The company I work for is rather big on good customer service. Consequently I tend to notice good (and bad) service in other companies I do business with.

Here's a example of great customer service from a company I had the pleasure of interacting with recently: Grado Labs

About a year ago, I picked up a pair of these SR80 headphones for listening to music while I code. One of the downsides of the open office plan at work is that it's rather noisy, and a good pair of headphones are a must, so I can concentrate. The SR80's are wonderfull, built very solidly (alas, I seem to be rather hard on headphones. I have a box of broken ones at home), and at around $90, not at all unreasonably priced.

Last week, unfortunately, these had a bit of an accident. I had the phones sitting on my desk, and turned and scooted my office chair over to answer a
question from someone nearby. The chair arm hooked the cable on the headphones, yanked them off the desk, and dropped them on the floor, right into the path of the wheels on the chair. This would have been the end of most headphones, but the grados seemed fine. Thursday morning however, I realized that that little incident had broken the bracket that held the right can onto the headband.

On most other headphones, even expensive ones, that would be the end of the story, as that part would be a moulded-on plastic dingus that was impossible to repair. On the Grados, though, this is a separate bracket with a metal rod that slides into a hole in a solid block on the headband. Thus, I figured I might be able to order a replacement part and repair them. I emailed Grado Labs and asked about getting a replacement "C-bracket", as it's called. This was at about 4pm eastern time (Grado is in New Jersey). Less than an hour later I get reply, asking for my address. They were going to send me one.

Free

No questions, no asking for serial numbers. I had bought the phones throught a reseller, never sent in the warranty card, they were out of the warranty period anyway, the phones are one of their cheaper models, and the damage was my own dumb fault.

Didn't matter.

I got the part in the mail on Monday. Two business days after emailing, my headphones are fixed.

Yeah. If I ever need to get another pair of headphones, either for home, or trading up to a higher-end model, I know where I'll be gettting them.