How can I help you?

Good customer service is really a magical thing. So magical, that I never expect it. So, when it happens, I’m always amazed. So often we complain, about the bad. Now, I’m taking time to praise the good.

At work we have 2 travel agencies I have to call, the nice one in the mall which tends to be the more expensive on and the evil lady in LA. Since I’m being positive, I’ll ignore the evil one. The people who handle our account keep getting promoted, because they’re so fabulous, and we get a new agent a few times a year. This week I’ve been talking to Tim. Tim is so nice, and knows how to treat customers, and even when I’m giving him hard things to do, like find decent flights to and from Estonia, he’s nothing but fantastic. I have a crush on him, even though I’ve never met him. I’m tempted to go to the mall and visit, but if he’s ugly, I’d be crushed. Tim, most likely will get promoted out of the mall soon too, and there’ll be another great person to replace him.

~~~~~

The Rex Libris comic published by the indie Slave Labor came out this week. The website had no release date, and no way to buy online. So, I called my dad’s favorite comic shop to ask if they had it/ knew anything about it. They said they don’t carry the indie presses unless people ask beforehand, but were super cool about referring me to a shop in Santa Monica and this shop was getting it on Wed. and they were very happy to help. But since I swore off places with billboards, the Santa Monica option wasn’t for me. And after going a bit deeper into the slavelabor website, I found their retailers. Third planet, just a hop, skip and jump from my work was on the list. They were also super nice, even though they said they wouldn’t get the book until Aug. 31. (I didn’t believe them, but they were still very nice). And then I called Comic Relief, because having Lydia (who is also very nice, and definitely competent) seemed like the easiest option. And they were lovely. I called them once to ask if they had it, and again to put it on hold. And it was a very pleasant experience.

Walking into any comic shop puts me way out of my element. I’m usually so bewildered that I don’t really pay attention to the guy behind the counter. But I suppose you have to be legitimately helpful when your store is fighting an uphill battle against the usual bad guys.

Most of all, none of the people I spoke to seemed anything like the stereotypical comic book store guy.

Lydia thinks they were just happy to have a girl call.