Thinking about an impressive example of customer service this morning. We stopped at an L.L.Bean store in Marshfield yesterday on our way home from Providence to explore my options in the great boot search of 2014. My criteria for boots was proving a bit elusive. Warm. Comfortable. Waterproof, or at least, water resistant. Walking in the snow kind of boots. Style wasn’t an issue. Just not really ugly. And frugal as I can be, cost had long since stopped being an issue as well. Doesn’t sound that hard, does it? Wrong.

Found them at Bean! Well, almost. They didn’t have my size. Close enough to know that they would be perfect in the right size. The salesperson wrote down the stock number and my plan was to order them on line. Next roadblock: they were out of stock in black. They had the boots in a silver/sage color. I sat staring at the screen, trying to convince myself that fit was more important than color, when I noticed a note at the bottom of the order form. It suggested checking their area  stores  to see if the out of stock item might be available there. If so, they would ship it for free.

A click of the mouse, and I was informed that they had two pair in my size and color choice in Burlington. I called the number they provided and was connected with a salesperson who double checked to make sure the boots were in stock. He took my information; sent me a receipt on line, and the boots are being shipped free of charge. They’ll be here Thursday.

Somehow, L.L.Bean has managed to retain the personal touch in our computer age.