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

[theredbaron47]

If the phrase had any sort of truth to it at all, there would be need for company or corporate policy anymore.

[AirHostess]

I HATE this phrase...if an irate customer stabs an employee that is illegal...and the phrase 'the customer is always right' has no bearing on the matter! It's not a legal statement, just a stupid made up phrase.

[mattm04]

The person who trained me at my job said the customer is sometimes right. Sadly managers don't follow the same rules.

We have one "customer" who is always getting a old sale price or some markdown because she complains to the manager until they give in. We only have one manager who will stand up for the employees and follow policy.

[Dark-Star]

The phrase is not wrong per se, just obsolete.

100 years ago the customer was usually right because he or she was smart enough to know what was right AND didn't demand the impossible except out of desperation.

Today, we have multiple generations of entitlement-minded snots, many of whom get 'educated' in quality public schools (ha.) and whose parents took the advice of Dr.Spock and co. over thousands of years of parenting knowledge. People are accustomed to getting what they want, no matter how physically impossible, at the drop of a hat.

[tropicsgoddess]

"The customer is always right" is such a bullshit phrase, yet so many of the corporate zombies of customer service and retail (along with SC's) spout that religiously.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

you know, i'm surprised no one else has pointed out dilbert
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilber...7166661101.gif
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilber...7113333102.gif

ratbert puts it very well.

Linky no worky. Both of them.

[greensinestro]

Everyone should read this link to see if the title of this thread also applies.

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=20232

[Alpha Strike]

The sad part about a lot of these situations and stories is that while the customer sucks (which we expect), things are made so much worse for all parties by weak, spineless or incompetent management.

[allniter]

I used to work for comcast as a telephone rep back in the early days when it was called AT&T broadband.

I remember we had this crazy woman who constantly would call us up trying to get some poor agent to change her ex-boyfriend's email password so she could read his mail. After several successful attempts, the boyfriend managed to convince the higher up in the company to give him a secure password that could only be changed through a special procedure. As well, the company made it a firing offense for anyone in tech to change his password, for any reason.

For the week she would call in six times a day trying to change the password but got nowhere. Until finally she got this stupid idiot of a technician who bowed to her request. She was fired the next day for incompetence and failing to follow company procedure. What I still can't figure out is she knew who this woman was, knew what would happen to her and went ahead and did it. I guess maybe she wanted a new job with two weeks pay for being fired (I'm in Canada, we have such great laws ) but still how dumb can you be to try and proclaim your innocence like she did. Insanity.

[Enigma]

I've never had a problem with a customer yelling that at me, because there comes a point that the customer, is in fact dead wrong. I want to strangle your supervisors, I mean seriously, when I worked in a call center my supervisor gave me permission to make a final decision on what the customer was owed (most people have to check it with him first, he trusted me to make a good decision), and a lot of times, if the call was escalated, the customer would end up with less.

Maybe I was lucky, because if I would have gotten those calls, my supervisor would have laughed at her and told her to grow up, then we would have laughed over it together and forgot about it. Plus, most of my managers understand how ridiculous customers can be, sounds too me like your sup's were trying to save their own skin.

If people are spoon-feeding idiots, then we will never see the end of SC's.

[greensinestro]

ugh! people like that should be shot with their own shit. i had an old job like that where my supervisor would NEVER help me out. would completely drive me up the freaking wall.
do you still work for that company? i would tell them where to stick it. or at least after ever time they cave for a customer i would ask them what it felt like being able to just give $$$ of the companies money away.

I know the feeling. I recall a moment years ago when a co-worker of mine was complaining about how this one customer really pissed her off because she told her supervisor how rude she was. This lady was never, ever rude to anyone and had a great record for over ten years. No matter what, even though there was no proof and no recording of the actual call, this lady had a black mark put in her file all because of what the customer said. Her manager's reply is, "Look, this customer made a complaint, and the moment they come up to the in-charge desk, they are right!" WTF? It's almost as bad as people who maliciously make up a lie about someone being a child molester when they aren't, just to get a thrill out of changing someone's life in an instant. This lady's career was now on the line for this, but months later, the mark was removed when the Union stepped in for her.

[Slow-Jo]

ugh! people like that should be shot with their own shit. i had an old job like that where my supervisor would NEVER help me out. would completely drive me up the freaking wall.
do you still work for that company? i would tell them where to stick it. or at least after ever time they cave for a customer i would ask them what it felt like being able to just give $$$ of the companies money away.

[LifeCarnie]

Oh, and interesting note, the guy who supposedly came up with the phrase? Let's play Follow The Link...

http://www.ipadventures.com/blog/archives/000093.html

I couldn't find the reference on that blog, but from what I remember from my Management of Business class, the slogan "The Customer is always right." was the personal slogan of the founder of Nordstroms and was their corporate motto for years. Apparently, it is actually written in stone on the floor of the entryway to their first store, which is in Seattle, WA. At least it was there when the store opened, I don't know if it still is there.

Apparently, there was just a lecture on the subject at Loyola Marymount:

http://www.lmu.edu/PageFactory.aspx?PageID=40525

This also a pretty interesting read.

http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/w...tomer-service/

[smileyeagle1021]

you know, i'm surprised no one else has pointed out dilbert
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilber...7166661101.gif
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilber...7113333102.gif

ratbert puts it very well.

[qaxons]

This is why I'm glad I got out of The Trenches... I always quit places before I got fired for standing up against a scammer. Let them deal with it was my policy. I got really jaded and cynical after my first job fired me because the cleaning supplies made me cripplingly sick every night for the whole two weeks I lasted.

What's even worse is when they fire you for standing up for a coworker. There's a bunch of times when I was two inches from a fistfight with an SC over something they'd said to a coworker that got my fur up.

Eh, I shop online, or only go out when I know I want something specific, and I make a point never to be an SC.

I don't have any really good tails of this line being brought out from the working side, but I've heard it used a couple of times. Usually when they were, as that Dr. from Scrubs would put it... Wrong wrong wrong wrong... Wrong wrong wrong wrong... You're wrong...

CM: Cashier & Manager (former boss no less!)
SC: ... g'duh?

CM: Okay, with your coupons, that'll be... 159.38
SC: What!? but I did that tally myself at home, it should only be like 150!
CM: Ma'am, the coupons are added before tax. With coupons and tax, they are 159.38
(The SC had purchased about 300 dollars worth of goods, and had a coupon for Every. Damn. Item.)
SC: I only have 150 left on my stamps! This is outrageous! It should be less than 150 dollars!
CM: (not giving an inch) I'm sorry ma'am, the coupons made the total <a number I can't remember>, but tax makes it $159.38
SC: Don't you know that the customer is always right? I want to see a manager!
CM: I am the manager on duty right now ma'am.
SC: I want to see your manager!
CM: He is on vacation and will not be back until Thursday (It was Monday). If you want to, we can wait until he returns and deal with the situation or you can pay with another method of payment, or return at a later time when you have the money. (300 dollars worth of reshop? Ouch...)
SC: *sputters* Fine! I'm filing a complaint with your boss when he returns! *she then takes out a 10 dollar bill and pays the rest with her EBT (the new way of doing food stamps, apparently)*