I recently purchased a portable fridge for my dorm room on Amazon. When I received the package, everything worked fine, but there was a very visible dent on the side of the door. Being the picky person I am and wanting my full $200 worth, I asked Amazon for a replacement unit. Amazon kindly agreed to replace the damaged unit and since I was in a rush, they even threw in “One-Day Shipping” through UPS. I placed the original unit at the door for UPS to pickup, and when I got home the original package was taken and the replacement was at the doorstep.

The “new” box looked pretty badly beaten up, smashed, and torn. When I opened the box I was horrified to see the fridge’s front door had a HUGE “bullet-hole” looking crater. The rest of the unit was scratched up, smashed inwards, and bulging out. And to top that, the unit was soaked in some weird liquid. I decided to open the fridge door, to make things even worse, it fell right off its hinges.

I once again called Amazon’s Customer Service, to see if I could get a “working” replacement. Amazon didn’t agree to replace it this time, but offered a full refund and free pickup of the trashed unit. I ended up purchasing the unit at Fry’s Electronics, a bay area computer store, which actually ended up being about $25 cheaper since it was on sale. I constantly order items from Amazon and I have literally never received a damaged product. My guess is that this had something to do with UPS’s deliver guy. There have been videos online of delivery personnel throwing packages across driveways to the door step.

As for Amazon’s Customer Support, it was just AMAZING. With a click of a button on their website, they call you, you don’t have to dial a 1-800 number and go through the standard “press one for blah” options. Their representative already has your order number and just requires verifying some personal information for security. The wait times were just 3-4 minutes each time I contacted them, which is quicker than any other experience I’ve had. In addition their reps actually knew what they were doing, they were knowledgeable, polite, and well trained. Without any screaming or yelling they were able to quickly drive me through the return process. In addition the second time I called to return the replacement, they themselves suggested a full refund. I even began to feel a bit guilty for returning that original fridge since it was only slightly damaged, but then realized this is the way Customer Service should be!

Has anyone else actually had a GOOD experience with any big company’s customer service?

Links: Amazon.com

Have you ever gotten a call and don’t recognize the number? Well with Sullr, getting information on that number couldn’t have been easier. Just enter the area code plus the 7-digit number and the caller’s name or business along with an address and map will be instantly provided. Free reverse phone number lookup services, such as this one, do already exist, however none are clean, Web 2.0 powered, and ajaxified like Sullr. In addition Sullr’s works from just about any mobile phone, just visit ‘wap.sullr.com‘ and get the same results.

At this time Sullr’s beta Web 2.0 service only works in Argentina, Belgium, France, Italy and the USA but they are working to add support for more countries. Just bookmark it and it’s sure come in handy!

Update: Spain and Luxembourg have just been added!

Links: Sullr.com
Related: Do Not Call

Google recently added a new feature into their mapping service, Google Maps, which now allows creating multiple destinations. Previously, the service only allowed use of “point A to point B” directions, however today users may create as many points as they want. Although this feature is new for Google Map users, services such as Yahoo! Maps has already had this feature for several months.

When using Google Maps, destinations can easily be reorganized by simply dragging them to a different point on the time line. One thing we found to be quite annoying is the fact that the entire page must be reloaded before a destination can be added. Therefore the page must be refreshed 5 times before your final map is ready if you plan to add 5 locations. I would expect Google to add the ability to enter multiple points at once in the future before asking your browser to refresh. Overall, the new feature makes Google Maps a more powerful tool. We suggest checking out both Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps. (Please let us know which one you prefer!)

Links: Google Maps | Multipoint Example
Related: Yahoo! Maps | Live Local