Let me come at this from a slightly different angle, by sharing some episodes from my own customer service experience. The other day, I got a phone call from a customer. She immediately demanded to speak to our owner. I asked what this was in regard to, and was told that was "none of my concern." When I had made it clear that he would probably not take a call without knowing at least who the caller was and a brief description of the problem, I was grudgingly told that the problem was something that a) had nothing to do with our owner specifically, and b) was easily fixed by me. If I had made our owner stop what he was doing and come over, I would have wasted his time, my time, and the customer's time. Even less of the customer's time could have been wasted, if she had just communicated the problem to me immediately.

Another scenario happened at Budget constantly. A customer would return a car and want a discount for a problem with the rental. I could physically enter in a discount, but had to have manager's approval to do so. So, I would smile and excuse myself to talk to the manager. The manager would approve the discount, I would come back to the front to apply the discount, and the customer would then want to talk the manager. Our managers, like HD's I'm sure, did many other things other than deal with customer service issues, so often they just didn't have time to come out and deal personally with a customer, especially when the problem had been resolved.

I think what happened in this case was that Luis told Olivia how to handle the problem, and didn't have time to go discuss it further with Wendy. The problem was less with Luis than with Olivia's relaying of the message. Probably Luis said something like, "Go do this and this to fix it, and tell her we're sorry for the inconvenience, but I have to do payroll/paperwork/scheduling/administrative stuff and can't come talk to her." What Olivia then should have done was to come back and say, "Ok, I've talked to my manager. He is right in the middle of someting and can't come out, but instructed me on how exactly to resolve this. If you have further questions, here is his card." (That is a little speech I've been polishing lo these many years in customer service, and it rarely fails me.)

I'm not saying Wendy was wrong, although she did carry the whole thing a bit farther than I probably would have. Of course, having worked in retail, I understand that if you don't really need the manager you are really just wasting your time by demanding one. I realize that people's first instinct when they encounter a problem is to get a manager, but they really aren't necessary for most issues, except to give an employee direction or permission. Once that is done, they generally have no further need to be there.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and off base. Heaven and I both know that there are some truly bad managers out there that let their employees take the heat and refuse to help. Heaven and I both know that I've had them too. If that is the case, I hope Luis is corrected. I don't know that Wendy needs to be informed of how this is dealt with, but it should probably be dealt with if Luis truly is falling down on the job.