REALLY GREAT Customer Service!

[Meadster]

I'm not 100% sure if this is the right spot for posting this, but it does not seem to fit well anywhere else.

Today, in the span of a few hours I had 2 bouts of superb customer service and wanted to share it with this community. All too often(in general) folks are quick to publicly complain, but rarely do you see public kudos offered.

1) My website is through Smugmug and they have always handled things well, but I have never has anything unusual happen, so they were just performing as I expected them to. This morning a charity 1200 miles away for whom I donated several prints for auction emailed me with news that my shipment from Smugmug had arrived in a mangled mess! Given that their auction is on Saturday night, things looked grim. I contacted Smugmug and was planning that I'd reship the order and eat the cost if they could even reprint things in time. The customer service rep told me that they guarantee their work and they would reprint the images and ship it overnight to the charity free of charge to anyone. Less than 3 hours later I had a confirmation email that let me know the reprinted images were on their way. I am amazed at how fast & courteous the Smugmug folks were. It also makes me look like a miracle worker to this charity

2) Last Saturday before the Kelby Photowalk I went to charge my batteries and discovered that my battery charger (out of warranty) had died. I thought I had enough juice to get through the walk (I keep 3 batteries for my camera) but was worried that I'd have enough to get through a shoot I was going to do for church on Sunday Morning. I called my local camera store here in Dallas, Competitive Cameras and mentioned my problem. The guy I usually work with said that they had the model in stock, so come on down. I arrived a few minutes before closing and was handed the new charger & asked if I had brought the dead one. I had not. Much to my surprise, he told me to bring him the dead one at my convenience - no charge. If that was all, I'd have been plenty happy, but there is another chapter.

Fast forward to today (Thursday) when I decide to take him the dead charger. I look for it & cannot find the thing. I find out that my wife, knowing it was dead, had thrown it away . D'OH! I call the store & relate this story with my credit card in hand ready to pay for the charger I had been given on Saturday. I was told not to worry about it - I argued, but to no avail.

Needless to say, my loyalty to the store has been cemented for a long time to come!

Thanks for reading. I just felt that these great deeds needed a public airing. Have any of you had great customer service in the photographic world lately? Feel free to share it!

[lputman]

I haven't had the need for customer; however, it is great to read about positive experiences.

[ilookalot]

hey thats great news ,i am a great believer in karmah you did a good deed for the charity and its gone the full circle , its good to hear the positives.

[Cypher]

Great story mate, always good to hear positive news in a world that loves to focus on negative... Anyway I was also thinking maybe we can use this as a reminder to always be this positive to OUR clients.