I find it interesting that I've had some of my absolute best customer service experiences with products that I pay nothing for.
My past Plaxo issues have been well-documented, but I must say that despite the problems with the product, their service has been unbelievably responsive. And things seem to be working quite well now.
A new service I've been using for the past few months called AirSet started giving my trouble today. AirSet is a web-based calendar which I've found very useful for family scheduling (Walter Mossberg does have his uses when he's not writing Apple press releases - but don't get me started on that topic again). AirSet started acting up today - but I was wowed that their service was on top of the problem almost before I had a chance to ask.
Last but not least, I've found myself using ZoomInfo now and then over past months, and today after reading Paul Kedrosky's positive review I took another look. Really nice enhancements - although it does list two of my former competitors as 'colleagues' on my profile.
In all cases, these products aren't perfect but their responsiveness is impressive - and the price is right.
The moral of the story? Not sure - except to say that these types of services depend heavily on word of mouth - and I'm more than happy to contribute to that positive WOM in all cases. No product is perfect...
Digression (sorry I can't help myself) - Not even the iMac, Walter - I think there are going to be a lot of iMac's on Ebay in January after Mom or Dad read Walter's glowing praise and then found out too late they can't play their favorite games, use their favorite music store/software, etc...
...but 'you get what you pay for' isn't always true.
