Recently I purchased an iPod Nano to gift my wife on her birthday. As I wanted a personal message to be engraved on the product, I had no choice but to make the purchase directly from Apple’s online store despite the fact that Amazon was selling the same product for £11 less. Apple’s sales person said that they could do a price match if it is around 10% (in this case, it was), but that would only be for customers in United States. I had no other choice but to go ahead with the purchase, mainly because I had made up my mind to buy the ipod and also wanted the engraving done.

While it feels good to own an iPod (I like tactical gifting thing. More on that later), I am not happy about the above mentioned pricing or price matching policy of Apple. I wonder what prevents them from letting customers like me in UK benefit from the above policy, if they could do the same for US. I have sent an email and awaiting an answer from Apple. Let me see if any one cares to reply.

We have been regularly shopping with Sainsbury’s super market for the last 7+ years. Every time I visit Sainsbury’s – not once or twice, every time – I am mightily impressed with their customer service and this is no exaggeration.

Whenever a customer approaches any of the staff for help – be it asking where a product is located or asking if something is in stock or whatever – the staff will simply stop what they are doing and guide the customer around and ensure that his/her requirement is fulfilled before going ahead with what they were doing. One will never come across an answer like ‘It will be there in Aisle 8′ or ‘You can check it out in the yoghurts section’. They have specific instruction to lead the customer to the appropriate rack / aisle in the store and help them get what they need. I have done stress testing on numerous occasions to see if there is consistency among the staff and indeed, they have.

Best part is the way they react to email feedback. Irrespective of the fact whether the feedback is a praise or a criticism, Sainsbury’s always make it a point not only to reply, but also follow it up with a phone call asking if there is anything more they could do.

This post is not meant to say that Sainsbury’s is an invicible god, but to place on record the fact that there is an organisation who is willing to listen to the voice of the customers. We (esp. I) don’t hesitate for a moment to lash out an organisation if they are slack on this front, so thought it fit to praise them where it is due. If ever I start a company or a shop, my company’s customer service department will be based on Sainsbury’s model.

I have whined quite a lot in these pages about poor customer service at many places, so it is only fair if I mention about an exemplary service that I received.

It is for the third or fourth time we are visiting the High Wycombe branch of T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants in as many months and they seem to be hell bent on impressing us every single time. Right from the way they take the bookings to the ambience to seating arrangements to the time taken for preparaton to the temperature and quality of food, everything is simply fantastic there. What I like more is they have their ears wide open for any feedback. If you visit them once and leave a feedback on their website within the next 48 hours, an appetizer would be on the house when you visit them next time.

I am not sure whether this superb service is consistent across all the TGIF restaurants in UK and across the pond, but I think it will be. Would appreciate if anyone confirms that.

I have to write this before it becomes too late. At the risk of being labeled a whiner, I want to warn any potential customers of Air France with my experience so that they stay aware.

1. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, the airline missed our baggage while flying us from London to Chennai. Two days later, they delivered 2 out of 3 items. Further few days later, they delivered the one remaining item – which unfortunately happened to be the biggest and most important one.

While we waited anxiously for the lost baggage, there was no apology or anything from them. Talking to the airline’s staff, their attitude is like “We are much better than British Airways. They fail to deliver more baggage than us”. I am not sure how BA fares against AF on this front, but I saw a huge missing-baggage mountain at the airport delivered by BA.

2. I am not sure whether this is the case with all the airlines or it is something kind of Air France special, these guys make a big fuss about the weight of the baggages to be checked in. They allow only 20 kgs per person (yes, 20 kgs – you read it right) and when it went over the limit by 2 kgs for 3 passengers put together (that is less than a kilo over the limit per passenger), they were demanding an awful sum (Rs. 6600) towards the excess.

There is absolutely no flexibility on their part. I tried to point out that I had to make extra purchases coz of the late delivery of baggages, but that failed to cut any ice. She simply said that missing baggage is a separate issue (about which no one cares – really!).

3. Despite being the 30th passenger to check-in out of the 300+ passengers, three of us including our toddler were allocated seats in different rows in the air craft. I failed to notice that while getting the boarding pass, but when I went back to the check-in lady after 5 minutes pointing out the issue, she were lazy enough to issue a fresh boarding pass. She and her supervisor convinced me that although it appears as different rows, it is actually the same row towards the end of the air craft where the body of the plane gets narrower.

When we got into the plane, we found that it was the first and second row. The cabin crew threw up their arms saying that it is not their problem. Only after making a big song and dance (saamiyaattam – quite literally) and after demanding them to offload me if they don’t sort this out, they begged other passengers and made us sit in the same row.

4. Last but not the least is the quantity & quality of food. I have travelled both on short and long haul flights with Air France. If you are flying with them, better pack your food and eat it on board. It is THAT bad.

I sent all of the above to the Customer Service desk of Air France including the details like the date of travel, flight number, passenger names etc. Their response was surprisingly quick. But, all they said was that they would ‘look into the matter’ referred by me. If you are flying with Air France, good luck to you! I swear that I would never ever do that in future.