I believe in "the customer is always right" up to a point, at some point you have to let the customer know that there is a line and he's stepped over it.

At some point "we stand behind our employees and thank you to take your business elsewhere" is a good one, too.

The trick, as these things usually are, is finding and dancing along that line.

Unfortunately too many times I have been involved with situations where the line has been, in my opinion, in the wrong place.

"OMG, everyone is crazy except for me!!!"

and knowing is half the battle!

You should pile up lots of karma points for being the not crazy one, Nora. Perhaps if you weren't the one dealing with it you would be on the other side with the crazies. Strength and peace ~ma coming at ya.

Yeah, Daniel. That line is a tricky fucker. I know I've had it in the wrong place more than once. There have been instances where the customer was wrong too. Like the time this couple got caught theatre hopping and they asked the usher who caught them to write a letter of apology.

hey the rose parade is still on! horsies!

It is a balance, Daniel. The customer is always right, but no human gets to abuse me or my employees.

and I would add...No customer is right at the expense of my other customers

ION: I made the mistake of trying to make a mug of cocoa side by side with another mug of hot Earl Grey this morning.

Murphy stopped by with his law.

today I let a lady cut in line because it would have taken longer to get rid of her if I'd called her on it.

That is exactly where you let things slide. -- she was wrong, but anything else would have been unpleasant and a longer delay for other people. and it is one of those places where you can apologizes to everyone else that saw what happened...