The squeaky wheel gets the...

...COFFEE!!!

Say what? What are you talking about woman? Well, this afternoon a lovely little knock came upon my door, and behold, it was a teeny little mail lady bearing gifts. Not from her of course, but she was the messenger.

This is already looking good...

Then to what to my wondering eyes should appear, but two pounds of Hoodoo Jo made by Kicking Horse Coffee, should appear (OK, so that last bit is a bit wordy!).

And why did two pound of Hoodoo Jo coffee come to my door? Well, because a few weeks ago we bought a bag at Safeway, and when the got to the bottom 1/4 of the bag it seemed like the beans had gone rancid. Now, I promise this all took place within two weeks of buying the bag, which is definitely not long enough for beans to be getting that funky.

So I e-mailed Kicking Horse and told them about this. Thinking it might have been a funky batch. They responded promptly, and initially asked about how I store my beans. Nothing different (sealed glass jar in a dark cupboard). So they suggested there may have been a faulty seal on the bag. They asked me to send in what was left of my beans so they could do a quality test, and they would send me one bag for my troubles, and another one to cover the cost of me having to ship the beans back to them (I really wonder if they realized it would cost me only $1.15). So with no guarantee that my beans had even gone rancid, or that I would even send back my junk beans, they shipped me these two little darlings. Golly gee. Now if that isn't customer service, I don't know what is!

And its all because I took a few moments out of my day to let a company know how I felt about their product. Now don't get me wrong, I don't complain to every John, Dick, and Harry, but when somethings not right, I definitely make it a priority to let the company know how I feel about it.

Behold, free Lagostina frying pan. All because the one Rob originally had formed a funky bubble on the bottom, which made it not sit properly on the burner. No receipt, no nothing, but they still sent me a fab frying pan!

Yup, you read that right.

Some other instances where I've let a company know would be my Sears experience. Gabe had gotten a baby gift that was way out of season, and he was already way too big for it. So I took it back to Sears without my receipt. Their policy? Well, you can only return something without a receipt within 10 days of buying it. Excuse me? The first thing she asked me was when I got it. I said a few months ago. Bingo! I screwed myself with that little answer. So I said, I could come back in here tomorrow, with the same item , different cashier, still no receipt, but say I bought it 2 days ago and you would let me return it? That quite baffled her (as it did me), and she somehow mumbled out a yes. The worst part? They still had them on the racks.

So...I sent Mr. Sears a lovely little e-mail and I said with customer service and a return policy like that, your company doesn't deserve my business, and I will make a point to no longer support your company. And guess what? Over 6 months later, and here I am, still Sears free!

Take the night of Rob's staff party as an example. We had to pick up our car from Canadian Tire. After $750 worth of work, it definitely had to go on the credit card as we didn't have the cash. So when I went to pay, it was one of those damn chip machines (pardon my French). Well, I was fairly convinced I knew what my pin was, but apparently I didn't. So I screwed it up and it said to call customer service. Well, with my hair done up, my stockings on, my dress on, ready to go to a party, I sat in their waiting room on hold with Mastercard. When I finally got a hold of the girl she literally told me there was nothing she could do.

Essentially I had locked myself out of my account by screwing up my pin. I said then reset it. She said she couldn't. I said why. She said because they will be reissuing me a new card in January, no adjustments can be made to my old card. Excuse me? She said well a card is coming in the mail to you, and its a security risk to allow changes on your old card. I said, well the card that's coming in the mail is not relevant to me, because I have the old card here, I have a car that I need to get out of the shop NOW, and I've got somewhere to be. Long, long, long story short, they did nothing for me. I can't use my card on any machine that has the chip thing, and I'm still waiting on the so-called "new card." So guess what? Mastercard will be getting a lovely little e-mail from me, and I will be finding myself a new card provider promptly.

As you can see, I'm definitely not the customer you want on your bad side. I'm generally quite loyal to companies that I see a point in putting my money into. So I also feel the need to point out that I also do take the time to acknowledge customer service that has blown me away. Whether it be my Safeway cashier, the girl at the pizza place, or customer service going over and above.

But yeah, next time you feel the need to make your point known to a company, you might just have something as fabulous as 2 pounds of coffee arriving at your door!