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Worst. Customer. Evar!

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Worst. Customer. Evar!

Old 12-17-20, 10:49 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by big john
We had that at the last car dealership I worked at, a system that flagged a customer and wouldn't allow a service order to be written. Being a new car dealer we had to have an air-tight case against the offending customer because they would call G.M. if we wouldn't help them.

They had to be pretty awful to get on the list.
While I no longer remember the circumstances, I do remember what our company owner told one customer. "We have a vision of how we want to do business. You have a vision of how we should do business. I suggest that you take your vision elsewhere."
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Old 12-17-20, 10:50 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by wgscott
What a scum-bag. Your restraint qualifies you for sainthood.

I seem to recall some sort of oath that says you won't just sit there watching someone die.


If I read the story correctly, the doctor was stuck in another gondola and wouldn't have been able to reach the victim.

But I think we agree that the doctor was a d-bag.
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Old 12-17-20, 10:53 AM
  #28  
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It's disgusting how some people have figured out if they cry loud enough and make a big enough scene they will get free stuff.

We had a guy come in with a 6 inch piece of angle iron stuck in his tire. He was informed there was no road hazard warranty on tires (tire warranty is from the tire maker and not the car maker) and we could sell him a tire but he wouldn't hear of it. He was eventually offered a tire at our cost with no charge for mounting and balancing.

Nope, he said when he bought the truck he was told they were good tires and he shouldn't have to buy one. He finally went into the new car showroom where customers were with sales people and started ranting about how we screwed him by selling him a truck with crappy tires. The general manager called down to the service department and told us to give him a tire and sales would pay for it.

Last edited by big john; 12-17-20 at 10:56 AM.
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Old 12-17-20, 11:00 AM
  #29  
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I can do my own car work. I get the concept of efficiency and profit. But one thing that bugs me about shops is pulling the old "book hours" junk.

Wife took car in for inspection and it had a bad tail light. They "offered" to fix it for $120. I drove over, parked, took the other car while she waited to the auto parts store and was back in 10min with a new bulb for like $8 or something.

I gave em hell about it and they tried to claim "book hours". I said "book hours on a taillight bulb is an hour or more"? They couldn't answer. You open the trunk, swing open the velcro flap, unclip the connector, replace bulb, done......

I can accept "book hours" for a timing belt or something. A bulb........as long as it isn't some crazy Mercedes or something........c'mon.
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Old 12-17-20, 11:33 AM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Koyote
The one that really stands out was about twenty years ago. It was one of those rare clear-cut cases, no question, documented with 100% certainty. We (my GTA and I) gave the young scholar every opportunity to admit his mistake, to take ownership of it, but he stuck to his story. So, I had to drop the hammer on him...Since he was going to flunk the course either way, I felt it had to be referred up the University's administrative hierarchy for institutional sanction.

The very next day I got a letter from his father, who was a local attorney, on his law firm stationary. (Still don't know how he got the letter to my office within 24 hours!) It was quasi-legalistic, quasi-threatening, very long, and copied to my department chair. "My son is honest, he would never lie," etc etc. From the letter, it was clear that the student had not been completely forthcoming with his father -- not surprising.

Of course, with one phone call to the father, I could've explained exactly what his son had done, and that the evidence was incontrovertible. But FERPA prevented that, of course.


The other one that really sticks out: very large lecture hall, couple hundred students in an intro to Econ course. No real chance of knowing each individual. A young woman takes test, turns it in with one of my students' names on it (let's call it "Susan Jones"), and I just KNOW that this woman is not in the class -- I recognized her from being around our building, and knew she wasn't one of my students. Obviously a ringer, taking the exam for a friend. Asked for her ID, and she hurriedly said, "I don't have it with me." I responded that she would need to stop by my office with an ID before I would grade the exam.

Week later, I return the exam - but not hers. Susan Jones emails me about it, and I remind her to stop by my office with her ID. Hesitated, then said she would do that. The next day, a completely different woman (not the one who turned in the exam) walks in my office, pulls an ID out of her pocket, and hands it to me -- it's Susan Jones, of course. "Don't bother," I said. "I'm not blind." Flunked her, and sent a letter to the campus office that handled academic dishonesty.

Spotted the other student - the ringer - a couple weeks later, walking into a colleague's classroom. THAT'S why I recognized her - she was majoring in Agricultural Econ, which was right next door to our dept. I went in the room, asked my colleague to tell me the name of the female student in the last row on the right -- I pointed her out. He told me her name. All this happens while she is watching, looking like she's s***ing her pants. I walked out and wrote another letter.
I've never had something this egregious. I've definitely had my share of made up excuses and plagiarism cases (my favorite is a student denying plagiarism when you show them the original article, complete with matching footnotes), but I'll take students over parents any day. I did particularly enjoy the student continually claiming he was misadvised when I had full records of meetings; the parent complained, FERPA. Parent mad about FERPA is going to to confront me with the student; student waives FERPA, I show parent emails / advising notes. Parent turns lots of interesting shades of red. Immediately realizes that the perfect child had been lying for a very long time.
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Old 12-17-20, 11:39 AM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by ericcox
I've never had something this egregious. I've definitely had my share of made up excuses and plagiarism cases (my favorite is a student denying plagiarism when you show them the original article, complete with matching footnotes), but I'll take students over parents any day. I did particularly enjoy the student continually claiming he was misadvised when I had full records of meetings; the parent complained, FERPA. Parent mad about FERPA is going to to confront me with the student; student waives FERPA, I show parent emails / advising notes. Parent turns lots of interesting shades of red. Immediately realizes that the perfect child had been lying for a very long time.
My wife is an Academic Dean...Before that, was Assoc Dean at another school for many years. You wouldn't believe how many parents simply won't accept that the kid is lying, even when confronted with solid proof.

When our kid started at University, my goal was to never, ever, call anyone at the school for anything: not a prof, not the financial aid director or accounts payable staff, no one. Didn't want to be one of "those" parents. She graduated last May, and mission accomplished.
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Old 12-17-20, 11:43 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by mcours2006
It's impossible to reason with people who are unreasonable. Fortunately for all our sakes, there are more folks who are reasonable than not.
Some years back one of the fast food chains had a promotion, "Dan's deal" or something similar, and you got 2 tacos and something else for a special price. I think it was Del Taco. One of the mechanics I worked with went into a Taco Bell and demanded the deal. They assured him they had no such deal and he was in the wrong place. After fighting with them for a while he came back to work and got on the phone, a land line which was in my area and was my personal phone.

He spent at least a couple hours making calls and trying to work his way up the corporate ladder chasing a $2 discount. A commissioned mechanic, this cost him at least $50 or $60 in lost work. I don't know if he ever realized he had the wrong company but he eventually pulled the wire out of the phone and took it into the restroom and threw it into a toilet and flushed the toilet.

I found another phone to use.
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Old 12-17-20, 11:44 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by Koyote
My wife is an Academic Dean...Before that, was Assoc Dean at another school for many years. You wouldn't believe how many parents simply won't accept that the kid is lying, even when confronted with solid proof.

When our kid started at University, my goal was to never, ever, call anyone at the school for anything: not a prof, not the financial aid director or accounts payable staff, no one. Didn't want to be one of "those" parents. She graduated last May, and mission accomplished.
Our oldest is one year away from college - we've made a similar promise. My wife is a Dean of Academics at our kids' school (she's over junior high, though). Walking the line of parent / administrator is difficult, and also very much makes us avoid getting involved. That said, occasionally I definitely take my kids' side, though I let them work things out. As my high school freshman was working through a series of online assignments for a class with a teach that uses lots of self-graded assignments with little direction, my kid noted that this was bull**** busywork that the teacher could assign because it required no extra work or teaching on their part. They weren't wrong.

But yeah - my one stint as department chair taught me a lot about the kind of parent not to be (and the kind of faculty member to avoid as well).
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Old 12-17-20, 12:21 PM
  #34  
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I have a somewhat different definition of "worst. customer. ever." ... early 80's, I'm a part time employee at a Sears in western PA. Late one weeknight, maybe half hour before closing, three guys walk into department 9 with ski masks. Yeah. 9 is hardware. They grab the biggest boltcutters on the wall and walk to department 6, sporting goods. Cut the chain on the gun cabinet and clear the rack, plus ammo. Walked out the back door while three of us crouched behind the counter of the register station. All over in four minutes. I didn't like their attitude, have to admit.
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Old 12-17-20, 12:52 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by Koyote
You guys are all pikers. 35 years teaching college students has given me a huge trove of sad stories: academic dishonesty, excuses for missing exams, etc. At almost every gathering of college professors, the stories start flying, with each person trying to “one up“ the others.
I had a roommate who liked to sleep late and skip classes; typically he'd only go to two or three classes per week but once in awhile he'd go an entire week in which he missed every single class. Nothing could ever be his fault though, so he'd tell his parents his bad grades were because his teachers were jerks, they didn't like him, life was so unfair, etc. and of course they'd take his side 100%. On at least a couple occasions his dad would call the school and raise cain with the department.

At some point in the semester he had some issue with his car; either he broke a window because he locked his keys inside, or maybe someone broke into the car looking to steal stuff. I don't remember now, most likely the latter.... But after getting it fixed he decided to concoct a story to get reimbursed for a whole bunch of other stuff too. He turned in receipts to his insurance company for high-end tennis rackets, stereo equipment, cameras, etc all supposedly "stolen" while the window was broken. He even submitted a receipt for a car repair a few weeks prior, claiming obviously the car was damaged in the alleged break-in attempt! He used white-out and changed the date on the receipt.

The sad thing is, his dad was fully on board with his defrauding of the insurance company. Dad sent him receipts for his sister's tennis rackets and camera, so they could be turned in as part of the "claim" (none of these items had ever been stolen, they just wanted the money). I suppose they say life's lessons start at home, and apparently dishonesty was the lesson this kid learned growing up. Like father, like son.
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Old 12-17-20, 12:56 PM
  #36  
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Why even bother with this customer? Tell them you're not interested in their business and be done with it. Not worth the hassle.
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Old 12-17-20, 01:04 PM
  #37  
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As a consumer, I've always been very leery of antagonizing people who work on my stuff. It's like how, in a restaurant, you don't antagonize people who handle your food.
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Old 12-17-20, 01:56 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by big john
We had that at the last car dealership I worked at, a system that flagged a customer and wouldn't allow a service order to be written. Being a new car dealer we had to have an air-tight case against the offending customer because they would call G.M. if we wouldn't help them.

They had to be pretty awful to get on the list.
I worked as a delivery driver at a very popular pizza place (that had 8-10 drivers working on a Friday night) for a few years while in college, and many of the drivers there used a common symbol marking system in the customer's info. Symbols were used so management, as well as the customer, wouldn't catch on, since it was printed on the receipt. Special symbols were used to denote whether the customer was a good or a bad tipper, so that we could scan all the ready-to go-deliveries, and know to pass that bad delivery on to another driver we disliked, or to simply call another driver/friend and tell them to not come back quite yet until a crappy order was taken by someone else first.

It pays to be a good tipper at a place you get delivery from often, just check your receipt if you don't believe me, maybe you have symbols on yours?

Last edited by Riveting; 12-17-20 at 02:01 PM.
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Old 12-17-20, 02:19 PM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by Riveting
I worked as a delivery driver at a very popular pizza place (that had 8-10 drivers working on a Friday night) for a few years while in college, and many of the drivers there used a common symbol marking system in the customer's info. Symbols were used so management, as well as the customer, wouldn't catch on, since it was printed on the receipt. Special symbols were used to denote whether the customer was a good or a bad tipper, so that we could scan all the ready-to go-deliveries, and know to pass that bad delivery on to another driver we disliked, or to simply call another driver/friend and tell them to not come back quite yet until a crappy order was taken by someone else first.

It pays to be a good tipper at a place you get delivery from often, just check your receipt if you don't believe me, maybe you have symbols on yours?
A coworker of mine, overhearing another coworker we all loathed yelling on the phone to the mechanic who was working on his car, because it was taking longer than he expected, said, "You think he's paying the A**hole Tax?"
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Old 12-17-20, 05:32 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by UCantTouchThis
I'm one of those bad customers. Walked into a local shop, very popular in the area. I see a Continental tire on the rack for $69. I needed a tire and didn't plan ahead. The sticker said $69 (way overpriced) but I took it to the register anyway. The manager's wife said it was $75. What!? It says $69. She rambles a bit then says in the most sarcastic voice, "you're lucky somebody mislabeled it!".

I said, "you're lucky I came in, I can get it online for $36, BYE!". I wasn't in that much of a rush to buy a tire. I had to wait a week but I got 2 for the price of 1 online.

I really suck as a customer.
with Amazon next day shipping, I have not entered a bike shop for years
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Old 12-17-20, 05:49 PM
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Originally Posted by wgscott
What a scum-bag. Your restraint qualifies you for sainthood.

I seem to recall some sort of oath that says you won't just sit there watching someone die.
True that, technically though he was in the gondola following the one with the victim, his cabin would have been just outside the off load zone. I get some satisfaction thinking about how close he was to offloading, seeing the beautiful snow below him, but being stuck inside so very close to the top. I guess I’ve become cruel in my old age

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Old 12-17-20, 06:28 PM
  #42  
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My condo is being sued by an owner who alleges 'a', 'b', and 'c', where, for example, 'a' is 'the board did this' when the board did not-this. One of the charges is that the 'Declaration states the condo is responsible for that' when the Declaration states explicitly 'unit owners are responsible for that.' Our legal fees approach $2,000/owner.
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Old 12-17-20, 06:58 PM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by big john
We had that at the last car dealership I worked at, a system that flagged a customer and wouldn't allow a service order to be written. Being a new car dealer we had to have an air-tight case against the offending customer because they would call G.M. if we wouldn't help them.

They had to be pretty awful to get on the list.
I was one of those customers. Bought a new car, returned it for service before I left the lot. I sort of think new cars should have operational brakes i.e. a pedal doesn't go to the floor. 2 days later they call me to pick up the car. When I get it they tell me to never come back. Still not sure what I did wrong. It must have been trying to use the brakes. Fast forward to the Takata recall. I get the notice, take the car in, dealer refuses to do the recall (or 2 others that are outstanding) Called GM, spoke with a nice customer service representative who told me that GM wouldn't service heavily modified vehicles that the owners misrepresented. I asked her to take a look at the purchase agreement and the first service ticket. I asked her if she thought I could modify the vehicle as heavily as they claimed it was in under 1 hour. Next time I went into the dealership they had all new service writers, and were more than happy to do the airbag inflator swap as well as the 2 other recalls. Sold the vehicle shortly after that and swore off GM products, but a C8 Corvette may make me break that.
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Old 12-17-20, 07:21 PM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by RGMN
I was one of those customers. Bought a new car, returned it for service before I left the lot. I sort of think new cars should have operational brakes i.e. a pedal doesn't go to the floor. 2 days later they call me to pick up the car. When I get it they tell me to never come back. Still not sure what I did wrong. It must have been trying to use the brakes. Fast forward to the Takata recall. I get the notice, take the car in, dealer refuses to do the recall (or 2 others that are outstanding) Called GM, spoke with a nice customer service representative who told me that GM wouldn't service heavily modified vehicles that the owners misrepresented. I asked her to take a look at the purchase agreement and the first service ticket. I asked her if she thought I could modify the vehicle as heavily as they claimed it was in under 1 hour. Next time I went into the dealership they had all new service writers, and were more than happy to do the airbag inflator swap as well as the 2 other recalls. Sold the vehicle shortly after that and swore off GM products, but a C8 Corvette may make me break that.
None of this makes any sense to me. If you bought a car and the brakes needed work, how could they tell you to never come back?
How could they refuse to do recalls? And why? Dealers get paid to do recalls.
What modification did they say you did? Every dealer I worked at always serviced modified vehicles, just no warranty on modified parts.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience but it seems you are leaving something out.

What I was referring to in my "flagged customer list" was people who threatened violence, people who were so unreasonable and obnoxious that they couldn't be dealt with, or people who cost the store money every time they come in. You're saying you should be on that list?

The other thing is, if you had to deal with some horrible people at a dealer and then all was well after those people were replaced, why would you "swear off" GM products?
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Old 12-17-20, 07:33 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by mcours2006
It's impossible to reason with people who are unreasonable. Fortunately for all our sakes, there are more folks who are reasonable than not.
State of the world would seem to imply otherwise...
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Old 12-17-20, 08:29 PM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by genejockey
"You think he's paying the A**hole Tax?"
I used to work for a company that did custom industrial automation. We always charged one customer 25% more for the same kind of machine. Called it the "<name redacted> Tax". Funny thing was, everyone in the custom automation business charged him extra as well, so we sold him a fair amount of machinery.

Truth was that a lot of our customers were OK with "very good." He wanted "perfect", and that costs 25% extra.
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Old 12-17-20, 09:28 PM
  #47  
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I used to have a friend who was a college prof. He once told me a story of a student he had who insisted he should get an A because "I paid my tuition." I wonder if that kid ever learned how it actually works...


Originally Posted by burnthesheep
I can do my own car work. I get the concept of efficiency and profit. But one thing that bugs me about shops is pulling the old "book hours" junk.

Wife took car in for inspection and it had a bad tail light. They "offered" to fix it for $120. I drove over, parked, took the other car while she waited to the auto parts store and was back in 10min with a new bulb for like $8 or something.

I gave em hell about it and they tried to claim "book hours". I said "book hours on a taillight bulb is an hour or more"? They couldn't answer. You open the trunk, swing open the velcro flap, unclip the connector, replace bulb, done......

I can accept "book hours" for a timing belt or something. A bulb........as long as it isn't some crazy Mercedes or something........c'mon.
I once had a surprise when I had an oil change. Took it in... mentioned I had heard a noise and couldn't pinpoint it, asked if they could see if they could see anything while they were under there, or maybe it was the brakes. Came back to pick it up... nearly fainted at the price they told me. Apparently they had charged me also an hour of labor for a "brake inspection" and another hour of labor to check out the underside. I was in my early 20s, and an over-$200 car bill was no small deal at that time on what I was making. Mind you, this is largely on me because I just wasn't understanding-- after all, I knew a lot of oil change places will take a quick look and let you know if your brakes are getting close to needing replacing so I wasn't expecting it would be a huge deal for them, and I figured they had a good view underneath while they were there and would be able to see quickly if something looked obviously "off" that might be causing a noise. I wasn't expecting them to take a lot of time or go over it with a fine-tooth comb. So, it's my fault because apparently I was asking them to do a lot more than I thought I was, but I wish they had told me what the charges would be. I learned that day that I was stupid and didn't understand car repairs, but unfortunately it cost me a pretty penny.
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Old 12-17-20, 09:30 PM
  #48  
Kimmo 
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Originally Posted by DangerousDanR
Truth was that a lot of our customers were OK with "very good." He wanted "perfect", and that costs 25% extra.
25% extra for the last 2% sounds like a bargain to me.
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Old 12-17-20, 09:32 PM
  #49  
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After he retired, my Dad opened a small body and general repair shop. He would always get guys wanting a kickback from the insurance payoff or "while you have the gun out can you just shoot this fender?" Or "this panel wasn't dinged when I bought it in".

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Old 12-17-20, 10:07 PM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by Chi_Z
with Amazon next day shipping, I have not entered a bike shop for years
I'm all for online shopping and rely heavily on it, probably 80% of my $, but do you feel limited by only using Amazon? There is a lot of stuff, obviously, but prices are often higher than elsewhere. And you have to sift thru so much generic junk when looking for specific quality name brand items
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