Service with a :-)

I believe that you can learn a lot about an organization from how it recovers from its mistakes. Case in point: Otherworld Computing, a Mac-focussed storage, upgrade and accessory vendor.

Last week I ordered a hard drive from them, and it arrived a couple days later, packed in the usual brown cardboard box with the drive suspended in the center in a plastic cradle. No surprise, this is business as usual.

On Monday I needed to order a drive for my wife's MacBook (curse you, iTunes Store!), so I went to OWC again, and ordered a laptop drive, a USB2 enclosure for the old drive, and another full size hard drive for other purposes.

Yesterday, FedEx delivered a flat box with something going thump, thump from end to end inside. I opened it up and found a hard drive "wrapped" in a bubble-wrap envelope, folded over and sealed onto itself, rattling around loose in the box.

This is not how one ships delicate electronics with moving parts.

I took a photo, and sent a ranty email to a couple friends. Then I settled down, contacted OWC via their Customer Service web form to describe the situation and request replacement of the drives, and girded myself for the inevitable battle.

Not an hour later, my phone rang, and OWC apologized for the inappropriate packing ("They should be packed in clamshells"), and offered to replace the drives and cross-ship me replacements at their expense. A few minutes later I received an email with a return merchandise authorization number and a pre-paid UPS shipping label attached as a PDF file.

Early the next morning — that would be today — FedEx delivered a large, stunningly well-packed box with air bags and sheets of large bubble wrap, drives in their individual protective boxes, and a personal note from the shipping supervisor.

Every organization screws up from time to time. When I complained to OWC, they responded quickly and personally; they expedited replacement hardware, including shipping them with a faster shipping method than I had originally paid for; they made it very easy for me to return the other hardware; they didn't make me work for anything.

And as a result, here I am telling everyone I know that OWC did good by me. They made a mistake, they more than made up for it. I'll gladly buy from them again, and recommend them to others.

Because they take care of their customers.

[Thumbs Up!]


postscript viridis: the copious packing materials are being reused to ship a laptop.