Amazing customer service

Part of what made my Monday shopping so good was this following experience:

Every time I am in Tokyo, I always try and visit my favorite brand store Kookai because I usually can find at least one thing I want to buy, and there don't seem to be any Kookai stores in the States. There is one store within the Mitsukoshi department store at Ebisu. Last time I was in Tokyo in mid-October, I stopped there between a conference I was at that happened to be next door to Mitsukoshi and dashing home to Tesla. After purchasing a beautiful top for a not so cheap price, I briefly checked out a shoe store, and then left. And when I got home, I didn't have my Kookai purchase. I was sure I left it in a taxi, and gave up hopes of finding it. I was very disappointed.

On Monday, I went back to the place as I always do, and found they are closing! (A new store will open somewhere in Shinjuku in Spring though.) They had very few clothes left but heavily discounted so I got 3 things. As I was paying, I let the sales lady know I was sad to see them go, and also that I came from CA to shop there. She remembered me from last time, and said, "oh yes, and you forgot your last purchase, didn't you?"

I was astounded because a) she remembered me, and b) she knew I lost my purchase. Apparently, I had left it at the shoe store where I was for just a few minutes. Once discovered, she and the shoe store person ran around Mitsukoshi looking for me, but I had left. They tried getting my address from my credit card, but since it's foreign, they couldn't. So they put my shirt in the Lost & Found.

The sales lady kindly called the Lost & Found to see if they still had my shirt which I doubted since it was so long ago. They said they would call my cell phone once retrieved, so I left the store simply happy to know what really happened to my shirt, and that they remembered. That evening I got a call from a Mitsukoshi Customer Service Dept. guy, and he apologized profusely in the way that can be only done in the Japanese language. His tone was as if they had burned down my house. I kept saying it was my fault for forgetting the shirt, but because it had been registered in their Lost & Found yet they couldn't find it, Mitsukoshi wanted to take full responsibility. After explaining how they spent the whole afternoon calling all Kookai stores in Japan in hopes of finding a replacement shirt, it was not possible because it was long out of season. The customer service guy then gently, ever so humbly, wondered if I would be so kind as to accept a reimbursement of the price the shirt. Not only that, he wanted to personally come to my house to apologize and give me the money (this is normal when companies apologize for serious mistakes). In the end, I suggested it would be much easier to simply mail it, and I told him this was the best customer service I'd ever experienced and I absolutely love Mitsukoshi for that.

I'm a life-long customer now!