My cell phone broke last week. If you are anything like me, this pretty much signaled the end of my existence.

I live by that thing, and I certainly was not looking forward to spending even a minute without it.

Unfortunately my cell phone carrier saw things in a different light and made sure it took me at least one day to get through to a tech support person who could then help me.

I spent hours on the phone trying to get any help possible until finally someone got back on the line and proceeded to transfer me to someone else, who transferred me to someone else, etc.

This situation is anything but unique; in this age of technology it seems that more and more of these "great technologies" are breaking on us.

And because of this, I have lowered my standards significantly for large companies helping out their customers.

With automated help lines and standard e-mails letting the customer know what they ordered and when it will be shipped, most business are losing that personal touch.

However right after I settled my charade with the phone company, I was reminded by a smaller company of how nice it is to receive personalized responses to any questions or comments I have about a product.

A few days ago I bought an old CD featuring some songs written and performed by Dave Matthews. I could not find this CD, Tribe of Heaven's Imagine We Were, anywhere, and I checked all over the place. So I brought up the old Internet Explorer and found it on my own.

I came across a Web site that sells old and new independent music and decided to buy the CD from them. CDBABY.com was the Web site and they specialize in old and new independent music.

Within minutes of ordering the CD I receive a confirmation e-mail from the site that mirrored those sent out by Amazon and eBay, so I did not think much of it.

The very next day, I receive a personalized e-mail letting me know my package had shipped (within 24 hours of the sale nonetheless) and telling me what to do if there were any problems.

The e-mail I received included this excerpt, from which I nearly died of laughter, "Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy."

But it didn't stop there.

Two days after the package shipped, I get another hilarious e-mail making sure that my order was correct and everything was in one piece.

I responded and told them everything was great, and then they wrote me back and told me that if I bought one more CD, I could receive one free. Seriously, who does that?

Not only was the service great, but I received the package the day after it was sent.

And it came all the way from Oregon!

I expected it would take at least five business days, but the wait was short and service was very prompt.

While I recognize that the responses I received from CD BABY were sarcastic and perhaps even a little condescending, it was still refreshing to open the old inbox and see something other than spam.

In this modern age, I am pleased with the customer service departments of very few companies, so that when a company does come along and is able to not only help me, but give me a free laugh as well, I will keep my business with them.

So few companies nowadays go that extra mile to satisfy their customers, and some don't even pass that initial half-mile mark.

In my attempt to find another company that has been as friendly to me as CD BABY has, I simply could not find a single one.

I have bought my share of products from Internet sites -- most of them from Amazon.

And when I receive their confirmation e-mails, they all look the same, and they do not even include my name.

Amazon has no idea who I am, and up until recently, I thought that was just par for the huge, impersonal, monolithic course.

I cannot imagine that it is that difficult to write a witty or personal e-mail to a few customers.

But I can imagine that if more and more companies were to engage in these friendly business practices, sales for those companies would go through the roof.

I know that if I received more confirmation e-mails that ended like this, "Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year.' We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM." I would patronize these sites for everything I need.