[REAL TALK] The customer is always right?

[GhostofDempsey]

A recent incident involved a McDonald's employee and an abrasive customer. Not enough back story here to see how this all unfolded, but the customer admits he was being abrasive towards employees prior to being assaulted. He then goes on to say the customer is always right even when he is wrong.

There are limits to what employees should expect to tolerate. Not justifying the employee assaulting a customer, but I never understood this idea that the "customer is always right". Agree, disagree?



An employee at a New Orleans McDonald’s allegedly attacked a customer who complained about a cold order of fries.

Last week, the customer, who was on vacation with his wife in the Louisiana city, had complained to staff that his order of French fries was cold. The man, who wished to remain unnamed, admitted to news station 4WWL that while he was abrasive to the staff, he didn’t expect the incident to evolve into a violent one.

The altercation was caught on camera and shows the customer holding his food while an angry employee charges at him. “You gonna get out? Get out!” the employee yelled at the patron in the video.

Another co-worker intervenes and pulls the employee away, but the fight escalates when the customer follows him. The employee then puts his hands around the man’s neck and punches him in the head.


“I'm a big, big boy,” the customer told 4WWL. “Bigger than he is, but I didn't fight back. It was embarrassing. I didn’t want to leave my wife alone in New Orleans if I went to jail. If this happened to me in McDonald’s what could happen to her on these streets?"

According to NOLA.com, the police arrive on the scene, but no charges were filed. Now, the customer is demanding that charges are filed against his aggressor.

“If I could make sense of it I'd tell you, but I don't have a clue,” the customer told 4WWL. “The customer is always right, even if he's wrong.”

According to the news network, the employee was spotted still working at the same McDonald’s franchise on Sunday. When questioned, franchise owner Chris Bardell replied that “the behavior seen in this video is not what I expect from my employees, we are conducting a thorough investigation of this incident."

Yahoo reached out to the McDonald’s corporation and the New Orleans Police Department for comment, but did not received an immediate response.

[1bad65]

Having worked service jobs, I can say the customer is not always right.

I never saw fights working fast food, but I saw some nasty stuff done to people's food when it was deserved.

[IceTrayDaGang]

Having worked service jobs, I can say the customer is not always right.

I never saw fights working fast food, but I saw some nasty stuff done to people's food when it was deserved.

this is why i never make a fuss at a fast food joint if my order is fvvcked, i'll just take it as a loss and move on. i dont know why anyone think that if they complain and make a big deal about it, that it's gonna make anything better. yeah, you might get your food at the end, but i bet they did some foul shiiet to it in the back.

[1bad65]

this is why i never make a fuss at a fast food joint if my order is fvvcked, i'll just take it as a loss and move on. i dont know why anyone think that if they complain and make a big deal about it, that it's gonna make anything better. yeah, you might get your food at the end, but i bet they did some foul shiiet to it in the back.

Me too. I'm all polite when they tell me my order will take a bit or to pull forward and wait.

True story.

Back when I was a teenager, me and my best friend were headed out for a weekend night.

We stopped at a fast food place to grab some food to eat while we drove.

For whatever reason, it was slow. My buddy went off them. Called them stupid, said they were morons, and on and on. He was brutal.

When they gave us the food I told him to now drive over to another fast food joint across the way.

He was like 'Why?'. I told him if he wanted to eat that food after how he acted to go right ahead, but I wasnt touching it.

He actually asked me if I did stuff to rude people's food when I worked at fast food. I told him of course we did.

Needless to say, we got food elsewhere.

[BoxingFan85]

Barbers and waiters are not to be messed with while they are servicing you..

[Zaroku]

I keep my servers happy, and they keep me happy.
I never complain, or act the fool. I heard a lot of horror stories, even in Japan.

[i_am_a_champ]

Having worked service jobs, I can say the customer is not always right.

I never saw fights working fast food, but I saw some nasty stuff done to people's food when it was deserved.

I work a corporate job and stupid kunt kustomers are not right either

Had a run in with a dumb as fck priviliged hoe

What an utterly dumb bint

[Willy Wanker]

Some customers are so rude and try to bully the servers, can't stand that sht. Servers should be allowed to backhand customers who are rude and disrespectful.

It's very easy to try to push around servers or customer service people because they're on the clock. A customer can act like an ass and find another restaurant or store. Employees can't act up or they'll get fired.

[Eff Pandas]

Ive never taken the customer is always right saying literally. Its just a saying that suggests you wanna keep the customer as happy as you reasonable can to keep him coming back so we can all continue to get paid.

That said the employee is always wrong when they are punching customers over words. Wut in the f#ck at this mfer not being sh^tcanned already for this.

[GhostofDempsey]

I can see both sides of this. On the one hand, you have a guy working a shyt McJob for minimum wage. Maybe dealing with a lot of heavy challenges or regrets. Coping with any number of struggles, and it's only going to take one more thing to break him. Along comes the thing, in the form of a rude, disrespectful customer who is talking down to him. At that point, I think a lot of people just feel like they can easily find another shyt job, and if they are fired from this one then whatever. Sure he took it too far by assaulting the guy, but we have all been in a position where we had to pull together every ounce of restraint to avoid plugging some dude in the jaw.

I can also understand the frustration of customers who go to a restaurant and they've waited however long for their food, maybe dealing with rude employees too, and their order is either wrong or something is wrong with the food. Worst case, it's after you've already gone through the drive-thru. Still not an excuse to be verbally abusive to the staff. I'm guessing this particular customer likely won't be so rude and disrespectful in the future, sometimes a punch to the face serves as an effective attitude adjustment, but who knows?

Customer is always right has it's limitations.