Annals of Customer Service

     I decided to buy some wireless headphones to watch TV. I did this to be able to watch TV without disturbing my wife. She claims that I tend to have the sound up way too loud. Yep, that probably means that my hearing is deteriorating. I know this. In conversations, I am asking people to repeat themselves with increasing frequency. I am always telling my students to “Speak louder. Pretend I am hard of hearing, which is probably not far from the truth.”
     I know, I probably need hearing aids. I should probably get them, and it couldn’t be easier as my wife is the manager of a hearing aid clinic. You might think it is vanity that is preventing me from getting hearing aids. If I was particularly vain, I would have been coloring my hair for the past several years. No, the reason I have avoided hearing aids and am not coloring my hair are the same: more laziness than vanity. Laziness? Not really. Let’s call it economic use of time. I simply do not want to fuss with more “stuff” on a routine basis. I don’t want to worry about and scheduling a hair coloring once a month. Do it myself? I want to do that even less. And as for hearing aids? Cleaning them, changing the batteries, and whatever else just seems to be a waste of time.
     I like to watch TV. I hate disturbing others. So, wireless TV headphones, however, seemed like a good idea. It is also the first step toward getting hearing aids. As modern hearing aids are loaded with technology, e.g. Bluetooth, and can be managed by cell phone apps, a hearing aid can serve as wireless headphones for watching TV or speaking on said cell phone.
     This blog is not about hearing aids. It is about the wireless headphones I bought and the company that makes them. I shopped for the headphones on Amazon. It seems the good headphones for my purposes were radio frequency and not Bluetooth. There was a variety of price ranges from $50 to over $200. I decided on a moderately, actually lower, priced set that was well-rated and had great reviews: Artiste ADH300. This was not a brand I had ever heard of. The name brand models offered by Sennheiser and Sony were all higher priced.
     I placed the order.
     Then I was surprised. Of course, I got the email from Amazon confirming my order. But, I also got another email from Amazon. For the first time, ever, using Amazon, I got an email from the company that made or distributed the headphones:

Dear markd.gavoor ,
This is Sissic from DylanDirect Store. Nice to meeting you.Thanks for chosing our TV headphones.We hope your experience is postive and you use our company again.Do not heasite to contact with us by replying this mail,if you have any questions during the using time.If you not received the headphones in 3 days since you have placed the payment,bleow is the link to track the packages:
select : an order I placed-->2018-->problem with an order-->shipping or delivery issues-->shipment is late
Here is the link of the introduction of this TV headphones,or contact with me by the mail attached,I will send you the video directly.please notice that the headphone you will received is the improved one,and the betteries will be exactly in the headphones.

Best Regards,DylanDirect Custmoer Service Team

     I was most impressed. There was some cute Chinglish in the email, the youtube, and owner's manual for sure. But the most impressive part was the heartfelt and true appreciation to me, a customer, for buying their product.  “Nice to meeting you?” “Thank you for choosing our TV headphones.” I was truly taken back… at least in the realm of online shopping. There is no way I would have gotten an email from Sennheiser or Sony and I would have paid twice as much. Furthermore, there was a link to a youtube video that was basically a video version of the user manual. The headphones were easy to set-up and work great. This company differentiated themselves in a most positive way from every other transaction I have had on Amazon.
     Perhaps everyone will be doing the same soon, that is what happens with great ideas like this. I can see it getting to the point that it is actually irritating. But, right now, when DylanDirect is the first on the block to do this: it is brilliant and greatly appreciated. To me, it is excellent customer service.