Not All Large Corporations Are Evil(A True Story)

So for years I owned this no-brand 20GB MP3 player called a "Personal Jukebox." I bought it because I have a ton of music and at the time there were no other players even approaching 20 gigs. Of course, I salivated when the ubiquitous iPods came out and secretly hoped that someday my Personal Jukebox would up and die on me.

That sad/happy day occurred the first weekend of February. On Monday, I went down to the Apple Store in SoHo and went for it: I bought "The Mother of All MP3 players", the 60GB iPod. To quote Stimpson J. Cat: "Jooooooy!"

Then, I read the news the other day, oh boy: Apple announced it was lowering its 60 gig iPod by a whopping $150! To quote Ren Hoek, Astmuha Hound Chihuahua: "You Idiot!"

A friend asked if I had bought it with an American Express Card. Sure enough, I had. Apparently they have some sort of "Best Value Guarantee" program. But, I soon found out it's not available for all cards, and, as luck would have it, the card I used was a big no go. However, I was on the phone with "The Nicest Customer Service Person Ever" (dang, I never got her name). Anyway, she saw by my records that I've had a long, prosperous (for American Express) history with the company and that if I held on, she'd take a look and see what she could do. Typical minutes passed while I suffered through a really terrible version of Dave Brubeck's "Take 5." Then, "The Nicest Customer Service Person Ever" got back on the line and told me she was going to credit my account the full $150! Unbelievable.

Now comes the really sappy part: Maybe it's the fact that I'm suffering from the worst Post Nasal Drip ever...or that I haven't had a day off in 3 weeks...or that I chose to quit drinking for the month of February...but I literally cried tears of joy. I told "The Nicest Customer Service Person Ever" that she was, quote, "The Nicest Customer Service Person Ever." She thanked me and told me that she's been doing this job for 17 years and that she "still loves it."

And that's the end of my "Not All Large Corporations Are Evil" story. Thanks for listening and have a nice day...