Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

Slightly related...I had misplaced my drivers license and was forced to use my passport and ID until my new one came. In the mean time I needed to get groceries and had to write a check (my ATM card was with my ID). The store almost refused to use my passport to validate my identity because "company policy" which required California ID - not just state ID. They even had the nerve to ask me if I knew my ID number by heart and I looked at the store manager square in the eye and told him that anyone could just walk in and give them my ID # but it is infinitely more difficult to obtain a fake passport. With my insistence on leaving there with my groceries, they finally wrote my passport number on the check as validation of my ID, but I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of a policy that was not even flexible enough to at least let me use a passport; identification that was possibly more valid that CA drivers license. I was mad and frustrated because they kept saying, "It's the company policy..." Do you think I cared? I just needed my groceries.

Wow - I never quite understood that kind of policy either. A passport should be equal to - if not better - than a driver's license.

Thanks for sharing your story, Kimberlee. Hopefully someone will read this and take heed ;)

Maria,

Thanks for your input! I definitely agree with you, the days of c-level employees making all the decisions is out of the question. You have to empower the employees on the ground of the company with the know-how to resolve the customers problems without getting tangled in "company policy."

Rashid