They're a great company. My daughter was pretty much 100% swedish when she was a kid. I dressed her in clogs and HA dresses and put her in pigtails all the time...heehee.

I had two weird (but great) customer service happenings this week. The first was, after weeks of walking into stores and trying to get an iTouch, I discovered that walmart.com had them. I haven't been inside a walmart in about 10 years, and the way they work it is, if it's something they don't actually carry in their stores, you order online and they ship it to the nearest store and you go get it. I dreaded going there. But every employee that I encountered asked me if I needed any help, they all smiled at me, and were really pleasant. They looked....nice. It was kind of mind-blowing. I was thanked several times for using their site-to-store service (as they called it) and they pretty much fell all over themselves being nice to me. As I stood at the counter and waited for someone to go get the iTouch, every single employee that passed me asked me if someone was helping me. It was so weird.

And then this morning I contacted amazon.com on behalf of a co-worker. She had ordered something, their tracking said it was delivered on Nov. 27, but the recipient never got it. I emailed them, and within 20 minutes someone had called me on the phone, apologized, and offered to reship a new one immediately.

What the hell is going on?

What the hell is going on?

You're in America, that's what's going on. Such things don't happen in the UK. We don't 'do' customer service. Customers are made to feel pathetically grateful if someone actually deigns to interrupt their conversation for long enough to take the money for the vastly overpriced product and drop it in a bag.

It's a conspiracy of competency!

Hanna IS a great company. Their play/day dress sets are the best things ever.

I just ordered something site-to-store from W-Mart this morning. It's a pretty cool service. I wish Target had it.

No one cares about customer service anymore. It is refreshing when you get it, though. And it really makes an impression, comparatively.

I bought a book on Amazon recently and never received it. Contacted the company, never heard back. Contacted their COO, never heard back. Had to get a A-Z refund through Amazon (which was easier than a drunk sorority girl). Then of course the original company responded. Bastards.
So, you know what I did? I gave them a scathing negative feedback, I did. Brutal. As I hit "submit", I said "take that!" out loud in my office. Then I looked and realized I was one of a hundred-plus feedbackers for the day. Still, score .001 for the little guy!

hee!

I've gotten plenty of good customer service in the UK. My new phone/net company is awesome. They send notifications and take communication by text, and reply blazingly fast. They also understand linuxy internet things!

A lot of good customer service also has to do with the customer. If you have a good attitude, I will bend over backwards for you. If you give me grief over something I have no control over (trust me, if I tell you we're out of marrow bones, it's because we're out. Not because we're hiding them in the back just to piss you off.), we're going to have a short conversation. Don't get me wrong, I really do like people for the most part. But it always astounds me at how rude and downright mean some people can be.

I spent years in retail, and second redvixen (though some people just suck at customer service, particularly if that's the company culture, and there's nothing you can do about it). My dad went grocery shopping with me at my local stores a couple of years ago, and was amazed at the service I got. The difference? I've been on the other side, treat people politely and with consideration, usually know their names if I'm a regular. Dad? He makes waitresses cry. Seriously.

As a result, though, I will get astoundingly bitchy with rude or inconsiderate or incompetent front-line people.

(jrossi, I loves me some comfy loungin' pants.)

Amen, redvixen. and I will add that the 'customer is always right' philosophy has created a nation of entitled brats and pains in the butt.