Who says there's no good customer service today? Many people complain about poor customer service. I have a positive customer service experience to share.

Some time ago, I purchased a computer game, Pretty Good Solitaire. Find it here. I've upgraded a couple of times, and never had any problems with the software until recently. The program contains 610 solitaire card games, and wouldn't you know one of the games (one of my favorites, no less) suddenly would not open. I kept getting an error message, then the game would close. Nothing I could do would fix it. I decided to contact customer support for help, so I wrote an e mail describing the problem.

The suggestion was made to delete the software and re-install it. I did so, with no luck. Then, per another suggestion in the same e mail response, I deleted some data files in my Application Data folder. Again, no change. The support person asked me what error message text I was getting. Oh my... I took a look at the detailed error report, and was prepared to transcribe it, verbatim to put in another e mail to support. Then I sent another e mail asking exactly what part of the detailed error report was likely to be needed. Today, I got another response that said I should turn off the Save Game feature and see if the game would load. I did that . . . and it worked like a charm. I quickly noted this in an e mail to the Support folks. I got another e mail from them saying I needed to find and delete another file in the Application Data folder, so I did that, and turned the Save Game option on again. Now, the game works just as it should, and I am so pleased. The support is just really solid; I really appreciate their courtesy, professionalism and patience. No rude words were ever exchanged. I definitely appreciate this experience; it's all too rare these days, it seems.

A side note (on a different topic): I've noticed I have been making more regular entries in my blog. I think a major reason is that since I've discovered I can add links to the blog, it just feels more like "mine." I guess it sounds silly, but that's how it feels.


Some years ago, I was exploring writing my autobiography and it occurs to me that maybe it would be a good idea to pick it up again just to see what happens. Lord knows, I'm in a much better place today than I was when I began work on it earlier, although some things (the loss of both of my grandmothers, for example) have been difficult in the interim. Hmmm...definitely food for thought.