If you are treated exceptionally well by someone in the service industry, [View all]

[MineralMan]

let someone in charge know. It's a good thing to do.

Just before I moved from California to Minnesota, I purchased a used moving truck from UHaul to use for the move. I was leaving the state of California about a month later, but had to transfer the title in California before I drove it to Minnesota. It turned out that there were some problems with the smog certification, along with the official previous owner, and the transfer ended up being rather complicated.

The DMV office near where I lived is a busy one. I took all my paperwork there and waited in line for my turn. When I got to the counter, I explained that this was a sort of confusing transfer and I wasn't entirely sure about the paperwork and what the process would be. The clerk was more than helpful, walked me through the process, and sorted out all of the problems. The difficulty included the registered owner of the truck, which was UHaul, but in some other state. Anyhow, it was a real mess. Eventually, we got through the whole thing, with that clerk's patience and resourcefulness in working through the issues helping a great deal.

After I left, I wrote a letter to the director of the DMV in Sacramento, complimenting the clerk who had helped me and voicing my appreciation for the service I got at that local DMV office. In return, I got a letter from the DMV director, along with a copy of the letter sent to the manager at that office.

As it happened, I still had one more thing I had to take care of before leaving the state, and went back, and ended up with the same clerk. She remembered me, thanked me for writing that letter, and pointed over to a frame on the wall of the office. My letter was in the frame.

If someone goes out of their way to assist you in some government office or anywhere, and does great credit to the organization or business they're working for, do something. Write a letter, or just an email, to the highest level person in that organization or business you can identify. It's a big deal for them, and not much trouble for you. Since it so rarely happens, it has a real impact.