Companies Worth Doing Business With

I made another of my infamous phone calls this morning, this time because our Brita faucet filter has started spraying water all over the place when we use it. My view was that it was an investment we'd hoped would last longer than a year (we bought it last summer), and I was hoping the company would agree and repair or replace it.

To be prepared, I looked up their warranty policy on their website; it stated that products were guaranteed for a year and that if a product needed service after that, one should contact their customer service line. I honestly can't remember exactly when we bought our Brita, and while we saved our packaging and receipt at the time, it was then the victim of an unfortunate water leak under the sink at some point. I know we bought it shortly after moving to DC, because the water quality there was terrible, but that places us pretty squarely at the one-year mark; whether it's been a little more or a little less, I don't remember. I was hoping that, at the least, they'd let me mail it back in and get it repaired.

They did no such thing. Instead, the customer service agent on the phone apologized profusely for the problem, obtained my address and told me that a brand new unit was on its way, free of charge. He also mentioned that hot water damages the filtration system and that if one is going to be using hot water, the tab needs to be turned back to "regular" instead of "filtered" (which I didn't know) and that it's possibly best when using large quantities of hot tap water (like, oh, say, washing your dishes by hand after every meal) that the filter be taken off. Oh. So basically, it's very possible that we trashed it ourselves, albeit unwittingly, but he didn't point fingers or even ask for a date of purchase or receipt. He just sent a new one. (By taking a pledge to reduce bottled water usage, something I care about deeply anyway, I was also able to print a $1 off coupon for a new pack of filters from their website.)

Frugality is a neverending journey, and I think something most people in our situation come up against at some point is figuring out when cheap doesn't equal bargain. A couple of interesting posts on that topic have come up at Get Rich Slowly recently. One is about whether it's worth a few dollars to raise an issue when businesses don't want to keep their word, and one is about the abysmal customer service and return policies at Target.

The latter rings especially true for us as we recently realized that, due to a bad used-book habit we've developed (or both had to start with), we were outgrowing our current bookshelves. Because we spend a pretty minimal amount on books and try to only buy those that we see ourselves utilizing frequently, we felt it was okay to sanction our burgeoning library by getting a new bookshelf. We would have loved to get a good used one, but there don't tend to be many at thrift stores and a new one didn't have to cost us that much anyway. So we went to Target, because it was close and cheap, and picked out a $30, 6-ft bookshelf that Matt assembled at home. Even upon opening the box, we were somewhat struck by the cheapness of the composition and design, and some pretty visually apparent flaws. It also didn't feel like the sturdiest bookshelf in town. Did any of this surprise us? Not really. Did it disappoint us? Absolutely. But we knew from personal experience, as most people do, how incredibly resistant Target is to returns of any kind, and so we resigned ourselves and Matt put it together.

On the one hand, we're delighted to have such an increased capacity for books and we think we dolled it up nicely. We love to read and it's fun to put books to decorative use as well; few things are a more personal form of adornment, except for photographs.
However, in hindsight, we wished we'd either spent a weekend crafting a basic one ourselves, or gone somewhere that treats their customers with a little more respect. One option? Bed Bath and Beyond, which will pretty much take back anything at anytime. One cashier told me, "You could pretty much just buy a new set of sheets every year, bring back the old ones you'd been sleeping on, and we'd exchange them for you." And despite this--or, I would argue, because of it and the goodwill and positive word of mouth it generates-- the company seems to be thriving, no less than the stingier Target.

The moral of the story is that we're still learning to vote with our dollars. And sometimes you don't know what kind of a backbone a company has until you've dealt with them. But you can certainly take note for next time, and spend your dollars accordingly.