Just when you wonder if people are only in business just for the quick buck, you are reminded about great customer service.
Two customer service heroes with eBay stores are
Canoka Electronics and
Dan's Cellular. Here's my story...
I ordered a wireless keyboard from Canoka Electronics. It came with a piece busted off. So in a rush, I looked up the email on my "My eBay" page to arrange for a return. But in the hurry, I mistakingly picked out the wrong seller. I had lost on my bidding to Dan's Cellular, but that item was still on my ebay page and I got confused.
So I emailed Dan's Cellular (in error, of course) and got the return address. I sent it back to the wrong seller. The return process was taking a while so I checked in with him. He was a little behind so he decided to take care of it personally for me. He must have been in a good mood because he even volunteered to throw in a free tidbit for my trouble. But when he got ready to send it out he discovered that I hadn't bought it from him!
Not only was he nice about it (instead of calling me an idiot like I deserved), he voluntarily sent the returned keyboard at his expense to Canoka Electronics on my behalf. I had pretty much given up because I didn't want to pay back and forth shipping, plus restocking fees, or even deal with the hassles I expected would be awaiting me. So I had told him he could keep it to resell or throw away as he liked. But instead, like I said, he sent it on to the real seller at his expense even though he really had nothing to do with the whole mixup! What a kind thing to do!
And, over at Canoka Electronics, I let them know what had happened, and that basically I just decided to write off the whole thing. I didn't ask for anything, and I explained that even though the first keyboard was damaged, I wasn't going to give any bad feedback. I figured it wouldn't be fair anyway, because both these sellers have really excellent ratings, so I was confident that Canoka would have made things right if I had made the proper return.
Well, without knowing that the return was going to be done via Dan's kind move, Canoka said that he felt bad about what had happened, and offered me a free replacement keyboard anyway! All he asked for was a very reasonable shipping and handling cost. He had no obligation to me, and I had already let him off the hook, so the only reason he had for doing that was that he cared about me as a customer. And, as he put it, he was glad for a customer that took responsibility for themselves instead of blaming the seller for everything. So sure enough, I just got the package in the mail today. Can't wait to set aside some time and give it a try!
So if you're looking for an accessory (including some other types of accessories also, like a stereo plug adapter for the Treo) be sure to check out these great sellers. If you do, be sure to tell them you heard about their eBay store from BobR at MobileRead, and that you appreciate their style of customer service!