Still the best policy

It is not uncommon in my profession, or anyone who works with the general public on a daily basis to become jaded or leery when dealing with people. Often we need to solve the problem, is this person telling me the truth? I see this on a day in and day out basis where customers simply lie to get what they want. It's as common as "oh I didn't break it, it was that way when I opened it...six months ago; and I want my money back. No, I don't have a receipt.

The previous example may seem to stretch the boundaries to most but that scenario is very common. Many simply don't want to abide by the normal rules of behavior. If you wonder why it is difficult to get your point across to a customer service person, it's situations like these that make us weary. We want to believe you, we really do but we also must make the best decision we can with the information available.

My faith was restored the other day when a customer returned to my store. He had recently purchased a pricey item, over $500 which was ordered for him and was to be shipped his home. I had never met him as I was not involved with the original sale. The transaction didn't happen as it should have but after a series of conversations involving my corp office the money was refunded in cash and the item returned.

After solving this problem he was happy with the result and I was unsure as to why he needed to see me. He walked up and handed me an envelope containing a check for over $500 from our corporate office. They had mistakenly sent him a check for the returned item.

This customer has restored my faith and I made sure to let my staff know what he did. I know this person could use the money, he is not well-off by any means but he chose to do the right thing. There are still those out there worthy of our help and those are the people that keep me in the service business.