If you’ve followed this blog over the months, you probably read some of my experiences with DirecTV and Dollar Car Rental – both less than stellar (although Dollar came through after much prompting).

Well, word must have gotten out about this powerful blog tool that I wield, because my experience today was fantastic.

This weekend, I was helping a friend of mine work on his house – which was raised off its foundation and currently rests on four I-beams (you can see one of them under the light).

We were outside, and it was about 20 degrees here in Wisconsin, so things got cold somewhat quickly. We had a propane heater that was turned on periodically to warm us up. I apparently got too close to it, at one point, because it melted the eyelets right off of my Merrell hiking boots. I didn’t even realize it until I felt my shoe get a little looser.

While I figured that shouldn’t happen, I couldn’t help but admit that it was entirely my fault. Either way, I’m a huge fan of Merrell shoes, and I’ve owned easily 25 plus pairs of them over the years. So, I figured with that kind of brand loyalty, maybe they’d be willing to help me out.

I went to the website and figured out who was the Manager of Customer Service, and I emailed her the story, along with photos of the work site, the shoe and my current inventory of Merrell shoes (which I won’t include here, lest I get home and they’re all thrown out).

She responded within a half hour and said I’d be getting a call from someone who would take care of it for me. Within another half hour, a man called, took my size, my home address and said there’d be a pair of the latest model Fed-Ex’d to my house tomorrow.

This is usually the kind of story reserved for people dealing with Zappos, so I was surprised and excited to hear this is what they’re going to do.

Given their response, I figured the least I could do was share the experience and recommend Merrell to you. After all, I didn’t even get to why I use them in the first place – they last forever, they keep the same models for sale for years (unlike Nike, who discontinues models after they sell three pairs) and they’re the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever tried.

Now, add to the list that they have fantastic customer service.