A tale of two services............

The retail industry is a funny thing. You think you have it all figured out about who is providing the best service until that all gets dumped on its head.

Last night, I had to call a company (Martinek Baby Co.) to get a replacement part on our baby crib. When I disassembled the crib after Kali got old enough to get out of it, I accidentally broke one of the slide assemblies on the sliding gate. So I called the company last night to order a replacement part. Imagine my surprise when I was able to talk with a person in their parts department right away. He took down my information and the part I needed. I asked him how much it would cost and he said it likely would be no charge. Really nice guy and it was really easy to get it done.

Contrast that with my experience with Bernini Platinum, a suit retailer in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas where I ordered a suit. I wanted a specific kind of suit, but they didn't have my size. Not a problem, they said. They'd order the same suit in my size from the corporate warehouse in California. 10 days to ship it. I paid for the suit and we left the store.

After 20 days with no suit, I started to get worried. I called the store and informed them that I was supposed to have my suit by now. They told me it wasn't a problem and they'd get it straightened out. I called back a couple days later after I still hadn't heard anything. They said they'd get right on it and call me back. I STILL didn't hear back from them. Long story short, after calling them at least 15 times (none of which were initiated by the store), I disputed the charge on my credit card, called the store, and informed them that I had removed the charge from my card. Only then did they start to worry. Too late. They mentioned that the suit may have been shipped. I told them I'd refuse to accept the delivery and have it returned.

In summary, two different companies with two vastly different customer service responses. One will get references from me if they're looking for that product. The other one won't get a sniff of my money going forward.