An alternative to yelling on the phone

Jason Terk has pointed me to a nice post by Seth Godin on how to get customer service right.  It basically boils down to avoiding real-time calls in all but emergencies and using the efficiencies afforded by asymmetric processing to substantially improve the experience for companies and customers alike.

I just so happen to be in a position to try this out on the customer side first hand.  Here's an email I just sent to the support address at Dean & Deluca:

Hi,

I ducked into your 560 Broadway store in New York today and purchased (among other things) a Bodum Bora Bora Thermo Tea Press for $80.  Then I got on the train for Boston and spent the next four and a half hours thinking about how I was going to make tea with it.  Unfortunately, when I came home and opened the tea press box, it was empty.  Doh!  I guess I should have double checked before leaving the store, but I just figured that it was customary for the boxes on the shelves to be already filled with their respective products.  Luckily the hard salami package actually did contain a hard salami, so there was some solace.

Can you help me obtain my tea press?  Unfortunately, I won't be back in New York for some time.  If you need some magic numbers from my receipt, I still have it.

Thanks much,

Phil Libin

Ok, so I'm an rtard.  Let's see how it goes.