Is the customer always right?

I believe we have all heard the statement; "a customer is always right" but is this correct? I believe the reason why this statement is popular is that a seller or a person providing a service wouldn't want to do anything that will make a potential customer avoid doing business with them, even if it means agreeing with whatever wrongdoing a customer does.

But in my opinion, I see that statement as complete bullsh*t. It has resulted in situations where a customer becomes too rude because they know that they will still be treated like royalty by the business owner who needs their money. One thing I have realized is that this statement mostly applies to rich customers; the business owner can't afford to get on the bad side of their rich clients, so they take whatever insult and bad attitude that is portrayed by some of these rich folks.

I have seen something like this happening in a bank, I didn't exactly know what happened but I remember a man raining insults on one of the bank cashiers and the poor lady was just sitting quietly at her counter without being able to say anything. Other customers tried defending her but the man kept verbally abusing her and at one point, the bank manager came out and quickly took the man into his office. Minutes later, both of them came out smiling.

After the man left, I heard that he was a very big client of the bank and that's why nobody could do anything to him while he was on a rampage. I'm pretty sure that if a person who isn't rich tries such in the bank, they will be immediately whisked off the bank premises by security but since it's someone wealthy and having huge money deposits with the bank, they let it slide.

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Have I experienced such a situation?

Yes, I have. This happened in 2017 when I was working in a computer center. A new customer came one day and told me that he wanted to type some documents and I told him that the price was N100 per page and he told me to just start typing immediately because he is in a hurry. So I started the work immediately, with him sitting beside me while I type.

He kept complaining that my typing speed is very slow (which is a lie because my typing speed is well above average) and he also complained about a lot of other things. His constant complaining kept me on edge and I was angry while typing the document. I finally finished the whole document while still very angry and I counted the pages, it was 5 pages long and I told him that his bill is N500.

He immediately went into an episode and started saying his bill is N350 (N70 per page). I suppressed the urge to pour my already boiling anger on him and I calmly reminded him that I mentioned the price of a page before I started typing and he agreed to it, but he called me a liar and insisted that I never told him about the price before I started typing. I kept quiet. I then told him that I'm not going to give him the document if he doesn't make the full payment, and that was when he went crazy.

He started shouting and raining insults on me but I remained calm and told him that if he gets tired of shouting, then he should leave my store. My boss worked in the Federal inland revenue office that is close to the computer center and he came after someone made a call to him that a man is causing problems. My boss arrived and after hearing what the man has to say and also my side of the story, he told me to just give the man the document and accept the money from him, but I REFUSED!

I wanted to teach the man a lesson that he can't just walk over a person even when he knows he is wrong. I told my boss to go back to his work and I will handle the rest. My boss trusts me, so he left the whole issue and went back to work, which is exactly what I wanted. I turned back to the man and told him to do his worst. He couldn't say anything at that point and kept looking at me.

I then told him that I won't even accept the full payment from him even if he decides to pay it and I just want him to get out of the premises or he is welcome to keep me company as I attend to other customers. I ignored him and started working on something else, and he shamefully left after a while. He went to another store but everyone who saw what happened rejected him, and I smiled at the way things turned out.

Rounding off

In a normal situation, I would have agreed with him and accepted the money he proposed but his attitude made me refuse and insisted he paid fully. Some customers have actually pleaded with me that they didn't hear when I mention the price initially and I accepted the money they offered but this particular person was very rude and tried to use his power as a customer to force me to agree.

My boss almost saved him but he didn't realize I'm a very stubborn person and wouldn't let it go. I hate it when a customer does something wrong but still tries to pretend that they are right, I won't hesitate to put that person in their place even if it means losing them as a customer. We shouldn't trade our self-esteem and put ourselves on the ground for someone else to step on, all because they are doing business with us, we deserve better than that.

Thanks for reading

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