Credit Where Credit Is Due

Three "service calls" in the last 24 hours, both of which were exemplary -- so hats off to . . .

AMAZON

Ordered a coffee/seed grinder recently -- stopped working on the second use. Amazon's return system is so easy. Printed out a mailing label last night, boxed it up, ready to leave for the mailman on Monday. Within a few minutes of setting up the return on their web site received a personal email from an agent explaining everything that would happen. This morning, before the mailman picked up the return package, I got an Amazon email saying my replacement item had been shipped. If Amazon can do this so efficiently, why can't everyone? Amazing. I remain an Amazon fan.

TIME WARNER CABLE

That's right -- Time Warner. It's rare that anyone has anything good to say about their cable company, including me. But my TV signal has been off-and-on fuzzy the last couple of weeks so I set up a service call. The TW technician arrived on time this morning, replaced a bunch of outdated wiring outside, fixed the problem inside, explained a bunch of stuff to me about my Internet service that was very helpful, checked my modem, download speeds, replaced an older cable connector going to my modem, was cheerful, polite, fast (but not rushed), considerate (shoe covers in the house) -- the whole deal. Time Warner got this one right. And "Billy," the technician deserves a promotion and a raise. There's still not much worth watching on TV, but at least the junk is nice and clear now.

WNCW Radio

WNCW is an NPR affiliate radio station on the campus of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC, that plays terrific rotations of mountain, indie, and roots music with live, knowledgeable DJs all day, with breaks for NPR news updates. A great radio station! They have a re-transmitter in north Charlotte but the signal is too weak for me to pick up in south Charlotte -- so I listen on the Internet. But their streaming Internet feed was missing Saturday so I sent an email asking "Whassup?" This morning got a nice email reply from Dave Kester, Director of Programming and Operations, explaining the outage over the weekend. Sure enough the signal is back on loud and clear this morning. Nice to get personal emails from folks in charge who have good answers. [FLASH: I just heard from Dave Kester again with news that WNCW has a new transmitter in Charlotte at 99.1 which I can pick up using an FM antenna I strung in my attic a few years ago. Woo-hoo! Thanks Dave!)