Did you ever think we'd see the day when people would beg for airline food? Yet here we are.

In mid-August, United announced it would start forcing coach passengers on international flights to pay for their meals. Customers went ballistic. First U.S. Airways makes people pay $2 for so much as water, and then United deigned to lock people up in a steel tube for eight hours without providing free grub. United rebuffed the complaints saying the changes were "necessary."

The new "test" charge was supposed to begin on many transatlantic flights as of Oct. 1. But after fierce feedback from would-be customers that the airline politely described as "candid" but were actually downright scalding, United announced Tuesday that it would not, after all, charge customers to eat on long-haul flights. Some passengers who protested the new fee, many of whom travel for work, were e-mailed a capitulation today ("We heard you," it reads, "and have decided not to move forward," before prattling on about its business class amenities).

No one ever thought that $4.05/gallon would look like a decent price for gas. Here on Cape Cod this summer it did, so I stopped. It was a gas station in West Falmouth, a town I once lived in but visit only rarely these days. The $4.05 was at a "full-service" pump which once meant that someone would pump your gas and even wash your windshield. Forget the windshield these days but most of us have adjusted.

On a blackboard at the corner of the station a sign read, "Coffee, any size, 49 cents."

"I'll just leave the car here a minute while I run inside and get an ice coffee," I told the attendant.
"I'll show you," he replied and followed me inside. The Quikmart was newly renovated and the attendant - who I suspect might have been the owner - pointed to the coffee area. "Coffee," he said and then pointing again, "Milk, cream, sugar." It was actual milk and cream resting in a bin of ice, not those terrible little plastic containers that add reams to the landfill and are filled with something that doesn't taste like milk.

In a recent poll of customers and their satisfaction with customer service cable and satellite providers have been ranked the lowest, dropping 3% since the first survey was performed last year. This drop in satisfaction with customer service is even more pronounced for cable companies who many customers are out of touch with their needs. The survey performed by the CFI group found that cable and satellite companies failed to help 20% of customers calling them for assistance, something which may be attributed to the growing complexity with cable and satellite company offerings.

The survey additionally showed that the percent of people who looked elsewhere for help including online, fell by half to just 17%. With more people going straight to the company for help it's no surprise that customer service representatives, under a deluge of support calls, are found to be unable to effectively handle an issue or seem uncaring. Still it's sad that these companies have a disorder, I refer to as the cable company complex, in which they believe customer's will stay no matter what, because the competition doesn't exist. Direct TV has been cashing in on this dissatisfaction with its recent "You deserve better than Cable" advertising campaign, which sadly sums up my experience with cable customer service.

Late last year during a service call to figure out why my HD reception was better described as LD or Low Def, a "glitch" caused my cable box to become de-authorized, which prompted the first of many calls. Time Warner was able to quickly turn my box back on and to their credit they had improved the HD picture quality, however several months later a large bill showed up including an additional cable box and a PPV movie purchase.

Late last year we purchased a used Chevy Equinox which was ultimately financed through a local credit union. We have been members of another local credit union for several years, my wife even longer if you count her years as a "kid saver'. We went with the other credit union because it had a better rate and offered GAP at a cheaper price as well. Once we signed all of the paperwork we set up a direct transfer to cover the monthly payments from credit union A to credit union B. Unfortunately sometime in the first month a transfer and a refund got messed up due to an error on each credit union's part.

Trying to explain the bank error over the phone to people at both locations was difficult because on each bank's computers the transaction looked to be by the books. The error was only obvious when you had both accounts in front of you. Thankfully, after I spoke to the credit union we financed our car with, their employee in charge of direct deposits took it upon herself to call up the other credit union and hash out the details. It turns out the wrong account number was used in a few places, and the money was rejected as payment by credit union B but when the money was sent back credit union A put the money in the wrong account leaving our ledger showing a payment that was never received.

Several weeks ago, I took my car to a Sears Auto Tire & Repair to have a flat tire replaced -- for free, since my wife had the brilliant foresight to get a warranty. (OK, honey, you can stop looking over my shoulder.)

I was stunned because to my utter shock, I experienced some great customer service. For starters, Sears has a bad rap, sometimes deserved, for customer service. But I was also stunned simply because customer service is more and more often hard to come by anywhere.

The guy who was in charge somehow managed to wait on me and two other customers at once, so that none of us had to go more than about 60 seconds without talking to someone. He was unfailingly polite. And when I was ushered into a waiting room, they had free Internet service, free coffee (I don't like coffee, but I appreciated it), vending machines and a TV, and I could watch my car through a window, so I always knew how my tire was progressing. I left within 45 minutes and was floored -- because the customer experience was fantastic. (Anyone at Sears, whoever runs the tire place near the Kenwood Mall in Cincinnati -- give that person a raise.)

And then, driving home, I got a little miffed because good customer service, of course, should be the norm. Instead, I had found myself thrilled because I wasn't ignored and then shuttled off to wait in a dark corner. Honestly, I think if the clerk had belittled me and then thrown me down a flight of stairs, and my two front teeth had fallen out, I might have said optimistically, "Hey, this isn't so bad. I mean, as long as they're going to fix my tire ..."

Sallie Mae is a huge student loan company, and often times it can be difficult to get routed to the correct department to straighten out your loan issue.

Earlier this week I shared a simple plan for using your congressman to resolve student loan issues at any company, but today I'd like to share a way to get satisfaction if your issue is with Sallie Mae. The executive customer service department at Sallie Mae is known as the "Consumer Advocate Unit" and from my experience, is staffed with small group of knowledgeable and friendly people.

Both our congressman and our attorney general referred us to the consumer advocate unit, where we were given one point of contact. If this person was out of the office, whoever took our call would literally walk over to his desk and grab our file in order to help us out. On more than one occasion they called another lender on our behalf to arrange for the consolidation of loans away from Sallie Mae!

You can reach the consumer advocate unit at (888) 545-4199. Please use this number responsibly, and remember these people are empowered to help you. Treating the caller with respect and kindness, no matter your previous experiences with Sallie Mae, will greatly benefit you in the long run.

Signs explaining how management has no choice but to pass along their increasing costs to the end consumer are becoming as familiar a point-of-sale display as an Am-ex tent card. Everything from a carton of eggs at the supermarket to the paper cup for my coffee comes with a side order of doom these days.

So it was refreshing, to say the least, to receive this in an e-letter from a Little Rock, Arkansas business yesterday:

NO HIGHER PRICES!

Boulevards answer to the unbelievably higher prices for flour, (from $10 a bag to $29 a bag), butter, eggs, and all other commodities is to be more efficient, waste less, to work harder, and to build volume through great service and exceptional quality products, (we are working tirelessly to improve service daily)!

You will NOT see a price increase for the foreseeable future! Please continue to support us, every customer is SO appreciated and loved!!!

-Scott McGehee, Boulevard Bread Co.

I called up Scott, who owns and operates the coffee/gourmet food shop, beloved by local hoity-toities and hipsters alike, to ask him about this radical departure from the herd. He told me that he is determined to find reasonable alternatives to making his customers carry the burden of his increased costs. How novel. Most other businesses seem to turn to the consumer's wallet as a line of first defense, not the last resort.

Last week, Walletpopper Zac Bissonette wrote about the dividends of honest customer service. Is goodwill toward an establishment money in the bank? If so, strategies like Boulevard's might yield better returns in the long run than the usual "we're suffering, so should you" line.

Have you heard of any businesses in your community taking a similar approach?

Kyran Pittman blogs about life at Notes to Self. Her essays have been featured three times in Good Housekeeping magazine's "Good Reads" section.

The other day I went to get my hair cut at a place I hadn't been to before -- I'm new in this town. After the haircut, I asked how much it would cost to have my eyebrows done. The stylist told me $10 and, while I consider myself a penny-pincher in most respects, I do occasionally indulge in luxuries like that.

I told her that I would like to have them waxed and then she looked at my face and said "They look fine. I could clean them up a little but honestly, I don't think anyone would be able to tell the difference. Don't waste your money on it."

This came from the stylist! Warren Buffett once said that you should never ask a barber if you need a haircut but I guess he didn't know about this wonderful lady's sense of honesty!

So what was the outcome of it? I didn't get my eyebrows waxed, costing the salon $10, and costing the stylist the couple bucks I would have given her as a tip. But on the other hand, I gave her a very generous tip for the cut as I appreciated her saving me $10 and, more importantly, I've decided that I will use that salon as I long as I live in this town. Honest service at the expense of short-term profits is hard to come by these days, but I think it does pay off the businesses that really do decide to put their customers first.

I was FLORed. (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.) Late last night I placed an order for a few dozen FLOR carpet tiles for my living room, the 'Morning Coffee' pattern in 'Decaf' (reddish orange) and 'Espresso' (dark dark brown). The shipping cost, via UPS Ground, from the Georgia warehouse to my home in Portland, Oregon was painful, though, $39 for my order; I would have ordered a few extra tiles in some other colors and textures, but that would have tacked another $13 on my order. I shivered, and pressed "buy."

This morning, bright and early before the sun was up here on the West Coast, I got my shipping confirmation. Speedy! I thought. Then around 9 a.m. I got another email, this a promotional offer. "Free Shipping for a Limited Time!" the subject read. Ohhh... ouch!

I spent several minutes feeling peeved, and then I thought: why not just call? I dialed the customer service line and was connected to a friendly representative who happily processed a refund for my shipping. Giving me plenty of time to enjoy my morning coffee.

If you, too, are in the market for some FLOR tiles, now's the time! The free shipping code is BP887W, and the email didn't say when the promotion would end.