What is the best customer service you have ever witnessed????

Darrel Ralph

Darrel Ralph

Joined
Dec 14, 1998
Messages
4,870
Here is mine.
I bought two shopvac series vacs for my shop about two years ago. One of the motors quit so I called and asked how to return it to be repaired. The answer was we will have one in the mail to you tomorow. NOTHING ELSE!
That is customer service.
No paper work... no questions... no nothing just we are sending that motor give me your address sir!!!!!

That is customer service that will make me buy shopvac for as long I need them. We as knifemakers can lern from a company like this.

Lets here your best story!
 
This has nothing to do with knives or shops, but it has to do with one of my other hobbies (producing electronic music). I bought a used synthesizer off of Ebay, and a few months later the thing went nuts and wouldn't work. Every time I turned it on, all the LEDs would light up and it wouldn't make any sound.

Well, I sent off an email to the company asking what the problem might be, and the owner/inventor (it's a small company, but not THAT tiny) writes me back an hour later and says, "Sounds like the something-or-other chip is busted, send me your mailing address and I'll send you a new one."

So I send him my address, and he writes back another hour later to say that the chip is in the mail, sent UPS 2-day!

No questions, no costs, and 2-day shipping of the replacement part. On a USED piece of equipment. I was pretty damn impressed.


By the way, what shop vac was it? (Unlikely that anyone will be interested in the synth, but it was a Dave Smith Evolver... :))
 
Wakmann Watch Co. makes 8 day clocks for airplanes. They sell for $500 to $800. I had a guy whose clock was inoperative and he wanted a nice $100 electric replacement. I kept his old Wakmann and took it apart and found a broken main spring. I wrote Wakmann a letter (pre-computer days) asking how much a main spring would cost. They sent me a main spring, wound, and a bill for $3.75. I sent the money and still have the clock in service.
 
Crossman air gun,
About 5 years ago, I somehow broke the front sight on a 15 year old air pistol. I sent Crossman an email on where I could find a dealer for parts (I included the serial number, so they knew how old it was) This part also is the support for the air chamber so it isn't a small deal.

Five days latter, I get a package with a new sight, a period correct manual (better than I got new) and a catalogue. Free!

The up side was after installing the sight I hit a quarter sized rock at 30 feet (target grade pellets) with the first shot. I did use the porch rail to steady my hold. 10 more shots and 8 more hits, never adjusted the rear sight since.

Needless to say I sent a thankyou letter with my pellet purchase order.

Polock
 
Dillon Reloaders!!

I too bought a used item, a Square Deal from a friend. The primer feed tube started to malfunction. So I called Dillons customer service to see if it were my adjustments. The guy on the other end tells me to try this and that, then he says "I'll send you a new one". Well I'm thinking he's talking about a couple of small pieces. When it comes in the mail, it is the complete primer tube assembly. No postage, no cost what so ever!

Need less to say, I had to call them back, to say thanks and to order additional accessories for my reloader. :thumbup:
 
brash,
The model is a 5 hp "industrial use only" it is called. It is a wet dry.
We use it on a vac system for the whole shop that we rigged up with a remote wireless switch.
It was about 150.00 in ENCO.
These are the stories that should DRIVE every knife maker.
What a great feeling it is to get customer service that is five star. I always remember lesson of the return customer for life.
 
The good folks at Bader did me right a little while ago. I bought my Bader BIII probably 10 years ago, and have only bought one other item since from them(12" hollow grinding wheel). So, it's not like I'm one of their customers that they make a ton of money off of. Recently, I had a problem with the tracking on my BIII. The tracking knob thingamabob was stripped. I was going to attempt to make a jerryrigged version myself, but decided to give them a call and see what an actual replacement part would cost. When I told the man my problem, he immediately knew what I needed and said they would get one right out to me. When I asked how much this would cost me, his answer was "How about nothing?". Not one penny; not even for shipping.
 
In the early 80's, I was down in Mexico and was dissatisfied with the performance of one of the establishments newer lady, The owner gave me two of the best ones free for the weekend. Now thats customer service. :thumbup: :D :cool:
 
The absolute best customer service that I ever got was from a company called Shopsmith. They make and all in one woodworking machine. They have been in business a very long time. My uncle bought one in the early 60's and in 1995 he passed away and left it to me. Well, I was having trouble getting it to spped up and down and made a phone call. We located the problem in just a few minutes and the lady asked me if I had a manual. When I explained the situation she took my name and addy. In a couple of weeks, I received my manual with a note telling me if I had any problems with my shopsmith to please give them a call. :thumbup:

On the other hand....
The absolute worst customer service was from a company called Rotozip. I saw an info-mercial and just had to have one. I got talked into buying all the little extras only to find when they shipped it they left out some of the extra blades that I paid for. I made a phone called and the lady tells me to check the box real good. I told her I would do it, but I had already emptied the box out and they weren't in there. She treated me sort of rude, kinda like I was lying just to get extra blades. She then tells me to send in my receipt and they will send me my blades. I asked her didn't they have a record of what I bought. She replied something back and I got irritated and hung the phone up. I have never used that thing because everytime that I look at it, I get mad. It lays in it's case over in the corner of the shop where it has been for 5 years. Remember! I just had to have it. That's 225.00 down the drain. I think you can buy them for 60 bucks now. :thumbdn:
 
Darrel
Thank you, thank you. I received one as a Christmas gift from my daughter and it quit running last week. I have no paperwork, etc. and thought I would just have to buy a new one,but now will be on the horn asap as I need it badly!
Thanks for the good info.
Jon (<:
 
Best:
Bought a billet of damascus from ebay. it came slightly hardened and didnt have the annealing setup to do the whole bar. On a whim I emailed the seller and asked his advice. Not only did he figure out a way for me to do what I needed, but a week later I received a package from him containing four SETS of damascus bolster materials and note that said "sorry about that billet!"....never asked for it....ill be buying again soon!

Worst:
Mcdonalds. Asked for two cheeseburgers, No onions. Get to cheeseburgers, with extra onions. I bring em back and tell them and they say "no, you ordered extra". I then tell them I am allergic...they stick to their story...i then show them the receipt that says "no onions"...I get back two new burgers....with onions. I finally ate the 4 bucks, threw it on the counter, and walked away. I just knew if i sent it back again i'd have some spit with it when it came back out.
 
What is the best customer service you have ever witnessed????

Two hookers in San Diego willfully releasing a lot of pent up frustration from recent bootcamp graduates.
:D
 
Satchmo,

I hope it works out for you as well as it did for me.

It took a few calls to get the phone not busy signal!

I had two sears vacs that went bad in about a month.

I didnt bother! That is very unusual for sears....



The worst customer service I have ever had was Adorama camera in NYC. I bought a macro lens on the opinion for the sale person for the what I wanted to do. The lens was 550.00

They have a policy that within 1 week you can return the item for a full refund if it is not right.



I returned it and the other items that went with it within the time frame requerd. The lens didnt do what I wanted.

They went bonkers and jacked me around for 4 weeks on a refund .

Getting to the customer service desk was a joke.

Still no refund.... So I called the boss and he just blew me off and and said I didnt return everything ... so on and so on.

I finaly filed with my cc company for a refund.

They refunded me every cent.

The bastards “Adorama” had the gaull to come back after 150.00 of my purchase money saying that I didnt return all the right stuff and boxes all kinds of lies.

I let it go.

I just saved for a year to get another lens that I wanted.

It was $1150.00 from another company.

Adorama will not only burn in hell for being liars but never get another bit of my business.



The bad thing is that I bought several other items in the past few years from them and a friend from NYC told me to watch out for them. I didnt listen.



Kim

Do you have a phone number for that place. I am damned picky and can see myself in there for at least a week to get the right girls! I may have to sample them all twice !!!!

 
I needed a small retaining clip for the safety shaft on a Savage, Model 93 .17HMR. I contacted Savage by phone and told them The new rifle was missing the part. I promply received a small package containing a whole new complete trigger assembly with clip, no charge or postage. I have done service work for a living, in the past. I appreciate good service, and expect it. One of the worst was when I bought some ice cream from a local chain food store. As our four kids and my wife were enjoying some of it after supper, I bit down on something hard that crunched. I spit it out and discovered to my horror is was glass. I immediately had the kids and wife do the same. I found more penny and quarter sized pieces of glass in the ice cream and immediately returned it to the store. I was really irate, and went directly to the store manager. Know what he offered, first? He asked me if I would like another gallon of the same stuff as a replacement! I got my refund and exited the store, still boiling mad. I was still worried some of us had ingested some glass. They did remove the entire stock of the stuff from the shelves, though. A year ago I got food poisoning from their deli, along with some other folks that also ate their oriental chicken. None of us even received an apology from them. HY-Vee sucks!
 
Crucible Service center in Grand Rapids MI. A few years back I got a bar of Ketos(O1) that looked kind of "funny" had a speckled look down the sides. I didn't pay much attention to it and cut off a few sections for a billet. On the first hammer blow at welding heat all the O1 layers mushed and crumbled pretty bad. I stopped what I was doing and checked things out. I then called Crucible and told them what had happened. About 90 minutes later (G.R. is around 60 miles away) Shawn Patterson From Crucible was in my driveway with a new bar of Ketos in his back seat. He told me that anybody else may have pushed the steel to far at too high of a temperature but I had been working this steel long enough to know what I was doing and he trusted my judgement that it just didn't look right.

We shot the breeze for a while and I showed him the shop, afterwards I was able to get back on the welding project the same day. That is about as good as it gets, Shawn was always great to work with, I was sorry the day I didn't get him on the phone anymore when ordering.
 
The best service I ever received was from the Dremal Co. They repaired two of them for me, one went out about a week after I bought it and the other was about five years old. They replaced the new one and rebuilt the old one and never charged me a cent. The worst service I ever ran into was with the Dell Corp. I bought three computers from them, I gave one to each of my sons and I kept one. Theirs worked great, mine was a piece of crap. Their technical service is in India and they don't have a clue what their doing. They take American names to use over the phone. You can never get the same person back. This went on for several months and I kept a log on every call and who I talked to, who was going to get back to me and never did. There isn't a site where you can find a phone number for Dell headquarters. I got the number though, called and told them I wanted to talk to the main man. I got one of the wheels in his office and when I told her what was going on she sent me a new computer and picked up the old piece of crap. I also told her the only reason their non technical support people in India were working for them was so they could get a green card and become a night manager at some 7/11 in the USA. She wasn't amused, but I felt better.
 
Thats a great story Tom. I have had the same with dremal.
They were just bought by Bosch. I hope that remain the same with there customer service.
 
I work as a sysadmin at a college where our "official" computer supplier is Dell. So I deal with them fairly often. They are WAY better when you are "important" (like a college)...

Contrary to what I usually hear, I've never had a single problem with any of the Indian support people (when they still outsourced to India). I found they were infinitely more polite, and actually tried to help, unlike the majority of American tech-support people I've talked to. Oh well.
 
Siegal of California (Leather supplier) has a return policy that can't be beat. If you are unsatisfied with a product, they will pick it up at your shop or residence and either replace or refund your purchase price. There is no charge for this! And--if your original purchase exceeded $75.00, they also pay the shipping to you! That is how business should be conducted! ---Sandy---
 
Honda...believe it or not....

I bought a used 1980 Honda Civic when I was in college. I was the 3rd owner and the car had 80,000 miles.

About 6 month after buying it I started to get some wheel shimmy and a slight pull to the side that became a bit unmanagable. I thought it was a CV joint...so I took it to the local dealer.

They informed me that it was lucky that I was able to get it there....a main support in the frame was broken and it was a wonder it stayed together.

They had to order the part from California...and also had to pull the engine to replace it. They were not able to quote a price.

Being a college student (i.e. poor) I was pretty worried......and 2 weeks later the call came from the dealer that the car was done.....so I braced myself for the bill.

ZERO....ZIP...NADA....just come pick it up. Honda said the part should never have broken.

That was the best service I have EVER seen. :thumbup:
 
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