Sunday, October 10, 2010

American Customer Service

So the good news is that my parents finally decided to buy a new washer and dryer after needing to do so for about 5 years!  I looked at the Lowe's website to get an idea of what we were talking about and discovered the big Columbus Day sale!  So on Friday my mom and I jumped into the car and went and bought big, white appliances!  We arranged for them to deliver the new set on Saturday morning.  The best part of the delivery deal is that they also haul the old ones away, hook up everything and basically get you ready to start washing and drying immediately! 
I left early on Saturday to go outlet shopping and when I arrived home, they new set were installed and looking good.  I immediately set out to do some laundry!  Amazing what anything new will inspire you to do.  As I was loading the washer with towels, I was kind of wondering what I'd done with the beach towel I was using at the pool.  Then it hit me...my swimsuit and the beach towel were in the old dryer from the night before!  I had forgotten to remove them and when the guy came to haul the old set away, he didn't check to see if there was anything in them!  I could not believe it!  I still had 4 days of sunshine and pool time ahead of me and here I was without a swimsuit!  And remarkably, even in Palm Springs, none of the stores have swimwear in stock right now.  It's all autumn fashion!  So, I quickly called Lowe's, explained my predicament, and the guy who had helped us in the store said he'd call me back.  He then proceeded to call the delivery guy, locate our old dryer and arrange for the delivery guy to deliver my swimsuit and towel the next day!  Seriously...how great is that?
Now, I love a lot of things about Sweden but customer service is not their strength.  I seriously doubt I would even had reached the same salesperson and for sure, they would not have gone the extra mile to locate my lost goods.  And for sure, even if they had, I would've had to go to the store to pick them up, which I would have gladly done in this case!  So sure enough, today at 11.30, just after we got home from church, the Lowe's delivery guy showed up with my stuff...how great is that?  I was poolside by 12.30. 

3 comments:

  1. I loved this post. Glad that everything got returned to you. Good customer service is a blessing. We have excellent customer service in Japan, for which I am thankful many, many times. When you don't have good customer service, when it finally happens, it is something to celebrate.

    Enjoy your last few days in the U.S.!

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  2. Great one Jodi! And oh so very true!
    Here in Stockholm, we did leave Robert's camera in a taxi one time. We called within 3 minutes and the dispatcher got the driver and they found it. You would think they could bring it right back, right? No, we had to wait 2 hours while he did whatever and then they charged us 300SEK for another driver to bring it.

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  3. Sandra...too funny that you had to wait and pay to get the camera back! It was quite remarkable, really! Pauline...doesn't surprise me that Japan has good customer service. Sweden is just so funny in this area. You really feel like you are doing them a favor by using their business!

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