Customer service (both good & bad)

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Here's a thread/topic that's focused on customer service, good or bad. What experiences have you had? How can customer service be improved?

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Just a week ago I bought an internal DVD-RW drive from Amazon.com. It was surprisingly inexpensive and shipped right away -- I had it in my hands in just a couple of days. Upon opening the box, I noted that it wasn't an IDE drive, but rather an SATA unit.

Jumping on Amazon.com, I logged into my account and located the order and indicated that I'd like to return it. I noted that at the bottom of the page was a button that simply said [phone]. In the very moment that I clicked the button, my phone rang. "Hello, this is Amazon customer service."

I spent no more than a minute talking with Nathan, who (within that time frame) emailed me a product return label.

Within half a minute, I located the correct IDE drive and placed the order. Done. This was truly a positive shopping experience.

[covoxer]

Sounds great!

[ankhor]

I noted that at the bottom of the page was a button that simply said [phone]. In the very moment that I clicked the button, my phone rang. "Hello, this is Amazon customer service."

Wow, a company that starts to implement easy modern ways of communication.
I am glad they finally are seeing the light, I wish many more companies
would implement that instead of the 0900 (paynumbers) here, where you have to pay because they messed up.

I am glad for you it went that fast.

[zaphodeist]

Just re-read your second post Curtis ... they phoned you! Wow! That is good. I think it ironic that communication companies, in my experience, are leading the way in bad customer care - can't connect to the right department when they put me on hold for instance [that's after listening to the dreaded muzak for ten + minutes!] and then they only read from a script that obviously has the words "Don't deviate from this script" in bold at the top of the page. With O2 for my broadband for a few years now and they're like a breath of fresh air, customer service wise.

[gracehjs]

Well Hertz is not quite with it yet. Yesterday I went online to order a rental car for my England trip. I got all the way through to the pay for it page and it tells me I cannot order from this location online. So, I had to call, tell the guy the code from the internet to get that price. It took hime several minutes to transer the order from the internet. He then asked me if I had a fax number so that he could send me the voucher. I asked him if he could email it ti me, he said no. So, he has to mail me the voucher.

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Just re-read your second post Curtis ... they phoned you! Wow!

Yup. Just as I hit the button, the phone rang ... and I recall thinking, "no ... it couldn't be Amazon."

Here is the actual dialog (instead of [phone], as mentioned in my post above, the button actually reads [Call Me]).

[zaphodeist]

No button on the UK Amazon ... though it is after hours here which might explain it I've just realised. There is a warning that deliveries will be delayed a couple of days due to volcanic ash, which must be a first.

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Try here (click the Phone tab), John, when it's not after hours.

[zaphodeist]

Yeah, I know where it is/will be