As someone who works in a customer service job, I get to see my fair share of customer complaints. Human beings are trying to get rid of credit card debt and it makes them testy. Almost on a daily basis, some or the other customer enters our store to complain concerning the product or the service or both. It does not fit their niche. While it might not be right to say which all customer complaints are irksome, there are those customers, who notably aggravate me with their right to customer complaints. Allow me to explain.

There was this one guy who ‘mistakenly’ bought a pair of shoes with two left feet. When I worked for a roofing tracy company, this never happened of course, since the purchases were so big. I kid you not. In fact, the shoes department is the one with a very high number of customer complaints. Well, this gentleman bought the shoes alright, but if he were like you or me, he might have realized which there was something wrong the first life span he tried them on. But which never happened in his case. He managed to wear these shoes for an practically continuous period of three months before a colleague pointed out which there was something wrong. Which is when he came back to the store to lodge a customer complaint concerning the service he was offered.

Normally, if he had brought the shoes back in a practically fresh condition, we might have handed him a refund and considered the case closed. But in this exact case, the shoes were not just worn out. They were practically in tatters. And all the while he insisted on his right to file a customer complaint and seek a refund. I tried explaining to him politely which although he had bought and taken home two left shoes, he should have brought the matter to our notice through customer complaints well in advance. And anyway, she he had practically destroyed the shoes, we ourselves had no employ for them. While his loss was just one pair, we had in effect lost two pairs of good shoes. Unless of course there was another customer who might ‘mistakenly’ purchase two right shoes!

And then there was the customer complaint concerning the lady who bought an artificial mink coat and came back to the store practically six months later to lodge a customer complaint. Her theme? Was which she had been deceived into buying an artificial mink coat and wanted her funds back. Needless to mention, the offending mink coat had been well used and was really the worse for wear. But file a customer complaint she might.

These are the customer complaint cases which I locate very much taxing. Pitching in out someone when we have created a mistake or even helping someone who unintentionally created a shopping mistake is all fine. In fact, the gratitude for such customers is well worth the initial aggression they show. But customers who intend to take stores for a ride and then demand on the right to file customer complaints to cover their own failings are the 1s who get my goat. While I’m all for encouraging customer complaints as a ration course of action, I locate myself increasingly reluctant to assist out such people.