I would have to nominate
my local telephone service provider, First Communications, of Akron, Ohio.
After years of Ohio Bell-Ameritech-SBC now AT&T service, I got an offer from them for the same service I had for $10/month less than I was paying. This was their standard rate, not a "promotional-get you to switch" rate. This was about 2-1/2 years ago. I did everything over the internet and my service was switched without a hiccup.
So far, have only had to call Customer Service 1 time. About 6 months ago my line went completely dead on a Saturday morning. Later that afternoon, I called their 800# from a local pay phone expecting the worst, the dreaded computer run around. To my complete surprise, a real live person answered my call. I explained the problem, she put me on hold to check the line and came back to tell me that ,yes, it seemed to be dead and she would transfer me to Repair. I thank her and take a deep breath thinking, "I'm doomed, this will take forever to fix."
To my complete surprise, another real live person came on the line to handle the problem. He explains that it may take 2-3 days to fix and schedules the repair. I thank him and head for home. Oh well, at least no telemarketers for a while.
Sunday afternoon the phone is ringing. It's First Comm's repair department letting me know that they found the problem and confirming that I'm back in service. Again, another real live person. The problem was SBC. They were working to replace some outdated equipment in my apartment complex and had accidentally cut a wire that went unnoticed. I thank him for their prompt service and more importantly for not being a nameless, faceless, uncaring computer generated response. Very rare these days!
The weekly offers from AT&T to "return to the fold" go right into the shredder.
Bill
