I know a lot of people here poo-poo Bose. But here's a great customer service story, at least for me.

I had one of those LifeStyle systems or whatever they called them with the 6 CD changer and the little speakers. Bought it about 12 years ago for my office.

About a month ago I walked in one morning and just like that, the CD player wasn't working. So I called up Bose support to see if there was a reset button or something. They said I could send it in for repair - they have a fixed price repair policy - which would cost me about $220. Or, I could purchase any Bose system to replace it at 50% off, or I could buy their top of the line 321 Home Theater system for about $550 CDN - retails on-line at Bose for $1799.

Better to have a new system than repair an old system. But I had to package everything up and ship it back before they would sent the new one. (Too bad, I was hoping to keep those little speakers). I couldn't get the speaker stands in the box, so I taped them to the side and shipped it. Three business days later, my new system arrived.

I decided I would get better enjoyment of this system at home attached to my TV than in the office, where I can't pump up the volume anyway.

Yesterday I pop open the box, and realize that I shouldn't have sent back the speaker stands because they were bought separately. Duh. Now I'm going to have to buy new ones. But hold on. This is Bose. They may still have the stands I sent them. So I called them up just now.

The Bose guy says they may still have the stands, and asks me to hold. He comes back on and tells me that he's shipping new stands out to me today, gratis.

Wow, I say. That's really great.

He says, yeah, we should have told you not to send the speaker stands.

I say, we'll you couldn't have known I had stands.

He says it's their job to know.

So now I'm a raving fan of Bose for their customer service. All through this process, from the failure of their equipment after more than ten years to resolving my stupidity and trying to take the blame for it, they took control and made it impossible for me to have any reason to even consider taking my business elsewhere. They were reliable, responsible, empathetic, prompt, courteous, friendly, and handled everything beyond the level I would have expected as my standard for excellent service.