I am so thrilled!

Too many people go into business with only one thing in mind, and that is making tons of money. The person doesn't look into what goes with running a business successfully, which includes great customer service. I just had a pearl bracelet returned by the jewelry store that I do the restringing for, the owner of the bracelet obviously had been picking at the knots to find the one that was the knot that ended the stringing. It is almost like the person wanted the bracelet shortened and figured that if she undid the knots she could shorten the bracelet without having to pay for my doing a total restringing job. It didn't work, but since I do stand behind my work, I didn't charge anyone for the job. It cost me a card of pearl silk and about two hours to restring and knot the pearls but it will make the customer happy and the jewelry store happy too. As I keep stating, since the end of WWII the big push was for people to buy now and pay later. This fostered greed and the desire for more and more money and profits. Instead of focusing on customer service and doing the right thing, businesses would shine the problem on, keeping the money and not doing like Amazon and replacing the item with a brand new one. It cost Amazon some money by doing this, but they are making more money by having a satisfied customer telling everyone about the great experience. With money so tight, it surprises me that more retailers aren't following Amazon's example and doing whatever it takes to keep the customer happy and coming back.

I miss the good old days when things were built to last. I know that it can be frustrating when things like the bracelet happened but you can put it in the big picture. That is good. You can be proud of your work any time.

I had a lot of people sneer at the fact that I bought a Kindle rather than one of the other e-readers. I am so very glad that I bought the Kindle instead. It's too bad that other online retailers don't look at Amazon's customer service and model theirs after the superior customer service that Amazon has. I hate having huge battles with various retailers when it comes to making purchases right. Bill and I were discussing it yesterday and as he said "It's so refreshing to have a retailer that just deals with the problem so quickly and easily like Amazon did. Fry's electronics could take a lesson from them." Fry's electronics is a California based electronic consumer store that I had purchased a computer from. In the five years that I had it the computer was in the shop more than in my home. Instead of admitting that it was a poorly built computer that had lots of problems and replacing it with a new one, they kept having me bring it in for repairs. In that five years of ownership, I had it in my possession about 3 months. I am telling everyone about Amazon's customer service! I am hoping that more people will enjoy shopping at Amazon. As it has been said in so many of my business classes that the taste of bad customer service remains for many many years after the event. Why businesses don't stop and rethink their customer service policies is beyond me. Of course they look at it in the respect of the all mighty dollar and what they can do with the money rather than the fact that they not only lose a customer but all the potential customers that the person comes in contact with.

What is great about Amazon is that they have so many books that I can down load for free! It is the same with a lot of games too. I agree that some things are horribly expensive on Amazon, but there have been a lot of bargains that I have gotten there too. I shop Ebay a lot, having bought my first Kindle on Ebay, but Bill bought me the Kindle Fire for Christmas. When I want books I go to Amazon first, then will look on Ebay. But for other stuff I go to Ebay. I am getting the whole Kindle Fire new, complete with the Kindle, the charger and whatever else. The whole list of books that I have on the Kindle will be preloaded so I don't have to spend all that time reloading the books. I couldn't believe when the customer service rep told me that I would get everything brand new and that when I send the old Kindle back they would pay shipping for it. That kind of customer service is well worth paying a little bit more!