When something is wrong with the product I’ve bought, more often than not, I am reluctant to contact the manufacturer’s customer service. I rather return the product to the seller for replacement. Even though the primary purpose of a customer service is to help solve an issue, it easily turns into an endless wrangle without much effect. Even with simple issues it can take days and multiple calls to get something done.

However, recently I have had a really positive experience. I’ve bought a packet of muesli that contained still live sources of protein I did not want to see mingling with my breakfast cereals. About a week after sending an email and snail-mailing the packet to the manufacturer, I’ve received a letter that at first read like the regular marketing blah-blah. And then it said “We’ve inspected the sent product in our laboratory.” Yeah, right. But they really did. And from that lab report I’ve learnt about the pest more than I’ll ever need.

Here’s the translation of the juicy part:

The pest you’ve sent is a larva of the Mediterranean flour moth. The wingspan of the adult moth is 2 cm. Front wings are lead-gray and have zigzag patterned stripes and spots. Back wings are light gray. Its larva is 1,5 cm long, light, soft and has, like butterfly larvae usually do, five pairs of callus feet on the rear joint. It can show up in flour, bran and dried fruits. Larvae excrete network of webs, which makes the flour lumpy. Developmental stages of the Mediterranean flour moth die in a day when exposed to temperatures below -1°C. Mediterranean flour moth is the pest of mills and bakeries.

Have they had a Wikipedia account, they could have improved at least English and Finnish articles for the Mediterranean flour moth with this kind of explanation.

Besides the depth, I’ve also appreciated that for once customer service did not point their finger at anyone else for own shortcoming and did not give a lame excuse. Rather they took the responsibility, apologized, sent a ten euro compensation and gave a really cool clarification. This was definitely one of the most insightful, thorough, and educative customer service responses I have ever received.

Mladen