Guarantees II... Last week's Dispatch, Staubach: "I Guarantee It" (May 11) generated some interesting comments on guarantees. Apparently only one other real estate transaction firm in the U.S., NAI Stoneleigh Huff Brous McDowell, located in Dallas, offers a written guarantee of quality service.

Here's how Sanders Thompson explains it. "When we opened our doors at NAI Stoneleigh 10 years ago, we offered an Unconditional Service Guarantee that simply states, 'If for any reason, you are not satisfied with the service you receive from our company, we will refund our fee to you or any portion that you feel is fair.' It is the standard by which our agents and staff function and is a key differentiator for us."

Thompson praises Leonard Berry, professor at Texas A&M University and author of Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success, who believes that "unconditional service guarantees should be a key concept in the service industry." And Thompson concludes, "I really don't understand why others are reluctant to stand behind their services."

Although I did receive skeptical comments about the practical application and effectiveness of providing guarantees, one reader (an ex-corporate real estate director) wrote about a positive experience when his leasing transaction met a "bump in the road" in the mid-1980s: "The Staubach Company guarantee of satisfaction is NOT new, nor is it an empty promise."

BTW, several Dispatch readers corrected my football history. The Cowboys actually dominated in the 1970s, not 1980s, winning the Super Bowl in 1972 and 1978. As a 49er fan, I wanted to repress bad memories of Dallas whipping San Francisco all those years (before Joe Montana)!

--Peter Pike