A plug for a Canadian company's customer service

[trof]

Haven't done this before, but I think good acts should be rewarded.

Miz t. bought a battery powered toothbrush that she really likes.
Uses 2 AA batts.
After a few weeks of use it quit.
She put in new batts.
Still didn't work, so she tossed it.

Now she REALLY liked this toothbrush, so she bought another one, thinking maybe there was just a 'one-time' malfunction with the first one.
First time she put in new batts, same thing. No function.
(That's when she told me the whole story.)

She found the company's customer service number on the web and called them while if fiddled with the toothbrush.
While she was talking to them, I experimented with inserting the batteries different ways.
You know, one pole up, one down, then reverse that, then two poles up, etc.
And as she was telling customer service her story, I pushed the switch and the damn thing worked. (I will say that the proper battery configuration is VERY counter-intuitive.)

So Miz t. tells customer service 'thank you and never mind, my husband figured it out', and we feel dumb.


Yesterday's mail brought a new toothbrush from BrushPoint of Mississauga, ON.
To replace the one she threw away because she had put the batteries in wrong.
Now THAT is customer service above and beyond.

[HopeHoops]

1. That really is! I had a similar experience with HP and my out-of-warranty laptop.

Even though it was well out of warranty, when the screen went black (I mean NOTHING), I called and the customer service rep (clearly a native English speaker) admitted right away that they've had a small number of similar cases for my model. I called on a Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning, a box arrived FedEx with a pre-paid return label to ship the machine back. I took out the battery and hard drive and called for a pickup. Sunday morning, I got an e-mail saying the machine had been shipped back to me. It arrived Monday morning, just shy of a full week door-to-door. No charge to me at all. Six months later, they issued a recall on that very problem.

Moen is another excellent company. I did a lot of handyman work and often ran into models I wasn't familiar with. No matter how old the faucet, someone at a US call center (yes, I ask) would answer the phone in very short order and walk me through, step-by-step, getting the thing apart and finding the parts to replace. The local family-owned plumbing supply store ALWAYS had the correct part in stock.

When you find good service, you go back. When you find bad service, you do not. I don't know why that's so hard for companies to grasp.

[trof]

2. Nice to hear stories like this.

They're becoming much less frequent.

Very true about return business.
I've been dealing with the same local, family owned, auto repair/tire store for years.
I went to them for a 'second opinion' after a chain tire store told me I needed new shocks.
Their opinion: "Your shocks are fine."
Been a customer ever since.

[HopeHoops]

3. In sharp contrast, a restaurant we used to frequent lost our business four years ago.

They had a wall of TVs next to the dart board. We went there to play darts, drink beer, and eat a very yummy spinach and feta thingie. We were also wearing Obama t-shirts. The owner and one of his buddies were at the bar. Despite the fact that they had equally large TVs directly in front of them, they made the barmaid (not the owner) tell us we had to stop playing darts because we were blocking the bullshit sports programs on the TVs - same shit that was on directly in front of them. We still gave her a good tip (not her fault), but we left and never returned. And she knew us as regulars. Too bad. It was a nice place. Hopefully she found a job at a place with manners. On an unrelated note, they're fighting to keep their liquor license now for multiple violations of various sorts.

Treat me well, I'll be back. It's as simple as that.