Tag Archives: customer service

Why I love LEGO

For Christmas, I got my wife a neat little townhouse. A LEGO townhouse. She loved it–until she got towards the end of the first model. There was a single piece missing. I went to LEGO’s web site and filled out a simple form. A few weeks later, I got the part and a really nice letter. Sure, it’s a form letter, but it’s still nice:

“Dear Mr. Watson,

Thank you for contacting us on 12/27/07 regarding the quality of LEGO(R) toys and products.

“We were sorry to learn of the difficulty you experienced with your LEGO set. We understand how upsetting and disappointing it can be when a product does not live up to its reputation. Please accept our apologies for the packaging error you encountered. Producing the highest quality LEGO products possible and establishing consumer trust in the LEGO brand name, are the most important goals of our Company. Certainly, whenever a packaging error does occur, we want to correct the situation as quickly as possible to restore your faith in our brand name and what it represents. Therefore, I have enclosed the item(s) you requested to complete your set.

“Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience you have experienced. If we can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Service…”

And that’s why I love LEGO.

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HostForWeb – best hosting company ever

Ok, I have to give a quick shout out to my hosting company, HostForWeb. I’ve had my web-sites and e-mail hosted by them for about…5 years now? I can’t remember when I started, but a while ago.

Today, I noticed that my e-mail was not going out through my domain via smtp. I quickly determined that the server was up (I could ssh in, and locally telnet to port 25), but I couldn’t reach it from my home. Laptop didn’t work either.

First, I called Comcast. They were less than helpful, claiming not to notice anything wrong with my account. I didn’t push the issue, because I figured I should check my hosting company as well. Also, we’re moving in two weeks and Comcast isn’t coming with us.

Well, I went to HostForWeb’s live chat support, and within 30 seconds Greg answered, and asked what I needed. I explained the situation, telling him I thought it possible that my IP was being blocked. He did some checking and tweaking and asked me to try again. Still didn’t work. I didn’t really think the problem was on their end, but I had to check anyway. In the end, he gave me a new port to access the smtp server, and I was on my way. In less than 5 minutes.

Comcast, try to beat that.

I should also mention, that I have had a few other occasions to contact HostForWeb tech support (I screwed up my DNS; my home IP really was banned at one point for something; etc.). Each time, even via e-mail, the problem was resolved incredibly quickly. I think the longest I ever waited was 30 minutes until resolution.

So if you’re in the market, these people are great. The support is phenomenal.

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