A couple of shoutouts for a couple of good actions by a couple of businesses I’ve dealt with. These were cases where I could have been out a little bit of money, but they absorbed the cost in a show of goodwill. For this, they deserve a good mention.
First, PNC Bank. Under most circumstances, I would be giving them a rant post. Consider this. I’m on the board for a small non-profit organization. We went to PNC last October and signed up for the free business checking. Everything was just great. Fast forward to two weeks ago and I got an email saying that August 1, there’s no more free checking and we would start getting charged $12/month. We’re a really small organization, so $12/mo is significant.
That was enough to irk me, but after some research, I discovered that the PNC’s decision to end free checking was made before we had even opened our account. So, our account rep sold us on an account knowing that in 10 months, we’d start getting hit with a fee. That’s not fair.
I just closed the account on Monday. The account rep was very understanding and didn’t give me any hassle. Later on that evening, I made the awful realization that I never printed off my online statements. Shame on me for not doing it each month. So, I check PNC’s fee schedule and it looks like it’s going to cost me $5 per statement, or $50 total. I take it on as a personal cost, since it was my screw-up.
I visit the bank Tuesday and sheepishly explain that I just closed my account and didn’t print my statements. The rep didn’t even bat an eye and said they’d print them out right away. And they did, for free. My sum impression of PNC is that the local branch service is very good, and they want their customers to be happy, but maybe the higher-level execs are a little disconnected and are just looking at the numbers, hence the discontinuation of free accounts.
Second kudos go to AdoramaPix. For the afore-mentioned organization, I had a need to print off a bunch of photos. Shopping for price proved that AdoramaPix was substantially cheaper, and I wasn’t worried about using them because I’d previously dealt with Adorama and they are highly respected.
I order the photos at 10pm on a Thursday with an estimated delivery next Friday. The next morning, I wake up to see my order has been shipped already and my delivery estimate is now Wednesday. I check the delivery tracking on Tuesday and discover the photos were delivered on Monday. Damn.
Then I go out to get my mail. No photos. Oh my god. I hate my mail carrier. He or she is always misdelivering mail. I’ve gotten valuable, important, and sometimes embarrassing things sent to me for my neighbors. I either hand-deliver them or put them back to be redelivered. This time it’s my turn.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in my neighbors. So I send an email to AdoramaPix and file a claim on USPS’s site. In the meantime, I’m wondering who just got $55 worth of pictures for free. A few hours later, I get an email from Adorama. An apology and a note that they’re reprinting my photos and resending them. It was that simple.
So yeah, it’s been a good week. Thanks to PNC and AdoramaPix whose personal service saved me unwelcome expenses.
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