Current Events > TIL: the full quote is 'the customer is always right in matters of taste"

(+) Yeah! (+)

It was never to imply customers can be entitled ass bitches but when it comes to buying, if they want an ugly troglodyte body pillow, you give them the damn ugly troglodyte body pillow

Yep.

Anyone who actually works with customers quickly learned that customers are never "always right", and in fact are often quite wrong.

But if you order a peanut butter and pickle sandwich with mustard and plums?

Hey, it's your money. ... and stomach.

Lots of quotes are butchered to make another meaning

Blood is thicker than water is supposed to be thy blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

Umbreon posted...

But if you order a peanut butter and pickle sandwich with mustard and plums?

Hey, it's your money. ... and stomach.

No fuckin way dude. If the customer orders that, then they're legiterally wrong and fuck them.

Never heard that, you make it up?

Hambo posted...

No fuckin way dude. If the customer orders that, then they're legiterally wrong and fuck them.

Oh no I absolutely had to hold back the urge to vomit just typing that up.

But if a customer orders that abomination, give it to them. It's their funeral, not yours.

Umbreon posted...

if you order a peanut butter and pickle sandwich with mustard and plums?

Hey, it's your money. ... and stomach.

omg my crying LMAO

Umbreon posted...

Oh no I absolutely had to hold back the urge to vomit just typing that up.

But if a customer orders that abomination, give it to them. It's their funeral, not yours.

No. I won't do it. That sandwich goes against my moral code. The customer is not always right and the customer is not always right in matters of taste. I reject this old adage in its entirety.

I believe the "full quote" is just recent addition. And other "full quotes" do.
But it serve their purpose, as in the old quote are sometimes wrong and the new quote fits more in those situations.

Here's another:

The full quote by Oscar Wilde is, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness

The Full Quotes are just bullshit that people twist because they can't handle the original quote.

RndmNmber1 posted...

The Full Quotes are just bullshit that people twist because they can't handle the original quote.

That seems quite backwards, people usually dumb things down to easier digest things and then mindlessly repeat it.

"I could care less" is one. It's obviously "I couldn't care less", but I guess a contraction is just one step too many.

And the Oscar Wilde quote I posted shows how people just cut off half of the entire thing to turn an insult into a compliment.

Kradek posted...

Here's another:

The full quote by Oscar Wilde is, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness

He also said 'talent borrows, genius steals'.

(Which he stole from T.S. Eliot, of course).

Last I read this is a bit revisionist and the original quote was intended exactly as its read. Contextually relevant is that, at the time, the general way of things was "buyer beware", so at the time it was novel, refreshing, and genuinely competitive to bend over backwards a bit for customers.

That said I feel like at some point we went too far in the other direction >_>

I saw the just a bad apple! Being used a lot to defend individual cops, conveniently leaving out the spoils the whole bunch part.

buddhamonster posted...

I saw the just a bad apple! Being used a lot to defend individual cops, conveniently leaving out the spoils the whole bunch part.

Eh where I'll defend a cop on the bad apples thing is cops get retaliation if they snitch on said bad apples.

It's not as if the full quote has any extra authority, or is necessarily more correct.

If people are using the truncated quote to say a thing, then that is the thing they are saying.

If someone says 'a few bad apples' to mean most are OK, they don't secretly mean 'spoils the barrel'. Neither is that a gotcha.

If your boss used 'the customer is always right' and some smartarse popped up and said, 'well, actually only in matters of taste, so it's fine for me not to accommodate their other wishes', their knowledge of the full quote won't save them from being fired.

ai123 posted...

It's not as if the full quote has any extra authority, or is necessarily more correct.

If people are using the truncated quote to say a thing, then that is the thing they are saying.

If someone says 'a few bad apples' to mean most are OK, they don't secretly mean 'spoils the barrel'. Neither is that a gotcha.

If your boss used 'the customer is always right' and some smartarse popped up and said, 'well, actually only in matters of taste, so it's fine for me not to accommodate their other wishes', their knowledge of the full quote won't save them from being fired.

Youre right, but some people genuinely think that if something is often repeated it passes for wisdom, so theyll throw bastardised cliches around as if theyre an appeal to authority.

Umbreon posted...

Anyone who actually works with customers quickly learned that customers are never "always right", and in fact are often quite wrong.

Except every manage who refuses to have your back because they fear for their quarterly bonus that a complaint call to corporate will cost them.

Hambo posted...

legiterally

I kind of like this word and the implications it has when wielded like that.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

Eh where I'll defend a cop on the bad apples thing is cops get retaliation if they snitch on said bad apples.

That's why there are no good cops in the context of that phrase. The bad ones have literally spoiled the good ones into a fearful silence or driven them entirely out of the barrel.

DnDer posted...

That's why there are no good cops in the context of that phrase. The bad ones have literally spoiled the good ones into a fearful silence or driven them entirely out of the barrel.

Exactly what I was going to say. This just shows how much more true to life the full quote is. The few bad apples have spoiled the barrel because they were allowed to stay there.

DnDer posted...

That's why there are no good cops in the context of that phrase. The bad ones have literally spoiled the good ones into a fearful silence or driven them entirely out of the barrel.

There are entire departments that don't really do any of that bad shit people bitch about.

Like worst thing we've had here is the sheriff was accused of being racist just because he decided to crack down on drugs and the majority of the arrests where minorities. Nobody got shot or had excessive force used on them though. Later a recording of him was found of him using the n word and he was made to resign. But the city/town cops I've never heard or seen anything bad about them. Even when I got a ticket the officer was very pleasent. And cops generally aren't fans of people in my career field. At least around this region.

Well let me ask this: is the truncated expression necessarily wrong?

I think, assuming civility holds and you point out a genuine cause for a business needing to justify its conduct to you, your position takes a higher standing than the business trying to use the vague phrasing or being obstinately rigid with regards to their terms.

Customer orders a well-done wagyu steak.

The full quote of the "If you can't handle me at my worst you don't deserve me at my best" is actually even worse.
"I'm selfish, impatient a a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

It's very clear from published historical evidence that the original quote is "The customer is always right".

"...In matter of tastes" was a later addition, and I'm like 70% sure people heard Don Draper say that in Mad Men and magically concocted this alternative explanation for the quotes origin.

Kradek posted...

That seems quite backwards, people usually dumb things down to easier digest things and then mindlessly repeat it.

"I could care less" is one. It's obviously "I couldn't care less", but I guess a contraction is just one step too many.

And the Oscar Wilde quote I posted shows how people just cut off half of the entire thing to turn an insult into a compliment.

Show me the evidence that the Full Quote predates the common quote and I'll concede.

RndmNmber1 posted...

Show me the evidence that the Full Quote predates the common quote and I'll concede.

I'm not talking about TC's example as that seems to have been disproven and I don't know why you keep saying Full Quote as if it's a site or some proper noun, however Oscar Wilde is the originator of the example I used and people cut off the latter half to turn an insult into a compliment.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

There are entire departments that don't really do any of that bad shit people bitch about.

Like worst thing we've had here is the sheriff was accused of being racist just because he decided to crack down on drugs and the majority of the arrests where minorities. Nobody got shot or had excessive force used on them though. Later a recording of him was found of him using the n word and he was made to resign. But the city/town cops I've never heard or seen anything bad about them. Even when I got a ticket the officer was very pleasent. And cops generally aren't fans of people in my career field. At least around this region.

It's not about "entire departments," it's about policing as an institution, as a systemic framework of oppression and its unaccountable monopoly of violence.

Also, "Nobody used excessive force, but it's obvious the disproportionately minority arrests were a top-down policy of his racism that no one stood up against... until something leaked, proving what everyone suspected and already knew and no one stopped," isn't the flex you wanted to make, I'm sure. People don't have to die or end up in hospitals for cops to be bad guys.

Too many people exist at one "no call, no show" away from being homeless. A cop picks up someone and decides they need a day in holding to await arraignment for something, just because the cop didn't like the cut of his jib? That victim of policing is now maybe on a treadmilling spiral of encounter after encounter with the justice system, depending on what miracles of a support network they might have.

And when cops disproportionately target black people because they're racist, or too scared to question their racist cop boss... you see how the cycle begins. And no one was brutalized or died. Just a couple lives maybe ruined.

Bad apples are an institutional problem, not a departmental one.

Solid_Sonic posted...

Well let me ask this: is the truncated expression necessarily wrong?

I think, assuming civility holds and you point out a genuine cause for a business needing to justify its conduct to you, your position takes a higher standing than the business trying to use the vague phrasing or being obstinately rigid with regards to their terms.

Customers are often dickheads. They are certainly not always right.

Being "right" is more of a concept than anything else

If everyone possessed enough self doubt then it wouldn't really matter

https://youtu.be/QrMlVY1Om50?si=xWJyXy8iBYJ1LdHw

Sufferedphoenix posted...

Lots of quotes are butchered to make another meaning

Blood is thicker than water is supposed to be thy blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

That one's actually not real.

DnDer posted...

It's not about "entire departments," it's about policing as an institution, as a systemic framework of oppression and its unaccountable monopoly of violence.

Also, "Nobody used excessive force, but it's obvious the disproportionately minority arrests were a top-down policy of his racism that no one stood up against... until something leaked, proving what everyone suspected and already knew and no one stopped," isn't the flex you wanted to make, I'm sure. People don't have to die or end up in hospitals for cops to be bad guys.

Too many people exist at one "no call, no show" away from being homeless. A cop picks up someone and decides they need a day in holding to await arraignment for something, just because the cop didn't like the cut of his jib? That victim of policing is now maybe on a treadmilling spiral of encounter after encounter with the justice system, depending on what miracles of a support network they might have.

And when cops disproportionately target black people because they're racist, or too scared to question their racist cop boss... you see how the cycle begins. And no one was brutalized or died. Just a couple lives maybe ruined.

Bad apples are an institutional problem, not a departmental one.

As said he got forced out when the racism was proven. You can't prove racism based on arrests because it is a possibility minorities are doing it more in a particular town. Though it was he said the n word. He was having a lot of Hispanics arrested.

But this is off topic and I'm not trying to derail any further.

Umbreon posted...

Yep.

Anyone who actually works with customers quickly learned that customers are never "always right", and in fact are often quite wrong.

But if you order a peanut butter and pickle sandwich with mustard and plums?

Hey, it's your money. ... and stomach.

Honestly... That doesn't even sound that bad. Only problem is the plums would be mushy, and I'm super super particular about the texture of fruit

Working at Starbucks we get a lot of abhorrent fucking orders. Things like 15 pumps of the syrups. It's become a running gag where we'll just say to eachother something along 'It's your diabetes '

Yeah no. I worked retail for 5 years. People would often try to use expired coupons, for stuff they didnt buy, for a store that isnt even the one theyre in, and just keep yelling that stupid phrase over and over and demand to see my manager.

no. You cant use a bunch of expired banana coupons for acme to buy a new television at BJs. And the fact that you have an entire duffel bag of these 25c coupons doesnt mean you can use every single one of them to take the price down to $5.

The idea though is to diffuse situations and do your best to make the customer feel appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hX8iQvs2mw

ClayGuida posted...

The idea though is to diffuse situations and do your best to make the customer feel appreciated.

Diffuse, sure. But plenty of guests just need to be firmly told no. Not appreciated, not danced around. Shut down.

St0rmFury posted...

Customer orders a well-done wagyu steak.

I was at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Vegas and witnessed two ladies ordering steaks well done...
/cry

DnDer posted...

I kind of like this word and the implications it has when wielded like that.

Thanks. It's fun to say, even though you risk sounding like an idiot when you do.

Umbreon posted...

But if a customer orders that abomination, give it to them. It's their funeral, not yours.

But the original quote is, "Sir this is a Wendy's. We don't have those ingredients".

What then?

FolkenRawr posted...

Diffuse, sure. But plenty of guests just need to be firmly told no. Not appreciated, not danced around. Shut down.

You can say no in several ways though that aren't rude or aggressive.

RndmNmber1 posted...

The Full Quotes are just bullshit that people twist because they can't handle the original quote.

real logical doozy here

I really like this topic