I was looking at the “worst company” thread and thought I’d ask about the opposite situation.
Companies that have been easy, fast, friendly, etc., at least in my own experience, YMMV:
Rhino Records: this was years ago-- their mail delivery time was exceptionally fast.
Trader Joe’s: always good stuff. On rare occasions when you find you’ve gotten a bad melon or something, they are hassle-free about returning it. Oh, and I once accidentally knocked a bottle of milk to the floor and milk was everywhere. It was my own fault for being clumsy, but they just cleaned it up and refused to let me pay for it.
Shoebuy dot com: fast service, and they often provide free shipping both ways if you should need to return something.
Verizon. Yes, there are many horror stories, but our service and installation here has been quite good, especially FIOS.
Best Buy: Heard many bad things about them as well, but the ones around here have been superb.
Medicare/Social Security: when my dad died and we had to let various organizations know about it, they were they easiest to deal with and very efficient.
Fresh & easy: not a big variety but decent prices; also very friendly, helpful staff.
In N Out burgers: have always had good food, orders filled correctly, mostly fast except during the lunch crush.
Propet shoes: Long lasting, comfy shoes; fast arrival; gift with registration (a lovely pair of US-made socks, among other things).
Yves Rocher: I order from them a lot. Always nice products, good prices, promos, gifts, extra freebies, etc.
DHC: pricier cosmetics but great service and nice samples.
Vonage, VOIP service. They have very good phone service and their customer service has been very helpful with little follow-up surveys so management can make sure that the reps and such are doing a good job. Also, after we joined with one free month, my husband found an add for two free months and called up to get another month free. (Something I never would have done…but he has no qualms!)
They’ve repaired frames for me twice. The first time there was a small fee, which I thought was fair, and it was done quickly. The second time, they actually sent my check back to me and did it for free!!!
MBNA credit cards. Oh, how I miss you, MBNA. Every time I got off the phone with you I felt GOOD. Now, I have Bank of America, who’s service SUCKS. And to add insult to injury, they’ve scopped up both my mortgage company and my business’s merchant account. I can’t get away from BoA
Also, I like Zappos.com - awesome selection, fast shipping, and easy-peasy free returns.
Zappos was just bought by Amazon. I wonder if that will change things?
I give high marks to Apple tech support. There have been one or two notably bad exceptions, but in general, the tech folks I’ve talked to don’t treat me like an idiot, and if I give them a blow-by-blow of what I’ve already tried, they accept that as ground already covered. During the long pauses for restarts, they are comfortable with silence but equally OK with chit-chat to pass the time.
The best thing is that they very quickly expedite your case to a higher level if they’ve run through all their suggestions to no avail. And when it’s gotten to that level, I’ve been given a name and direct line to call if I have further problems.
(It’s not that I have a lot of problems! It’s that I’ve been a Mac user for many, many years.)
Southwest Airlines. Every single time I’ve had to deal with their agents, they’ve been unfailingly polite, efficient, very helpful, and go out of their way to give me what I don’t deserve. I’ll never fly another airline if I can help it.
Blizzard’s customer service is pretty good, especially considering the volume they must get. I always hear horror stories about retarded GMs that give obvious solution that you already tried, but the ones I’ve encountered have been nothing less than helpful (to the best of their ability) and fun (like, would pretend the monster that bugged was just being stubborn and RP with you about it). For the out-of-game Customer Service they’re not bad either, I’ve had one or two character escalations and they handled it pretty quickly without much fuss. YMMV of course.
I got it b/c it was fast, easy–blah blah–could print out the proof of insurance–several years ago.
Then had my car stolen. From the parking lot of my condo. From twenty feet from my front door. While I was home.
I had NO problem with them at all. Everyone was helpful (I’ve never had my car stolen before–2001 Dodge Strati are not high on the list of ‘cool cars’, I’m sure! It was stolen for a joyride [a Stratus?? I mean, really? I was found even before I’d reported it–and my dad got some free fishing rods out of it. Yes–evidently it was stolen to go FISHING in.])
Everyone I talked to was friendly. In a time that I was incredibly freaked out, the woman I dealt with was just patient and friendly and never scary. She called and emailed me consistently with answers to every question.
I’m not a demographic that’s very expensive or anything, and I don’t know the cost analysis. But just the fact that everyone I dealt with was so pleasant, I’m keeping them.
American Express MERCHANT services have always been very very good.
TiVo. TiVo actually listens to their customers. Things that get ranted about on tivocummunity (which isn’t even their website, but they do have TiVo employees posting on it) actually get fixed. The outsourced tech support to India, it was brought back to America. They had a shitty rebate company, they got a new one that stopped ‘losing’ everyones UPCs. And there’s a few more things. Of course when they raised their subscription prices several years back and people threw a fit, they held their ground basically saying…Hey, you wanted American tech support, you wanted a better rebate company, you wanted…we did it, but it’s more expensive. I thing the end users understood. For how big they are, they always seemed (to me) to operate like small business.
This is a company the prepacks supplements for horses (also dogs and cats) into daily doses. I won’t go into the details of the service, which is clever, well-priced and well-executed. Suffice it to say that your supplements come automatically every 28 or so days so you never run out.
My horse died suddenly a few years ago. I was in shock for a few days, and when I called them a few days later to cancel the service I found out my monthly package had shipped the day before. They were terribly kind and sympathetic over the phone (so much so that I started crying again) and immediately refunded my charge for that month, and told me not to worry about returning the shipped package.
Its a niche service but they do it amazingly well. You pretty much never hear a bad word about Smartpak from the equine community.
It’s easy, and sort of trendy, to see them as evil or bad or something but holy cow, you stay at one of their resorts and the only bad thing that’s allowed to happen to you is having to get up in the morning. And even that you can skip if you want.
Restaurant, maid service, child card, whatever: done with a smile and an eye towards making it easier for you to have a good time (and spend money). I have never felt less than completely satisfied with the attitude and enthusiasm of cast members from management to street sweepers.
Apple was great with my last Mac that had a lot of bad luck (parts going bad) with AppleCare. Customer service was wonderful and they overnighted really nice padded boxes to send my computer in and got everything done quickly.
Zappos was great as a secondhand experience. One of my friends has horrible luck finding clothes and shoes that fit and always had to send stuff back - Zappos was great to him. I was there once and they were extremely helpful, nice, and efficient. Free shipping on his return too.
I am a confirmed cheapskate, and to save money, I have flown just about all the major US based airlines (and several European based ones) over the years, but all things other being equal (price of flights), I will choose Southwest Airlines over any other airline, hands down.
From the reservations agents on the phone, to the gate agents, flight attendants and even baggage handlers, the whole crew at SWA makes it a pleasure to travel with thier airline.
Miracle of Aloe: Nice products–Miracle Foot Repair is pretty close to living up to its name. And if you choose to buy by mail, you don’t have to pay postage. They often have free shipping, and always a gift–often a live aloe plant, which is the easiest thing to grow.
We love the Verizon customer rep people. Every time we call, they’re helpful, patient (even when we’re somewhat stupid), cheerful. They always make sure we have what we need, and they have never once sounded as if they just want us to get the heck off the phone.
Elderly Instruments is easily the best company I’ve ever done business with. I’ve bought from them, sold through them, gotten advice from them. They’re first rate. Completely honest, conscientious, and competent.
