Maybe it’s because I’m dealing with a real store, and not a random computer-parts technical support, but I just had a very pleasant experience with a customer service call. I ordered a shirt online from HotTopic. Today, it was delivered, and it’s weird because it’s like two shirts in one. If you turn it inside-out, it’s a whole different shirt. It appears to be a misprint. So, we’re like “Well, did they do that on purpose? What the hell? Is that supposed to be what’s on the back? but it’s inside!” Anyway, we determine that it’s defective, so I called customer support.

I talked to “Richardo” (he pronounced it as “Ricardo” but then said it was “like Richard with an O”). Anyway, he was very pleasant, and very supportive. And he said he was going to send a label through UPS that is paid for by them and I can just drop it off at a UPS store. He also reminded me that I can go to my nearest HotTopic store to exchange it, but I said I prefered the label. (The UPS store is right down the road from me, next to Giant, Starbucks, and Subway, and the HotTopic is at Springfield Mall which I try to avoid like the plague.)

He told me that the label was coming from UPS and that it may end up in my spam filter if I don’t receive it. I wasn’t too worried, however, he then waited on the phone after sending the email to make sure I received it. That, to me, was above and beyond.

So, anyway, I have my label printed out, and either tomorrow or Sunday, I’ll be headed to the UPS store (oh yeah, there’s also a gas station in that strip mall, and I need gas too). We’ll see how the experience of getting my replacement shirt goes from there, but I am not anticipating any major issues.