We have all been through the experience of calling a company's customer service.  You know the drill -  on the phone you go through a maze of menu choices and if you are lucky, you will get a friendly voice on the other end.  If you contact them by email, you will get a canned boilerplate reply that doesn't actually answer your question because a computer "reads" and interprets the question.

I had two recent occasions to contact customer service in the past couple of weeks.  The two incidents exemplify the extremes of good customer service and bad customer service, and I need to share them with someone.  You will be the first.

The Good...

We like to buy our milk from Stornetta Dairy, a local company whose Clover organic milk was the best in a tasting comparison we did some years ago.  A short time ago, they changed their packaging, adding those plastic screw-top pouring spouts to the standard milk carton.  Since we like to buy organic and try not to use much plastic packaging, I wrote an email to them expressing that the new packaging seemed incompatible with the organic concept, and besides, the company that does the composting for San Francisco could no longer take those cartons.  Within half a day, I got a very lengthy and thoughtful response from the VP of Product Research and Development.  He explained in detail how the recycling was accomplished, and how they felt the new packaging offered a product that had a longer shelf life once opened.  The company obviously put some thought into it before they made the change.  I was a bit disappointed at the response, but didn't press it further.  Well, I obviously was not the only person who contacted them because a couple of weeks later, I get another email, this time from the CEO.  He heard the community, they went back and did research, and this time concluded that, as he put it, "less is more" and made the decision to revert to the original packaging and eliminate the plastic.  This really stood out as unusual in this day and age, and reflects a responsible company.  GOOD COMPANY.  We continue to use their products.

The Bad...

When we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago we installed an Insinkerator Insta-hot water dispenser.  We love the thing and for a while it became the most heavily used appliance we had.  Unfortunately, the quality control proved to be not that good.  Less than six months later the heater tank failed.    Since it was under warranty, they sent a repair person out to replace it.  Ok, there can be infant mortality in products, so, although they replaced our unit with a refurbished one, we felt they more or less met their obligation.  About seven months later and it was out of warranty, the faucet failed and the cold water valve would not close.  When I finally reached a customer service representative, I eventually convinced them to replace it at no charge.  So far so good, they honored their warranty and even went a step beyond.  Fast forward 2 years.  The hot water dispenser developed an off-taste and smell.  I changed all the fittings and filters and finally traced the source to be the water tank itself.  Though we didn't know it at the time we purchased it, the tank was made of polyethylene.  After years of exposure to near-boiling water it was not surprising that the plastic was breaking down.  I used the Insinkerator website to ask if this was a known problem and how to resolve it.  I entered the information including the model and serial numbers, and waited for a reply.  Nothing.  I called up, and again I was greeted with silence. They would not even acknowledge that there could be an off-taste and smell in the unit.  Last month I purchased a replacement, and unfortunately, because of the inherent design of the faucet, I had to buy another Insinkerator.  At least the new design had a stainless steel tank so that there would be no issue of the material breaking down over time.  It turned out, however, that the unit was larger than the original and because of the installation, it was hard to fit it into the same location.  If they would send me some tubing and fittings, it could be completed easily.   They had a toll-free "Hot Line" for installation help so I called.  After the usual long waiting times, the first person said there was nothing they could do.  OK, escalate to the supervisor.  Again I explained the situation, and again they said they could do nothing.  I said that I was willing to buy the tubing and fittings and all I need was for them to give me the size and material specifications to make it easier.  A paraphrase of our conversation:

ISE: -No, sorry, we don't have that information. 

Me: -Huh? 

ISE: -No, the engineers have the info but we can't bother them.

Me: -And there is no where else we can get the information.

ISE: -No.

Me: -In my experience if a person keeps saying no to a customer, they will not have their job very long.

ISE: -Huh?

And so on.  I escalated again to the VP of customer service, but, of course, it did no good because they are trained in not being helpful. 

So what do we conclude? First, that the original design had a design flaw; second, the flaw was known to Insinkerator; third, the flaw produced a chemical that is potentially harmful in humans; fourth, by not acknowledging it, they were attempting to avoid potential litigation; and, lastly, their Hot Line is so named because their goal is to ire the customer.  BAD COMPANY.  We will avoid doing business with them.

In the end, I was able to install it with a little ingenuity and elbow grease and the water now tastes and smells fine.