The customer is always a nuisance

WHEN did ‘the customer is always right’ become ‘the customer must always be gaslit’?

- Jonathan Arnott

The modern computer-says-no attitude towards treating customers seems to have only got worse in recent years. Let me explain, with a few recent examples.

I had a nightmare trip home from Manchester Airport not long ago, being picked up from the airport (in my car) by a friend. Their automated systems demanded I pay the drop-off fee twice. Perhaps my friend had accidentally strayed into the wrong zone, so I paid twice online as per their system. Ten days later, I received a penalty charge notice for an ‘unpaid’ fee.

No option to speak to a human being, of course. I had to dutifully gather evidence, that I’d made the payment - twice - and send an ‘appeal’ against their decision to fine me: an hour or more wasted over two £5 payments. APCOA accepted my appeal, with no apology for their error.

“There’s a huge disparity: as the customer, I’m expected to do unpaid work to deal with APCOA’s error under threat of increasing financial penalty and being taken to court, while they can send me a pre-written proforma letter without so much as a shrug, not even bothering to acknowledge their mistake. And for some reason we accept this: after all, what other practical action can I take?