In my experience in a number of industries and price points, when you hear “the customer is always right” coming from the customer, then 99% of the time they are just fucking with you. It’s a big red flag.
I’d wager that that will carry over to within a few decimal places of ALL industries.
Every time I hear it, they are dead wrong, but insisting you go along for the ride.
I demand you take my 8 month old hardware back as a full exchange for your brand new model of hardware!
Sorry sir, we don’t exchange used hardware. Sell it on eBay and buy the new hardware.
But…BUT YOU HAVE TO! THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT AND I’M THE CUSTOMER!!!
No sir, you’re not right. We don’t take back used hardware and we certainly don’t trade it for new stuff at no charge. Man up, sell the old model and buy the new one if you really want it.
BUT I’M THE CUSTOMER!
Yes, you are. But we’re not stupid.
But you never told me that you were coming out with new hardware!
Every tech business in the world is constantly coming out with new hardware. You bought the previous model when it was new. You have presumably been happy with it for eight months, which is seven and a half months past when you could return it. So live with it, or sell it on your own and buy the new hardware, but in either case, we are not taking it back and giving you the new model for free. No company in the world does that. Thanks for calling, have a nice day.
From a services perspective, my favorite is when people complain about my rates as an IT Security consultant. Now, I only do consulting work as favors for people I know, so they’re already getting sweetheart rates–and I have an ironclad rule that if you don’t like the estimate, and accuse me of ripping you off, my rates go up by double.
Generally speaking that STILL ends up being less than anyone else will quote them, interestingly enough. There are a lot of people who are used to getting freebie IT service from the neighbor kid who is a “computer whiz” who don’t really have any idea on God’s green earth of A) the kind of work a professional computer tech/IT guy does or B) how much it really costs to get someone who is trained and experienced to get it done.
Sure, this doesn’t matter on a bog standard home workstation–but if that’s the case, why isn’t the customer building it themselves or buying it at Best Buy instead of griping about my rates?
I am reminded of one of the tales in actsorgord.com where the customer demands to only pay the wholesale cost of a game because he ‘doesn’t think it is fair to have to pay more [than Gord] just because he has a game store’.
I have a few of these, but none as bad as the OP. The most I get is from a line of products with listed MAP’s (minimum advertised prices) where the customer comes in drills us about the product and then wants to ‘think about it for a bit’. Often you can tell from their line of inquiry wether they really are thinking about it or if they are just hoping to run off to the internet for a discount price. They often come back a bit chagrined to find out that the company does enforce the MAPs pretty well. Although one customer did try to use a used item listed on eBay and a smaller, older model as an example of how I was ripping him off.
We need more business owners like Gord, people who are willing to throw assholes out of the door. It might take Gord two or three times to throw the asshole through the door, though, I recall that he threw someone into a wall next to the door a couple of times.
I hear that line every so often. My response is always pretty much the same. “Duh. This is my business. If there were not the potential for profit here, I’d be off having a good time”.
Hey Sailor, just get into port? 
You business owners need to brush up on your Ferengi “rules of aquisition”. Those would probably be fun to throw at asshole customers.
The Gord:
Gord made all that shit up. He trolled SA hard until he got permabanned. He ran his store into the ground and then went to Korea to teach English.
I find it unlikely that Gord needed to make that story up. Pretty much everyone who has dealt with paying customers in retail or otherwise has dealt with ‘that’ customer - the one who takes offense that you have to make a profit to stay in business.
Anybody who’d call himself “The Gord” has gotta be a punk. Book of Vengeance, my ass.
Anyway, I’m a cheap customer. I’ll try stuff on at a store even if they make it difficult, like when they leave shoes tied together, then I’ll leave and see if I can’t find a better deal online. I buy used and will try to talk whoever’s selling it down, especially if it’s damaged. Lots of times they say no, but I’ve never had one spontaneously give me a discount if I didn’t ask for one. I’d rather chew tinfoil than pay full retail on non-essential items.
The saying “The customer is always right” is incorrect about as often as “You get what you pay for”.
It’s too bad because free shipping online has spoiled us so much. I get Amazon Prime for free because I’m a student and there was a special offer a while back, and I get overnight for $4. I think that since so many online retailers offer free shipping as a promotion I tend to not realize the cost of shipping and undervalue it.
And I undervalue my local shops, sadly, because they can’t afford to do pretty much free, no questions asked returns. I bought a power supply from a local computer shop (Que Computers in Minneapolis, if anyone’s interested- nice place) and when it didn’t turn out to be the problem with my computer I was disappointed that I couldn’t get a full refund, just store credit. Luckily my local shop sells used stuff so I picked up a needed USB keyboard, 2 USB mouses and a can o’ compressed gas with the credit. Everything turned out okay, but I feel bad about my grumbling (quietly, in my home) about not being able to get cash back.
Actually I would say, if there was no potential for profit here…I would be working for someone else.
[pretending to be you] You have accusations for everything, punk. I’m not big on excuses, and when I quoted you a price, you agreed, and we shook hands, I didn’t expect I’d be needing any excuses for your interminable list of bullshit accusations, which you flit listlessly between when I make a sound, logical counterpoint to your ongoing drivel. [/pretending to be you]
I had another similar fun customer moment when someone bought a PSU from me, his board needed a 20 pin and the PSU I sold him had the very common 20+4 arrangement so it could be used on either. They were confused by this, I was closed on sunday, and went to another shop where the helpful tech sold them a 20 pin only for like $11 more.
They then came back to me monday explaining what a hassle I had put them through selling them the wrong stuff, having to go find another one, blah, blah.
They didn’t like it very much when I told them they got completely taken advantage of by the other store and they still felt “I” was the one responsible for the ordeal.