Yesterday I went to the Apple store in the Bellevue mall to replace the headphones on my iPod which had begun to fray. When I walked up to the counter and told the girl there what I wanted she ushered me to a customer service desk claiming that if my iPod was under warranty I could get the headphones replaced for free. I was highly skeptical of this since I didn't buy the iPod at the Apple Store but at Best Buy and didn't even have my receipt anyway.

Waiting at the customer service desk I got to soak in some of the ambiance of Apple Store. It is definitely a cool place, I liked the flat screen TV over the customer service desk with quotes from luminaries across history such as

• Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend but my best friend is truth - Sir Isaac Newton
• We must be the change we wish to see in the world - Mahatma Ghandi

When it was finally my turn, my name was displayed on the flat screen TV above the customer support desk and I walked up to be served. I told the guy behind the desk that I needed some new headphones and the girl behind the counter had directed me to him to see if I could get them replaced by the warranty. I explained that I thought this would be unlikely given that I bought the iPod at Best Buy not the Apple Store and didn't have a receipt. To which he replied “It's an Apple product right? I'll just check the serial number”. To my surprise he did just that and I walked out of there with brand new head phones. To cap the experience he also fixed some weird issues I'd been having with my iPod by pointing me to the recent iPod firmware update.

That's what I call fantastic customer service. I felt so good about Apple afterwards I felt like going back to the store and buying some Apple stuff but there's nothing I need right now.