the zappos experience

i ordered a pair of shoes for my son from zappos. he tried them on, they looked good. he put them on, he went to school. i threw away the shoe box, the shipping box. the recycle truck came picked it up. my son came back from school with a velcro completely pulled out on his right shoe. the left shoe was fine. i figured, i have to take my new expensive once worn shoe to a shoe fixing place few blocks away, and pay another $10 or so to get the shoe fixed. but then i decided to give zappos a call to see what they’d say. a nice guy apparently named hector told me that it would be no problem to exchange or even completely refund the shoes. that was surprisingly positive. i received the exchange pair the next day; my son came back from school wearing shoes in the same condition as when he left. i received 8 various emails from zappos since i made the exchange. some of them are confirmations, some are announcements, a label to print, a customer appreciation survey to fill, and finally a letter to share my story to be published (if selected) in josheph michelli “the zappos experience” book. i am now not sure it was all worth saving the $10. should i send my story to mr michelli?

happy new year

when you’re young, the winter holidays are the holidays you look forward to the most. as you get older, the repetitiveness of the event bores you out. as you get children, the idea of staying up late on new year’s eve ceases to excite you. you can get so preoccupied with your personal things, you may not even notice new year began. here is a top 10 signs the winter holidays must be over:

10. the line to the returns at century 21 store is much longer than the lines to the registers
9. you see bunch of christmas trees on your street on the morning of the trash pickup
8. the count of bills in your mailbox supersedes the count of greeting cards
7. you email inbox is mostly junk from senders you don’t know
6. few days pass by without seeing your ups guy
5. your groceries are getting delivered without interventions via the phone
4. you are able to listen to the music on the radio
3. you don’t need to call in advance to each place you’re trying to go to make sure they are open
2. you notice a new calendar on your wall
1. you need to go to work