'I am, in fact, a customer': University student calls out their professor for providing "bad service" after receiving an unfair grade

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Feb 1, 2024 9:00 AM EST

While it's probably a controversial take, the argument stands with strong reason: If you're a landlord or a professor or in any other position where someone is paying you for something you're providing them… you're providing a service, and the person paying you is entitled to good service. Far too many of these "service providers" not only regard this as unnecessary but also regard themselves as above the person paying them and use this to placate their nagging conscience. Who hasn't had a landlord who refuses to acknowledge their obligations? Or a professor on tenure who is only reluctantly teaching the class because they're being forced to by the university?

Still, it's important to also acknowledge that this line of argument could lead to a lot of entitlement from students who feel that they're being wronged when they're not really being wronged. Anyways, this was the topic of conversation in this online discussion, and commenters couldn't have been more divided on the issue.

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  • 01
    B
    via Kenny Eliason
  • 02
    AITA for telling a professor that I am, in fact, a customer and do have the right to expect "good service?"
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  • 03
    I (20F) have one professor in particular who pretty much no one likes. Students can't stand him, and he has terrible student reviews on RateMyProfessor and other platforms, but I had to take his class if I want to graduate with honors in my chosen degree program. He's a very archaic professor, and his teaching methods are highly outdated. One thing he does is curving grades, which is when you artificially lower the grades of people who earned As or Bs to Bs, Cs, and Ds just to make it so that on
    via gollunifn
  • 04
    earned after-the-fact for no reason other than so the professor can brag about how "most students don't pass my class and almost none earn an A" and how "my class is so hard." Our college's administration is extremely critical of the practice of curving and asks professors not to do so. It's considered even more ridiculous when the class isn't a STEM class. The administration allows students to file a request with a grading board if they have been graded unfairly by professors to resolve the iss
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  • 05
    My professor graded me completely unfairly on a recent assignment. First, he gave everyone in class the answer to a particular question on the assignment, which he designed incorrectly, so he was just giving them the points due to his mistake. I wasn't in class because I had a cough, and even though it wasn't corona, the administration makes us quarantine if we show symptoms. He never told me about the answer he gave to everyone.
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  • 06
    So on the assignment, I was unfairly docked several points because he didn't tell me the answer he gave away to the whole class because I was forced to miss class to quarantine. The administration would consider this an unequal playing field. All students are supposed to have an equal chance at scoring well on assignments. Missing these points lowered my grade to the borderline between an A and B, and then the professor curved the grades, so my grade was artificially lowered to a B so that he ca
    via gollunifn
  • 07
    The whole situation was unfair start to finish. I never even had a fair chance to do well. I argued heatedly with him about it, and he said nastily to me "youth these days. You all think the customer is always right, but you aren't customers and don't have the right to a certain level of service." To which I corrected him, "Actually, I am a by definition a customer. I don't pay $80K per year to be cheated out of the grade I rightfully earned." I've already decided I'm never asking this guy for a
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  • 08
    recommendation for anything, so I have nothing to lose at this point. I'm escalating to the grading board to have them review what happened so I can salvage my grade. AITA? Edit: It was not in the notes. He verbally gave a freebie to the class, and he is expected, per university rules, to tell quarantined students if they miss something crucial and it's not in the notes. There's no scenario in which I could have known about the freebie.
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    thundaga0 12h Partassipant [2] NTA and document everything to report his 10PointOne. 12h Partassipant [2] IMMEDIATELY OverPot. 8h He's probably got tenure.... sorandom21. 8h +B ... 8+1 Reply 3.3k S 547 363 Ding ding! Report all you want, they will not give one half a f$ck about literally any of this 346
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    1962Michael • 12h Certified Proctologist [23] NTA. If you take this to the review board you will almost certainly prevail, since your grade was affected directly from following quarantine requirements. EDIT: I realize you mean a normal distribution. However, your dislike of fitting grades to a normalized distribution is unfounded. An "A" is supposed to mean "excellent." A "B" is above average. So what does it mean if the majority of the class gets an A or B? Are all the students above average? N
    via gollunifn
  • 11
    gollunifn OP 12h That's a better word then maybe. For example, let's say 10 students do the work and earn an A, but the professor decides he only wants 3 to get an A. He will move the other 7 down to a B for no reason. ... 314
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  • 12
    hibernativenaptosis • 12h Enthusiast [6] I'm going to say YTA but it could be I'm just out of touch. When I was in college, it was the student's responsibility to catch up on what they missed when they were out sick, generally by copying notes from another student. IMO unless he gave you a packet or something and said "This is everything you missed," it's on you for not gathering that information for the test. I don't like curved grading either but it doesn't sound like your school forbids it, o
    via gollunifn
  • 13
    BaconEgg And CheeseSPK 12h Professor Emeritass [96] 1 Award YTA for paying 80k a year for an undergrad degree, and YTA for thinking that entitles you to "customer service." YTA for thinking getting a B on one assignment requires that your grade be "salvaged." There is literally not one thing in this entire post that makes me think there's any possibility you're not an Reply 4 175 + TrickInvite6296 - 12h Enthusiast [9] did you miss the part where op was given a bad grade because of an error the p
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  • 14
    Familyconflict92 - 12h Partassipant [1] 1 Award YTA 1) treating a university like a business is what is creating these terrible educational practises in the first place and by telling him you're a customer you're playing into that. 2) YOU ARE AN ADULT. You are expected to act like one. This isn't high school anymore where your teacher updates you on things you missed if you were out sick. Ask the professor, or your TA if you missed anything. Ask the person sitting next to you in class. Email the
    via gollunifn

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