My wife was very impressed recently with the customer service from Zappos. They have a 365-day return policy, so you have a long time to decide whether you like those shoes or not. When my wife decided to return one of the pairs of shoes she’d ordered, they not only linked her to a printable prepaid UPS label, they credited her credit card the day she called about the return, before she’d even shipped the shoes back. Instant gratification. Can’t beat it.
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I really like Advance Auto Parts. You go there, tell them the Make & Model of your car, and they will find you the right part. Not only that, for certain things (wipers) they come out to your car and install it. And if you’re unsure (“1990 Toyota Corolla front headlight. You know, the white one?”) They come out and let you point it out to them. Never condescending, and they spend as much time as you need, and then ring you up themselves. I always go to them for my car parts.
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Last year I had some major troubles with my inspection. I had just purchased a used car that ended up having a lot of little lights out. Well, the guy told me to go buy them from Advance Auto Parts since he said he’s have to charge me like $10.00 for a $1.99 light. Then when I brought them all back, he installed them all free of charge. My rear windshield brake light was out, so he said they don’t do electrical, and didn’t charge me for anything, instead recommended me to Midas, who does do electrical. Very nice guy.
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A couple of weeks ago our DSL (Verizon) was out all weekend, and I was getting really annoyed. My SO (the holder of the account) had called twice, and no dice. Well, Monday came and nothing, so I came home all in a huff and called Verizon myself. Derek from the call center immediately fixed the problem, took down a detailed description of what the other fellow had(n’t) done, and apologize profusely. My ‘angry’ rug was swept right out from under me.
I ordered a dozen different computer parts from Tigerdirect.com, an online computer parts retailer, to assemble a monster gaming machine. They all arrived a day early, all the parts were the correct items, and best of all they all worked flawlessly. Never in my life have I assembled a machine from scratch via mail order that didn’t have some kind of issue. I’ve been ordering from them for about year, excellent each time.
San Francisco Music Box Company rocks.
When Dweezil was about 16 months old, we bought him a wind-up musical bunny from SFMB. He immediately decided that this was his Lovey (that very special toy that had to go everywhere with him).
About 6 weeks later, he had a stomach virus. Hurled his last 3 meals. All over Bunny.
Bunny, being a musical toy, was not washable. Surface-washing was not gonna cut it.
So I phoned the store, described the bunny, and asked if they pretty-please still had another one in stock. Luck was with us.
I sealed the original Bunny up in a plastic bag since trash day was several days away. Papa Zappa went to the mall to purchase Bunny Mark II.
The folks at the store insisted “We have an unconditional 1-year warranty. Bring the original one in and we’ll replace it free”. So Papa Zappa came home sans replacement Bunny.
We went back the next day with the hazmat bag. Tried insisting that the toy was not defective in any way, shape or form, it had simply been contaminated. They insisted “unconditional warranty”.
So we handed over the sealed plastic bag (cue Psycho violin screeching here) and received a brand-new Bunny in exchange. As we fled, we told the people at the store “We strongly recommend that you do not attempt to open that bag”.
The store has since closed, but it was open for several years after that incident so I don’t think we were resonsible for its closure (in fact, we wound up purchasing 2 more Bunny clones to have as spares).
And I must mention Globe Shoes in Paramus NJ.
I have an extremely hard-to-find shoe size (women’s 12-Wide). Only place I can find shoes near home (Virginia) is Nordstrom, and even they don’t have a great selection in-store (though their website is terrific).
A few years ago I was in NJ for a funeral. A blizzard was predicted. Size 12-W boots are nearly nonexistent and I owned none. I went to Globe and told them what I needed, expecting them to trot out a single pair, take it or leave it no matter what it looks like.
To my shock, they started asking me questions. “Dressy or snow”. “Color?”. “Smooth sole or traction sole?”. I thought I’d wound up in Bizarro World.
I wound up buying 4 other pairs of shoes that night 
And speaking of Nordstroms: last fall I bought a pair of expensive shoes. Left the store, went to a nearby Gap store with my daughter. Forgot the shoe bag in the dressing room when we went out to get some more clothes. Went back into the dressing room 2 minutes later and the shoes had been stolen.
I popped back into Nordstrom to see if they could put a notice out so if anyone tried to “return” those shoes for money, at least the thief might get hassled.
Nordstrom replaced my shoes, despite my argument that I had NO expectation of them doing so because it was in NO WAY their fault.
So I bought another pair then, too.
You see a pattern here? if a car dealer or a realtor treats me well some time, I’m in biiiiiig trouble
I have quite a few examples of good customer service.
In my local bar, for example, I really do get very good service (generally). Some people get passed over when wanting a drink, occasionally, but in general the staff are very friendly ot me, have a chat and a joke and I think it’s great. I like to think that’s because I respect them and treat them in that way.
One other example that stood out recently was when I went to buy a game for my PC.
The guy behind the counter appeared to be the classic Glasgow (UK) ned. However, he advised me that I could get that game bundled with another game that I happened to be interested in and told me crucial info I needed to know, including details of restrictive online registration info that I wouldn’t even thought of.
Leaving the shop, I was really impressed that he had given me every piece of information that I could have wanted - and made a higher priced sale that I was fully comfortable with.
My experience since then has borne out everything he told me and - though there were some frustrations, I feel that I was fully informed before making the purchase.
Maybe most significant of all was the fact that I know many people wouldn’t have trusted a guy like hin who came across as being “wide as the Clyde”, as we say.
But the effort he made and the info he gave me couldn’t be faulted and I now make a point of going to that shop before I buy a game.
I once had a lipstick that was THE absolute perfect color for me. Just before I got ready to replace it, the company discontinued it. I went to a counter at Nordstrom that had just come out with one that online looked like it might be a good substitute. Nope, wayyyyyy off. The saleswoman associated with that particular brand took the dregs of the one I had left and matched it up to every other brand’s similar shades to help me find a match. I was really sorry when her husband’s job moved them away - I ended up spending an awful lot of time and money on her line!
When I was 12 and loved to run instead of walking. I bought a really cheap magazine and forgot the $5 change. I was halfway home, running as usual, when I hear someone shouting: it was the store clerk chasing me like a maniac to return me my money. Now THAT’s good service.
I had a good customer service story. A couple of months ago I ordered a batch of CDs from Amazon UK. When the order arrived I found that they had included two copies of one disc and that another one I’d ordered was missing. I send an e-mail explaining the situation via their Web site and in less than 24 hours got a reply saying they’d send off a replacement for the missing one right away, and since return shipping from the US would be too expensive, I could just keep the extra one. (They actually suggested I could donate it to a charity.)
I thought, This is great! Fast service, convenient, courteous, and socially enlightened. I actually considered writing a note to someone telling them how happy I was with their service.
Unfortunately…
When the replacement arrived, it was another copy of the one I already had two of! Okay, back to the Web site. I pointed out to them that there might be some problem in their inventory process because the packing slip showed the right name, even though the item was wrong.
I got a reply that said that they’d look into it and get back to me.
Nothing happened.
Nothing happened again.
After three weeks of hearing nothing, I sent another e-mail recounting the situation and asking what was up. They said, Sorry. We’ve issued you a credit. No further explanation. Going back to the Web site I found that the item I wanted was no longer listed, presumably on back order or out of stock.
So now I have three copies of one and no copies of the other.
Oh, well. Not every story has a happy ending.
A saga about Eddie Bauer being awesome:
For either my 18th birthday or high school graduation (forgot which and it doesn’t matter to the story) my mom got me a leather jacket. I didn’t particularly like the style, so we returned it and embarked on the search for a new one. I’m 6’7" so I’ve got long arms, but only weigh 175 pounds, so the it’s hard to find clothes that are long enough and narrow enough in the shoulders/chest/waist. Eventually, at Eddie Bauer, we find a jacket which I like the style of AND fits, but is brown and I want a black jacket. They are no longer producing that style, but they are still in stock, so if another E.B. has it, they’ll ship it to us and everybody will be happy. The manager spends a good 15 minutes calling every other Eddie Bauer within a hundred miles, none of them have the jacket either. We leave, my mom calls the 800 number, they do some national inventory check, apparently there are none left in stock in black in my size anywhere. 
Two months later, we get a phone call saying that someone in Wisconsin returned a black jacket of my size, do we still want it? Yes, say we, and they send it out to us. And, IIRC, they gave it to us for the sale price that it would have been when we started looking. 
Comcast, strangely enough. We’ve had digital cable for a while, but no longer need it - we don’t watch that much television and my racing is now on regular networks. SpouseO called Comcast and spoke with a representative who pointed him towards the best package for our needs, eliminated a charge we’d had because of legacy equipment, didn’t try to up-sell him or convince him to add on other services, and even made a funny.
Made for a nice change.
I ordered a cheapie puzzle ring for Mr. Armadillo for the wedding–he doesn’t wear rings, so I didn’t want to spend the money on a nice gold band–and I ordered the wrong size. I didn’t realize it until two business days later, when we were picking up my ring from the jeweller, and he was playing with the sizing ring set. When we got home, I ran to the computer to email the company (I’d ordered it online) and… there was an email announcing my order had shipped. I called the 800 number at the bottom of the email, and explained what happened, and that the wedding is on Sunday. I asked if the piece had already been shipped, or was just in the process. She says the UPS guy had just picked it up and left the building
I asked if I could just “return to sender” the package and have them ship a new one once the package got back. She said that would be fine, but that she would see what she could do. I didn’t hear anything, so two days later I sent an email off to see what had ever happened.
She wrote back to say she’d called the UPS guy and had him come back to the building to bring back the package and switch it out for the right size. All that effort for a less than $20 purchase.
What a nice thing to do.
I have a fairly recent good customer service story (although be warned - it starts off like a poor customer service story).
I’m getting married the first weekend of September. My maid of honor and best friend lives three time zones away, but she wanted really, really badly to be involved with the wedding somehow. So we decided that I would fly to her place over Memorial Day weekend (the only 3-day weekend between the day I got engaged and my wedding other than Fourth of July which was already booked solid) and we would do the dreaded Wedding Dress Shopping Thang.
Now, I don’t do clothes shopping. I despise clothes shopping with a red hot burning passion that cannot be denied. I always have, I probably always will. Wedding dress shopping is approximately eleven million times worse than standard clothes shopping. For starters, one piece outfits are hell for me to fit - my bottom bits and my top bits are some six to eight SIZES different. This is fine if I’m buying seperates. Not so fine for purchasing a dress. Or at least a dress that I want to look like it actually fits. And then there are all the special undergarments to go with one’s wedding dress - strapless bra, garter, special panties to go with the engineering masterpiece that is a DDD strapless bra, etc. And shoes - holy hell the shoes.
Anyway. My best friend and another girl and I set forth bright and early Saturday morning, fortified with breakfast, coffee and matching Hello Kitty hats and sunglasses (because it was goofy). We make our way to the first (closest) bridal dress store. We walk in and start to poke around - inspecting dresses, quietly commenting on the fashion decisions some of the designers have made, generally having a pretty good time. After 15 minutes or so, I want to have a closer look at one or two of the offerings. It occurs to me that nobody’s even wandered over to check on us. I start actively looking around and discover that there are exactly two clerks for every non-clerk person in the store. I wander over to their greatest concentration and ask for assistance. The clerk to whom I am speaking - a flawlessly coiffed Barbie-clone looks down her little nose at me and asks if I have an appointment. I admit that no I do not, as I am travelling from out of state in order to do this with my maid of honor. She informs me that absent an appointment she is not able to help me with anything - including basic information - and goes back to her dissection of her date the night before with her co-worker. I try, politely, to get her attention several more times and am eventually told that they will not assist me, and would have nothing a “person of my size and personal style” would be interested in.
I shrug it off, we mutter about the lady and move on to the next store - sure this must be a fluke.
It isn’t.
Six stores - same results with only minor variations in word choice.
Seriously aggravated (since I fit in a standard airplane fit with room to buckle my seat without tilting to the side - and khaki shorts and a T-shirt are perfectly acceptable summer weekend wear!), my best friend and I give up and decide to do the undergarment and shoe shopping instead. It’s decided that the most efficient way to do this is to hit the mall - which has sales anyway.
So we trek off to the mall - bitter and angry but determined to get new panties, come Hell or high water! It’s a quest dammit!
The first store we stop at is Lane Bryant. This is primarily because the choice of lingerie for ladies with a cup size over “DD” is exceptionally limited, and Lane Bryant actually has a selection - a selection that features less than 5 hooks in the back and colors other than beige.
We are greeted at the door. We explain our needs and the salesgirl who greeted us lights up like a child who’s just spotted free candy. She has just completed a lingerie fitting course (who knew they had these?) and is absolutely delighted to have persons upon which to test her newfound skills. And persons who aren’t just a plain old 38C! She’s in heaven. My best friend and I are vastly entertained - we’re both used to clerks who eye our bosoms and point us towards Old Lady Bra Heaven. (For reference my best friend fits approximately a 38 G - she’s harder to fit than I am). She hustles us off to the fitting rooms and proceeds to give us a complete professional lingerie fitting. We get measured and poked and she sends the third girl with us (Stephanie - who has a perfectly easy to fit size and is therefore relegated to status of gofer) out to get a variety of different garments. She brings their sales to our attention and recommends styles and colors. My friend and I both end up with undergarments - in my case in a size I didn’t realize I was. Throughout all this she is cheeful and pleasant and helpful and informative. My best friend and I are almost in tears out of sheer gratitude. On the way out of the store we make it a point to find her manager and gush about her.
Next we stop at Sears, where there is a major shoe sale in progress. Again, we are greeted at the door and escorted to the objects of our desire. The salesgirl patiently runs back and forth to the stock room fetching us various styles and sizes and offers helpful information and suggestions. She is cheerful, pleasant and friendly. We fill out a detailed customer appreciation card that we request before we leave.
Feeling emboldened by our success, and filled with the realization a wedding dress is just a white formal gown, we hit one of the major department stores in the mall (Meier and Frank) to see what if anything they have in white. 20 minutes later - and after yet another friendly helpful soul in the ladies department, I’m walking out the door with my wedding dress - a floor length white silk gown that I love to little pieces - for the munificient sum of $74.39. It was marked down from over $500.
Seeing as the wedding dresses I’d seen in the wedding dress stores started at around $400 bucks - and several of them were similar to the one I purchased - their lack of customer service definitely cost them several hundred dollars at a minimum.
I would write up a little letter (consolidated from this post) explaining exactly why they lost several hundred dollars’ worth of business from people who were prepared to lay out cash that very day. I’ve done it and damn, it felt good.
Great story!
I did. Along with the names of the snippy salespersonages.
I also very gently pointed out that if they seriously expected me to plunk down between 500 and 5000 dollars on a dress I will wear precisely once, they had better damn well be making it up in customer service. A wedding dress isn’t a house or a car or even higher end consumer electronics that I will use daily. It’s a one-time-purchase.
Excellent! You rock!
I got an e-mail gift certificate the day before my birthday, from birkenstockcentral.com. I ordered up a pair (maybe mid-morning) and the next morning I left for work a little later than usual (about 9:30) and there were my new shoes on the doorstep.
I came in here yesterday and you refused to help me? You work on commission, don’t you? Big mistake. Big. Huge.
/Pretty Woman
Wow I’ve been to that (well I guess there could be more than one). The funny thing is, neither my wife or I really like Bob Evans, but my stepson loves it.
Anyway, once at Big Boy (Elias Brothers), my brother ordered a Slim Jim, sandwhich only. When the waitress brought it, it had fries on it. She says, “the cook burned it a little, so I gave you some fries. Let me know if it’s too burnt and I’ll give you a new one.” My brother thought it was fine and started to eat.
Toward the end of the meal, the manager comes up and apologizes for the burnt sandwhich and hands my brother a $5 gift certificate book.
My brother said that if they hadn’t mentioned it, he would have never noticed anything was wrong.