Customer service

Can I tell you how much I love good customer service? I just had another good experience with a lifetime warranty being honored, though is it actually sad that a company doing what it is supposed to do is considered "good" these days?

The first good experience was with Calphalon a few months ago. For quite a while I had been cooking with (and grumbling about) my large saute pan - different from a frying pan in that the sides go straight up vs sloping out - that was no longer flat on the bottom. I was about to just get rid of it and go buy a new one when I remembered Calphalon has a lifetime warranty. So while I had to go through the trouble of packing up the old pan and shipping it back, it was totally worth it when the brand new pan arrived. The great customer service came in when I opened the new box up to discover they'd sent me the smaller pan. When I called the company about it there were no questions for me; just the woman on the phone falling all over herself apologizing about the mix up. They sent me another pan and a prepaid mailing label to send the smaller one back.

And today my brand new Henckel paring knife arrived in the mail. I'd noticed that my old one had a crack in the handle, which sure enough falls under lifetime warranty. So once again I just had to package up the old one and ship it back to get my new one.

Both these companies sent the replacement products much quicker than stated in their warranty. And as I said, it's too bad that honoring a warranty surprises me, but I'm now a lifetime Calphalon and Henckels customer.