Is the Customer Always Right? | 5 Minute Video
“The customer is always right” is a motto we hear often and it suggests that consumers only have rights and businesses only have obligations. That is wrong. Dennis Prager explains that customers, too, have obligations, and should never take up a salesperson’s time to inquire about an item they know they’ll purchase elsewhere. In 5 minutes, learn how to shop ethically.
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Script:
I would like to tell you a true story, told to me by people who run a large camera store in the Los Angeles area.
One day, a woman walked in and said she was looking to buy a camera. She asked one of the salesmen to show her various cameras. And then she spent about half an hour with the man figuring out which camera she really liked.
Finally, after deciding, she asked the man if he might give her the name of a website where she could buy that camera at a cheaper price.
Now, I hope that you realize something is very wrong here! But can you identify exactly what that is? Take a moment. Here’s what was wrong: That woman stole that man’s time and that store’s resources. And she did so deliberately. In fact, had she taken money from the man’s pocket or from the store’s cash register, it would have been no different.
Why? Because this woman went into the store knowing in advance that she was not going to buy a camera at the store, but on the internet. She didn’t go to the store thinking she might buy a camera there. She went into the store solely in order to use the store’s building and inventory, which cost money to provide, and the expertise of a salesman, in order to choose what camera she will buy on the internet cheaper.
What this woman did was wrong — yet people do it all the time. In fact, what she did violates a law found in a book called the Talmud. The Talmud is the second holiest book of the Jewish religion, after the Bible itself. And it contains a law that changed my life when I first learned about it: “If you enter a store, you are not allowed to ask the storekeeper the price of an item if you know in advance that you won’t buy it.” Now, let me make this clear. If you don’t know whether or not you’ll buy an item at any given store, of course you can ask the price. You can comparison shop. And if there’s a chance that you will buy it at that store, you can legitimately take the time of the storekeeper to figure out what you want. But not if you know in advance that you won’t buy it there. Then you’re just taking up the store’s time and resources, and that’s wrong.
The power of this law to change a life is quite remarkable. First of all, it says to you that you, the consumer, have obligations, not just rights. We always hear about consumer rights. But what about consumer obligations? In our time, we are preoccupied with rights. Which is too bad, because in order to make a better society, people have to think of their obligations as much as they think about their rights. When I walk into a store, I have moral obligations as a consumer, and one of them is not to ask the price of an item — or how it works, or how it compares to competing items — if I know in advance that I won’t buy it there.
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So if I watch an advertisement on TV when I have no intention of buying the product…I am stealing from the company? After all, they put money, resources, and time into making that advertisement. Businesses INVEST time and money into advertising, stores, and customer service in the hopes a customer will buy from them. There is no guarantee that the customer will buy from them. I sell honey at a farmers market, and often see people with jars of honey from a competing vendor in their bags when they visit my booth. I invest time and money in bringing an observation hive with live bees as part of my marketing strategy. People will enter my tent with zero intent to buy honey from me, just to look at the observation hive. I do not consider this stealing. I also give out free samples of honey. I do not consider it stealing if someone just wants a free taste even if they have no intention of buying. As a business owner, these are things I offer to customers as charitable giving. While I hope it pays off for me, the moment I expect customers to buy from me, I have a problem…not them.
You can't tell what is in someone's heart. I have been shopping before, and a rude salesman turned me off and I took my business elsewhere. I have went shopping, and found that while I liked the products, the price was higher than my budget and I looked for other alternatives.
Many times, I’ve chosen to buy something in-store, even though it’s cheaper online, for the same reason mentioned here: I’ve taken up the time and effort of a sales clerk.
That was excellent.
The customer is right when they get service.
But they arent always right.
employing and a mix of older people in the best way to build a team that is efficient and does not deal with customer bs.
That law is nonsense as motive to buy or not to buy is impossible to prove. Furthermore, the incentive to purchase can depend on many factors. I get not wasting someone else’s time and money but a deal is a deal.
I disagree, she went into the store. From there it was the storekeepers job to sell her!
If a lady goes into a store to buy a dress you need to lay out the rules on returns and that's the stores problem. This is literally one of the stupidest videos I've ever seen! If you want the customers money you have to understand that the customer doesn't give a crap about wasting your time. That's why you're there. Car salesman aren't guaranteed a car sale every time somebody comes in right so they b***** us but we're the ones holding the money so really ask yourself who's the one who's right here. Customers always right because the customers holding the money.
I'm studying a little bit about marketing. And what's really wrong about that, is that you are interfering with the research the sellers is doing. You're going to confuse him.
He may be experiencing seeing if when someone interested in that product, needs it, will agree to that price.
If you say no knowing in advance. He may get confused, and start lowering his price when he didn't need to do it, or when he was actually worth the price.
The amount of money he can lose, is huge.
There were times where I get acrossed many cheap and ungrateful people. They made me want to lower my prices, and understand they were right.
When actually there were plenty of fish on the sea, and I only had to move on, to where the decent customers were. People who appreciated what I did for them.
The example at the end about dating is a wrong application. A more accurate version would be for a woman to go on a date with a man that she knows she isn't going to sleep with (or any other relationship things), just to get him to buy stuff for her. The example of a man saying he loves her to get something from her is a different kind of problem.
I am an interpreter. It INFURIATES me how people manipulate words to try to get what they want (linguistic programming). The saying is “the customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE”. That means you don’t question their shitty taste – just sell it. Lopping words off a sentence changes the meaning. I teach interpreting too. In the first week I give my students a five word sentence that has six possible meanings. If the customer says this finish the quote.
OK so if I have some sales ads for Home Depot and Lowe’s for products, Home Depot says they won’t provide those sales ads so I go to Lowe’s and Lowe’s says they will give a better offer. How am I being a bad customer?
How is that wrong that somebody is a good shopper they going to a store and they don’t buy a product but they go in there looking for products to buy on the Internet that might be cheaper Dennis?
You know, it kind of reinforces a stereotype that Jews have a religious law regarding shopping.
My dad taught me and I still do it after 50 years, if I go into a store to browse, I will always make some sort of purchase.
3:48 "Does this apply to a man when dating?" Well, I'd like to add the question, is a woman stealing the man's time and money (if he's paying for the meal and entertainment, a movie or whatever), if she knows in advance that she has no intention of ever having sex with him?
Is this in fact not unlike going into that camera store and wasting the employee's time, knowing in both situations, in advance, that she has no intention of engaging in a "transaction?"🤔
Sounds more like it's the internet who robbed the store.
Nope. The customer is not always right, and sometimes, in rare cases, you must fire the customer.
The customer isn't always right, but surely most of them are morons.
As someone who has dealt with the public, the answer is an emphatic NO.
That customers are going to waste (to some degree) the company's time is kinda the cost of doing business. Anywhere. Ever. In what reality does someone live where they expect every minute of their employees' time to be productive (ie: make the company money) AND seek to blame the employee and/or customer for failing to meet that demand? It's shit like this that makes me think I need a tin foil hat.
Yeah I know that one Dennis I know that one Dennis I'm a retired car sales person and we used to get that all the time. And women aren't that innocent how many of them married for money, security or prestige. Kind of like conservative politicians only saying things to get the vote with no intention of delivering on it.
One thing conservatives really don't know is that Amazon is manufacturing more and more democrats by making sure that their customers are always right, because that is so, they can lie as they please to get free stuff. On a side note, Amazon does not teach it's customers to appreciate, but rather be entitled and complain over the little things, and it's pretty sad on what American capitalism has become because of all this leftist mentality that has been embedded within everyone, and no Amazon doesn't care about "obligations" it's always the customer.
Fvck customers. Fvck them all. Lying immoral narcissistic self centered pieces of sh!t
NO!
Basically. Thou shalt not be a dickhead
I work in school and family photography.
I'm mostly the editor, and my boss is the photographer.
We VERY OFTEN have to deal with customers not being ready. Or taking their sweet time. Even dragging out events, just to try to get more footage from us. Weddings and birthdays are the worst at this. It's not my job to talk to the clients, but I often have to remind them that we are on a time frame and have other appointments to get to. As well as inform them that if we don't get started soon, then we'll have to charge for the extra (aka our wasted) time. This is why we ALWAYS get a down payment (Retainer) before showing up for a session/event. We always go out of our way to make sure the clients are happy, but that doesn't mean wasting our time.
I've been sent home before a session/event has completed, many times. All because it ran past the allotted time and my being there would start to eat into the profits. And so my boss stays and continues the job for free. I remember a 3 hour afternoon event turning into 8+ hours! I left after the 4th hour. And my boss had to be at a school, for pictures, first thing the next morning!! Clients (big or small) rarely ever consider the photographer's time and resources. They often take us for granted and believe it's easy work to capture their chaotic events. Then they complain is we didn't get a certain shot that they didn't request!