Bose: Rocking off faces (and gaining lifelong customers)...

Yesterday, my Bose in-ear headphones went bad on me. The reason I went expensive and bought Bose isn’t because I have the money to afford Bose ear-buds and simply thought it would make me look cool. I bought Bose ear-buds because, as far as I could tell, it is the only company I’ve seen that gives you a year-long warranty rather than 90 day warranty.

For some reason that I don’t understand, headphones and I don’t manage to have relationships longer than 3 or 4 months. Granted, I listen to music and wear my ear-buds just about 24-7 for any and all activities, but it’s not like I swing from chandeliers on them or anything. I did, however, save all of the original packaging and the receipt, assuming they would one day bite the dust on me.

Anyway, not surprisingly, they died after five months (a record headphone survival length in itself, which merits an award on Bose's part), and I decided to put my 1-year limited warranty to good use. Bear in mind that I subjected my ear buds to NONE of the warranty-violating conditions (water, insects, lightning, etc.). I think I just wear them too much. And if that’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

So I called the customer service number, expecting the typical 7 minute wait before even talking to someone who might be able to help me. After only two “Push 1 for English” and “Push 2 for headphone products” recordings, I was directed to the waiting queue and was told that all the representatives were on the line. Again, expecting to wait, I put my cell on speakerphone and popped open the Daily Jumble online.

Imagine my surprise when, before I had even started on today’s Jumble, the line started ringing and a representative was on the line. After explaining the situation, he asked for my name (bear in mind, this is still only 1:30 into my initial dialing of the Bose 1-800 number...that's not very long), and confirmed my information based on my registration from awhile ago (a point I’ll get to in a second). Regardless, by about 2 minutes and 15 seconds into the call, we were all squared away with the information exchange. Time for the arduous replacement discussion and warranty haggling...or so I thought.

*For the record, I regret not remembering the guy's name. I think I was still in a temporary state of shock at how efficiently things had been going, but if I could remember the guy’s name, I’d give him a mad shout out here: "Thanks _____________."

And why's that? Beause then, ___________ immediately said, “Mike, I’ll be sending you an e-mail with the information you need on how to send your ear-buds back in, and we will replace them for you and send the replacement ear-buds as quickly as we can.”

To which I almost choked on my gum and replied, “…wait…that’s it?”

“Yes. Just go ahead and follow the instructions in the e-mail, and you should be all set. Anything else I can help you with?”

“Uhhh…nope. Is that it? Because if that’s it, then you just totally rocked my face off” (and yes, I actually said those words to him).

“I'm glad we could help. If there’s nothing else I can do for you, thanks and have a great day.”

Let's recap: it took THREE TOTAL MINUTES. That’s it. No sneaky, “we’re not really responsible so we’ll use this loophole” attempt. No being transferred to four different customer service reps. No hassle, period. And it was probably the most pleasant customer service call I’ve ever had to make (I don’t even want to get started on my iPod Photo quadruple-replacement fiasco). I mean…it took three minutes.

Now, obviously I should clarify that previously registering my product clearly streamlined this process, but it doesn’t take away from the impact Bose’s customer service had on me in the situation. Something I expected to be a 20 minute ordeal (minimum) and overall frustrating experience was over before I knew it even started.

Consequently, it’s likely that every set of ear-buds or sound system I ever purchase will be Bose (possibly for the rest of my life). I’d say that’s probably not a bad deal for them. A little extra touch on customer service just got them a lifelong customer.

Has anybody else had a similar experience with other companies providing stellar customer service? What about their efforts did you appreciate? The person? The results? The efficiency? What about the flip side? Any miserable experience that lost a customer for a company or product? I’d love to hear your experiences and thoughts on the matter. Who knows…your comment could save me some hassle in the future. And that would be nice.