Customer Service 2: Les Stumpf Ford Dealership, Appleton, WI (created 11-29-09)

I have had two, recent, personal experiences of excellent customer service at the Les Stumpf Ford Dealership in Appleton, Wisconsin.

I live about 25 miles north of Appleton. I only go to town once every week or two. I have a 1998 Windstar minivan with about 125,000 miles on it. I was driving in town when the breaks became very soft and squishy. And then smoke started to come out from under the car. I was only two blocks from the Stumpf Ford dealership so I pulled in, turned off the car and started looking under the hood. I was afraid of fire and I wanted to check it out as quickly as possible. A salesman came out to help me and when we were fairly certain the danger of fire was past he brought me to the service department. They immediately brought the car in on a rack and diagnosed the problem for me, a ruptured break line was squirting oil on the engine. I had commitments and errands to finish. They rented me a car (only about $30 for a day) and had the my car repaired that afternoon. I was happy and impressed.

About 3 months later I was heading toward Appleton to help my son move his girlfriend to a new apartment and noticed a burning smell. I stopped and checked everything and found the engine oil very low. I bought oil at a gas station and topped it off. I checked the oil filter and it was on tight so I started to worry that something was cracked to be loosing oil like that. I went straight to Les Stumpf Ford. Again, they immediately put it up on a rack and had a diagnosis for me in less than 10 minutes. The oil filter wasn't loose, but it did have a tiny hole in the bottom of it. They changed the oil and filter and had me on my way to meet my obligations in only 30 minutes and $18.95.

I can't say enough good things about them.

Customer Service 1: Fleet Farm (created 11-09-09)

My water heater was leaking. I went to Fleet Farm and bought a new, 50 gallon Natual gas fueled water heater. I brought it home and installed it. When I went to hook up the gas line, my brother pointed out that I had bought a Natural gas fired heater. I live in the country and have LP.

Fleet Farm allowed me to return it and didn't even charge a restocking fee. I had managed to drain it and re-crate it and bring it back with no damage or signs of use. I was honest about how installed it was. And they didn't even make me feel dumb for my bonehead error. The LP unit they sold me was even a few bucks cheaper.

Now that is what I call great customer service.

Bye for now, Doug