I’ve been a Bank of America customer for two decades, since they acquired a large local bank in my area where I had banked for years. The excellent customer service culture of the acquired bank survived the acquisition, and my local branch and state call center are both extremely helpful. (I’ve dealt with Bank of America branches elsewhere, and that helpfulness has not always been the custom.)

An example, through my own mistake I overdrew a business account recently. I did not receive the notice of overdraft until nine days after the date it was supposedly mailed. As a result, I was charged a $35 overdraft fee as well as a $35 extended overdraft fee. I called to transfer funds to cover. I acknowledged it was my mistake and the initial overdraft fee was reasonable, but I told the representative that the extended one was not reasonable given how long their mailing took to reach me. The representative noted that this was the first overdraft in many years, and she not only reversed the extended overdraft fee, but the initial one as well.

This is also an example of another part of the customer service equation. Good customers typically do get treated better. To be a good customer, you have to have a history with the company. To have a history with a company, you probably will have to forgive some lapses, just as you would hope they will forgive your own, and treat the company’s representatives with the same courtesy and respect you expect from them. And sometimes, you just have to politely cut off a discussion that is going the wrong way and call back later when a different representative might be more temperamentally receptive to your requests.

That, my dear, says it perfectly. I think the older I’m getting, the more I’m leaning toward buying certain things bargain (like storebrand groceries where I don’t notice the difference, and bargain clothes at well-organized clean stores like Syms), and buying other things at full price (like car repairs from Firestone where everything is a bit more expensive, but they don’t rip you off by throwing in extra “required” parts, like other mechanics I’ve frequented). I think that often buying from reputable companies saves hassle (and sometimes money) in the long run.

I do really value excellent customer service – we have a good deal of well-crafted clothing and gear from REI, which has a ridiculously lenient return policy, but because we appreciate them and their service so much, we generally sell used gear on Craigslist at a small loss rather than make REI eat the loss. We got our money’s worth, and they did their job, so we try to support them.

For individual purchases, Amazon reviews are a god-send! I recently bought a Roomba (may well have saved my marriage – neat freak and clutter geek marriage :), but from all the comments about poor iRobot customer service, product problems, and the like I am expecting it to fail in a few months, or at least be cranky. I’m hoping I got the model that has a lot of the kinks worked out, but since I was up-front to my husband that it will almost surely fail fairly soon, we can both be calm if/when it does… we look at it as if we invested in several months of house cleaning service. So reviews can be a real help!

In 48 hours, the box was back on my doorstop, the fan had been replaced, and the tech had updated my BIOS and other firmware, without having been asked.

Meanwhile, I’m entering my second month of negotiations with a Horizon Treadmill supplier concerning a machine which arrived with various body parts shattered or cracked…

Reading further, I discovered it shuts down when it senses too much heat or humidity. It also stated that it had to be installed so the bottom of the microwave was a minimum of 30″ from the range top.

I had a light bulb moment. If the bottom is too close to pots on the stove that are hot/steamy, it will shut down. Knowing that, it makes sense not to use the microwave at the same time as you’re (say) boiling potatoes. But, if you normally wouldn’t use the 2 together, it should work fine. Then I measured the available space and realized I didn’t have enough headroom to use the unit as specified.

If I hadn’t done all that, had bought the item, installed it, used it and had it shut down on me I probably would have been complaining about the product.

Also, a note about good customer service. Several years ago I got held up on the I-5 by construction and narrowly missed my flight from Seattle to a convention I was going to in either Denver or Baltimore. I talked to the airline (Alaska, I believe) and they couldn’t let me board (I was at check in and they were just unlocking the bridge). They said they’d put me on the same flight the next day (they only had the one flight there per day).

I explained that I’d driven down from Vancouver, Canada, it was a 3 day con, I’d paid for it all including my hotel and that I was unable to fly on Saturday for religious reasons. I couldn’t fly with them until Sunday morning and the con would end Sunday afternoon. Then I mentioned that my dad had been an airline passenger agent in Canada for over 30 years and that I knew his airline often honoured other carrier’s tickets straight across.

I asked if they had a similar deal with any other airlines. They sent me down the row to a couple of other airlines. One (Delta, I believe) had 2 flights departing 5 minutes apart and I could just make it to the gate if I hustled and didn’t check a bag. No problem, no charge. They just took my Alaska ticket and printed me a boarding pass.

Do some due diligence. If you know what to look for, what to ask for, and are polite but firm you will often be successful. I got the flight I wanted. I wasn’t able to get the range hood I wanted but I understand why and am happy I’m not having problems with it.

Sometimes, I will read the bad reviews when something seems to only have good reviews. It helps me to see if the good reviews are truly objective or not.

First, I always look at how many reviews the item has, and how they’re broken down. Most stuff has a pretty bell curve distribution, with “average” or a middling score being the most common. If a product has a lot of very high or very low ratings, I take that as a warning. I won’t know what kind of warning til I’m done with reviews.

Then I look at the awful reviews. If there is a pattern to how the item fails, or if there’s a failure where the company consistently won’t believe you, it tends to show up here. But sometimes a product is confusing, or not marketed well and the unhappy reviews will point that out too. Sometimes you will find that a product attracts a lot of novice users, to the point where they can’t figure out how to give the item a rating in the review… so you can find really awful reviews paired with a great score. That’s why I also read the top rated reviews.

The actual good reviews are also helpful. Someone who knows their stuff and is very happy with a product might take the time to explain all the pitfalls they found in setting it up. It’s a huge help when dealing with an unfamiliar bit of tech.

I usually will take some time to think over my expectations after reading reviews. I also think about my strengths and weaknesses… Some things just plain drive me batty, and it’s stupid to buy an item where all the reviews praise a trait that will drive me nuts. For example, I’ve used touchpads for over half my life and love them to death. But the way Apple sets up touchpads by default is very painful for me to use, and their touchpads tend to feel pretty unpleasant. For me, an Apple product is a bad choice. When I bought a laptop, I found one where a lot of users absolutely *hated* the touchpad… for all the reasons I’ve loved them. I bought it, and I couldn’t be happier.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find this to be true. I am sure that I am the exception but after a pair of expensive jeans ripped out in the seams, I took them back to Nordstrom. The cashier claimed that my purchase didn’t show up on the computer even though I saw the charge on my credit card statement. But there was nothing I could do so I just walked out, defeated, with my ripped jeans in hand.

I was a manager at Pier 1 Imports for 3 years and our return policy was very lenient, in my opinion. If you did not have a receipt you would receive store credit. The problem was that people would shoplift merchandise, go out to their car, put the item in a Pier 1 bag, come back inside and say that they wanted to “return” it. The store associates were not allowed to actively approach shoplifters, so all we could do was either issue the store credit or if we really suspected shoplifting, we could tell them the home office would issue a credit pending further review. So I totally understand why a receipt is necessary–bad people make things difficult for honest people.
However…for truly honest customers who lost their receipt, we could look the transaction up on the computer if the customer knew the date they purchased it. We would always make an effort to do this if we had enough information from the customer. I think if the employee just said “no receipt? Tough!” instead of trying to find another way to help, I would be upset because there are other ways to deal with that situation.

I disagree that local is always better. Small doesn’t guarantee good. Frankly I’ve had some bad experiences with small local vendors that I would not expect to see with large companies. Local companies seem to have more erratic support, they may have inconsistent rules and policies and might run the business at the whim of their owner. I understand supporting small business out of principal but not out of an expectation that they will be better.

With anything, you need to take it with a grain of salt. Some cashiers at my local grocery store are slow and unfriendly, but some are very nice. Doesn’t mean I say I write-off the store when I get a slow one.

On more than one occasion, we’ve watched our airplane take off from the freeway, parked in a traffic jam for 2+ hours on the 405 in Los Angeles. And without fail, the folks working the counter have done everything in their power to get us on the next available flight without rebooking fees, sideways glances for line-jumping (trying to catch a flight that was pulling away from the jetway at that very moment), or even a scowl. Plus their (previously free) unaccompanied minor service for flying the kids cross country was spectacular every time we used it.

Now don’t get me started on AT&T Wireless, Compaq, Southwestern Bell, or any number of health insurance companies…

It is always rough, too, when you’re reminded the hard way of the consequences of taking the cheap route. It’s hard to own up and pay the extra cash, but with some companies, it makes such a huge difference.