Just a brief post to pimp the folks at Sweetwater Sound for their absolutely stunning customer service. My new Kurzweil PC3X went wonky only 8 days after I received it: The middle C key stopped sending note-on/note-off unless you forte-forte-forte’d that bastard. I foresaw much frustration, many phone calls and a whole heap of that special ‘fuck you’ attitude you only find in the music instrument retail industry. Oh, and the small matter of being without my live rig for at least two weekends. Years of dealing with local music stores, Guitar Center, Musician’s Friend, MARS, etc., have conditioned me to expect nothing less.
Instead, I sent an email to my sales engineer, Paul Allen, describing the problem. Within three minutes, his assistant Peter responded with ‘Paul’s out of the office until Monday, but can I send you a replacement? ‘ I mean, a response that fast would be a delight regardless, but when the guy is out of the office?! To make a short and painless story even shorter and less painful: Not only is a replacement on the way, but they offered to expedite shipping—with no whining from me!—so I’d have the minimum amount of down time.
I’m so excited that I profess my true love on Twitter. Where they also respond! Note that I didn’t even use the @ notation in my original tweet so it wouldn’t have shown up in their mentions. That means they’re keeping an eye on any mention of their company on Twitter.
So not only do they have amazing customer service, they’re also seriously on top of all this social networking business, running a constant search on Twitter for buzz about their company. That smacks of caring. A lot. And about the right things. Needless to say, I won’t be buying anything from anyone else in the foreseeable future. Thanks for everything, Sweetwater!