Velux understand customer service

a velux loft window

(Almost) Nothing to do with Barnet Council or parking although there are lessons to be learnt here by any body trying to provide good customer service.

Mustard Mansions was rebuilt from the ground up about 4 years ago. All that was kept was the brick shell, one staircase and the floor joists in one room. An extra floor was added after spending 2 years fighting the Barnet Council planning department as Mr Mustard was trying to raise the roofline by 2 feet or so and the planning department resisted despite the new roof being no higher than the surrounding houses (no, stop with the logic). Anyway, the new roof was a mansard (think pretty French cities) and it had 3 new Velux windows fitted.

As it is healthier to sleep in complete darkness Mr Mustard purchased 3 original Velux blackout blinds over the internet from a shop in Coventry. The blinds come with a 3 year guarantee (the windows themselves come with 10 years and are likely to see Mr Mustard out as they are well known for their longevity) and inevitably broke in year 4. Mr Mustard is a stickler for keeping his paperwork and so he dragged out the invoice, emailed the supplier and asked for some extra discount on a replacement. They couldn't help as they had closed that division down.

Mr Mustard was slightly miffed as he had purchased a quality product and it shouldn't break that soon. He emailed Velux. They emailed back saying they weren't the supplier and so couldn't replace it but would sell Mr Mustard the necessary spare parts. Mr Mustard wasn't really very happy with that but as it was only the cord which keeps the blind level as it moves he thought what the heck, let's take the blind apart and so yesterday he did so. The spare parts diagram was a little small but Mr Mustard identified the part number and to be sure he sent a photograph of the broken part to Velux. They phoned him this morning to check his address and then emailed him, as follows;

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Good morning,

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately the part that you require is not available as a spare part. On this occasion as a gesture of goodwill I have arranged for a free of charge replacement to be sent out to you.

The replacement blind is scheduled for delivery on 5th September and will be delivered between 8am and 6pm by TNT.

If you have any queries regarding the replacement please don't hesitate to contact VELUX directly.

Kind regards

Mike

VELUX Company Ltd.

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Now Velux didn't know that Mr Mustard was who he was nor that amongst other business ventures he refurbishes old houses which sometimes leads to rooflights being fitted and there are makes other than Velux that he could use.

There is only one make of rooflight that Mr Mustard will now fit, yes, it's Velux.

Isn't it nice to see proper good old fashioned customer service in action.

Now, back to those venal and rapacious parking tickets.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard