The Sound of Music

I do enough bitching about stuff that pisses me off so I thought I’d mix it up and share a story of a positive experience dealing with a company.

For awhile now, S and I have noticed that our ipods haven’t been staying securely in place in the Bose sound dock we have at home. Over time, it got progressively worse with my 30GB ipod no longer playing at all and S’s 160GB ipod needing something to keep it propped in place.

I thought that it was just the inserts that were worn out and needed replacing so I ordered some new ones from Bose; which lead to the UPS fiasco. Upon getting the inserts home, I came to see that it wasn’t just the inserts, the entire dock part of the system was loose, hence why the ipods didn’t ‘sit’ properly.

I called Bose a few weeks ago and explained the situation. I was expecting to be told that I was up shit creek since I’d had the system for almost four years and no longer had the original receipt for it.

The guy I spoke to was very polite and let me know I had two options; I could send in the defective system and have it repaired for $110 (plus shipping and handling) and that would take about a week. The second option involved sending the defective system back and getting the Portable version for $220. I told him I’d think about it and that I’d call back. He was pretty cool about it, he didn’t pressure me to make a decision then and there and let me know that he’d put a note on my account so that the information was there whenever I called back.

I talked about it with S and she was fine with either option. I did a search online and saw that the portable system was going for about $450. Even with taxes and shipping charges, getting the Portable system through the exchange with Bose would mean getting it for half price.

I called Bose back and got another polite rep who set up the exchange and e-mailed me the relevant information within five minutes.

I shipped out my system to them last Wednesday. They received it the next day and on Friday morning, I got an e-mail letting me know that they had shipped the new system to me. To avoid having the same trouble with UPS, I asked that they send it to my parents’ place. They said that wasn’t a problem so long as there’d be someone there to sign for it.

I picked up the system tonight and we have S’s ipod playing in it now. It looks great, sounds great and it doesn’t require any propping to keep the ipods in place.

I was really impressed with how easy everything was. My calls were answered by polite reps who had a several (reasonable) options ready to present me with. Within days of calling, the new system was on its way to me. No fuss, no trouble; just good customer service. Who knew that still existed?

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