The corollary is that 99% of the time that a customer says “The customer is always right”, it’s a total asshat trying to take advantage.
Isn’t that preferable to living around all those lame, stealing motherfuckers?
This is an excellent way to handle it, but it’s surprising how high up the chain you have to go to find someone with the ability to actually fix it. It’s sometimes impossible to fix the situation, and trying to do it has gotten people fired.
I’ve never sworn at a service person before, but I did once yell at a doctor’s receptionist because the surgery screwed up a prescription I really needed and, to be completely honest, the receptionist was a bit of a bitch. Nonetheless, I still feel a bit bad about it.
I’ve never sworn at service people, but instead have benefited from politeness.
I’ve sympathised with people who are clearly having a bad day or who have just been sworn at.
What I’ve found is that these employees remember me in a good way (unlike the OP’s brother.)
Here are some examples.
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I was kept waiting by my local Indian restaurant. When the delivery guy finally turned up and apologised I replied “You’re probably busy.” “Yes! Thank you - we had a sudden rush of orders.”
Now my food deliveries are not only prompt but often contain a small bonus like extra onion bhajis.
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My local electronics firm had to come round twice to repair my TV (they didn’t have the right part the first time.) I told them politely not to worry and on a later occasion they phoned to tell me they’d just had a small delivery of the latest wide-screen TVs and would I like one kept for me - with a special 20% discount!
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When a Government tax officer had to apologise for a mistake on my tax, I said “I expect you get a lot of criticism, but I appreciate the work you do.”
She then said “Let me look at your file” and rang me back later to explain how I could reorganise my tax code to save me hundreds of pounds in tax every year.
Why the fuck would you cuss someone out on their estimate? That makes zero sense to me. They didn’t screw anything up. If you don’t like their prices, go somewhere else. That’s just grade-A nutjobby to me. If they want to quote you five grand for a radiator repair, who cares?
I don’t think I’ve ever cussed out a service person, but I’m not 100% sure. I know there has been a time or two where I did get angry at a service person, but I don’t think I would have gotten to the point that I swore at them. (And the time I’m thinking of, it did result positively for me. Being polite was getting me nowhere, and I was getting pissed.)
In the store I work at, there is a very simple rule: Any time any one is accepting nasty, every aisle worker and the manager will come to the register. This has only happened a few times with me, but suddenly me and the [del]idiot[/del] customer were surrounded by employees.
The manager always asks “Is there a problem?” and then says “Please come with me,” and the customer is whisked away to have the problem taken care of.
Glee, those are great anecdotes – thanks.
…with extreme prejudice? 
But seriously, it’s a simple matter of “Why make trouble?” especially if the best case scenario is still negative?
I realize anyone who does do this has already convinced themselves there is somehow a positive outcome to be had, if only they argue enough, but those people objectively have a very tenuous grip on reality, at least in that particular moment.
Not sure what a Holiday station is, but you’re describing a typical visit to a Home Depot (for non-USians, it’s a large DYI home-improvement chain).
I’ve never sworn at service people, and there’s only one time they’ve sworn at me. I was pulling a big 5th wheel camper and got into the wrong parking lane at Disney World. The attendant actually cussed me over this (in front of my kids, no less). I was incensed and pushed the matter up the chain until a corporate-suit was sent to settle things. She became exasperated with my refusal of free passes and finally exclaimed: “Mr pullin… what do you want us to do?” I snarled: “Put him on the Small World ride.” Then we both started giggling and she quietly said: “Sir, let’s not be cruel.” After that we were both laughing and I decided to drop the matter.
If it were me I would have asked for a breakdown of the bill. Given the numbers posted by the op my first impression is someone was off a decimal place reading the quote which was easy mistake for a clerk to make who isn’t aware of what is being quoted. If it was a candy shop it would be obvious the number was way off but that’s not a large amount of money at a repair shop. It was a half hour of labor plus the cost of the radiator plus profit on the radiator. 152 would be the right price and if it was handwritten poorly it would look like 1152 with the "" read as a one.
If after going over the estimate and questioning the amount (with the person in charge) it’s still $1152 then it becomes a funny story retold to everyone who has ears.
Cussing someone out, no. Chuckle at them, probably. The last time I was miffed over a repair to my car was because of a cracked weld on an exhaust system. With the car up on the lift the mechanic showed me the weld. It was a good weld that broke because I bottomed out. I told the mechanic it looked like a really good weld and it was my fault for it’s failure. He rewelded it for free.
Some people have such rigid personalities that they can’t BEAR the thought of injustice going unpunished. Problem is, “injustice” is invariably what minor embuggerance is giving them the shits at that moment in time. Perspective has invariably become a dot in the rear view mirror.
For some reason, abusive customers are always convinced that everyone is far more stupid than they are, when it is often they who lack the smarts to figure out why things are done in some particular fashion. I remember the story of a grumpy old bastard at a supermarket who noted that peas and beans were exactly the same price per kilo, so he just tossed them into the same plastic bag together.
When the check out operator told him not to do that, he had a fine old time getting red faced and all fingerpointy, declaring everyone to be MORONS because the produce was the SAME damn price!!! Wrote a letter to the paper and all.
And then people started responding, accurately pointing out that the supermarket’s rule was about inventory management, not just ringing up a price at the checkout. There was a perfectly sensible reason not to put peas and beans together in a heap. And everyone who responded to his letter could see it, to his public shame, in a way that had never occurred to him.
I remember this story as a salutary lesson every time I’m tempted to get medieval on some poor soul in retail. It might be that I don’t know everything.
I still mix apples when they are all the same price. I’m pretty sure they all ring up as Fuji or whatever.
Well, stop doing that. It causes the store to buy too many Fuji apples (or whatever) because the computer shows them nearly out, and not order enough of the other ones. And if you reply back that their inventory management isn’t your concern you’ll show yourself to be a complete asshole in public. So don’t defend it, and stop doing it.
Update: the restaurant’s corporate flack-catcher sent me a reply e-mail apologizing for my experience, along with a $25 gift certificate.
Less immediate gratification than I would have gotten by cursing out the waiter, but somehow more satisfying.
Thank you! Working at a major discount chain, I have found that many customers assume that the cashier is actively ripping them off when they are scanning items, overcharging and doing whatever other nefarious things they can.
I wish I worked there. What I get is trips to the manager’s office hear about whatever ludicrous complaint is being lodged today. I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t cheerful enough. I didn’t talk enough. I talked too much. The light was off, the closed sign was very clearly on the belt, and there was no one there. A man dumped his armful or items on the belt anyway, and then complained that I wasn’t jumping up and down happy to see him. It was more than 30 minutes past the time I was to go to lunch, I’m hypoglycemic, and I was very near to crashing. It seems I have no right to let my health get in the way of what a customer wants. I’m a racist because I told a customer he didn’t need to put the very large watermelon on the belt because I didn’t need to weigh it. Somehow, not wanting heft a large watermelon from the belt back into the cart is racism.
I’m setting myself up for an completely different kind of abuse by going back to teaching next year.
Then the next time you go to the store and ALL they have are Fuji apples don’t bitch about there being no other kinds.
Don’t most supermarkets these days put those annoying stickers on every apple so they ring up as whichever of the few varieties they are?
Yes, but -
Those stickers can and frequently do fall off.
And there is a certain kind of tool that will pile all different kinds of apples into one bag, then have a hissy-fit if I open up the bag to ring up each apples individually like I’m supposed to. “They’re all $1.75 a pound! What are you doing? What’s wrong with you, just ring them up!”
Ditto for mixing zucchini and yellow squash, plums, oranges, grapes… basically anything that comes in different varieties.
Also frequently find people mixing the “organic” and regular varieties, whether accidentally or intentionally I have no way to know.