Back in September 2005 (so eight months ago) I bought a bedding set from a shopping channel (QVC) consisting of a duvet cover, four pillow cases and a fitted bottom sheet. This was the fourth set I have bought from them so as you can guess, I have been satisfied with the quality, in fact more than satisfied.

A couple of weeks ago when ironing the bedding (I had just bought a fantastic steam press thing, makes ironing bedding a joy!) and much to my distress I realised that the elastic in the fitted sheet had failed thus rendering it useless and obviously it couldn't be 'tucked under' instead.

I contacted QVC to tell them and was told to return the full set and to obtain a receipt for the postal costs and to send that to them too. My credit card has not only been credited with the full purchase price but I have just received a letter from them telling me they have credited the postage charge too.

Now I call that service. A bouquet to QVC.

We have had a gripe at bad service, now let us hear about excellent service you have received.

That type of service is hard to come by today, Sue. I wish other companies would realize that effective customer service builds loyalty and increased sales from the positive word-of-mouth referrals this type of behavior generates.

My sister is a very pleased frequent QVC purchaser. Maybe I'll join the crowd!

I'm going to put in a plug for a surprising place - ebay!

We have had hundreds of ebay transactions over the last five years or so, and only maybe five of them have been less than satisfactory. It is the norm, rather than the exception, for the item to come faster than expected, and there is often a cheery note tucked inside. In the few instances when there has been a problem, at least half of them have been promptly and cheerfully fixed up - replacement item, money refunded, etc.

Considering that all of these transactions are with different people, I think that is amazing. I suspect it is the feedback sytem there that gets us such good service - every transaction gets feedback, and vendors are anxious to get a good rating. In normal commerce, unsatisfied customers don't usually complain where everyone can see them, they just never go back. Here, bad service will bite back, and quickly.

Bouquet of the week goes to Laurie Labey, Jersey Pearl.

I am going to a wedding (in the new hat) on Saturday. My dress is navy (unless it is too hot in which case it is black with pink spots!), I will be wearing the pink hat, pink shoes and handbag. To complete the ensemble I thought that I would wear pink pearl earrings and necklace, ah, but what ring to wear - problem, no pink pearl ring.

They sell pearls at the airport and that isn't far away so I invested 50p to park my car and went to look to see if they had any pink pearl rings. Yes, they had a couple but to be honest I didn't care for either, I wanted a larger pearl. Then I drove down to the large Jersey Pearl showroom. Looked about and they didn't have any suitable rings at all. What they did have were some ring 'blanks' to be used for the 'pick a pearl', the shells are in a tank of water, you pick one and the pearl inside can be made into a ring, necklace etc.

I went to the section where a woman, Laurie, was stringing pearls and told her what I wanted and asked if they could make me a ring with a larger pink pearl to match my necklace. It wasn't her job to make rings, nevertheless she let me choose a pearl from the stock (not the lucky dip tank) then drilled it and stuck it on the ring blank that I chose.

One happy customer. She went out of her way to be helpful, she could easily have just said, 'Sorry, we don't make rings to order.'

It's nice when you find people like that!
You will look smashing, and we want to see pictures!

Anybody who has ever lived in France and tried to get any sort of after-sales or customer service will know exactly what I mean when I say it does not exist!. Once you part with your money the store no longer want to have anything to do with you, and will, if pushed, fob you off with the line "Your contract is with the manufacturer, contact them". On one famous occasion I bought a toy for my daughter. On opening the toy we discovered that one element was missing, so back to the store we went, within a couple of hours. The sales assistants were most unhelpful and I ended up having a huge barney with them looking for a refund. They first tried to get me to contact the manufacturer (in Sweden), and eventually offered me a credit note, which was no use to my daughter. We were entitled to a full refund, as the goods were faulty. A credit note was no use as the store didn't stock what we wanted, and couldn't be used elsewhere. Eventually they opened up another toy which contained the missing piece from our purchase, and literally flung it across the counter to us. I was mortified, but determined not to let them get away with keeping my money for something that wasn't complete. My daughter was anxiously tugging at my sleeve telling me to leave and not create a fuss, as it wasn't that important. Every other after-sales "service" incident we have had here has followed similar lines, except once, as follows:

When I moved here the hob fitted in the kitchen was an induction type, which requires special pots and pans. Mine wouldn't work on it, so we went out and bought several at a nearby store. The lady was very helpful and suggested we buy a grill which would work, apparantly, on the new cooker and could be used with our existing pots by acting as a converter. Pose the grill on the hob, and the old pots on the grill, and bingo. We were convinced and bought the grill, but it didn't work. However as the grill was perfectly OK and not faulty we didn't bring it back to the store, and simply chalked it up to experience. Last Christmas (almost two years later) I went back to the store with my sister-in-law, and I was instantly recognised by the assistant. She asked how we had fared with the grill and I explained that it hadn't worked as expected. I was told by her to bring it straight back if it was still unused for a full refund. I was dumbfounded, but duly brought back the grill and got a full cash refund, which I duly spent in her store on some fancy mugs instead. Now *that* is what I call real Customer Service, and it was all the more appreciated as it was unlooked for, and practically unheard of here.

I have to chime in with Santana about the French customer assistance thing. I think you have to be very clever to get good service though...

I bought a fax photocopy machine at an appliance store I knew and had bought other things there. I was just recently unemployed and needed one for applications.
I could barely afford the machine.
The salesman sold it to me with the tag thing, then, I got a call from them. I said, 'so you're telling me I paid the lower amount because the guy at the shop took the wrong tag to the counter? Isn't that your error and I paid an amount in good faith?'
They said yes, their error, but they would like to speak to me..
I went in and they wanted about fifty euros more. I told them the hard luck story with violins and the guy did not budge...so I sighed and said what a pity, I really had enjoyed frequenting their store and had recommended it to newcomers at my work, in fact, they might know of them.
He said 'oh yes?' And I gave the name of one of my clients at one of my jobs whom I'd brought over to the tune of five thousand to seven thousand Euros and they could just call the saleswoman in to ask her if she knew me. I'd translated the whole thing for them too!

Suddenly he looked apologetic and said, 'madame, you've just earned your discount and we wish you luck with your new fax finding a job.'
However I think that having to up the ante this way was really disgraceful.

I'm so much happier in America with customer service being the other extreme.
I just heard a woman going off the deep end at the car dealership and using some heavy duty cuss words, but, I think if she'd tried to keep her cool, she would have gotten better service from them. If you just hint at how sorry you'll be to have to go to the other dealer in town, or, hint at calling customer service at the national level for some advice on how to solve this problem, then you see things improve. If you lose your temper in public like that, you rarely get what you want.