waiting a few minutes until they verify their accounts.)

One time the checker ran out to the parking lot to get me. I calmly said, “Okay, I’ll come back in to get the money.” She said no, she’d bring the money out, and she went back in and returned with the cash. Now possibly her motivation was to avoid being written up or something, but I really did appreciate not having to make the return trip. And I thanked her profusely.

I made my first visit to Payless shoes recently. I had seen some shoes I wanted on their website. For some reason the size I wanted wasn’t available there, so went to a store to see if they had them. The clerk checked and said they didn’t. However, he checked with some nearby stores, found one that did have them, had them held until the end of the day, AND said I would get a credit for $2 for the inconvenience!!!

A few days later I went back to the website for some other shoes, found them in my size and tried to order them online, but the web form said my zip code wasn’t valid for my address. I called their 800 number to order the shoes and mentioned the problem, expecting the operator to apologize and say they’d check into it, which she did. She also said I’d get a $1 credit for the inconvenience!!!

Needless to say, next time I need shoes, I’m starting at Payless.

15

Exhibit 1:
My Kodak Digicam died under warranty. 4th July Weekend before my 20Yr. class reunion.

Had to wait 'till Monday to get CS, but no significant phone queue. CS rep helpful and friendly (in spite of thick joisey accent).

Shipped them unit via overnight on monday AM.

It was repaired and waiting form me on my doorstep Wed. PM.

So the repair and shipping trans-continental both ways was accomplished in under three days…in time for me to take it to my reunion. And this after a Holliday weekend that probably resulted in some failures + backlog.
Exhibit 2:
Car starter failed. I pulled old starter and took to Autozone, so I wouldn’t need to make second trip to return core. This meant they had to keep the box (they have to return cores in the box) So I take unboxed starter home.

Climbing out of truck with starter in hand, sharp corner on solinoid doghouse catches and cuts my finger, causing me to drop starter on driveway, which breaks one of the cast aluminum mounting ears off…DOH!

I return to Autozone, tell them exactly how I broke this, and I need another one. (it WAS under $30). Employee fetches manager. Manager pulls up my warranty info. (long history with this store). “Mr. Kevbo, thank you for not giving us a cock-and-bull story about how it came that way…Here is a new starter, no charge, thank you for your business…did you need anything else today?”

Exhibit 3:
Verison Wireless customer service phone line:
-Short if any phone queue.
-CS rep taking call see’s problem through to resolution, in one call if possible. If not possible, CS rep takes responsibility to call customer with resolution. You wait in the (short) phone queue only once per problem.
-CS rep IS in next state, but at least it is same country, and the two I have spoken with were native english (well, american anyway) speakers, with at least a secondary education by the sound of them.

Exhibit 4:
Digikey, an electronic component supplier. All inventory data correctly (IME) available on line. They promise to ship if you place order by 5 PM thier time. Once, in a crisis at work, I placed an emergency web order at 8 PM SUNDAY evening. It arrived with the 10AM Fedex Monday morning. Oh, and all thier phone order operators know international phonetic alphabit (alpha,bravo, etc.) which speeds the order process compared to “B as in boy” and reduces chance of error.
Exhibit 5:
ExpressPCB a web based circuit board supplier. Can’t say enough good things about them. Zero errors. ALWAYS deliver per quote except on rare occasions, when they deliver a day EARLY. They offer NO customer support via phone…email only, which they do well.

16

Something tells me this might not be a very long thread… :slight_smile:

One experience that I always think of along these lines is when I bought my wedding dress (in 2000). The first place I went to was David’s Bridals and was apprehensive for several reasons:

  • I’m was a size 22 at the time and was worried they’d say “sorry, we don’t carry wedding tents”
  • I was worried I would be pressured into buying a dress I wasn’t crazy about
  • Worried I wouldn’t find anything I liked at all
  • Figured I would be followed around by a salesperson which would just make me nervous

I couldn’t have been more wrong! Every salesperson I talked to was sweet and nice as could be the girl who met me at the door asked my name and when I told her she knew right away…“We’ve been expecting you!” She showed me around and told me to take as much time as I needed. They had lots of gorgeous dresses in my size, very reasonably priced. When I was in the try on area, she checked in occasionally, didn’t hover. And when I found the dress I liked she didn’t try to talk me into a higher priced one or sell me a bunch of accessories, etc. When I left she even gave me a big hug and said how happy she was I found my dress!!

When it came to the weekend of the wedding, David’s stepped up again. I lived out of town and needed my dress pressed prior to the service. I called them to see if they could do it, fully expecting to be told, sorry you waited too long, etc. It was my own fault for waiting so long so I was coming up with a backup plan as I dialed the number. But they said, bring it in, we can get it done for you in about 15 minutes…AT NO EXTRA CHARGE. The dress looked fabulous and the wedding was wonderful.

17

Two from waaaaaay, waaaaaay, back in the day when my primary computer was a Commodore 128. I had a Commodore MPS-803 dot matrix printer. A pretty basic, bare bones sort of machine. I was having trouble printing to it through the GEOS operating system (a vaguely Mac-like point and click OS). So I wrote to Berkeley Softworks, the makers of GEOS. There response, paraphrased:

“We’ve had other reports of trouble with the MPS-803. We’d like to have your printer for testing purposes. In exchange we’ll give you a Star Micronics NL-10 printer.”

Which was a far, far better printer than the one I sent them!

I also had a good experience with Commodore itself. I’d gotten a 512K RAM expansion cartridge (wooo!) It took me a while, but after learning about how to program using the thing, I slowly, gradually began to realize that even though the plastic case said 512K, it seemed to have only 256K. By the time I was sure, it was already well out of warranty. But after corresponding with Commodore, they had me send it back. They opened it up, while verifying that I hadn’t broken the seal by opening it myself, and discovered they really had sent me a 256K unit packaged in a 512K case. They sent me a new cartridge.

I wonder how many of those bad cartridges were sold without anyone noticing?

18

Their response. Preview. Grr.

19

Recently, I stopped at a local bakery known for its desserts and picked up a few treats. While ringing us up, the person behind the counter gave my companion and I samples of one of my absolute favorite treats they have. (My companion tasted hers and didn’t like it so I got to take all of that treat home with me. Even better!)

20

Amazingly, I have a good customer service story about…an airline. Delta, to be specific. Last year, coming back from Mexico City, my flight was delayed enough that I missed my connection in Atlanta. Pretty much the whole flight missed connections. As we were approaching Atlanta, we were told that anyone who had missed flights had already been re-booked and just needed to go to the counter when they got out of customs to get their baggage re-tagged and get a new boarding pass. Didn’t take much longer than the normal baggage re-check.

I’d consider it a fluke, but I have a friend who was traveling this week and had the same experience.

GT