In today’s world of shoddy customer service, rude sales clerks, and automated phone service, I have to stand up and applaud a recent experience I had with ReadyMobile phone service.

First, though, let me say that I am not employed by ReadyMobile, nor are any of my friends or family.

I first purchased a ReadyMobile phone because the company was the only pre-paid phone service available with free nights and weekends. Then on a weekend trip out of town, I had a problem with my phone and was unable to use it.

On my return, I immediately wrote to the president and vice-president of the company (who also happen to be the co-founders), via e-mail to customer service and also sent a hard copy to the company’s headquarters.

I didn’t really expect a response, so I was presently surprised when I quickly received a response email and a telephone call. The customer service agent I spoke with was more than helpful and resolved the situation by adding additional minutes to my account (more than triple what I was due!) and by being extremely pleasant, sincere, attentive and apologetic.

After that experience, I again contacted the company, this time to let them how pleased I was with the resolution of my problem.

That was two months ago. Today I was contacted by the same customer service representative, who said the vice-president of the company had been keeping an eye on my account and noticed I was out of minutes and that he had contacted her and told her to add more free minutes to my account.

I was literally speechless. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Not me!

Imagine how much more pleasant life would be if every company, every customer service representative and every company vice-president took that much interest in their customers.

This experience with ReadyMobile has certainly started my year off great!