Sock it Tumi: A customer service story

Remember when you were a kid walking through the toy store and you spotted a toy you just had to have? And you felt the aching desire to immediately possess that exact G.I. Joe soldier or souped-up Barbie Dream Car?

Well, as you all know, I’m still a kid at heart, but instead of toys, these days I'm into more grown-up, traveling-news-correspondent-friendly items, like luggage. (That's a sad revelation, maybe, but true.)

For a long time, my bag of choice was a small Briggs and Riley case that had just enough room to hold everything I needed - my chargers, laptops, iPod, Kindle, makeup, toiletries, passport, pens, and a notepad - and still fit under the seat of the smallest commuter jet. It was almost perfect - except I had no room to carry a book, newspaper, or my personal camera. I needed a new bag.

And the one that caught my eye after many months of searching was a beauty made by Tumi. It was good-looking, compact, functional - the dream bag. But I didn’t buy it. I thought the Tumi was way too expensive (and this was pre-recession!). Instead, I trekked over to Target and bought a similar bag for about one-tenth of the price.

And even though the Target bag did the job just fine, my Tumi treasure-bag stayed with me. When I passed by the Tumi store, which is too-conveniently located just downstairs from the CNN studios in New York, I would look longingly in the window, imagining myself at a JFK gate, laughing merrily, holding a piping-hot coffee in one hand and my perfect Tumi bag in the other - the envy of all the other passengers. Then I would look down at the bag I actually bought, and sigh...

Well I must have dropped enough hints, because eventually my best friend bought me a bag from Tumi.com. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the exact model I wanted. So, receipt in hand, I headed to the Tumi store to exchange the bag for the one I wanted, which, as it turned out, was $100 cheaper. The person at the store offered me store credit, but I wanted the $100 to be refunded to my best friend's credit card (I’m a really great friend.) The Tumi guy said it wasn’t possible. To get a refund, my friend would have to send the bag back to Tumi.com and pay for shipping.

That's a bad policy at any time, but especially in a recession. And, with companies looking to cut costs in any way they can, my bet is that many are thinking that customer service is expendable. Well it's too bad: I really liked Tumi and their products, but I find the idea that I have to spend someone else's cash just because they bought me the wrong gift indefensible.

Now all of you readers have had some notable customer service interaction I am sure - whether good or bad - and I'd like to hear about them. E-mail me your customer service stories at ali@cnn.com so we can reward the good companies and reprimand the bad.

Oh, and to be fair, below is the response I got from Tumi. My friend still hasn't gotten her $100 back:

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please see our response below.

Tumi is committed to providing our customers with superior product, exceptional service and a unique brand experience.

We are continually looking to upgrade our systems and policies in order to achieve this goal. Given the nature of our company owned vs partnered stores and our e.commerce relationship with our web provider, all of our systems are not currently aligned to allow for a seamless transaction/return exchange at the point of sale.

We are currently assessing and upgrading our limitations in order to accomplish this goal, and apologize that we are not in a position today to rectify your situation.

We will, however, do whatever we can to make sure your TUMI experience is superior. Please let us know what you would like to satisfy your need."

My response to Tumi is that I don't want special favors. I'll stick with the credit, but I hope they'll change their policy willingly.

Ali Velshi is CNN's chief business correspondent