I have been reading a lot of posts about people getting "entitled" customers and people who would do anything to get a discount or a free product. In light of that, I just wanted to see what you all thought of something...

I am in the process of writing an eBook that deals with making sure you don't waste your money or get ripped off if you purchase a product or service that is significantly different than advertised or defective. I'm covering different sections such as what happens if you purchase an item in-store or online that doesn't work or the advertisement was very misleading. The book also includes how to use a satisfaction guarantee during hotel stays to ensure that you have a good stay. Dealing with utility company service issues, bad food or service in restaurants and filing complaints with the BBB when all else fails are also included in the book.

As I'm reading these posts here about difficult customers, it has occurred to me that people may look at my book as feeding this sort of entitled or rip-off mentality that some customers seem to have. This is not what I intend at all. I want to protect customers from genuinely bad products or services and this is not intended to be a how-to manual for anyone to rip-off a business or any company.

What do you all think? Is there a middle ground? I come across so many people who throw so much money away on products or services that are seriously bad, and I learned a long time ago that I wouldn't let that continue to happen to me.

i work in a hotel that has a "satisfaction guaranteed" policy and as you can imagine, we get ALL KINDS trying to scam a free room out of us. To share an example, we had one guest who had a shower that wasn't draining fast enough. We tried to send our maintenance staff up there twice but he was refused entry. They then came to the front desk demanding a comp'd room because of the guarantee policy. Our manager refused to give the freebie because they had refused to allow us to try to fix the problem.

The lesson here is that its a two-way street. Was the problem fixable and did the business TRY to make it right? In the above example, it was clearly a case of someone "hunting" for a reason to get a free room. Draining "not fast enough" is subjective AND we wanted to fix it and make it right but was refused the opportunity.

I move people to different rooms all the time; I comp rooms if there is a problem. So I have no problem with doing that, when merited. If you can get the message across that is not just the idea of making everything perfect from the beginning (stuff happens) but the real service is how they make it right, either by fixing it, giving them a room with a good draining shower, or if we can't fix it or move them (i.e. not being allowed in the room to TRY to fix it), THEN we will comp the room.

I had another guy who came down because his key didn't work. it happens. Put the key near a cell phone or a magnet (in a purse) and it will void the programming in the key. This guy thought having to take the elevator from the 4th floor to the lobby to get a new key somehow merited him a free room. Nope, sorry dude. It doesn't.

I kind of went on and on, but hopefully these stories can help you relay the message of "what did the business do when they had the OPPORTUNITY to make it right?" and "how reasonable is the 'problem'?"

You're absolutely right! I've had two incidents where I've stayed in hotels and asked them to fix a problem but they did not (both cases they flat out refused!). It's incidents like this where the guest should be comp'd. That is definitely the message I'm trying to get across, things happen and a business that can fix the problem is a good one. If they won't fix it, then that's when something needs to be done. Thank you for your firsthand perspective!