6 Tales Of Hilariously Awesome Customer Service

I work at a financial institution that has branches around the world. So we are literally open 24/7/365: even Christmas day. We got a call one night from someone who was in a Target trying to buy a computer system. The clerk had run her card without apparent luck about six times trying to get an approval. In fact the transaction had been approved each time so now all the customer's funds were tied up in 3 day merchant holds. We can release those holds if the merchant faxes us a signed non-collect statement which must include the approval code. They never received the approval codes because their system kept timing out. So Target is keeping the store open to help this lady out, we are requesting information they don't have, and our member is getting frustrated over the whole situation. That's where I came in: escalated phone call to the supervisor. I'm pretty much stuck on policy for a bit trying to come up with a solution. We require the approval code to verify it actually is the merchant making the request to release the funds from their hold. Then I had a rare (for me) flash of inspiration. I confirmed with the store clerk her customer was buying a computer which implyed they were in the electronics dept. So I asked the clerk to use one of their cameras to take a picture of the two of them with something that says Target in the background. Our member had to be holding her card up but covering the numbers. Oh, and they both had to be smiling. I gave them my fax number to send me the picture. They did, I released the holds, the customer got her computer, Target was able to close, and I had a great story to use to get our reps to ignore the box. Sorry so long.