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I would like to acknowledge the corporate management at Dollar Tree for the most amazing response to a customer complaint that I’ve ever seen.

Sunday, my wife shopped at a local Dollar Tree with my 9 year old daughter and 2 year old son. They were the victim of shockingly bad treatment on the part of a store manager…I don’t feel the need to tell what happened, but it was egregious.

I was very upset. I went to their website and fired off an objective but harsh email through the only form on the website (the Investors Relations page…you folks might want to consider a page especially for customer feedback). I then looked up a list of their top corporate execs, figured out their email addresses, and emailed my complaint to them as a group.

I did my “complaining” on Sunday afternoon. By the end of Sunday, I had a voicemail and email responses from one of their corporate executives back in Virginia as well as the regional manager for their Portland area stores.

On Monday, I received a phone call from the Portland regional manager who apologized for what happened and promised that corrective action will be taken. He made it clear that no stone would be left unturned in dealing with the problem and making sure that never happen again. He also told me that to express his forgiveness, he wanted to stop by my house (I work at home) with gift baskets compliments of the Dollar Tree. He made an appointment to do this today (he wanted to make sure to apologize in person and not just leave a basket by a door).

Today, he stopped by my house and talked to my wife (I never saw him since I was on a phone call at the time). He brought two gift baskets containing products found at the Dollar Tree (I know some might snicker at this, but the products and arrangement were quite nice). What made the gift even more thoughtful is that he chose products specifically targeted for my wife (food condiments), daughter (coloring books) and son (stuffed animals)…all of whom were in the store and were affected by the bad customer service.

It’s not the first time I’ve made complaints through corporate websites and usually, I’ve gotten an apology plus a gift card. Almost universally, I’ve found that corporations will respond appropriately if the complaint is justified and set out in a non-threatening, non-confrontational manner. However, Dollar Tree’s immediate and personal response to my issues was so outstanding, I feel compelled to acknowledge them publicly for it.