Storch, as a kid I thought just like you. I even had a friend who ran his own businesses because he hated working for other people. He had a lot of pride in customer service, until he started a generator store and repair shop in Hawaii. The last straw was this incident, and I changed my mind about the customer always being right.
A guy brought in a generator that looked like hell. Later my friend learned that it had sat underwater in a flooded basement for a few days. The store charges $20 for repair estimates, so my friend took it despite it's appearance after warning the customer that it looked grim, and started work.
4 hours later, he got the rusted piece of crap apart and determined that it would cost more to fix than it was worth. He called the customer, and explained this.
The customer said that he wanted his generator back, in the same condition it was in. As the generator was rusted beyond easy repair, putting it back together would have been a monumental undertaking and would have resulted in having to replace multiple bolts that had broken off in the holes, etc.
When the customer stormed into the store, my friend calmly offered him the parts back in a box and because the customer was so irate, offered to waive the diagnostic fee. The customer said that if my friend didn't rebuild it on the spot, he'd kick his butt and burn down his store. My friend turned to call the cops and the guy charged him.
Fortunately, my friend's co-owner was a 7 ft 300 lb samoan who heard the commotion, and he was able to intervene before my friend got stomped, because my friend was a smallish 50 yr old ex-hippie who couldn't fight his way out of a wet sack.
So... Yea, the customer is always right... Unless you're in a business where every customer you see is already pissed off even before he gets to the store, because he has to get his piece of crap generator fixed. Then the customer is a potential threat, and while good service will bring back repeat satisfied customers, there will be a measurable percentage of customers who simply need to be physically tossed out before they hurt someone.
FWIW, My friend sold his interest in the generator repair store after he realized that his first-time customers were NEVER smiling when they came through his door for the first time, and opened a used CD store on the theory that it's pretty tough to get upset over buying and selling used CDs. He later ruined his marriage by getting back into drugs, and checked into rehab after a short jail term and a divorce that pretty much crushed his wife who he'd made totally dependent on him before he became worthless.
But that's another story and another rant
