A while ago I wrote about my misadventures in a major chain grocery store. (iirc, it was in my blog, which I have since deleted entirely).
Basically, they had a policy there to fold the receipt in half (where the name of the customer is printed) and say, "Thank you Mr. ___/Ms. ___! Have a great day!" or somesuch. But when I'd pay for my stuff, they'd fold it, read my name silently, then "Thank you! Have a great day!"
After a month of this, I talked to the manager...and a month later, I sent an email to "Corporate"...and 3 days later I get a call from Mr. Manager, very polite, very apologetic, he doesn't want to offend, sorry, yada yada...he assured me that he and the new asst manager (from Portland OR, which has a significant LGBT population) will bring the clerks up to speed on this issue of respect, etc etc.
So, I'm happy.
For a couple weeks.
Then I notice
none of the clerks are reading the names to anyone, and when they say "thank you" they're not too sincere-sounding. In fact, I catch a couple of the clerks almost tossing the receipts at the customers!
When I get my turn, the clerk doesn't even glance towards me, he just says the total, and starts ringing up the next person...

WTH, over? Did my complaint cause the store to change policy? From my perspective (and I will be calling the manager on this), it looks like they tried to get everyone there to use the customer's name as per past practice, but some clerks were adamant that they weren't going to address me by my name...perhaps they were threatened with being fired, so ALL the clerks decided to be asses and be rude to everyone...
Or the manager (or Corporate) decided to make a policy of not addressing customers by name, to avoid any potential lawsuit? What a loss...they used to be a very friendly store, where I enjoyed shopping.
*sigh*
Jeez! How hard is it to simply greet another human being with the name they prefer?