Customer Service -The Good and The Bad

The Bad: Six months ago a friend wrote us a check without realizing that their automatic deposit hadn't gone in. So it bounced. When I took the check back to send it through, I went in and asked a teller if there was a fee as the friend had offered to pay any fees. She said "no." Next bank statement, there was a $6.00 chargeback fee. So I called customer service who informed me that my bank manager would call and reverse the charge within the hour. He never called. Next bank statement, I called again and the customer service agent said she couldn't get anyone at my branch to take her call, so she was going to personally stay on them and hound them until it was done. She told me that it could take several statements. I was assured.

Four months have passed and that charge has never been reversed. So yesterday I called again when my statement came and the representative told me that it had been more than 90 days since the charge and now too late for her to do anything. I informed her that I had called twice within that 90 days and had been told it would be taken care of. She called my branch. Brian, Bank Manager, still wouldn't take the call but she did get a customer care person to talk with me. When I explained the story I told her that my next call would be to close my account. I explained it wasn't the $6.00; it was the complete failure for anyone to do their job and take care of the problem. She told me she would talk to Brian and have him call me. Then she paused. "And if he doesn't, I will. By the end of today." At 4:58 she called and told me she was personally crediting my account before she left work. And she did. I checked my online statement. However, I'm still unimpressed. We already have a back-up checking linked to our savings and when our checks run out, I think we are going to go with our local bank that has impeccable customer service.

Good stories: Once again, Alaska Airlines takes the cake. I could tell you endless stories including one where we were bumped to U.S. Airways because of a tropical storm in Mexico and U.S. Air charged us to fly with a lap infant home (U.S. Air charges for EVERYTHING.) Alaska doesn't and since we were supposed to be flying them home and they didn't have room on the next flight out, I requested a refund. They were baffled as to why US Airways charged us too. They requested that U.S. Air refund us. They asked twice. And then they gave us our money back and told us they would try to duke it out with U.S. Air so we could forget it about it and go on with our lives. It took three calls for me to accomplish this but everyone I spoke to said, "You need to talk to Keri and her direct line is...." Now that is Customer service.

Yesterday I had to call Alaska again. I was trying to book travel for a spouse of an employee. She had a $50 companion pass but had no idea what the code was to book it. I called Alaska Air and asked the customer service agent if she had any idea how I could get that number. She told me I needed three pieces of personal info to show I knew enough about her to be doing this. I had one piece. She told me to put her on hold, and call and get it and she would work on other things so I wouldn't have to go through the whole explanation again. So I did, found the info I needed and she took care of the problem. I told her it was way beyond the call of duty.

Customer service is rare these days. But amazingly some Seattle-based companies: Nordstorm, Starbucks, and Alaska Airlines seem to stay at the top of the curve.