Originally Posted by
CALimey
Here, though, I have to give an attaboy to Dollar in IND: I left a GPS in one of their vehicles, and when I landed after my flight, I had a voicemail from their lost and found manager who had proactively called me to ask what address I would like it sent to.
Wow. Kudos to that Dollar office.
I can't imagine ever doing that, though. Every time I've ever seen a rental company proactively call a customer about a lost and found item or even admit that they have possession of that item, it's ended badly.
Usually, the item is miscategorized (i.e. the customer left a GPS, but it was a TomTom and the rental agent is holding a Garmin in his or her hand, so it wasn't actually that customer's) or tracked back to the wrong customer (and even falsely claimed by a different customer). So when the rental agency has to later backtrack and say they didn't have the customer's lost item, the customer throws a huge fit, claims the rental agency stole the item, and files a complaint/police report/lawsuit. That usually ends up in the location cutting a check--sometimes for thousands of dollars--to the customer for something the rental agency never had in the first place.
One location I'm familiar with has found that the only way to prevent this from happening is to instruct EVERYONE to never admit they have possession of the item (even if they're holding it in their hands) until it's been properly logged and sent to a dedicated person who handles lost and found and takes responsibility for getting that item back to the customer. Harsh, but the alternative is far too costly and just ends in bad blood every time.
Originally Posted by
Rut Dog
I was trying to point out the economic incentive that confronts low wage workers all the time. I consider it a failure of the US economic system that we have sub-standard non-living minimum wages and healthcare and financial systems that put tremendous financial pressures on working class people.
These pressures provide very strong motivation for these people to compromise their values. And some of them do.
Possibly so, but most companies have some form of reward system for finding lost and found items and/or
very strict penalties for theft of lost and found items. At one location I'm familiar with, confirmation of theft of a lost and found item is grounds for termination. It's actually pretty rare to find someone willing to trade their job even for a $250 digital camera. I've seen detailers turn in $2,000 digital video cameras without batting an eye.
Oh, and actually, most detailers are not minimum wage.
