The Customer Is Always Right?

[Timbo]

The customer is always right? Wrong!

I was reading an article this morning on the boycotting of retailers and businesses by customers and discovered why I would be no good what so ever working in customer service. You see, it's because I'm getting a bit tired of standing in shops listening to the crap coming out of the pompous, jumped up, obnoxious twonks that think that somehow they are entitled to something for nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bargain and excellent service when I go shopping, but things are getting a tad ridiculous. I was stood behind a well-heeled woman yesterday shouting her mouth off because the supermarket refused to replace the bottle of gin she had allegedly bought, taken home, and had leaked so badly the bottle was empty. The manager on checking the bottle pointed out that the seal was broken, the cardboard packaging was not gin-soaked, the bottle itself did not leak and the cap fastened securely, and the woman did not have a receipt. Fortunately, it was the elderly lady in front of me that intervened "Shame on you!" she scalded the woman who then quickly left the shop and hopped into her new Mercedes car, this time without her free bottle of gin.

This is not an isolated incident. On one of my many trips to a chandlery this year I stood behind a chap that selected quite a pile of 'potential' purchases plonked them on the counter and announced 'you will have to knock 50% off". I started to chuckle when another member of staff served me and pointedly informed me he had 'applied my usual discount'. A bit confused I looked at my bill and he had...10% knocked off, for not being a twonk I assumed.

Probably because I'm a smoker, I'm usually loitering outside shops while my better half is doing the actual hard work of shopping. It's my story and I'm sticking to it. I often hear some quite shocking conversations from customers of the shop as they plan exactly the tactics that they will employ to get free stuff or a discount or a refund and still retain the product. A recent one was 'look they have a trainee, keep her flustered and we will get some money off'. To my mind, this is just as much theft as the hoards of shoplifters that descend on shops now that the silly season is almost upon us. In this instance, I sidled up to the security guard in store and passed on what I'd heard. It was with some satisfaction I noticed the store put an older staff member with the trainee and while the couple dithered over till point the manager graciously opened a till just to serve them.

In the article, I was reading one Tesco customer boycotted the store because a checkout assistant called her 'darling' which was supposedly belittling and derogatory. When the woman complained and was informed she could use another checkout assistant and one would be made available, perfectly reasonable in my mind, she decided to boycott the store. 

As the silly season approaches (notice how I avoided the C word there) please spare a thought for the people who work in retail. Long hours, often unsocial, stressful...on their own as their other half is off mending a boat in Norfolk...ahem

Now my other half who works in retail would like to point out that not all retail staff are downtrodden. The majority of them would not know what 'good customer service' was if it jumped up and bit them on the bum.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Timbo said:

The customer is always right? Wrong!

I was reading an article this morning on the boycotting of retailers and businesses by customers and discovered why I would be no good what so ever working in customer service. You see, it's because I'm getting a bit tired of standing in shops listening to the crap coming out of the pompous, jumped up, obnoxious twonks that think that somehow they are entitled to something for nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bargain and excellent service when I go shopping, but things are getting a tad ridiculous. I was stood behind a well-heeled woman yesterday shouting her mouth off because the supermarket refused to replace the bottle of gin she had allegedly bought, taken home, and had leaked so badly the bottle was empty. The manager on checking the bottle pointed out that the seal was broken, the cardboard packaging was not gin-soaked, the bottle itself did not leak and the cap fastened securely, and the woman did not have a receipt. Fortunately, it was the elderly lady in front of me that intervened "Shame on you!" she scalded the woman who then quickly left the shop and hopped into her new Mercedes car, this time without her free bottle of gin.

This is not an isolated incident. On one of my many trips to a chandlery this year I stood behind a chap that selected quite a pile of 'potential' purchases plonked them on the counter and announced 'you will have to knock 50% off". I started to chuckle when another member of staff served me and pointedly informed me he had 'applied my usual discount'. A bit confused I looked at my bill and he had...10% knocked off, for not being a twonk I assumed.

Probably because I'm a smoker, I'm usually loitering outside shops while my better half is doing the actual hard work of shopping. It's my story and I'm sticking to it. I often hear some quite shocking conversations from customers of the shop as they plan exactly the tactics that they will employ to get free stuff or a discount or a refund and still retain the product. A recent one was 'look they have a trainee, keep her flustered and we will get some money off'. To my mind, this is just as much theft as the hoards of shoplifters that descend on shops now that the silly season is almost upon us. In this instance, I sidled up to the security guard in store and passed on what I'd heard. It was with some satisfaction I noticed the store put an older staff member with the trainee and while the couple dithered over till point the manager graciously opened a till just to serve them.

In the article, I was reading one Tesco customer boycotted the store because a checkout assistant called her 'darling' which was supposedly belittling and derogatory. When the woman complained and was informed she could use another checkout assistant and one would be made available, perfectly reasonable in my mind, she decided to boycott the store. 

As the silly season approaches (notice how I avoided the C word there) please spare a thought for the people who work in retail. Long hours, often unsocial, stressful...on their own as their other half is off mending a boat in Norfolk...ahem

Now my other half who works in retail would like to point out that not all retail staff are downtrodden. The majority of them would not know what 'good customer service' was if it jumped up and bit them on the bum.

The manager on checking the bottle pointed out that the seal was broken, the cardboard packaging was not gin-soaked

Did the lady appear "gin-soaked" instead?

[MauriceMynah]

A friend of mine heard the Tesco advert stating that they would replace any product without argument. HE wondered if they actually would.

He bought an expensive bottle of wine then wrote to Tesco saying that although there was nothing actually wrong with the wine, he couldn't get over how much he'd spent on it and that this worry had marred his enjoyment of the product. Tesco sent him a refund.

This he spent on a bottle of whiskey. He wrote to Tesco saying that although there was probably nothing wrong with it, he had suffered a stinker of a hangover the morning after he'd drunk it. Tesco sent him a refund.

This refund he spent on a real top range blow out meal, all items from Tesco, He wrote to them saying how good the food had been and that he would be recommending the store to all his friends....

.

.

.

Tesco sent him a refund.  

[thingamybob]

I remember a few years ago in a local butchers.  He had a system for reserving fresh Christmas turkeys. The customer pays for the turkey in advance, the butcher dutifully makes an entry in a notebook of the customers name and address and a ticket number and he gives the ticket to the customer. Just before Christmas customers call to pick up their turkeys which had been kept nice and fresh in the butcher's 'fridge.

There was a lady at the counter swearing that she had paid for a turkey but she did not have a ticket and there was no entry in the book. The butcher was having none of it as he was very careful to make the notes and issue the ticket.

The queue stretched outside the shop and down the road as this woman was adamant that she had ordered a turkey and she was blackening the poor butcher's name by the minute. Some people will try just about anything to get a freebee. No doubt she boycotted the shop afterwards but you don't need those sort of customers anyway.

[grendel]

many is the time I have been sent shopping with minimal instruction over the exact product, and when I have arrived home and produced it- been told it is the wrong one and to go back and change it, most occasions I have gone back in and bought the right product, and just deposited the wrong one in the food bank bin on the way out.

[JamesLV]

We sadly see this mentality in our local pub, people eat 3/4s of a meal, then send it back and ask for a refund...

[JamesLV]

You can generally spot the ones who are going to do it from a mile away too. The staffs response is always the same, no refund, just a new meal

[Timbo]

Many moons ago I was working my way through Uni with a job at Pizza Hut. We had a regular lady customer who would visit with her large family every Saturday, order large quantities of food, find something wrong with the meal and expect to pay nothing. This used to annoy me, but as a waiter, it was the managers call not mine, and the woman, her six kids, husband, her mother and father ploughed their way every week through copious amounts of free food. Head office noticed the weekly discrepancy, among others, and sent one of their roving troubleshooters to investigate. The troubleshooter turned out to be a young 'go-getter' who had managed restaurants all over London and didn't stand for any nonsense. 

Saturday arrived and so did the large family. They ordered their usual amounts of food. Over the course of their meal, they tried every trick they knew to get away with not paying. Our new manager was wise to all of them and courteously waited on them himself and made sure everything was exact to their order as it arrived at their table. As the time to settle the bill drew ever nearer the family were starting to get decidedly nervous. The manager presented the bill and retired to the counter to watch them. Finally, the woman approached the till and presented the manager a fingernail.
"I found this in my pizza! I'm not paying for any of the food." said the heavily perspiring woman.
The manager reached into the till drawer and pulled out one of the envelopes used at the time for customer surveys. The manager opened the envelope and indicated to the woman to put the fingernail inside. He then sealed it.
"If no one claims it in forty-eight hours madame...it's yours!" said the manager as he popped the envelope onto his clipboard.
"Now shall we discuss your bill or call the police?"

The police were called as the family did not have the means to pay the bill.
"I'm never coming to this restaurant again!" snarled the woman as the police removed the family from the premises.
"You can be certain of that!" said the manager quite calmly.

[WherryNice]

The motor trade is rife with this sort of thing, I work for a well known German brand and the stuff people seem to think they shouldnt have to pay for is unreal at times not to mention things they have clearly broken/spilt something on, modified etc and feel that the Warranty should cover!
The problem for us is the dreaded customer satisfaction surveys which mean we have to pander to the try it on brigade whilst genuine honest people who dont speak up get sidelined, I think its all very wrong these days and the sooner customer satisfaction surveys get binned off the better IMHO. Good customer service and good value should come as a result of good staff training and business ethics rather than forcing it via survey.


Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

[tjg1677]

I think your pizza hut family now use the ferry inn Timbo.

3 times i have seen the same family pull a similar scam. There is always at least 12 of them and they always seem to cadge at least a free dessert.

Makes me irritatingly incandescent to see thispathetic behaviour and if it happens next time i am there I will be so tempted to make a scene to cause them some well deserved embarrasment..Another thing i despise is when people consider shop assistants and waiters / resses to be fair game for abuse. They just do it to massage an already inflated ego and  think they can get away with it. Its just so wrong as unfortunately most of the time they do get away with it and it needs to be stopped.

[Gracie]

Slightly different but a girl I used to work with would have new beautiful dresses and shoes every time we went on a night out/work do, never wore the same thing twice, I used to think she had some sort of sugar daddy tucked away, by chance I found out that she would order the most expensive clothes from catalogues, wear them, dry clean them and carefully pack them back in original packaging sending them back saying they were the wrong colour or size etc, she said I should try it, amongst other things and the fact I thought it was a tad out of order I couldn't be bothered with all the faffing about. Anyway, I'm not so shallow that I would allow a clothes and shoes obsession take over my life

Grace

[TheQ]

Many, many, years ago I had an after school and Saturday job in a  family run Shoe and clothing shop in a large village. The owner was very wise to the women ( normally teenagers / low twenties) who used to come in on a Saturday morning and buy a new pair of shoes. Then try to return them on the Monday.. The first thing he would do is take the shoes out and look at the soles... You can't hide even an evenings wear ...

[Gracie]

She never sent shoes back only the clothes, I find it difficult to believe that people can do it, be bothered to do it and get away with it in all honesty

Grace

[Bound2Please]

20 minutes ago, Gracie said:

I would allow a clothes and shoes obsession take over my life

Thought as much pmsl

Charlied xx xx :default_kiss:

[addicted]

Many years ago I worked for a very up market shoe company in Old Bond Street London, the Queen and the rest of the female members of the royal family numbered among our clients. Sometimes  customers would take out literally hundreds of  pounds worth of goods on "approval" and think nothing of returning them anything up to a year later!

 

 

Carole

[SteveO]

This reminds me of a documentary I once saw, involving an attempt to introduce an American style  pseudo-customer service culture on the Deutche Bundesbahn (German Railways).  The consultant running the programme was addressing a roomful of middle managers in full lecture mode. When he said "and remember, the customer is always right", a chap (honest but probably foolish and likely now out of a job) stood up at the back of the room and said "No, the customer is not always right. In fact a lot of the time, the customer is a downright idiot". 

As someone who worked in various customer-facing roles in my early life, I can only sympathise.

Cheers Steve