Saturday, December 6, 2008

Real Customer Service

Today my cell phone took a swim in my cup of hot tea and immediately went into cell phone failure, which meant a morning trip to the AT&T store. Of course I had not purchased insurance on my now-convulsing phone of only a few months, so my only option was to pay full price for a new phone, the cheapest of which would have been around $250 (and this was the most basic phone - a duplicate of the one I had would have been another $100).

The salesman who helped me suggested that I go down the street to Radio Shack and get a "Pay As You Go" phone and have them put my current SIM chip in the new phone. While all of this sounded Greek to me, I trusted the man and did as he suggested.

At Radio Shack, the two guys there were very helpful. They showed me their collection of phones and I chose one of the cheapest ($60). They also suggested how to let the wet phone dry out in case it becomes salvageable in a few weeks. In a short time I was up and running again, with a lot of phone knowledge. And insurance.

It's nice to receive some real customer service, particularly in this time of economic uncertainty and fear. All the salesmen I encountered today could have been after my money, in hopes of getting as much as possible for their companies and themselves. But instead, they were looking after me, the consumer. Because of that, I'll stay a loyal customer. All it took was thinking of the other person's needs first, a lesson that was probably the best thing I got out of this whole experience.

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