We are all over that. We rant and rave and wag our fingers about what should and should not have taken place. We shake our heads and mutter about the lack of good customer service or good service, period.

But what happens when companies do right? Why is it that we so seldom hear about good customer service? Why is it that it's so much easier to complain about a business than share a good story about one? Think I'm exaggerating?

Check out the Naughty Businesses category to the right of this blog. Then the Complaints category. There are so many posts, I don't have the energy to count them all. Then check out the Above and Beyond category. There are just four posts.

So, if you guys don't mind humoring me today, perhaps you can share a good story, a good encounter, a good experience you had with a business.

Continue reading "When Companies Do Wrong" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Above and Beyond, Complaints
        

On a day when I usually tell you about naughty companies, naughty people or naughty business practices, I thought it might be kind of nice to share a nice story for a change.

In these tough economic times as businesses are tightening the belt and cutting costs, Frederick-based, family-run business Metropolitan Steel delivered a private stimulus package earlier this month to its 50 steel workers and their families.

Employees were worried that there would be news of pay cuts, layoffs or shutdowns announced at a recent financial meeting held by company executives, but instead, CEO and President Rick Hill handed them $600 checks. (That's a photo of Hill there to the right.)

Continue reading "Local Company Delivers Own Stimulus Check to Employees" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Above and Beyond, Economy, Tax rebates
        

It's hard not to get a little down and become really jaded when you deal with consumer complaints every day. People often write me to ask why I'm always writing such negative columns. The problem is, that's pretty much all I get to hear here. It's complaints all day, every day. Rarely do I ever get to hear anything good about a company.

In fact, I find myself wishing that people would send me happier experiences so my faith in customer-business relations might be renewed.

But just when I lose hope, I get a gem like this one out of the blue from Edwin Morgan:

Continue reading "BWI Hampton Inn goes above and beyond for customer" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Above and Beyond
        

I often joke that if businesses stopped screwing up, I wouldn't have a column to write anymore. But I hope you know from reading Consuming Interests columns, that I'd just as soon take a consumer to task for bad decisions as I would a business. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt and a chance to correct the record.

That's why I was glad Loyal Reader Beverly wrote in recently to say this:

Continue reading "Do you have a good customer service experience you want to share?" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Above and Beyond, Complaints
        

Depending on who you ask, warranties aren't worth the money. Consumer advocates often say that most products (like toasters and telephone) don't break down enough to make buying an extended warranty worth it. Big ticket items like automobiles and appliances, though, may need warranties, but only after you perform a thorough reading of the fine print to understand what is and isn't covered.

You can imagine that I don't often hear any good stories about warranties. Most of the ones I get here involve complaints about how someone was surprised to find they weren't covered somehow.

So I was pleasantly surprised to get this e-mail from reader Jerry Rieger after I wrote about warranties in today's column:

Continue reading "Buying a warranty that's worth the money" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Above and Beyond