The New Guam

~ We took our little Corolla in for some front-end body work on Monday. They told us that it would be ready for pick-up late Saturday afternoon. Yea, right, we thought -- if they can find all of the parts on island -- if the insurance company doesn't stall some more -- if people show up to work -- and if a typhoon doesn't blow in. Yesterday morning I told Cheryl that it would be about a 10% chance that they'd come through as advertised. She thought I was being optimistic.

Late yesterday afternoon we got a call from Jung's Body Shop -- "Come, pick it up at 2 p.m. tomorrow."

So I showed up at 3:30 this afternoon -- and there is was -- as advertised -- except a day early.

Looks great!

Oh, and these are the guys who gave us a free loaner car while they worked on ours.

The picture is of our Corolla getting hosed down at a PIBC car wash in December.

~ Another customer service story. GTA (the company formerly known as Guam Telephone Authority -- the last government-owned local exchange company in the US until it was sold off two years ago -- a company with a reputation for absolutely terrible service) is one of our broadband providers on campus. Unfortunately, we had a modem go out yesterday. So I called Marvilyn Tablante, our account rep. And this afternoon she personally delivered a new modem. She even called when she got caught in traffic and was running late.

That's exceptional service anywhere in the world. On Guam it's miraculous. There are people who get the customer service thing. Change is in the air.