Another MTA Story

Well, this is a good story and a not so good story. 

As any employer knows, the strongest impression your customers have about your company comes from their interaction with the people on the front lines, the ones who interact with those customers on a daily basis.  So no matter how cool your ad campaign is, and no matter how strong your social networking strategy is, a simple interaction with one of your employees is all it takes to boost you to the top of your competitive niche or send you to the bottom.

There is an MTA booth at the station where I get on the subway every morning, at East 96th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.  It's a stop on the "6" line that travels from the Bronx all the way down to the Southernmost tip of Manhattan, the Bowling Green stop.

My wallet was stolen sometime around Thanksgiving, and in it (besides the rest of my life), was my special MTA monthly pass.  I had to apply for its replacement and was told it would take several weeks.  So to get my special fare, I had to show up with particular identification at the manned booth and they would issue a pass for one ride.  But that identification was in the stolen wallet, too, so all I had to use was my U.S. passport. 

Now most people would think a passport is about as good as it gets in determining that whoever is holding it--so long as they look like the person in the picture--has proven their identity.  And that is exactly how the lovely woman in the booth responded on my first morning effort to receive a daily pass.  She commiserated about having it stolen and told me that I should assume it may take even more than a few weeks to get the replacement card, but that she'll always take care of me when I show up.

That went on for several days.  Then, one morning I go to the same booth and find a different woman behind the window.  I explain my stolen wallet situation to her and that I can provide my passport for ID.  No deal, she said, we don't accept U.S. passports as proper identification.  I said, "Really, why is that?"  To which she said "Passports are not mentioned in the rule book."  And I said fair enough, they probably couldn't include every possible form of identification in their rulebook, but as is clear, I am indeed the woman in that picture on my U.S. passport's first page.  "Too bad," she said.  "You lose."  (And yes, she did say "You lose.") 

I then said "Gosh, the woman who is here on other days does not have a problem with my using my U.S. passport as identification."  To which she replied, "Well, this should get her in to trouble." 

When I finally got my permanent pass in the mail, I went over to the 96th Street stop and found the first of the two women on duty.  "I just want to thank you for your being so nice to me while I waited for my replacement MTA Metro card, I said."  She was delighted to be thanked.  I then asked her about the other woman and why she refused to honor my passport ID.  "She feels that the rules are more important than the passengers, I guess."

And there you have it, folks.  "The rules are more important than the passengers."  Even if it is clear that to serve them will be a good thing, and not an expense to your company.