verbicide | pleasant surprise

Since I'm so inclined to rail against companies with bad customer service, I should give equal time to companies that do things properly.

Judy got me a Fruit of the Month club membership. It's 8 months of home-delivered perfect fruit, and I can't wait! The gift-letter came with a list of the fruit I can expect. I saw that both grapefruits and papayas were on the list, two fruits that I particularly hate. So I called Harry and David and spoke to a very polite guy about the situation. I thought it should be a really simple process: don't send me fruit in March, send it to me in August instead. But he said it wasn't that simple and there were additional costs to make these types of changes. I said I'd rather pay for changes than end up with a box of wasted fruit. So I ended up paying about $30 to switch those two months out.

I hung up, still dissatisfied and so I wrote them a polite e-mail from their Customer Service Web site this morning. I said that the guy I talked to was great, and I like their products, but they should consider making the FotM club more flexible, because I wouldn't be inclined to buy it or give it as a gift in case someone hated one of the rotations. By the end of the day I had a courteous note telling me they were sorry I'd been disappointed, but they appreciated me contacting them so they could make amends. And they refunded my $30.

Sometimes it's worth it to speak up!

So: buy Harry and David. They'll treat you right!