Customer Service

Where has good customer service gone? I will pay more for an item if I know it will be backed up by the seller.
I guess "Mega" stores these days don't need my meager patronage. The Lowes and Comcasts of the world may seem to make our pocketbook a fraction fatter or save us a few minutes in time, but do they really?

When we moved into this new house we spent a lot of money at Lowes. Don and I have always been Lowes fans for home improvement. As I went through the checkout with a few special order items totaling 3+ thousand dollars, the cashier told me she would have to call a phone number to get her computer glitch cleared out. This was, of course, AFTER she had swiped my bank card and 20 minutes of "problem solving" at elapsed. Her manager then told me I could pay for the items again and "trust her" to refund the first purchase, or I could wait as much as 45 minutes longer for her to straighten things out with technical service. I decided to wait. Keep in mind I have my 3 kids with me, in line, and it has now been 30 minutes. I finally ask, what was going on? Was the computer broken? Was my card not working? The manager proceeds to tell me, "I am working on it. Can't you see I am on the phone. I thought you were being nice and patient, but I guess I was wrong." I told here to cancel my transaction, and allowed the kids to play with whatever they wanted in the checkout isle. 45 minutes after entering the checkout line, I walked out of the door with a receipt and 3 tired, bored, hungry, screaming kids.
This kind of thing happened over and over at this particular Lowes. I finally e-mailed the National Headquarters for Lowes, and guess what, they e-mailed back asking all sorts of questions, sent me a gift card and hooked me up with the G.M. for the bad Lowes. Looks like the Customer Serivice melt down was just at this particular Lowes. I now drive accross town to another Lowes for my home goodies. It's worth the extra 5 minute drive because I figure it may save me 40 minutes at the checkout.

Comcast was the same kind of nightmare. I added up all the time I was on the phone with their Customer Service Representatives. Are you ready for this? 6 hours! Further, there was 16 hours of waiting around the house for their technicians to show up, mostly to fix the things that kept going wrong with our brand new service. What put the nail in their coffin for me was when I waited 4 hours for someone to show up, and no one did. I called them 5 minutes after the end of my scheduled appointment time to see if they were running late. They were not running late, their tech canceled my appointment because they couldn't find our house. They didn't have my phone number, the number they assigned us, so they couldn't call to ask for directions.
I canceled all Comcast services right then and there over the phone, but they wanted us to pay for services provided. I told them after 22 hours, equaling almost three working days, of waiting they owed me money.

I just love good customer service. I even call the phone numbers on the back of restraunt receipts or on the window at Wendy's to compliment those workers who do a great job. I ask for the manager when someone at a store goes out of their way to help me. I have even written letters about outstanding workmanship.
Maybe I should live in a little town somewhere where everyone knows you name and you can still by your groceries on credit? Call me old fashioned, a smile is worth something to me.