Now that's customer service!

The poor ferry system has had a really sucky week. One of the two big boats on our run was damaged in a windstorm. Since there are too many boats in the yards right now (aging fleet, horrendous replacement costs, and so forth), there were no spare car ferries to be had so they brought on two passenger-only boats.

Hilarity ensured, as you might imagine when people's daily commutes are at stake.

But wait... it gets better. One of the passenger boats had a "hard landing" yesterday, forcing the cancellation of some evening commute runs. I'm sure that was tense, but as of last night everything seemed to be back on track for the morning commute.

This morning, I see an email from the ferry announcement list.

From: The Ferry System
To: Announcement List

The S-boat is having a generator problem and the 6:20am sailing from B-town and the 7:35am sailing from S-opolis are cancelled. Your next sailing will be the 6:30am sailing from B-town with the V-boat and the 6:00am from S-opolis with the K-boat.

Being a smart-ass of long standing, I was compelled to forward it to Mr B with a little comment. Part of my motivation was honorable though -- he does commute on the ferries and doesn't always see the alerts.

From: Me
To: Mr. B

Yay - more ferry follies! I'm guessing morale around the ferry system might be a little low this week.

A few moments later, I had a reply in my Inbox. That was kinda surprising since Mr. B usually doesn't spend hours on end staring at his Inbox like I do.

From: Ferry Agent
To: You

That would be a good guess.

Ferry Web Agent - Liz

Wha happa?!? Aw, shit. I hit 'reply' instead of 'forward'.

Yeah, I was slightly embarrassed, but relieved that I hadn't said anything mean. I was really impressed by the speed of the response and the subtle hint of humor in Ferry Agent Liz's response.

Grace under fire; now that's what I call customer service. You rock, Ferry Agent Liz! I hope next week is a better one for you and your fellow Ferry Agents.