I posted a story earlier this week about some frustrating experiences I had with Cox Communications. (See: Some friend you are, Cox!) One of my main points is I had received poor service and two Cox employees had missed the opportunity to fully rectify the situation.  With this in mind, I was a little surprised to see that Cox was apparently trying to reach out to me through my blog by making the following comment on my post:

First of all, I apologize for any inconvenience this billing issue has caused you. If there is anything we can do to remedy this situation for you please feel free to email me at hrd-hsi.newsgroups@cox.com and I would be happy to do what I can to help.

--CoxTech1

I emailed this person (who has a name, but doesn't reveal it due to security concerns) and essentially said "thanks for the follow-up, but it's a bit late now".  A response quickly followed asking if I would like a credit for my time and trouble. We exchanged a couple more messages and (unless it was all a prank) I received a free month of internet service.  The credit was nice and I'm definitely feeling a little better about Cox Communications.

This also provides an opportunity to revist an old theme: the longer it takes you to recover from a service failure, the more expensive it gets!  Here are a few examples:

• Sir Francis Drake Hotel.  An apology would have worked at the time. The final recovery cost ended up being a free hotel room for three nights.
• Cox Communications - Part 1. The problem should have been fixed on the first service call. The final recovery cost included three service calls.
• Cox Communications - Part 2. The problem should have been fixed on the first phone call. The final recovery cost was $43.99 plus the customer service time involved.