Sweet Sweetwater.

With the rise of e-commerce and shopping on teh Intarwebs, the idea of customer service has gone the way of having people come out and pump your gas, check the oil and wash your windows. We click and shop impersonally, finding the best deals, tapping in our credit card info and waiting for the FedEx/UPS/DHL guy to drop it off at the ranch.

I wanted to pick up the new Tracktion 3 recording software and since it was about the same price all around, decided to by from Sweetwater.com, a big-name pro audio outfit that occasionally sent me catalogs. I signed up for some newsletter and catalogs and was surprised to get a personalized note from a HUMAN BEING asking if I was looking to buy anything. I had a couple of queries and they answered them.

Now, I could've just gone to the site and punched in the usual stuff, but decided to call the toll-free number and talk to this bloke. When I mentioned how I was surprised at the personal touch, he said that they wanted to have customers dealing with their own personal rep. He mentioned that he used to run a studio and that if I had any questions about using my purchase to give them a call.

Sure, they'll try to sell me some stuff, but isn't that what sales people are there for? The difference is that they seem to know their stuff and were nice. I once had to cancel some service and the girl on the phone was so polite and friendly, I felt like I was drowning her pet kitten for dropping whatever it was. She didn't try to change my mind or have a 'tude - she was genuinely sweet. It stands out to this day because it's such a rarity.

The only problem with dealing with people is that there were a couple of points where errors in the shipping address almost slipped in. If I was typing it in, it would've been fine and that's a weak link that I'm not crazy about along with giving my CC # to a person and not a SSL-secured browser, so caveat emptor. I'll report an further dealings I have with them.

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UPDATE: [sigh] Just as I feared, no sooner do I post this item that I get the receipt e-mail for my order and see that they misspelled the destination street of "Executive" as "Exuctive". I sent back a correction, but I hope they can fix it. Nice people. Not so hot on the spelling.

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UPPITY-UPDATE: The package arrived without a hitch and I was surprised to find they'd put some loose CANDY in the shipping box! Atomic Fireballs, butterscotch discs and a Smarties. Wow. Good prices, no sales tax, free shipping, nice sales help and FREE CANDY!!!!