Awesome customer service stories

[WarrenM]

You hear about bad stuff all the time but a post I saw about someone's Kindle experience prompted me to think about my experience with my Drobo.

So let's call some companies out for being awesome for once rather than just sucking, as the usual internet stories go...

When I first got my Drobo unit it kept turning itself off with a red light after a few hours of use. The manual said it was overheating but that clearly wasn't the case. The Drobo support rep got back to me and we tried a few things to fix it. No go. They then sent me a new unit and a packing slip to return the old one. The new unit worked awesome and the guy even called me back the next week to make sure I was still happy with it and everything was still working.

Data Robotics is on my happy list.

[RickH]

Logitech has always been polite and efficient when I have called them for warranty service.

Infinity made me wait on hold for a while, but quickly sent me a replacement for a buzzing surround-sound speaker.

Sony gave me no problems at all sending a tech to my house to fix my expensive SXRD set when the video block went bad 10 months after I bought it.

While their sales floor staff is often clueless, Frys has never ever given me a problem with a return.

[tiohn]

Heny's Muffler on Capital Boulevard installed a brand new catback on my car in half an hour for less than $150. Parts and labor are fully warranted for two years. I had forgotten that my car doesn't have to be loud.

[Gendal]

I bought a crazy expensive Zektor DVI switcher for various reasons, but the unit that got shipped to me was defective from the reseller. They told me to call Zektor, which pissed me off to no end. Zektor as it turns out was extremely apologetic and got me a new model the next day. Still amazed to this day. Course they do charge a premium for their products, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Nintendo. When my launch Wii died they where a pleasure to deal with, which stands in stark contrast with Microsoft. The irony here is that my 360 still hasn't died, I contacted Microsoft just to buy the warranty extension.

Mercedes. Try taking an Infinity, Lexus, or BMW in for service and it makes you appreciate just how good every Mercedes dealer seems to be in making you feel like a VIP. I would never buy one of their lower end cars these days, but I understand why some people do just for the service.

[Bad Neighbor]

I used to hate dealing with my bank (Key Bank), but last week I got a call about a recent activity on my card. It wasn't for the purchases my wife made in Mongolia, but a $1 charge to iTunes. The rep was very polite and patient and tomorrow I should have a new check card.

[Morberis]

My story involves Chapters. I ordered in some book and they called me to let me know that it had arrived. But when the clerk went into the back to get it she discovered that the cover had been half ripped off. She apologized, ordered in another copy and gave me a $30 gift recipe as an apology. Being the helpful soul that had helped me place the order in the first place she may have remembered that I had told her I about previous orders that had failed to arrive. So maybe that led her to giving me such a generous compensation, who knows.

Do we have a thread here for bad customer service stories?

[Hans Lauring]

Millions.
Try searching for the "Which EB"-thread.

Apple is spending more on UPS'ing my defective headset to the Netherlands than the replacement unit can possibly cost them, but I guess it's their insurance against scrupulous customers.

Plextor does the same (1-3 days RMA, but to Belgium) but they don't have anything as cheap as a headset.

Also the nice lady at Sunglass Hut in central Vegas who not only fixed my bent Ray Bans (bought in a Cannes store) but gave me a bunch of freebies (leather case et al) even when I was fully expecting to pay for the service.

[malchior]

My best so far was Samsung for me. I bought an early DLP which had a defective screen. The screen was made of a laminate that would trap moisture between the layers and would have blotches on the screen for the first 30 minutes or so until the heat from the lamp cooked off the moisure. Samsung denied the problem for a little while, but then offered to replace the screens even out of warranty. Nice.

They sent a guy out to my house to come in and replace the screen, which only took a few minutes. It did get a little awkward when the guy told me the story about why he was bummed out that day; his friend from the office had had a miscarriage earlier that day. Thanks for that spot of sunshine, dude!

I also had a similar experience with Amazon with my girlfriend's K1. The screen got funny on it (the top lines were perma gray). They had me run through a couple of quick steps, adn then they sent out a new one with the same 3.99 temp charge. Nice one Amazon!

[Oghier]

American Airlines, last October.

I arrived at the Chattanooga airport 10 minutes before my flight home was due to depart. The lady at the ticket counter phoned the gate to have the plane held, then personally escorted me through security to speed things up. I fly a lot of miles on that airlines, but that was pretty shocking.

[WarrenM]

American Airlines

Wow, those were 2 words I was not expecting to see in this thread...

[tiohn]

Wow, those were 2 words I was not expecting to see in this thread...

Nor did I. I had the most horrendous experience with American Airlines over the holidays.

Edit: Ah ha! It's a clever April Fool's day joke, just like EpicBoy enjoys.

[RickH]

Nor did I. I had the most horrendous experience with American Airlines over the holidays.

Edit: Ah ha! It's a clever April Fool's day joke, just like EpicBoy enjoys.

It depends a lot on the airport. I never fail to be treated horribly (and slowly) at DFW, but in Albuquerque, they're as nice as can be.

[Moore]

Our Roomba died years out of warranty, but when we called they hadnt seen one die that way before so they wanted it. they sent a brand new one, plus extra batteries, brushes etc.. in exchange for the dead one.


Tokyo Flash apologetically made me pay ($ shipping to get a piece for a watch I broke way out of warranty. I just needed one link, but due to the link needed not being easy to work with, they sent the entire watchband for free.

[Pogo]

Kingston ValuRAM, got one defective memory module in a DDR pair I ordered off of Newegg. Called up Kingston and they RMA'd it no questions asked, payed for shipping and everything. I was good to go within days.

[Rimbo]

After buying a 12" iBook G3 (white w/ 2 USB ports) for my Mom as a "Here's a Mac so we won't ever have to do tech support for you again" gift, I bought an identical copy for myself as kind of a Palm Pilot replacement. It eventually supplanted my desktop PC as my primary computer, and I abused the fuck out of that thing. But it also was a lemon; after 2 repairs due to a video connector glitch, I bring it to the Apple Store for the 3rd repair, expecting them to ship it off for yet another very quick 2-3 days without a laptop.

The guy types and looks for a while and finally says, "Oh, you qualify for a replacement."

"What, really?"

"And of course we don't make that model any more. So we'll give you a brand new iBook G4 for free instead."

"No, REALLY?"

I walked home that evening with a new, upgraded laptop. Which lasted a year before I spilled some Macallan 18 into the keyboard. DAMMIT! What a terrible, horrible waste.

[tiohn]

I spilled some Macallan 18 into the keyboard. DAMMIT! What a terrible, horrible waste.

That is certainly a terrible waste of good scotch.

[Rimbo]

That is certainly a terrible waste of good scotch.

Yep. Computers can be replaced, but spilled scotch is lost forever.

[Enidigm]

I already said this on here awhile ago, but Wells Fargo helped me receive ~1300$ refund when i got jipped by an Ebay seller. It was pretty much hassle free, especially since, with something like Ebay, it always seemed to me just my word vs. theirs. But they basically made no qualm about it; whereas Paypal was indifferent and made no effort whatsoever outside of their normal dispute channels.

I also always liked BFG's tech support for their video cards.

[Jason McCullough]

It's "Gypped," actually. Also: slightly racist.

[triggercut]

My replacement Kindle 1 arrived today, even though I'm pretty sure it's out of warranty. I was expecting a refurb, but this sucker was packaged as new and the plastic and everything else about it just smells "new". Works awesomely well, too.

[CLWheeljack]

I had a Canon Powershot that was like 4 years old that apparently had a defective image chip inside it, and it stopped working (would power on, but no pictures could be taken).

Turns out Canon had recalled ones with that broken chip, so I sent it in and they painlessly sent back a much newer, much nicer (refurb'd) model, since the one I originally had was discontinued. Just a completely pleasant and pain-free experience that left me impressed, and totally willing to do business with them again.

[ARogan]

Monoprice.com

One of the 4X1 HDMI switches had a bad port (port #3) which showed sparkles at 1080p but not at 720p. I fired off a quick email to monoprice support requesting a RMA so I could exchange it. To my surprise within 3 hrs I got a response. They shipped a replacement with tracking # and also included a prepaid return ups shipping label. That's right. Without any additional prompting from me, forms to fill out, or anything, they just cross shipped me a new unit along with a prepaid return shipping label. I got the replacement unit that same week which works just fine.

Another time they had shipped an order slightly wrong (they shipped a few wrong cables). After a quick email they shipped the correct ones, and they just let me keep the wrong cables.

[Omniscia]

I've only ever had one problem order with Monoprice -- they sent me an HDMI-F to DVI-F adapter, rather than HDMI-F to DVI-M. But I contacted them right away, and they shipped me a replacement immediately (got it within a few days), and even let me keep the incorrect item.

[JoshV]

Perforce Tech support is really good.

I was attempting to integrate it into some of our tools, had a problem, and emailed them a question, and they got back to me within a half hour.

[DTG]

Linksys: My home wireless stopped working. The woman spent 20 minutes walking me through the fix, and as soon as she understood I had tried the simple stuff she went to the second page. I learned more about wireless networks in that 20 minutes than I had in days of reading.

Jet Blue: I went the stupid cheapo route and booked them through Travelocity instead of their own web site. I tell Travelocity I need 4 seats together, minimum 3, and literally type in the ages of my 10 and 7 year old. I show up at Kennedy and all 4 seats are scattered all over the plane. JB took pity and moved folks around, including for the return flight, so we were together. No accusations of being a cheap bastard (turns out it wasn't much cheaper..I just hadn't thought of using the JB website).

Blizzard: They screwed up a WoW character transfer, and then made me more than whole. Later, when I had connectivity issues with their servers only, they logged in as me and worked on tracing my problem. Kept sending me update emails. I was stunned.

Logitech: Defective rear speaker on a 5.1 system I bought through Amazon, but didn't try to hook up until after the Amazon return period. This was one of those 40-pound sets. They email me a postage-paid return for just the control pod, and take it away. A whole new set of speakers shows up in 2 days.

Cannon: 1st MP850 Pixma requires continual rebooting after about 8 months. A five-minute phone call, and they send me a new printer in 2 days, with a postage-paid return slip for the old one.

[Enidigm]

It's "Gypped," actually. Also: slightly racist.

If i change the spelling does it still (mostly) count? /rhetorical

[XPav]

Perforce Tech support is really good.

I was attempting to integrate it into some of our tools, had a problem, and emailed them a question, and they got back to me within a half hour.

I love Perforce tech support. They're awesome. People ask why you would pay money for SCM. Answer = good tech support.

My other story -- Amazon Kindle store. Bought a book. Book was totally screwed up in the conversion. It's like they badly scanned a paper book, page headers and all, and randomly screwed up the typography. Email to Amazon yesterday, full refund today.

[Anders Hallin]

Wow, those were 2 words I was not expecting to see in this thread...

I was actually quite grateful to Continental for rebooking my ticket back to Europe free of charge when I had lost my passport. Didn't put me up in a hotel for free, but it was my fault, after all.

[tiohn]

I really like using Comply foam tips on my earphones, but I was disappointed yesterday to find out that a pair with only about 10 hours of total use over 4 months had completely lost the neat heat activated shape holding ability, so I emailed Comply and they mailed three brand new sets out.

[wisefool]

I ordered a composter through Amazon and discovered they sent me four long rods when I needed two long and two short. I went through all three boxes, labeling each part and confirming I was missing the rods.

I called the manufacturer's customer service Monday morning. I explained to the lady I was missing some pieces. She asked for my last name and zip code, but could not find me in the system. I helpfully interject that I purchased through Amazon. She blows me off and says I should just contact Amazon as they have no idea how Amazon packed it (thought later Amazon claimed it was drop-shipped from factory.)

Anyway, I call Amazon and explain it to another lady, who transfers me to the "hardlines" department. They keep saying they apologize which is pretty nice. I told them I just wanted the missing parts shipped to me. Officially they do not offer exchanges, only full refunds and reorders. That would annoy me because the shipping weight is 144 lbs and I had already cut up the boxes for recycling.

The gentleman told me they would just ship me a new item, and I could pull out whatever items I wanted from it, and then contact them for pickup. When I asked how I'd do that he emails me so I could just click on a linky and email them. Yay!