life and puppies

It’s true! I’m hear to report that I have received amazingly awesome and outstanding customer service from two different companies in the last two months.

My first experience purchasing glasses from glasses.com has been crazy good. My glasses, purchased circa 2005, broke in two in November. I was wearing around my previous pair, which had been purchased in 1997. And had a decades-old prescription. And had been mauled by a Baby Gracie. But, buying glasses requires work, leaving my house and looking any mirrors. Kinda the trifecta of horror as far as I’m concerned. But unable to tolerate my heavy contact use or the metal digging into my brain from the dog-destroyed glasses, I knew I had to make a change. So I turned to the Google machine and quickly found glasses.com. The site advertised “free lenses” and “free shipping” so I was instantly intrigued. I will do a lot of things to avoid paying shipping costs. Including paying higher prices for the same products if the shipping is “free.” But what really sealed the deal was their awesome collection of kate spade glasses. I ordered this pair before I even realized that I could upgrade them to lighter lenses for “free.”* I think they came to the house in under a week and I was instantly smitten. After a day or so, though, I realized that they were just a little heavy so I decided to look at the website again. I found the free (I’m done with the marks – I think I’ve made my point) thinner lenses (which look like they’re not free right now) and chatted online with a customer service representative. I explained that I loved the glasses, but lighter would be nice. No problem, she said. She said to hang on to them until I received a new pair with a free return shipping label. Yowee! But I was kinda wondering where the hitch was going to be. I saw myself being overcharged down the road and having to spend hours on the phone straightening it out. I. Was. Wrong. My new glasses came even more quickly than the last ones. Hooray! I would just send the first pair back and be on my way to a new look. But, hold the phone on that. Before I could do much of anything, Phoebe found the newest pair, popped out a lens and broke the rest of them. Oy vey, this was embarrassing. But because chatting online is so much less petrifying than talking on the phone, I connected with another customer service agent and explained what had happened. Guess what? No problem, she said. Dogs love glasses, she laughed! [Just kidding. She could have been cringing for all I know.] What I do know, though, is that the third pair of glasses came two days later, I now have one awesome pair of glasses and have been charged the proper amount. I really can’t imagine buying glasses any other way again. Kudos to you, glasses.com!

My second fun (to me) story happened just yesterday. On Tuesday, I went to work in these cute shoes I bought from Banana Republic in March. Although they were cute, I realized too late that they were also too small. While I was wearing them this week, I had to take them off at work because they were just killing me in the toe box and in the heel. Ouch. As a former shoe salesperson, I know that it’s just not really a thing to be able to successfully return a worn shoe. But yesterday I thought, “If I have to have an EEG and an MRI in one day, I can email BR and beg for help. Plus, I’m 40 now. Time to take a chance. At least over email.” And guess what? They’re taking them back! Sure, I got a little bit of a lecture about their return policy, and was advised this is a one-time thing, but they are taking them back (and paying for shipping)! I mean, thank you Banana. Really, thank you.**

*I’m truly sorry about all of the quotation marks. No one hates unnecessary quotation marks more than I, but I don’t want you to think that I don’t understand that I’m really paying for all of these services in some way. Know what I mean?

**I also feel rather dumb about this entire post because I know that these products are made by people in horrible conditions who are criminally underpaid. And I know that any apology I make will sound hollow and be meaningless so I will just be quiet now and go.