And I lend a sympathetic ear to people like my dad. He once spent much of a day on the phone with morons at his Internet service provider who couldn’t diagnose an e-mail problem I nailed in 5 minutes.

But if my recent experiences are any evidence, customer service seems to be moving in the right direction. I shudder to say to say this for fear my luck will turn, but I see lots of hints that companies are beginning to get the idea that good service is good business. I’m hearing encouraging tales from various friends and colleagues, too. I couldn’t tell you whether this has some relation to global warming or whether it’s just random-but whatever it is, I’ll take it.

Back in the bad old days last summer, when a little piece of plastic broke off my handspring-labeled Treo 600 and I phoned the support number listed in the web, things got stupid fast. After long holds, three successive people in India kept giving me different numbers to call. Luckily, a fourth support rep finally set things right.

Things were different when the replacement unit broke in exactly the same way. This time, one quick call did the trick. I again had to offer credit card number, as security against the possibility I might not send back the old one, but the new unit turned up fast. My latest Treo has the PalmOne logo, apparently came out of a more robust mold, and is doing fine.