WatchdogNation.com is ready for a happy face. So a few weeks back I asked readers a simple question: “Do you have a recent example of exceptional customer service? Send me your words of praise with specifics.”

The stories I received did make me smile. Ready for some good news — for a change?

Banker who noticed

Alma Arguijo, a banker at a Wells Fargo branch on Poly Webb Road in Arlington, Texas noticed an elderly customer making strange withdrawals from his account.

She called the man’s daughter, Linda Bridges, who told me this story. The banker told the daughter she wasn’t allowed to provide details because of privacy laws. But she warned the daughter that something didn’t seem right.

The daughter looked into it and learned that her father had gotten involved with a con artist who was taking his money.

“We would never have known if it weren’t for Alma,” Bridges says. “She was familiar with my dad and his habits, and because she is conscientious, she saved him from financial ruin. I didn’t have any accounts at Wells Fargo, but I sure do now.”

I talked to Arguijo, but she declined to be interviewed. Privacy laws, you know? So I didn’t get to say: Good job! We need more folks to do that.

No water? No problem

When a water-main break Aug. 2 meant two days without water for Weatherford, Texas residents and businesses, Frieda Fern Davis says she didn’t miss a sip.

The 90-year-old is a resident of Sterling House of Weatherford, a seniors home where caretakers worked hard to make sure residents didn’t face any hardships.

After the water was restored, she wrote a letter to the head of the company, Brookdale Senior Living, to praise all the employees who hauled water from outside, prepared meals as best they could and worked diligently to keep the facility clean.

“We had two hot meals and a picnic supper each day,” she wrote him. “The food was good.”

Extra staff worked longer hours. Large water tanks were transported. Bathrooms were kept clean. Davis named names, too. Lots of them. I wish I could name them all. Oh, what the heck?

Custodian Lewis Barnes. Chef Juanita Perez. Cook Devona Johnson. Nurse Belinda Middleton. Coordinators Carol Teegarden, Michelle McCullough and Pam Hazelwood. And Mary Ann Boyd, who hauled the 500-gallon water tank.

Davis says, “It was unbelievable. I heard not one cross word. We put up a brave face.”

Her letter to the chief executive led to his sending certificates of appreciation to the acclaimed employees. Sterling House Director Terrie Lynn Harwell tells me she is planning a party for the presentation.

Deal sounds good

Scott Coleman of Fort Worth, Texas loves his high-quality, noise-canceling Bose headphones. When they broke a month ago, he was heartbroken. The warranty had expired.

He called the company, where an employee explained that his model was no longer made and repairs were not done. Then he was told about the company’s “trade-in program,” in which you can get a new pair at a reduced price.

Coleman was asked whether he would mind paying $89.95 for the $300 headphones.

Would he mind? Nothing he ever heard through the headphones sounded so sweet.

The day he told me the story was the day his new headphones arrived.

“I consider that pretty good service,” he says. Then he repeats a Watchdog mantra: “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.”

Bad start, good finish

When a house painter called Mary Ann Sutter of Arlington, Texas to remind her that he was coming to her house to give an estimate, she chewed him out because he was supposed to arrive that day but didn’t show.

The painter, Greg Newhouse of 1-800-PAINTING, politely explained that he was supposed to come three days later.

Sutter admits that she “rudely barked at him.” The painter, though, replied in a professional and polite manner.

“After we hung up, I looked at my calendar, and, sure enough, he was right. It was another company that was supposed to be there Friday morning. I was so embarrassed.”

Hey, we’ve all been there.

“I did feel bad about getting on to him,” she repeats. But the painter showed no hard feelings. He arrived at the exact time on the appropriate day and gave an estimate. She hired him.

Now she says the paint job Newhouse’s crew provided was the best she had ever seen. Furniture covered, moved properly and restored as it was. No drip marks anywhere.

“To top it off, he called a few days later to see if everything was done to my liking. I’m still reeling about the best customer service I’ve had in many years.”

I told Newhouse what his customer said. “That’s nice,” he replied. “I’ve been called worse.”

Which is the whole point of this. Tired of the worst. So here’s to the best.

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber