It's rare (or, at least, it's seemed that way recently) to stumble across customer service that is kind/generous/thoughtful/helpful to the customer and not just another way to part them from the contents of their wallet...the kind of thing that changes you from a curmudgeonly old cynic (i.e. my normal genetic make-up) into someone who runs around discussing rainbows and the fact that the glass is, indeed, half full...

As I passed Store A yesterday I realized that I was almost out of Wondergoop Z (the only product that actually makes my hair actually look like hair and not straw)...once inside, however, I realized that "Z" was no where to be found. Aghast I stopped a passing sales assistant and was told that my beloved Wondergoop had been taken out of production. They suggested Goop L...I thanked them but explained that I had tried Goop L previously and found it unsuccessful. They asked me to wait a moment and disappeared through a doorway. They returned and said, "we have three bottle of "Z" in the back...they were testers...they've been opened...but they've hardly been used". I asked if I'd get them for a reduced price (my frugal Scottish blood rearing its head)...only to be told that, if I wanted them, there would be no charge.

What really shook my inner curmudgeon was that not only was I given three, full-size, mostly unused bottles of my beloved Wondergoop Z but (in a show of customer service above and beyond the call of duty) samples of various other conditioners and hair treatments. Forget "half full"...my glass might actually be overflowing...