ON THE TOWN:Served any writers lately?

On Sunday, Peter Buffa wrote about the troubles of a friend who bought a brand new Bentley, only to discover that it had a bad smell. The story was about his attempts to get a smell-free car.

There were no doubt some readers who felt no sympathy whatsoever for the guy, who paid $215,000 for the privilege of driving around in a car that, according to his claim, probably smelled worse than a 5-year-old Yugo.

In this case, I felt bad for the Bentley guy because I am familiar with his story. This fellow worked hard to get what he has and decided to reward himself with a very nice automobile, although, knowing Bentley, it is probably referred to as a “motorcar.”

He made his money legitimately, and he is entitled to spend it any way he wants, legitimately.

What got my attention was Buffa’s description of some incredibly bad service by the car dealer.

The Bentley guy got the runaround from the dealer — big time.

You’d think that a car dealer that sells to the top of the customer heap would know better than to revert to the standard customer service playbook, but that’s what they did.

The problem they have no doubt discovered by now is that you never know whom you’re talking to. In their case, they happened to be dealing with a guy who knows a newspaper columnist who wrote about the adventure and mentioned the name of the car dealer — twice.

That story was read by another columnist for the same newspaper who just happens to have a very close friend who is literally moments away from buying a Bentley and — you guessed it — he has made a few trips to the showroom where the smelly car incident is said to have taken place.

In short, this could be a costly customer service story for the dealer.

“Laurie” at the Starbucks store on 4th and Broadway in Santa Ana didn’t know to whom she was talking either.

Two days ago, I went into the store, as I do most weekdays after dropping off my daughter, to order my usual drink.

As usual, Laurie greeted me with an enthusiastic, “Hi, Steve!” Think here of how Norm used to walk into the “Cheers” bar.

Before ordering, I flashed Laurie the only money I had — a $100 bill — and asked her if she could change it. Laurie replied with a long face that she could not.

But Laurie gave me an option. “Pay us tomorrow,” she said.

And so I left with my drink. The next day, I was back in the store, getting one cup of coffee and paying for two.

It is hard to train people like Laurie. Usually, people either have those customer service instincts or they don’t. The benefit of having someone like Laurie is that it doesn’t matter to whom they are talking, everyone gets the same excellent service.

And with people like Laurie, the last customer of the day gets the same enthusiastic greeting and the same efficient service as the first person who walked in the door at the start of her shift.

The guy at Best Buy in Costa Mesa didn’t know to whom he was talking either. I called the store to find out if they had a product in stock, one that I knew the chain had just discontinued.

“No,” he said, “but if you want to hold for a minute, I can tell you if any of our other stores have any.”

Huh? Excuse me? Hey, pal, you’re a low man on the totem pole of a big, impersonal chain. What’s the big idea with giving me great service?

Sure enough, he came right back and rattled off the inventory in three other Orange County stores.

I wish I had gotten his name.

The type of service provided by Laurie and the Best Buy guy used to be typical. Used to be that if either of those situations happened to a newspaper columnist less than two weeks before Election Day, he’d be writing about politics.

But now, good service is news.

A couple more things. First, a recommendation to the Bentley dealer: Grab Laurie and put her in charge of your customer service department.

Second, to any business owner or retail manager, remember: You never know whom you’re talking to.