Customer service is not dead

I broke my lens in December. Sad, tragic truth is... I just dropped it. Ouch! Luckily, I'd purchased that outrageous extended warranty thing from Best Buy (phew... it paid off). So I called them. Unfortunately, they said I'd have to send the camera and the lens in for the repair. (sigh) I wasn't looking forward to that.... AND I had two photography jobs to do before I could send it off anyway.

Fast forward about 10 days. My friend and outstanding photographer Paula Weeks loaned me her nice lens to do my jobs (thank you, again, Paula), and I'm headed to Best Buy to send everything off to be repaired. I'm dreading being without the camera, so I'm mentally gearing up to ask them to let me keep the camera and just send in the lens. I go to the Geek counter (or whatever it's called) and I wait my turn. It's still a bit busy, post-Christmas exchange season and everything, so I'm trying to be patient.

Up there at the front of the line is Mr. Grumpy who's telling everybody, "Nope, we don't do that," and "Sorry, we just ran out of those," and giving everyone the stink eye. I'm thinking my prospects aren't too good. (double sigh)

So, finally, it's my turn. Suddenly, (tiny miracle #1) Mr. Grumpy gets a phone call. Mr. How-can-I-help-you-sir walks up.The clouds lift a bit. I tell my story (though not the part about keeping the camera, yet). He looks thoughtful. We inspect the lens together. He looks across the showroom towards "cameras." My heart does a little flip flop. He says, "Will you excuse me for a moment, sir?" I put on what is meant to be a pleasant look but which probably reeks of "please help me!" and say "uh.. sure."

Off he goes, back he comes, and (tiny miracle #2) he hands me a new lens and says, "There you go, sir. Thanks for coming in."

I 'bout started crying right there in the store. Luckily, I held it together until I got to the car.

NEWS FLASH:
Geek Squad saves photographer's day, not to mention his faith in humanity, in Twin Falls!
Details at ... well, details above.