The new year has started fine here at the Headquarters. First, I would like to spend some words about a positive experience with XtremeMac. My wife has been given a 16 GB iPod touch for Christmas (she received it much earlier, though, around the beginning of December) and I decided to buy her a case to carry and protect such interesting device. After looking at what local shops and even the Apple Store were offering – disappointing and unconvincing solutions I dare remark – I started looking elsewhere and elseweb.
Visiting XtremeMac, I felt refreshed. Examining their Verona Flip case for iPod touch, I was convinced: that would have been the right gift. The Verona Flip is well made, elegant and does a nice work of protecting the iPod, which remains fully usable. So, without further ado, I proceeded to pay with my credit card and placed the order. Shortly after I received a confirmation email with the reference number of my order, a number I could use in case of problems or enquiries. I waited, hoping the case would reach me in time for Christmas (the order was placed on December 7, 2007).
Days passed, Christmas passed, no sign of the Verona Flip case. I sent an email to XtremeMac shipping department explaining what was happening – er, what was not happening. The day after I received a very nice email from XtremeMac’s Customer Care Manager, who informed me about the shipping date of the item I had purchased, told me to be patient some more, and to contact him in case I would not receive the item in the following weeks. He said they would rectify the situation and apologised for any inconvenience this may have caused.
I finally received the case in the first days of January, but I was glad for that email anyway. The tone was personal, the email was signed with a name and came from a person, not some anonymous, generic Tech Support or Customer Care office. I had the feeling they were really ready to take care of the matter. This leaves a very good impression and when I received the iPod touch case, I replied to that manager, informing him that everything was fine at my end and thanking him for being so kind and willing to sort things out.
As soon as iPhones are available in my country, I will need another case. I will surely shop again at XtremeMac.
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Another email I received is worth mentioning. When I updated my PowerBook G4 to Leopard, I noticed a small thing happening with 1001, a very nice and useful application I regularly use to manage my photo uploads on flickr. I also wanted to suggest a couple of things to Adriaan Tijsseling, the application’s developer, so on November 24, 2007, I wrote him:
I’ve been using your 1001 flickr tool for a while now and it’s really a great piece of software, indeed. I’m writing you to suggest a couple of features and to report a small bug.
1. Features I’d like to see in a future version: a) The ability to specify more than one destination set when uploading a photo. b) The ability to resize the main window horizontally as well as vertically, to better manage flickr groups with long names.
2. The small bug: apparently, under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the thumbnails appearing in the “My Stream” window are displayed upside down. When hovering on them with the mouse, however, they “pop out” correctly. I can send a screenshot if you like.
On January 7, 2008, Mr Tijsseling replied:
Sorry for the late reply, but just to let you know the bug you mentioned is fixed and the upload window is horizontally resizable.
Well, Mr Tijsseling, I do not mind the late reply. On the contrary, I’ve been quite glad of receiving this feedback. A donation is coming your way. You deserve it for the good work. And dear readers, if you are Macintosh users and devoted flickr users, you should definitely use 1001.