Gracing the ceiling of our family room is a Hampton Bay Redington III ceiling fan. As Home Depots’ signature brand, I have been extremely satisfied with the Hampton Bay brand ever since I started installing our own fans in our bedrooms (which began waaaay back in 1999 when we moved to North Carolina).

This particular fan has survived our last three moves – I bought it for our first Birkdale townhome rental, then we moved to a Birkdale apartment, then we rented an apartment in the Redcliffe development, and now we live in our current home. It’s a great fan!  At least, up until recently it was.

Last week I went to turn on the fan via the wireless remote and it would not run. Lights worked, high speed worked, even ‘reverse’ responded, but the fan would not activate on low or medium speeds, which is generally the only 2 speeds we use unless we plan on dispersing our domestic dustbunnies from under our couches.

I pulled out the user guide and warranty information (yes, we save receipts, user manuals, and warranty cards like good little consumers) and whaddya know – it has a limited lifetime warranty! I called Home Depot and after several transfers, requests for serial and model numbers, date of purchase, etc… I finally am able to speak to someone who then calls someone somewhere else to tell me that the manufacturer of the fan is out of business and I cannot get a replacement. Bummer. “However, I can offer you a $25 gift card…” Sure, I’ll take a gift card, but I can’t find anyone, even on the internet, who may sell spare parts to Hampton Bay fans, much less a Redington. Ah well, disposable society as it is, I guess I’ll take my $25 discount and apply it towards a replacement fan.

Not 10 minutes later, I get a call back from Customer Service that they will contact my local Home Depot and instead of the $25 gift card I can get a replacement fan. Well, $129 is a lot better than $25 so sure, sign me up! I take down the old fan, bring it in, and get a new Redington IV (now that the III is unavailable, I guess!)

Interestingly, the new fan, the Redington IV, was not as feature rich as the III – The III had a reverse button on the remote while the IV has a switch on the fan itself (no big deal, we run it in updraft mode 90% of the time anyway) and I had to install and wire the wireless receiver instead of it being built into the unit. Also, the IV can be run off pull-chains, while the III was operable by the remote only, so now I have to figure out how to hide the dangily-bobs hanging from the fan.  Also, while I was able to get the III in brushed nickel the IV came in brushed steel. Not a big deal, but the finish is a little more matte than I’d prefer.

Anyway, all that to say I was very impressed that I got an unsolicited callback from Home Depot’s customer service, that they honored a limited lifetime warranty on a nine-year-old product, and there were no questions asked. Here in North Carolina, Home depot tends to get a back seat to Lowes Hardware, and I admit that aside from hardscaping supplies I tend to patronize Lowes. As a result of this I hope I can continue to patronize them to show my appreciation.

Thanks guys, and keep up the good work!

On that note, has anyone else had an above-and-beyond the call-of-duty customer service story you’d like to share? How about a “Worst customer service” experience? Comment below!

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