My tale of 3 customer service experiences

This week I've had three customer service experiences that have pretty much epitomized how a company can change your perception of them. For most companies, their customer service department is an after thought. Yet for most consumers, the customer service department is the only contact they'll ever have. One rude sales rep can change your perception of company forever.

Here are my 3 customer service type issues this week and how they were handled:

1. My external hard drive fried during a 30-second power outage (even while plugged into a surge protector). The 1 year warranty was up, but I decided to contact AcomData anyway to see what my options were. They had a lengthy sign-up process (10 minutes at least) to allow me to submit a question, at which point I was told I'd hear back within 3 business days. I didn't, and after a day I purchased a (far superior) Seagate 250 GB external drive at CompUSA for $70 to handle my backups.
2. We're interested in integrating all of eBay's historical data into the SportsLizard Price Guide to give us "the ultimate data source" (in my mind at least). For API access to their historical marketplace data, you have to request a quote. I did a few days ago and still haven't heard back. It's not the type of thing I NEED a reply right away for, but it's also not the type of thing that should take them more than 15 minutes to quote out, so I'm disappointed and left wondering "did anyone actually get my email?" as I think many people do.
3. The worst situation of all: IE7 decides that the price guide results page is a "suspicious website" and everyone who does a search gets blasted with a huge pop-up saying that the price guide is phishing for information. Not good at all. I contacted Microsoft and within AN HOUR they had removed the price guide from their phishing filter and apologized. WOW.

Three companies, three different results. AcomData - you suck. eBay - I'm disappointed. Microsoft - you completely rock.