Greatness in Customer Service: Hulu and, Believe It or Not, American Airlines

Okay, so I probably just had the best customer service experience ever.

Back in December, I subscribed to Hulu Plus so I could watch the end of Selfie. Once the last episode aired (so sad!), I canceled my subscription. Or so I thought.

I clicked the cancel button, and confirmed I wanted to cancel, and then they have this cute little video telling you that you don't want to cancel. Down to the right, where the eye doesn't naturally fall (trust me, I learned about the Z-pattern thing working at an ad agency), was a check box you had to click to say yeah, I still want to cancel. Until that box is checked, there's ANOTHER cancel button that's white and not real obvious.

Now, I would swear I'd gotten to the point where it told me I'd canceled and I'd get an e-mail confirmation, but I can't find an e-mail confirmation in my files, and it's quite possible that I rolled my eyes at the video and overlooked all that. I honestly don't remember.

So when I was looking carefully at the charges on my credit card today and saw a charge for Hulu Plus, I was very mad. Not least at myself for not noticing it for the last two months. I immediately went through the process I described above and made VERY sure that I completed it. I still haven't gotten an e-mail confirmation, by the way.

However, when I sent an annoyed message through their help center, I got an immediate response. Literally, 4 minutes after I posted my complaint. I acknowledged my own culpability but told them I felt their practice was tricky and misleading and it would unfortunately cause me to speak negatively about them and never go back. They told me in response that they'd forward my comments about their procedures and refund me for three months of charges.

I KNOW, RIGHT?! Who does that? Obviously, someone who wants my service again. They'll get it, as soon as some network cancels a show I love but runs the remaining episodes through Hulu. :)

The other experience was with American Airlines. I bought Number One a ticket from Boston to Ohio last weekend before her grandmother died. The services ended up being scheduled a couple of hours after her flight back on Sunday. I'd booked through Priceline, which had saved us not enough money, but some. And that always makes things trickier. My brother, who flew Delta, was told he couldn't change anything until he got to Ohio, and then after that they couldn't book him a later flight on the same day and said if he flew another day he'd have to buy a whole 'nother ticket, to the tune of somewhere around a thousand dollars.

I spent a lot of time on the phone with American while they tried to help me out. The bummer was that because of very full flights, for her to go home later Sunday, even using G inventory (presumably tech-speak for bereavement fare), we'd have had to pay $652 plus a $200 change fee. For her to fly Monday would cost $117, because the difference in fares reduced that $200 change fee. There was a $25 penalty for using Priceline, too. I had to make two separate calls but everything went incredibly smoothly. So they'll get my business again, especially since all her flights landed early.

So what great customer service have YOU gotten lately?