Crutchfield.

Years ago, like 20 or so years ago (before the days of Amazon as we know Amazon today), I purchased a car stereo from Crutchfield. I remember that at the time the ordering process was easy, fluid.

But dang, that stereo was declared “delivered”, but it never showed on my porch. Doesn’t happen often but sometimes porch pirates strike. I called Crutchfield, and keep in mind, this is before package delivery from online shopping was very common. I’m expecting Crutchfield to tell me tough luck (which in those days, wouldn’t be unheard of), they did their part. I paid, they shipped, end of story.

Instead, the person on the phone profusely apologized for the issue, promised to FEDEX a replacement at their cost and I’d receive the replacement the next day.

Sure enough, the next day there was the package from FEDEX, and a couple days later they followed up with a letter (snail mail) again apologizing for the incident.

So, what’s the big deal? Well, it’s somewhat of a big deal even these days since Amazon generally provides the same level of service, but 20 years ago? It was great customer service.