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Frequently, I am frustrated by customer service. I have posted about a few of those experiences in the past. It is only fair that I post about good customer service experiences as well. You will notice that each of these experiences could have easily gone the other way. Both companies took an opportunity where their product had failed me and spun it into a good experience that won me over as a long-term customer.

#1 - Budget Rent A Car

A few weeks ago, I was flying out of the Oakland Airport and needed to return my rental car to Budget. I was running extremely late. By the time I got to Budget, my flight was leaving in 25 minutes. My plan was to pull up to the return line, grab my stuff, and rush to the shuttle without worrying about going through the check-in process. The only hang up was that when I opened the driver door and closed it with the plan to open the back door to retrieve my luggage, all of the car doors locked. I told the attendant (while expressing the urgency) and she basically said, "I swear, this model keeps doing this." This, of course, pissed me off more because it was obviously a problem they knew about, but hadn't addressed, which I was now a victim off. The attendant called a lock smith and I sat and waited...and waited...and waited...10 minutes until my flights departure time and the locksmith finally showed. He noted that he could tell that he had opened this car once before (again, not making me happy). By now, I had lost hope in making my flight. The attendant; however, had not lost hope. She had a worker jump in the car with me and drive me up to the terminal (rather than pointing me to the shuttle). I still didn't think I would make it. 2 minutes until departure, we arrived at the terminal. I went through the first-class check-in (luckily, no questions were asked), and ran up the stairs to find Southwest's agent waiting for me (I could dedicate a whole post on Southwest's good customer service as compared to Delta's). I barely made it. Needless to say, I have rented two cars in the last three weeks from Budget just because of this experience. The Budget attendant had no obligation to have someone drive me to the terminal, but went the extra mile and that made all the difference.

#2 - AutoZone
At the beginning of last summer, I bought a new battery for our boat. It was about $100 at the time. It worked great the first summer, but when I went to fire up the boat at the beginning of this year, it was clear that the battery wasn't giving anything. I delayed taking it to AutoZone, thinking I just needed to charge it. Unfortunately, Jess and I didn't even register the boat this year (the summer was just too busy...I know, sad). Yesterday (1.5 years after purchase), I finally brought the battery to AutoZone for them to check it. They hooked it up, and sure enough, the battery was bad. I braced myself for the talk along these lines: "Well, when pro-rating your old battery, I can give you a new one for $50." To my surprise, that talk never came. The employee just said, "sign here and I will get you a new one." I kept waiting for the pro-ration talk and didn't believe I was getting a replacement for free until I had the battery in hand. I had previously done a lot of business at Checker (it is closer to my house), but when it comes to parts that cost over $20, I'll be making the drive to AutoZone.