The customer is always right

The story of the Iraq veteran being thrown off a train for not having the right railcard on him - after being told by the conductor that "it's not as if you've taken a bullet" - highlights a growing problem in the UK. Rifleman Zachary Holland lost his cool when insulted by the cowardly conductor (who has not yet been named but who hopefully will be and will then be vilified publicly), for which he was thrown off the train. Cross Country Trains, evidently beholden to the rail unions, made it clear that such "assaults" on their staff are taken very seriously. While Mr Holland should evidently not have lost his cool, he was provoked by the uniform-wearing vermin masquerading as a conductor. It is the conductor who should be disciplined, not Mr Holland. You and I know full well that nothing whatsoever will happen to the conductor and that Mr Holland will probably be disciplined by the Army. 

I am increasingly struck by the number of places where one is greeted with signs saying that abuse of staff will not be tolerated. Train stations, GP surgeries, hospital waiting rooms and airport security checkpoints all have these signs on the wall. Why? Because they provide third-rate levels of service and we, the paying public, get angry and upset at the moronic levels of service provided to us by the unionised staff who know their rights but have no concept whatsoever of customer service. If we were served properly there would be less need for these signs. 

We are entitled as consumers to be served properly. And while these staff are entitled not to be violently assaulted, I dispute that they are entitled to refuse to serve people who, in their understandable anger, use choice language towards them. It's unpleasant but it's a long way from being punched by an angry customer. From personal experience I consider that it is usually the "customer service agent" who is in the wrong, not the customer. The customer, after all, is always right - or at least is in a free-market context. 

Today's Hero is...Stoke-on-Trent Council

Today’s Hero is…Stoke-on-Trent Council. As the nicotine addicted among you will have noticed, a ban on smoking in pubs, restaurants, offices and other enclosed work-spaces came into force in England on 1st July.

The council, branded one of the country’s worst by the Audit Commission, cannot enforce the smoking ban until ordinances are passed by councillors on 2nd August. Until then, some publicans are taking advantage of the town’s new status as “Smoke-on-Trent” by allowing smoking in their pubs. It’s nice to see bureaucratic incompetence remains alive well in some town halls somewhere in the country today.