Oh, but their situation IS exceptional! It’s THEM.
I’ve had people demand that I have equipment HAND DELIVERED to their place of work within a period of a few hours. Because they cannot leave or because they are too busy or self-important. Never mind that the equipment is coming from a warehouse over 1,000 miles away and it is NOT physically possible for me to get it there in that time frame. In one particular case, the person demanded that I call up every possible local supplier and arrange for them to courier her over a $200 device, or she would stop doing business with us. She of course, didn’t have the time to do this on her own. If we wanted her business, we were apparently supposed to spend more than the price of the product (many times the profit margin) to get it to her, and eat the costs of doing so.
When I did Security work at the University and we had a policy of trespassing non-students who came in to the library to download porn, we had one or two individuals who attempted to use either their personal lack of internet access, or in one case, his extremely minor handicapped status, to insist that their case was SPECIAL and we needed to make an exception for them to allow them to download porn in full view of the public. That too would be a NO.
When I worked Armored, we had customers who, AFTER signing a contract for a set rate and service time, would demand that we completely change up our route to come at a variable time of their convenience, and then drop everything and take their money straight to a bank clear across town. Whenever they wanted and fuck all our other customers if we wanted to keep their (small change) business.
The answer is always “You are going to make an exception because I’m ME and not somebody else”.
So I’m largely plagiarizing my own posts now, so you can ignore half of what I say.
Now Chimera, it is understood that some people who are not special think they are. I’m going to assume you agree that some people’s circumstances truly are special. Given this, when someone asks for an exception, whether or not you believe one is in order, why do you say “If we make an exception for you, we’ll have to make one for everyone”? Will you actually have to for some bizarre reason? Do you say this to save time? Inquiring minds want to know.
I don’t ever say that, so I don’t know why you’re asking me.
In my job, IF I can make an exception, I decide whether or not I want to do it based on the circumstances, and how you are behaving. Nice gets results. Insulting or Screaming gets nada. (opposite of how it works too many places) Remember that I am not the boss, so I have to justify the exceptions I make, and if I cannot do that, they remember it.
If I can’t make an exception, or do what you ask, then that is that. I simply tell you that what you are asking for is not possible. I don’t lie about it. If I say it isn’t possible, then it is not possible.
So then you don’t think “Then we’ll have to make exceptions for everyone” is a valid thing to say? I’m not picking on you, I’m just trying to get into the heads of people who say that, even though it’s so phenomenally bogus. Some have given their opinions, so I was hoping for yours.
Like I said earlier in the thread, it’s a Zero Thought policy, like “zero tolerance”. “If I say this, then I won’t have to actually think about anything.” I despise this sort of logic. It’s intellectually lazy.
We usually call those soon to be ex customers. The whole point of being in business is we make more money than it costs to provide said goods/services. I have no problem breaking even here and there for a repeat customer, but start out lowballing me at the starting gate and you are begging to find yourself on the bottom of my priority list. I have way too many good customers who happily pay full price to tie myself down to "I want it yesterday, I want it perfect, and I want it for half price. I have literally had customers find a part online (in China), tell me thats what they are paying for the part (from me) and it must be installed in 2 days. They don’t care what the cost of shipping is, even though its twice the price of the $22 part.
I always tell them if they would like to dictate parts sourcing they are welcome to order the parts themselves. So far it has never failed me, and the customers ended up paying my price for 2 days from now.
There's really only one type of situation when I'll say "Then I'll have to do it for everyone" and that is when everyone is likely to come up with the same situation at one time or another. For example, in one of my offices there is a duty schedule which requires that employee to take care of any situations related to an absent employee's caseload or that are not related to any caseload. The schedule comes out a month in advance and accounts for planned leave or training. If someone requests time off after the schedule has been distributed, my first question is "Is that your duty day?" and if the answer is yes the next one is "Who have you traded with?" Frequently the response is "No one, can you find someone for me?" My answer is then "It's your responsibility to find a replacement, and if I make an exception for you, I'll have to make it for everyone who decides they want to take time off after the schedule comes out". Saying that their situation is not exceptional doesn't work- I've tried it. Everyone thinks that either they or their situation is exceptional , even if the only thing exceptional is that the employee doesn't get along well enough with her coworkers to feel comfortable asking for a trade. (and I have had someone use that to gain an exception). They will not accept it, and will try to plead their case which will eventually lead me to " if I make an exception for you...". I've learned that I might as well skip the discussion- all it does is get me annoyed, and they still think their situations are exceptional.