After the poor customer service I experienced with 1&1 Internet recently, it’s easy to focus on negatives where large companies are concerned, especially the big ones who lean on the little folk. Negatives do get more publicity on blogs, clearly, but it’s nice to praise the good ones aswell, from time to time. I know from experience that this kind of positive entry can prove helpful to others who have stumbled upon it. So, I’m going to be nice and do a little praising in this entry.

A few days ago I went to Harrods.com to browse their Molton Brown Bath and Shower range. I was looking for Blissful Templetree Shower Gel on the MB range page, but it wasn’t listed. I fired off a quick e-mail to Harrods at around 5.30pm to ask if they would be getting any in stock soon. I wasn’t expecting a prompt reply or even one that evening considering the time of day. However, moments later the Harrods Beauty Concierge e-mailed me with the relevant info and link to the item I wanted to buy. I also enquired about Warming Eucalyptus Shower Gel (one of my absolute faves) but he said although it wasn’t in stock on the site, the store had it in and I could call him directly to place an order for that if I wished. Since I was using PayPal as my payment method I just bought the one in stock on the site. With postage the item came to £20.49 which I think is even less than it costs at the Molton Brown website. Very pleasurable shopping experience. Always nice to get fast, friendly and personal assistance via e-mail, especially when I was least expecting it!

Another thumbs up for an online company. o2 Broadband. You can search Fruit Bytes for those terms and see lots of glowing reports from me since I’ve had nothing but good experience with them. And yeah, it might be getting boring but when the service is above and beyond what I even expect then it’s nice to say so. And ‘o2 Broadband’ is the term most commonly used to bring people here I noticed in my stats recently. Yesterday I received an e-mail from them…

Dear Samantha,

To ensure that your O2 Broadband always performs at the highest level, we occasionally have to carry out essential maintenance.

That’s why we’re writing to you to let you know that for a brief period this weekend, you may experience the odd interruption to your broadband service.

Work will begin at approximately midnight on Friday 22 February and continue until 8am on Sunday 24 February.

We apologise for the inconvenience, and we’ll do everything we can to keep the disruption to a minimum.

Best regards

o2 Broadband Team

I was pleasantly surprised. In all the years I’ve had the internet I have never had an e-mail from my broadband provider forewarning of possible disruptions. If there was planned maintenance then I, the paying customer, would be the last person to be informed. If I wanted to find out if there were any issues I’d have to call the service status line which most of the time would be way outdated anyway. So, I’d have my call passed to a customer services agent who would take me through reformatting my machine before revealing that it’s a known issue! Gaaah! Incidentally, there has been absolutely no disruption to my o2 Broadband service so far this weekend. But even if there had then they’d totally be forgiven!

One last mention for an online company who deliver the goods, just to make this my top 3 of 2008! Invision Power Services – Probably THE fastest support via e-mail…ever! I have been an Invision Power Board client for a number of years and around 6-8 weeks ago I had been making some changes to my forums. I had a couple of queries before I proceeded with these changes as I’m absolutely no PHP whizz, so I sent a support ticket in at 20.21 and received a reply at 20.23 which answered everything and more. They are super fast and friendly. If there are changes to be made to files that I am uncomfortable about amending then they will do it for me. 10/10!

Oooh, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know I’m a valued client.