An extremely pleasant customer service experience

Sometime in 2007, I bought a pair of Blundstones from the Australian Boot Company. They were great boots, and they became very very comfortable over time. This morning, I noticed that the sole of the left boot was coming apart:

I sent a quick email to the Queen Street location, with a link to the photo, asking for suggestions. About ten minutes later, I received a response from an actual human being named Andria. She told me to bring the boots in to have them assessed for warranty.

I brought my boots to the shop after work this evening, and they replaced them with a brand new pair, under warranty, with no receipt (Andria found a record of my purchase in their database).

Colour me impressed.

Juvenilia in Charlottetown

Every once in a while, I get an email or a telephone call along the lines of “I really like the idea behind Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids. Can I do one in my city?”

My response is almost always, “Of course! Please do! Just call it something else.”

So then, from Sandy Nicholson: a GRTTWaK-inspired night of juvenilia in Charlottetown called The Hilroy Diaries (Facebook event). Note that unlike GRTTWaK, there is a cover charge, but it goes to a not-for-profit called Women’s Network PEI. Here’s the poster:

For 25 points, compare and contrast

Two interviews with soul legend Bill Withers:

With Jesse Thorn from The Sound of Young America (runs 32:42)

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/tsoya/tsoya090706_billwithers.mp3]

With Jian Ghomeshi of Q (runs 41:42)

[audio:http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qstreamingdonotsuse_20091022_21931.mp3]

Final Wednesday at the Tranzac tonight

The Sweat and The Moist Towelettes, tonight at The Tranzac (main hall), 292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto (map) / $5 / 8:30-11:00pm

Kinnon made an awesome poster:

Ira Glass on how the internet has changed public radio

After a summer squatting at The Fifth Column, Jesse Brown now has a proper blog over at TVO, and in the first episode of this season’s Search Engine he interviews his radio hero (and mine) Ira Glass about how the internet has changed public radio: [audio:http://www.tvo.org/podcasts/searchengine/audio/SE_Full_20090914_800699_GlassOnTheNet_0x0_40k.mp3]

If you’re a public radio geek, it’s really worth a listen, if only to hear Jesse try to contain his obvious man-crush on Ira.