I'm A Paying Customer
Years ago when I was still an apprentice, I had to stay back after working hours occasionally to help out my seniors when in need. It was a weekday and past our working hours, this particular customer came in late. He needed to get his shih tzu groomed badly and my senior obliged out of goodwill despite it's closing time.
What the owner didn't inform us was his dog is aggressive. An aggressive dog requires a longer time to groom. In grooming school, we weren't exactly trained to handle aggressive dogs. From what I remember, all practice dogs in school was gentle and friendly. The only time I come across aggressive ones is during work. Yes, we groomers have been bitten and despite that, we do have the phobia of getting attacked, we're humans after all.
About an hour passed, this owner came back hoping that his dog is ready to be picked up. But he was disappointed and furious to know it wasn't. He started going into a rage and despite my senior trying his best to explain that his dog is aggressive and being difficult, he wouldn't listen. By the way, the average grooming time for a well behave and cooperative dog takes up to around 2 hours.
"You are a groomer and shouldn't be afraid of being bitten!" was what came out of the owner's mouth.
What he said next threw made us all fuming mad.
"I'm paying for your services! And the customer is always right!"
No matter how furious we are to hear that from him, we try to keep our cool and showed him how uncooperative and difficult his aggressive dog is.
"Just do whatever you need to do. Call me and I'll come back later to pick him up."
Geez. Owners have to actually see how their pets behave during grooming to actually understand they require more time to be groomed.
By the way, the customer is never right. I believe that I still do have the rights to decline to offer you my services. Every human being deserves to be respected no matter what their profession is.
