The customer is always right? I don't think so!

[Bella_Vixen]

AnqeiicDemise, I am utterly speechless. That's a load of crap.

[Bright_Star]

How could the phrase "the customer is always right" make any sense if you have store managers bend over backwards to please these customers when in actuality what's really happening is theft of services by deception?

[MoonChild2007]

the customer is right until proven wrong. That's the way I see it. Sometimes customers are right but those are the people who don't bitch, yell, scream at you. They understand but its wrong. Now you know, those customers who yell at you are the ones who have something to hide Espeically when it comes to credit cards. The customers who are calm are the ones who are trustworthy and if we tell them we can't use it, they understand and will walk off. You are innocent, why need to make a scene?

[AnqeiicDemise]

If there is another phrase I hate more than "customers are always right" I cannot think of one.

I know exactly how you feel-- there is nothing more obnoxious than being told by the higher ups to proceed with protocol only to contradict you in front of an insolent customer.

A few years ago, I worked at a Little Caesars/K Cafe. Our policy was to give a free pizza whenever a customer was dissatisfied with their pizza so long as the customer brought it to our attention promptly or had a receipt.

I'd just gotten promoted to Crew Leader (one step below ASM) and was being briefed on what my job duties were when a tall, cranky, older man walked through the door and starts heading our way. Conversation proceeds as follows:

Y: my manager
C: me
M: Store Manager, Head Honcho, The Godfather (guy whose word goes above all elses)
SC: sucky customer.


At this point, I'm being pulled aside to the back kitchen by my manager.
Y: Oh man, did you see that guy?
C: who?
Y: the big creepy old guy in the black trench coat.
C: yeah, what about him?
Y: oh he's a big pain in the ass. He's a regular guy-- always comes in, orders the same thing, goes away with pizza, then bitches about it.
C: do you mean he takes it home?
Y: Most of the time he does. Sometimes he eats it here. Whatever happens DO NOT give in to him. DO NOT give him a free pizza. He abuses our policies. Now I have to go to lunch, I'll be back in half an hour. Can you handle it?
C: -mock salute- yes'm. I shall not let him get away with the free pizza if he complains.
Y: atta girl.


So she goes off for lunch. He orders. I PERSONALLY make the pizza. I even had someone else attend the cash register while I took it out and stuff. I mean, I was NOT going to have another person involved with this guy and his meal just in case he'd blame a mistake on another person's part. (This guy was so anal he had me repeat the order seven times.)

For all that's holy, I even go through the trouble of PRESENTING the pizza to him before he walks away and ask if all is okay.

He goes, sits down with the large pizza and proceeds to inhale it all. Only when he has two pieces (out of ten) left, he hobbles over to me and says:

SC: It was burnt.
C: excuse me?
SC: the pizza was burnt. I demand a new one.
C: My apologies. May I have the pizza I just gave you? I'll switch it over with a new one.
SC: um...
C: what's the matter sir?
SC: I ate it.
C: In that case, I cannot give you a new one sir.
SC: but it was BURNT!
C: But you still deemed it good enough to eat, then demand a new one.
SC: but I wasn't satisfied.
C: you *ate* it.
SC: but I wasn't satisfied and I want a new one.
C: I can't do that. You ate the whole pizza.
SC: but---
C: The next time there is something wrong with your pizza, just bring it over here immediately and I will be more than happy to exchange it for a fresh one. I cannot, however, give you a new one after you consumed a whole thing.
SC: This is RIDICULOUS! I always eat here! Where's your manager? She ALWAYS gives me a free pizza whenever I'm not satisfied.

After much arguing and my kindly reminding him that our 'satisfaction' guarantee does not imply the satisfaction of his full belly rather than his taste buds and that he needs to remove himself before I call security, he storms off. (he was getting violent, by slamming his fists on the sneeze guard and yelling)


TEN MINUTES LATER, I see SC, Y *and* M coming my way.

The look on Y's face is one of sheer anger, M is calm and SC looks smug.

SC: THIS! -he points at me- is the most rude, obnoxious and self-righteous person I have ever dealt with.
Y: He says his pizza was burnt, C.
M: why didn't you give him his pizza?
C: Because he ATE 80% of his pizza, threw away the remainder and demanded a new one. You've both told me that I shouldn't give away free pizzas when someone eats the whole thing. How--
Y: you should have given him his pizza.
M: I'm so sorry about this. I am sure C will make you a fresh one.
SC: I want Crazy bread too. And I want the large ones.
M: you'll get your crazy bread too.
SC: and marinara sauce.
M: You know what? WE'll give you two bins of sauces. How's that?
SC: Can I have a second pizza?
M: Sure, we'll give you a SECOND pizza... and because I understand how troublesome this was, we'll also give you a $25 gift certificate for the store.

And as I'm standing there, baffled, at the verge of tears as I hear what the store manager is conceding to this bastard, Y turns to me and says "Customer's always right."



I didn't even get so much as an apology.... then got in trouble for giving him another free pizza when he came in a month later even though he ate the whole damned thing too!

[Sliceanddice]

I know what i would have done with the your second guy, greensinestro.
As soon as he was done reading his bill, i would have just sat there and not said a word. And would have done this for as long as possible.
Until the guy yelled "Well, what do you have to say about this"
and then i would have just said "Oh I'm sorry i was waiting for you to finish. Here let me connect to someone one who knows when your done talking." and just transfer him over to collections... but then he would just hang up.

[greensinestro]

And on top of that, now they're encouraged to try the same tactics wherever they go. They think they're paying too much for a hotel room, bitch about it! French fries a little on the cold side, bitch about it! And i'm certain they're telling their friends and family about how they "told off" the pissant employee and "intimidated" the manager into getting them what they want.

And good employees being blamed for it? That's another injustice.

Dammit! I hate it when customers get away with it!!!

Florida Power and Light, our power company in South Florida, has a way of "biting back" at customers that behave the same way with other companies other than just their phone service. A while back, many customers, particularly the rich retirees, were calling in about how their meter readers were inaccurately reading the wrong numbers and demanding them to be re-read. Now, when I get a bill from FPL, it states a $20 fee will be charged for a re-reading. After this came about, I believe the calls tapered off tremendously being the first few times, they would send out a different meter reader, and the guy would come up with the same results.

I also believe the water companies have this same rule in place due to this. But, yes, I am sure some of these people still call, and somehow bitch the charges out of existance. However, water and power companies right now do not have the competition that the phone and cable companies have.

[greensinestro]

Ouch, those were some painful stories to read . . . My condolences with having to deal with those SCs, greensinestro. Those SCs need to get over themselves and realize that they're other people in the world other than themselves. Trying to get people fired over a phone call . . . how asinine is that?

And the phone bill? Wow, I didn't think a person could get away with stuff like that . . . That's not fair to the rest of us who do pay our bills . . .

I, too, think that phrase should be banned . . . it's no way to run a business. Or used only when the customer truly is right . . .

Thanks for your support on that. Yeah, I just don't think customers like this "get over themselves" as you and I think they should. You cannot change a person's nasty, shitty behavior no matter how polite you are to them. What also aggravated me with these stories, particularly with Valerie, was the fact that although I fought the write ups and won, the damage had still been done by these customers, and they were still free to commit their spree of "crimes". Now, to this day, I have no idea what's up with them being I no longer work for Bellsouth, but last I checked, which was about two years ago, they were both up to their scheming ways. Valerie is just a nasty person in general (I never had her full account info, since operators don't have access to that information), and this second guy was up to his usual scheming, but some managers stopped giving in to him. One even flagged his account for "abuse", and the claim was that the company was not profiting from this guy. In other words, someone finally saw that this guy would be better off with a competitor, ripping them off.

[Enjis]

When it comes to ticket switching, if I can catch it, I will usually RIP the ticket in half in front of the customer, saying "Oh, I'm sorry, this isn't the right ticket for this piece. SOMEONE must have switched it."
Customer then says "Well, it wasn't me! I just found it on the rack that way."
Me "I'm not saying that you did this (sir/madam), I'm just saying that SOMEONE did. Sorry"
"You have to give it to me at this price!"
"No, I don't, not when it is attemped theft...even tho YOU didn't do it."
(most theives will leave pretty quickly upon being discovered, so an arguement seldom happens.)

Do they think I will believe that some 'magical' ticket-switching faerie goes around switching high price tags for low ones, and them leaving them on racks for good little customers to find?

[ArenaBoy]

Again, I hate that phrase as it just translates to "I have every right to be an asshole and get whatever the hell I want!" I have that phrase thrown at me now and then and RK is right, it's somewhat of a last resort when folks aren't getting what they want.

I've laughed in someone's face before. In fact, I once managed to do this in the bakery along the way from us when the customer said it to the staff there. Mind you, they were laughing at said customer as well.

Rapscallion

One of my many perks of my job is I'm allowed to laugh at customer's idiocy. I usually reserve it for the stupidest things such as when they throw that phrase or when someone tries to bribe me $5. That has happened by the way.

[Rapscallion]

I've laughed in someone's face before. In fact, I once managed to do this in the bakery along the way from us when the customer said it to the staff there. Mind you, they were laughing at said customer as well.

Rapscallion

[SuperB]

*My* response to that asinine phrase.... "The customer is usually a pain in the ass".
(and I have said that to customers)

[Pinkie]

[QUOTE=shelly2jn;72764].my response "Not when the situation involves attempted theft....now if you just hang on I'll go and rewind the security cameras to double check how this "mistake" happened.

Great response Shelly2jn!!! I wish I had thought of that during my days at Pier1. That sort of crap happened all the time.

[shelly2jn]

One of our cashiers called me over from the CSD to verify the price of a pair of shoes. The shoes were ringing at full price but had a very dodgy looking sale sticker on them. The sticker was torn and tatty and had in all likelyhood been ripped off something else. So I told the customer to hang on while I checked with someone from the clothing dept. As I thought, the shoes were new in and most certainly not in the sale. Explain to customer that "someone" had put the sticker on there from another sale item and the shoes were not on sale. So she trots out the line.....my response "Not when the situation involves attempted theft....now if you just hang on I'll go and rewind the security cameras to double check how this "mistake" happened.

SC can you do that?
Me: yeah, should only take a few minutes
SC: I changed my mind, forget it, don't look at the cameras! - runs for the door
Me:

[SCSlave]

It kills me that some managers allow the customer to get away with everything, and then blame the employee...who was following company policy!! Where I work...if it's company policy...it's company freaking policy and that's that. I've heard a few people say "What about 'The Customer is Always Right'?!?!" That never ever flies in our store.

Ever.

That phrase should be abolished. Or modified to "The customer thinks he's always right"

And Managers who allow the customers to get away with everything by pitching a fit should be dealt with by the higher ups. They are not following the rules, they are deliberately defying company policy. If you don't have a backbone, you shouldn't be Management.

And greensinestro? I hope you don't still work for those jerks. I'm sorry...but that's just wrong. It's bad enough you have to deal with crappy customers all day, but when your management also makes you look stupid, that makes it doubly hard. I worked in a call center for a few years (As God is my witness, I shall never do it again) and the management was pretty much the same way. I hated that job---not so much for all the SC's calling in, but the way we were treated by managers.

Now, the job I have now...the SC's are just as bad as in the call center, but now I get to deal with them face to face (yay for me) So, obviously, it sucks. BUT I'd never leave it because the supervisor and my co-workers are the best on Earth. We all have each other's backs. If anyone complains to a supervisor about one of us....(always an embellished story) and says "So and so said this...or said that...blah blah" She either says "Well I don't blame her." Or "Oh now I don't believe that for a second" And she always has the sweetest smile on her face as she says it.

[SnapAddict218]

Anakah: I completly agree. They [managment] apease the customer by saying "I'll deal with them accordingly", thinking that it's an empty phrase. Just something to say, that's meaningless, just to calm them down. But it's not. How many posts are on here about customers making a special trip back to a store (or a special call in to the call center) just to let you know that they were the ones that "got you in trouble with your boss"? It makes the rep look like a jerk, and the customer honestly believes that their little scheme worked, so that next time if they get the same rep (or even if they don't, we know how SC news travels), there wont be a "fight" about the rules. Tales like Greensinestro's make my blood boil.

Pinkie: Yea, they said our call audits were "random" too, but anything under a minute or over 6 minutes wasn't considered. Never failed either, you have a rough call and BAM! That's the one the audit you on, but the ones that go just peachy you never heard a thing on.