Very often as a consumer, we tend to get ignored by the manufacturer.  How many times have we purchased something only to have it break or malfunction past the warranty date or the 30 day return policy.

When I started my Couch to 5K program (post here) I “hacked” my Nike+ sensor to fit my Adidas shoes.

By the second week, I purchased a proper pair of Nike+ shoes so the sensor was used how it should be and more accurate.

During my Couch 25K training, I have been using both Nike+ and RunKeeper Pro.  Both essentially do the same thing, but offer different types of analytics.  There are features that I like in both, and so when I run, I have both apps running.  It has served me well because there has been instances where one of the apps has failed and the other one kept going for me.

During my run in February during -7 degree weather my Nike+ sensor stopped working.  Not a huge deal becuase I have been using RunKeeper Pro on my iPhone to track distance, pace etc.  I wasn’t pleased but was taken care of.

2 weeks after that, during my run in nicer weather, my Nike+ sensor stopped tracking during the run.  I figured that the battery was dead as it was very intermittent.  After looking at pricing a replacement out at the cost of $34 Canadian, I posted this tweet:

I drew a line in the sand, and chose my loyalty to RunKeeper.  I wasn’t going to pay for a product that guaranteed 1000 active hours and only gave me 14.    The person running the Nike+ twitter account obviously saw my tweet and posted this:

I gave them the details, and received this Direct Message:

Today, the replacement sensor arrived in the mail in an envelope with “Happy Running” written on it.

My hats off the Nike+ for using Twitter to deliver customer satisfaction.  I was ready to drop using the product and go 100% over to RunKeeper. Not because of the money, but the fact that I would be replacing sensors every 3 months.

Word of mouth is such an important way to market your product, if you have a great experience you may tell a few friends, if you have a bad experience, you will go out of your way to tell everybody you know.  If  a manufacturer goes above and beyond, it should be shared with anybody willing to listen.

Thanks Nike+, I’ll be using my new sensor on my run tomorrow and at my first 5K in May.