3,500 mile trip to keep promise to customer

Date Published: 08-Jan-2008

Anyone who’s ever doubted the quality of customer service in Ireland need only look as far as Enrico Carta, owner of a Galway kitchen company, to have their faith in it restored.

When a transportation strike in Italy meant that a €1,500 kitchen worktop wouldn’t be delivered to one of his customers before Christmas — as he had promised — Mr Carta took matters into his own hands and drove to Italy himself to pick it up.

“I promised it would be delivered before Christmas, and we did it,” says the Sardinia native. His store, Carta Kitchens in the Briarhill Business Park, sells Italian-made kitchens and other furniture.

Mr Carta explained that, when he learned that a five-day strike by truck drivers in Italy would mean that his customer wouldn’t get the quartz worktop on time, he looked into hiring a van to make the weeklong journey to the Bari, a city in the southern part, to get the piece himself.

But when he…..