[santiclaws]

You always hear about customer service nightmares; hardly ever do you hear about companies which still take customer service seriously. I just had a great experience with a company and thought I'd share.

Universal Remote Control, Inc. makes, guess what, remotes for A/V gear (they make the "Home Theater Master" line. Some of them are quite pricey, I have one in the mid-range which retails for around $100. I've had it for a couple of years, and lately a button started getting flaky. I contacted the company and asked how much it would be to repair. I was quickly e-mailed by a real person, with a real name, address, and telephone number who told me that it would cost $15-$20 and take 1-2 days to repair. She issued a return authorization and I sent in my remote. They got it last Wednesday. I sent no money, assuming they would ask for the necessary amount.

I contacted the person I emailed previously and she emailed me back today - they replaced the remote and the replacement is on its way to me. Took a day or two, except instead of a repair, they sent a replacement. They did not charge me, even though the warranty is long over.

Guess whose universal remotes I am buying from now on? And here I am praising the company on a public message board because of a personal experience, advertising you simply can't buy. By doing something good for a customer, which maybe cost the company $20-$30, they have acquired a loyal customer who'll go around singing their praises. Why don't more companies understand that this is the smart way to do business??

 

[SuperNothing]

I posted about this early but I guess I will say it again. The Grado customer service at least for me has been amazing. I bought a used pair of HF-1 and the wooden part came off of the hot glue of the plastic part. I emailed them and they responded instantly. Once I even emailed them at around 4 in the morning on Christmas Day and I got a response by 10:30 AM. I brought them myself into the factory and they repaired it while I waited free of charge. Great service.

 

[VicAjax]

i have to say, i have had fantastic customer service from Geico (when i owned a car) and Schwab. no long hold times, they always know the system and they'll go out of their way to try and help with any issues.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperNothing /img/forum/go_quote.gif I posted about this early but I guess I will say it again. The Grado customer service at least for me has been amazing. I bought a used pair of HF-1 and the wooden part came off of the hot glue of the plastic part. I emailed them and they responded instantly. Once I even emailed them at around 4 in the morning on Christmas Day and I got a response by 10:30 AM. I brought them myself into the factory and they repaired it while I waited free of charge. Great service.

i've had three problems with grado gear (loose connections, etc.) that were always repaired quickly and for free by grado. just email them, send them my stuff, and next thing you know, a fixed item is in my mailbox. excellent service and always very nice whenever i had to call them.

i've also had excellent dealings with etymotic, too.

so while customer service is often like drilling teeth, there are good companies and good experiences out there.

 

[00940]

Three years ago, we bought a small video projector on ebay. The brand was viewsonic. It came without any papers, as most of the used stuff on ebay (*sighs*). After a year, the colour balance wasn't what it once was. The warranty on the website was said to be 3 years. Since we didn't have any receipt, we didn't expect much but, still, we called the customer service.

The very next day, someone brought us a refurbished but perfectly working projector, with a new lamp inside (value: 300$). Cherry on the cake, they took the defect projector back but let us the half-used lamp that was inside.

For 0 cent.

 

[troymadison]

I bought cheap AA rechargeable batteries at fry's electronics. They didn't work. I returned them without any issues.

 

[etherealbeats]

I 2nd Etymotic. I have had a few repairs from them. All free even though one of them was out of warranty. They have also been great when requesting accessories like filters and stuff back with my repairs (I live in the UK) and they have usually sent a load free.

 

[Tipped_Pro95]

My SE530 broke, I personally delivered them to Shure, and the next morning I had a brand new pair on my doorstep by 10:30! FYI - if you live in the chicagoland area do not send them by mail. By bringing them in yourself,
Shure told me that they could get you any model (other than the SE530) that same day!!! The SE530 had to be shipped from another location. 18 hours wasn't long to wait, though.

 

[appophylite]

I found a pair of very beat up KSC35 in a local Value Village that I snagged dirt cheap. One side was missing the clip entirely and the other side still had the broken clip in place. Both earpieces were missing the little cover that snaps in place and protects the solder joint covers. I replaced the clips with a headband mod but couldn't find a pair of the solder joint covers. I expected Koss wouldn't be too much help either because I wasn't the original owner of the phones, so the No-Questions-Asked Warranty probably wouldn't apply. I emailed them anyhow to find out if they would sell the covers alone and how much they'd charge me for them. About 7 days later, I received a package mailed from Koss. Inside, free of charge to me, were the two solder joint covers I needed. I was, and still continue to be very impressed with Koss's warranty and their customer service after that.

 

[jantze]

Recently experienced:
APureSound & Signal Cables both communicated & recommended me the best solutions (cheaper then I expected/what I was considering) to my equipment. I highly value such a professionals/commitment to high fidelity. I've been buying home theater equipment 10+ years, so I've experienced many different versions of sales people

(Big plus to Meier too. I didn't order my amp tough.)

Manufacturer:
Infinity: ~9 years ago I woke up on one hell 'ova hangover (I think it was friday

. I'm stretching and at the same time putting my fingers trough my back speaker

I called the importer and received a new speaker element in 2 days

Dealer:
About a 1.5 years ago I upgraded my home theater. Twin Towers had to go (with all related speakers). I was about to order/buy a B&W set, but after ****ty listening session w/ bad sales person, I went back to Infinity & SVS (thanks to some magazines). This time I had the pleasure of communicating with a dealer that actually listened to what I had to say AND he made me a deal I could not resist. Best deal ever ( Home Theater ∴ [ mikkonen.info ] ).

Maybe I continue this series some day..

 

[Joeywhat]

Activision has surprisingly good support. I emailed them with a problem and got an answer the next morning...and since the problem was not resolved ended up going through 4-5 more emails with the SAME technician in a 5 hour period. Almost every email support I've used gives me a different tech each time, and it takes at least a day to get a response.

Newegg also has great service.

 

[Ice Max]

2 of my best customer service experience's I've had have been with Little Dot and Nintendo. David from Little Dot was very kind and helpful with the ordering and shipping of my amp. would gladly buy from him again.
With Nintendo, I had a problem with MY Wii (it wouldn't read discs0 So i called them up and they sent me a new Wii. For some strange reason, the replacement Wii wouldn't even take a disc in the slot. So i called up Nintendo again, and they worked it out with me and sent me a properly functioning Wii. best of all, the people were really nice there

 

[GAD]

Best costumer service I've ever had was from Bose. I kid you not. My QC2s broke in the days before I knew about IEMs. They were three years old and they just replaced them for free.

GAD

 

[earwicker7]

Todd the Vinyl Junkie has really good customer service.

MusicDirect also does a good job.

 

[santiclaws]

One more - Kingston memory. Contacted them because my computer's memory, which had functioned perfectly for two years in my computer, would not work in dual-channel configuration in the new computer.

After answering all my e-mails within a half an hour, Kingston determined that the two memory modules which were bought separately were not perfectly matched. Kingston simply exchanged the old memory modules for new. They paid shipping both ways and the turnaround time was one day. Considering that there was nothing wrong with their product, which I told them up front, I was extremely impressed.