Companies that exceed your expectations over the long haul

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This came up in another thread. I’m curious if any of you deal with companies that you love, and have exceeded your expectations over the long term. I can think of many companies that started strong and persisted for years, but have ultimately fallen in terms of service, quality, and pricing. I can’t think of a single company that hasn’t declined after a decade or two. For example, I loved Southwest Airlines for decades, but the recent changes in their pricing and policies have lost this customer.

I can think of others:

Walmart, since Sam Walton died and corporate managers took over;

Amazon, that went from customer focused to profit focused in the last few years;

USAA, whose service has fallen off a cliff recently;

and I’m even jaded with Vanguard, since John Bogle (the founder) left the helm.

The same has happened to many local businesses in my area. When the founder retires and the 2nd generation takes over, the decline begins.

Can you think of companies that exceed your expectations, that you can recommend?

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Costco . .

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I consider GEICO one of those company’s.

I first started with GEICO way back in 1976 or earlier, so far back that I know my account number forwards and backwards.

I went with them because although they wrote policies for Government members and more, they also offered policies to good drivers and I qualified. They had office local to me (DC MD and VA) and best of all (a novelty at the time) you could call them 24 hours a day. I called at like 1am and the call was instantly answered. Also if you bought a vehicle, you could be insured immediately. Of course that is assuming that you eventually paid the fees.

Pretty early on, they had a way to check coverage and make adjustments and see the price change online for the policy.

I have had a couple of accident reports filed with them and have always been happy with the results. A somewhat recent accident was documented online with pictures of the vehicle and damage, contact information for the adjuster, how they determined the payment for my vehicle which was totaled. They showed that there were not enough local listings based upon dealers and private parties and had to check a few mainland sellers to determine a reasonable range of values for my vehicle.

There may be other cheaper policies but the customer service I have received over the decades showed that my choice was right for me.

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