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I thought the 'customer is always right' thing was total nonsense until last Tuesday

I work at a big box hardware store, and this older guy came in looking for a specific kind of pipe fitting. I told him we didn't carry it, that it was an old style. He insisted we check the back, which I knew was pointless because our system said zero. To shut him up, I went back and looked. And there it was, a single dusty box of them on a top shelf, totally unlogged. He needed it to fix a leak at his daughter's house. I felt like a total jerk for assuming he was just another stubborn customer. It made me realize that sometimes they actually do know their own project better than our inventory system. Has anyone else had a moment like that, where a customer's annoying persistence actually paid off?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_walker9d ago

That saying gets twisted a lot. It's not about letting people walk all over you. It's about listening when someone says they know something you don't. Systems fail, people forget to log stuff. Happens everywhere, not just retail. That guy knew his old pipes better than a computer screen. Good on you for actually looking.

angelafisher9d ago

Exactly. How many times has a customer told me their mail always comes late on rainy days? The system says it's delivered by noon, but their box is on a muddy back road the truck can't always get down. You learn to trust the person living it.

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