In an age of increasingly poor customer service I was pleased to see Doug’s post about the amazing treatment he got from UltimateEars. I will be posting a review of a pair of the Ultimate Ears super.fi 4vi headphones in the next few days (bottom line- they are amazing!) and it is nice to know they treat their customers’ experience as well as they treat their customers’ ears.

Doug’s post prompted me to share another positive customer service experience.

I had ordered a customized MacBook Pro a week and a half ago and it finally arrived last Friday. I booted it up for the first time, did all the requisite updates and loaded my software and data. It is a stellar machine! It is fast, quiet, has a beautiful screen and is a whole lot lighter than I expected.

Unfortunately my enjoyment at my new notebook was short lived as a disturbing clicking sound began coming from beneath the keyboard. It wasn’t an awful screech or a bone-chilling whine but rather a regular clicking sound that obviously should not have been there. Not sure what to do I called Apple Care.

Mind you, this was Saturday- the day when the iFirmware iDisaster was in full swing. Knowing they would be inundated I called Apple anyway.

I was a bit concerned that they would have me bring it in and try to fix it. I didn’t want it fixed- I wanted it replaced. It was, after-all only 20 hours old. Anyhow, the customer service rep could not have been nicer or more patient. I explained the situation, was put on hold for no more than a minute and was politely told that a shipping label was about to be sent and the machine would be replaced with a brand new machine. Nice! Since it was a web-order, however, it would have to be exchanged through the mail. That wasn’t ideal but who was I to complain.

When I hadn’t received the labels by today I called back. Since I was already on the phone and I am married to someone whose motto (among others) is “Let them tell you no” I decided to ask if there might be some way to do an in store exchange rather than wait for a new machine to ship. (Patience is a virtue but when it comes to gadgetry I am far from virtuous.) After being put on hold for a minute the customer rep came back on, explained that they would make an exception this time and explained how I should proceed. As we were on the phone the shipping label for the defective machine arrived in my email inbox. Thanks Apple!

It is nice to know that in this world of “The Customer Is Always Wrong” there are a few companies who take a different approach.