Amazing Customer Service

Sometimes you receive customer service that is so unexpected and great that you have to tell everyone about it. It feels even better when it happens just after you have been on the butt end of terrible customer service.

Back in march, I bought two large rolls of seamless background paper (107"x12Y) for a home studio, and unfortunately they remained in my garage for months since I and my friends never got around to putting it up in the studio. This weekend I had to have some paper at my house for an impromptu photoshoot, and when I opened up one of the rolls of paper it had a huge tear on one end. I had to cut out that part of the paper to get the shoot going, but then I thought that it might be worth a try to call up Adorama (even though I was well beyond the return period) to find out if they could do anything about it. I was completely prepared to hear that they wouldn't take it back, but hey, it doesn't hurt to try.

This story is not about Adorama though. When I called them up, the first representative was rude as soon as I mentioned the date of purchase,and told me that "it's like buying a car and not using it for months.. there's nothing I can do about it". Well, a polite refusal would have done it, but I didn't want to give up because of a rude guy. I called back again, and received a more polite lady, who transferred me to yet another rep who informed me that since Adorama has a 14 day return policy, my best bet was to call up the paper manufacturer Savage directly.

This is where the story gets better. I called up Savage with no expectations since
1. They hadn't sold me the paper directly
2. I had no way to prove that the I didn't tear it myself.
3. They didn't have to be responsible for Adorama's customers.

The lady who answered the phone listened to my story and promptly told me that she would send me a replacement roll of paper. She didn't even ask me to send the old roll back. No questions asked! Not only did she give me what I had hoped for, I ended up getting a lot more!

I have had great service from places like Amazon and my local electric company (SRP), but from a paper manufacturer that doesn't even have a retail outlet? Just wow!