Customer Service: Bad & Good

Bad:
BestBuy. I have major attitude about being given a receipt that promises a discount for filling out a survey, then the discount coupon page doesn't work (has happened with about 4 surveys). It would be alright if their customer service would apologize & rectify the problem but, instead, they completely ignored my online complaint. NOT COOL. Also, in the store the cashier gave the customer in front of me major attitude about a return without receipt - including a refusal to give him ANY credit. Maybe there was some reason for the extra attitude but I really didn't like how they handled the customer before me - basically gave him a big "F You!"... no store credit, no nothing. I was only able to do a non-receipt return, on an unopened item, because I had used my debit card and they have some way of looking up the transaction. What if the item had been a gift and I didn't want the giver to know I was returning it? And worse still, when you walk in with an item like that, BestBuy puts a non-removeable sticker and big perma-marker X on the package - so you're not going to be able to return it anywhere else either. Goodbye BestBuy! CircuitCity is closer anyway (and have you seen that Acer that's on sale this week? I might want that, really bad.)

Good:
Borders bookstores. Last weekend, I wanted a book and I wanted it now. The closest bookstore I knew of, also Borders, is about 6 miles away and I figured there had to be something closer. Google led me to a new Borders, only 2 miles away. I found my book and, during checkout, mentioned that I couldn't bring my email coupon because my printer is dead. The TOTALLY NICE cashier, Nick, tried to look me up by email. When that didn't work, he enrolled me in their frequent shopper program, scanned a 30% coupon he kept at his register, and gave me coupons for a free drink, 20% off future purchase, and 15% off another future purchase. Nick made me a Borders customer.

I completed Borders' online survey and actually got the promised coupon. Then I went to the BordersStores website and submitted an extra compliment about Nick (including my discovery that my coupon hadn't even been for Borders but Barnes&Noble). Yesterday, I received a personal acknowledgment of my comments and confirmation that Nick's store & division managers will be notified so he can be recognized. And I also found out that Borders online offers an option to find books and then see if they're in stock at a store before I go there.

Good job Borders. Nick made me an insta-customer, your online customer service kept me.