A customer service story

On Sunday, I purchased a pay per view event that my son and I hoped to watch on the internet.  Before watching the show, I had to register.  I gave my name and address, and my credit card so they could bill me.  I also downloaded and installed some software that they said was necessary to watch the program online.
 
As the time for the event to start approached, my son became very excited.  He had never seen a pay per view show and was looking forward to it.  Well, I do not know what the cause of this situation was, but we were unable to watch the show.  I don’t know if it was something I did, or something was going wrong with the transmission of the show.  Needless to say, we did not get to see the show, but I am quite sure our credit card was charged for it.
 
A day or two later, I sent an e-mail to the customer service people at the company who was promoting the show.  I explained to them that I had ordered the pay per view event on Sunday and for some reason we were unable to watch it.  We were hoping we could get the charge taken off our credit card.  I realized that this attempt for a refund may fall on deaf ears, but figured it was worth a try.
 
Within a few days, we received an e-mail from the customer services department telling us the charges would be credited from our account.  We have not received our credit card statement yet, and of course we will need to check it to be sure the company followed through on what they said they would do for us.
 
Normally we would have been happy that we did not get charged for a service we did not receive.  We would have chalked up this situation to experience, and learned our lesson.  Don’t order a pay per view event online unless you are 100% sure you know you are going to be able to watch it.
 
Fast forward to today, November 4.  This morning I went outside to pick up our newspaper.  As I walked up the sidewalk to the porch, I noticed a brown cardboard box  on top of the newspaper.  I picked up the paper and the box.  We have had some experiences receiving packages that were not addressed to us because there is a church behind us and sometimes the delivery people have a hard time figuring out its address.  I double checked the address on the box.  Strangely, it was addressed to me.  I did not order anything, nor did I expect anything to be delivered.  I brought the box inside and showed it to my wife.  As I brought it to her, I asked if she ordered anything and somehow had it shipped to me.  She said no.
 
We opened the box and much to my surprise, and the elation of our son, was a couple of products from the company we purchased the pay-per-view event from!
We did not order the products.  All we could conclude was that the company felt badly that one of their fans tried to watch a pay-per-view event and was unhappy with the result.
 
My son then became concerned that somehow we stole the products.  We didn’t pay for them, yet we still received them.  Something didn’t add up.  I tried to explain that sometimes companies feel badly when their customers are not satisfied with their products or services, and as a result they may send you free products, or apply a discount to your bill, or find some other way to make their customers a little happier.
The pay-per-view event was Bragging Rights put on by World Wrestling Entertainment.  My son and I watch their shows together on television often.  There are thousands of fans who attend the events.  The smile on my son’s face when he saw the wrestling action figures in the box was priceless!
 
Although some companies treat customers poorly, I feel fortunate that at least in this case, the company we worked with did not.
Thanks, WWE!
 
Shared by:  Jim Horrell