The customer is always right?

[Cali]

After today, I'm mostly convinced that no, they are not.

Especially not when they've been shouting, swearing and been very aggressive for 45 minutes and then say this to me. It took all my self-control not to tell the guy to get the hell out of my shop today.

We eventually had to call the police to get him removed.

I will likely go into more detail after I have had some sleep, but while I'm busy doing that - has anyone got any horror stories along similar lines? I figure it will be a good venting thread.

 

[Trekker4747]

"The customer is always right."

Many years after the man who coined that phrase said it even *he* admited that that theory had limits.

 

[The Sneeze Police]

I have noticed that in the last ten years that a few people are increasingly rude and aggressive. They thinking nothing of hurling onscenities, calling names and making threats to call my superiors (I am usually in favor of this and encourage these people to go on up the food chain.) I really do not understand this increasing loss of civility.

That being said, I find most of the public to be reasonable and polite even when there is a difference of opinion.

 

[Neutrino]

The customer is NEVER right.

 

[EnsignRicky]

The customer is always right. The "wrong" ones get refused service and asked to leave the store.

 

[RandyS]

Yes, the customer is always right, but they have no right to act like jerks.

My theory anyway, make of it what you will.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

The customer is always the customer and should be treated as such.

However, there are times that the customer is wrong. If I go to an electronics store and want to buy a top of the line big screen TV for $2.50, I'm wrong. If I get aggressive and confrontational about it, I'm an asshole on top of it.

But, the customer is not an annoyance to be dealt with and hustled out as quickly as possible, either.

 

[Lindley]

It's simple. If the customer is always right, then those who are wrong must not be customers. Simply apply a different label to them and you're set.

 

[M'Sharak]

The customer is always right?

Nope. Quite often the opposite, in fact.

 

[TheBrew]

It's simple. If the customer is always right, then those who are wrong must not be customers. Simply apply a different label to them and you're set.

I like this.

 

[Kelso]

Fuck the customer.

They're the amateur and you're the professional. What the hell do they know?!?


Unless you need your job, that is. In that case you may want to just suck it up.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

No comment. I worked in retail and now in customer service.

 

[RoJoHen]

The customer is as right as you are able to make them feel because it's usually not worth arguing with them.

But even the customer needs to understand that every business has limits to what they can do.

 

[jamestyler]

The customer is rarely right.

The most annoying one recently has been a client I've worked with for about six years now. Even when I took on other jobs, I still kept his site as a sideline (as I also wrestled for him). Most sites in our line of work are very basic, very primitive. I developed something more advanced, more interactive, regularly updated content, spent a lot of time testing what worked and what didn't, a lot of time, research and money went into it's development.

A month or so ago he asked me if I could 'streamline' it. I fixed a few things that were on the to-do list, he liked. But he repeated the comment and asked if we could have a calendar, a page with pictures and nothing else.

I had to explain in great detail the thing that made our site stand out from everyone else was that people actually came to our site. We made use of it and earned a silly amount of unique hits per month. Instead of just having a site for the sake of it, we were actually using it as part of a marketing strategy. The strategy makes people buy tickets, DVD's and come to our school. This is a good thing.

The debate still goes on, not just with him either. There are also clients who I spent time finding the easiest possible CMS for and they tell me that logging in, typing news and clicking the post button is too difficult for anyone to use.

I'd love the job, if it weren't for the people.

 

[DeafPoet]

The customer is always deserving of professional respect, even when they're being a prick. But they're not always right. In fact, given that you're serving them chances are you're the one with the expertise in the field in question.

If you're good at what you do you're right and that's why the customer's there in the first place. I think that particular old adage is meant to suggest that you should act in the customer's best interests rather than meaning that you should roll over when the customer wants you to.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I think the general theory is that, if you give the customer what he wants, he'll be back. But that has limits (he'll probably be back wanting the same kind of deal, so make sure you can afford it). Aside from that, they should be treated with respect even if they're idiots, but they aren't always right.

 

[Michael]

If I am the customer, then yes, I'm always right.

 

[Angry Angel]

I always had simple rules. If they start to yell, scold or treat me or anyone else with disrespect we start talking attitude and not content and I would clearly state how the rest of the conversation was going to be. If they then cross any of my now clearly stated rules I'd ask them to remove themselves out of my sight and that of my coworkers and clients.
I had no interest in people who weren't there to talk reason or see reason. Clearly it was not the best time for them to sit down and talk like grownups.
Ah, how I miss social housing

 

[JoeZhang]

Fuck the customer.

They're the amateur and you're the professional. What the hell do they know?!?

Well that depends - I know plenty more on many subjects that some guy struggling to hold down a minimum wage job because he left school at 16. PC stores are particular bad, most of the staff can read the tech spec at you but have no idea what any of it means...

 

[judge alba]

i have to agree the customer is right but up to a point.
like the other week we had shut off a path at work because the rain had washed the supporting earth from under it leaving only a 4 inch thich layer of concrect between the blocks and the lake/pond below anyways bthis bloke with his family demanded he crosses it to get to his car five minutes earlier. after exlaining to him twice the pat was unsafe and he would have go the other way he demanded a manager who came down where suddenly the bloke claimed i was rude and insulted his family (none of which was true). the manager bollicked me in front of the customer and allowed him thruogh.
of course the path went from under him and i smugly walked away as he was fished out of the mud and shouted he was going to sue my work.
dispite him and a few like him i do keep a civil tounge in my head since i've learned that even when they are yelling and screamng at me it winds them up all the more when i cooly tell them where customer services are, there they may find someone who gives a dam.