That’s right, I said it! I have some good customer service stories to report. If you’re lucky, it could happen to you too! In order of impressiveness:

  • Cox. Yes, a cable company. Now, this good service only qualifies because it was been so horrible in the past. Blast from the past: “My internet connection seems to be down.” “We’ve been getting a lot of calls from your area, so it must be down.” Thanks Einstein. Anyway, they’ve finally gotten on the ball. Last time I called them they had a message right at the front that clearly said things were down, they knew about it, and thanks for calling.
  • Targus. I bought a refurbed universal charger from woot.com recently. Then I had to buy a stupid tip from targus directly, but it was still way cheaper than a replacement dell power supply. Once I had all the parts, I plugged it in, and nothing. In fact, worse than nothing. The super bright blue LED on the charging brick slowly faded to black whenever I plugged it into the laptop. It felt slightly like it was dying a slow, painful death. So I called up Targus and explained what was happening. “You need a new output cable and possibly tip. I’ll put in an order for those and you’ll have them free of charge in 10 days.” And that was it. I was floored! No shipping charges. No back and forth about stupid policies. Just instant gratification and customer satisfaction.
  • Circle Saw of Tucson. If you ever need a reason to shop local, here it is. My wife went in to pick up some table saw blades they were sharpening for us. They don’t take plastic, and I had given her a number without thinking about tax. So she was about $2.50 short. The guys solution? “Don’t worry about it.” So for all your saw sharpening needs, I highly recommend them.