We try to provide excellent customer service here at CMP. If someone has a problem with an order, or their shipments are lost, we try to respond to their enquiries with replacements the next day. If you're a small publisher/business, I can't imagine *not* providing customer service above and beyond the call of duty. It's one of those areas where trumping the bigger players is trivial thanks to our size.

Here's two cases of recent customer service I've encountered that have made me think that maybe the world isn't completely falling apart:

1) InCase. I bought an Incase laptop bag about two years ago, and the plastic buckle on the shoulder strap broke one day near Korakuen. I emailed Incase and was told they didn't make that bag anymore. And furthermore they didn't carry the straps. Well, a laptop case without a shoulder strap is almost useless to me, so I responded with a hopeless "What should I do?" email. My Incase contact said she'd scour the warehouse and let me know if they found anything. Fast forward two weeks — a new strap arrives at my house, free of charge, in the US. Will I be buying from Incase again? You bet.

2) Safari Books. I've been using Safari for about 1 1/2 years — ever since I started working on the Buzztracker web version in Winter 2004/2005. For some reason, I had canceled and created new accounts along the way and one account got lost in the shuffle. Since I was already a subscriber, I didn't take conscious notice that there were two of the same charges appearing on my two credit cards each month.

Recently I was the unlucky recipient of credit card fraud, and after combing over recent transactions, I finally noticed the duplication. I emailed Safari and they were not only quick to respond but checked the logs and refunded me for about eight months of unused account billing! Considering this was entirely my error, this ranks as one of my best customer-service experiences ever.

Certainly better than when I had to beg Bic Camera to take back a 20" Apple Cinema display with three glaring dead pixels smack in the center. And better than last week when I dropped my Powerbook off to be fixed and had it returned to me, still broken!