and in other news

I had a great customer service experience today, one that almost negated the awful one I had a few nights ago. Over a year ago, Robert and I were together and I was listening to something fabulous on my noise-reduction headphones. I wanted Robert to hear it too so I passed the 'phones to him. He twisted a little to the left when he should have twisted to the right, there was a snap, and, well, the headphones were unusable (though still working -- they just wouldn't stay on my head anymore).

Robert felt bad, but not so bad that he was willing to do anything about it. I just felt kind of hopeless and discouraged. So the headphones have sat in a little pile of stuff that never got put away.

Yesterday, I noticed that a colleague had a similar pair of headphones by the same company and I started talking to him about them. Another colleague joined into the conversation, and when he heard that I had a pair of broken headphones already, he suggested that I call customer service, even though the 'phones were way out of warranty.

This morning, I did just that. After going through the brief (press 1 if it's tuesday, press 2 if it's any other day of the week) phone menu, I reached an agent who was intelligent, helpful, empowered, and funny. In fact, we were both able to get the other laughing. After I explained the situation, he asked if he could put me on hold for a few minutes. When he came back, he said that I just needed to send the equipment in and he'd send out a replacement.

At this point, I admitted that I'd lost a few of the accessories and was wondering if I could order them. He said that actually, they're not going to fix the headphones I send back, and they're not even going to send me a refurbished pair. They're sending a brand-new pair, from the factory, all accessories included. Wow.

I have the feeling that work is going to get a lot noisier in the next few weeks, and there is that upcoming trip we're taking. It's time to have working headphones again. Bose Corporation, you rock!