“No sir, the hotel is NOT responsible for that…

You didn’t look when you were parking, and drove into our sign. We aren’t responsible for paying for damages to your car.”

Okay, I’ve never had any that bad, but let’s get one thing clear right off the bat: you are wrong. And by “you”, I mean any customer who does stupid shit, not actually you specifically.

Society today, especially in a lot of American businesses (hotels and restaurants tend to be the worst), have taught us one thing. One thing which has been the societal norm for long enough that we still think it applies. That one thing is “the customer is always right”, and I’ve got some news for you.

Maybe not “always” wrong, but when you’re dealing with customer service, odds are that they know their job a lot better than you know their job. The customer ‘always’ being right leads to nightmares for anyone who has ever worked customer service, because some people do some stupid shit.

My friend Mike, who inspired this blog topic, showed me a great website, one that is also hilarious. The URL is http://www.notalwaysright.com, and the site is called “The Customer is Not Always Right”. There are entries from business employees, patrons who witness others doing really stupid things, and anyone really familiar with the customer service industry. Here’s a great example:

SETTING: Fast food restaurant in Texas.
(After ringing up a customer’s order.)
Customer: “Is it too late to make the drink and fries big?”
Employee: “Of course not, let me just charge it.”
Customer, to my manager: “It should be free since she didn’t offer it to me! You should offer it to everyone equally!”
Manager: “I’m sorry sir, she can’t give it to you for free. We’re all human. We all make mistakes.”
Customer: “Well, fine! Next time I want to be helped by someone who isn’t human!”

Yes, there are people who make statements like that. Some of the entries in that site are hilarious in their stupidity, and some are almost unbelievable – unless you’ve dealt with the kind of crazy things that only customer service people deal with. But not all customer service people work against the customer. Here’s an awesome example of an employee sticking up for a customer, told from the customer’s point of view:

SETTING: Grocery store in Virginia
(I’m a customer in the check out line. I’m buying a box of tampons for my mom, who is bedridden after surgery. One of the two customers standing behind me in line speaks up.)
Other customer: “Ha-ha what a p****. He’s buying tampons.”
(I ignore the two and move forwards to the cashier. She’s an attractive girl of about 20 years old.)
Cashier: “$5.71 after the discount.”
(I have no idea what discount she’s talking about, but I pay her and get my change.)
Cashier: *with a smile on her face* “Here you go baby, I’m taking my break now and I’ll see you at home at 8. Just leave the tampons in my car, please.”
(She leans over the counter and kisses me on the cheek. She then turns the light off on the register number and walks off towards the other side of the store. The two customers watched her with their jaws open and angrily walk off to another register.)

Long story short, treat customer service people well, and they’ll treat you well. Act like you’re always right because you are the customer and “How DARE they say you’re not right?”, and you’ll find out just how wrong you are.