Customer complains about $140 oil change, refuses to pay, demands mechanic put his old oil put back in: 'Take it out and put the old oil back'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Mar 6, 2025 12:00 PM EST

"The customer is always right," or so that commonly spread variation of the quote would have you believe. Just as often as you see the quote, though, you'll see some smarmy internet user jumping in to "correct" whoever posted it that the "original" version of the quote should actually be appended with "…in matters of choice and preference." Bringing the full quote to be "The customer is always right in matters of choice and preference." Not in all matters like we'd commonly use it today.

The thing is there really isn't one clear origin of this quote, it seems to have popped up throughout the early 20th century as the steam train of marketing-based consumerism really got rolling and manufacturers figured out that the best way to sell more product was through "new" models and colors in order to make perfectly fine existing products seem obsolete.

The other thing here is that customers often aren't right about anything—even their own preferences… and all it takes is a little time working in a customer service role to know that this is certainly the case.
Whether or not $140 is a lot for an oil change is a matter for debate. Still, demanding that the mechanic put your dirty oil back in your engine is just plain foolish, but that didn't stop this customer experience from going in that direction with the entire exchange, with predictably terrible results.
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via Jimmy Nilsson Masth

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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via Jimmy Nilsson Masth

_{The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.}
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