If Only More Days Were Like This

Today we are in a hole between two storms, and it was a wonderful afternoon out there. Cool but not cold, light breeze, blue sky with wispy bits of cloud, and on the radio, the Giants were beating up on the Braves on Opening Day at Emperor Norton Field (which the unenlightened ones persist in calling AT&T Park) as I stepped outside for my post-lunch walk. And nothing went wrong during the walk, either.

Shock Horror: Good Customer Service

Continuing the theme of things going right, I got an e-mail from TotalVac.com, a company that, among other things, sells vacuum cleaner bags. Lisa's father owns an old Dustbuster for which they have been unable to find replacement filter bags. I ordered one for him, and when it arrived, Lisa called to tell me it wouldn't fit.

After some discussion and me examining TotalVac's web site and my original order invoice, I could only conclude that they had shipped me the wrong part, for a different model of DustBuster. I wrote their returns-authorization address giving my order number the part number I ordered (and confirming the dimensions of the old bag on my father-in-law's Dustbuster), and giving the dimensions and shape (trapezoidal instead of rectangular) and my speculation that they'd shipped me the wrong part. I then sat back expecting to be told, at best, that I'd have to ship the part back to them, possibly having to spend more than the $4 cost of the part in the first place.

I've received an e-mail from them apologizing for the mis-pick, promising to ship us a new one when they get a new shipment (they're out of stock right now), and telling us not to bother shipping the wrong part back to them.

It's nice when you get sensible customer service. They realized that it would almost certainly cost them as much to re-acquire the part as the part cost them to buy in the first place, and therefore wrote it off.