It's The Little Things That Make Life Such A Big Deal!
Posted by PlumFairy on 10/8/2009, 6:20 pm, in reply to "It's about time"
66.81.240.6
....for a national chain, been one of the worst places for service dog users across the nation. I have never figured out why they were not compliant, you'd think it would be better for their company. This is what was needed, finally. A lot of SD users were happy to hear it.
Another company which is a big problem, but a little more difficult to regulate, has been AAA. There have been numerous cases of people who's cars have broken down, and the tow truck drivers have told them to leave their service dogs in the car, on the side of the road, while they are driven somewhere. That, of course, is unacceptable.
As it turns out, like their magazines, AAA is divided by regions, and someone I know took on AAA in her region...south-something, I think....and they changed their policy.
Since AAA doesn't keep a fleet of trucks, they hire out to tow truck companies in towns in their region, so it's very difficult to have a uniform rule, and training, in place.
What the region she lives in did, was to put people well versed on the subject on the phones 24-7, and tell their tow truck sub-contractors to call the number if they had a question. They have explained the law to them, but now there's someone they can speak with at any time on the matter, so there's no excuse about being the middle of the night etc. And any complaints from customers is dealt with swiftly.
The odd thing is, they will not extend this to their other regions. Each region will have to be taken to task seperately, and put their own system in place, as though they are actually different companies, without a parent company.
I know that a cpl of people are working on the issue in their areas, hoping to "fix" the problem before they have to use the company, but there's a lot of draw in time, and energy, to do so, and many people don't have that kind of stamina and energy to put into it, when they have current access issues of other types they are dealing with. (hotels, supermarkets, etc.) The woman who caused the changes in her region had to work for nearly 2 years, and deal with a lot of harshness to get to the point they are at now.
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Love All Life, Thank You For Posting! :)