eh, I would bet you five bucks that I have much lower per customer margins than AT&T, and I'm fairly certain that giving a refund to 'every crazy person' is by

eh, I would bet you five bucks that I have much lower per customer margins than AT&T, and I'm fairly certain that giving a refund to 'every crazy person' is by far the best business decision. First off, it means that you don't wear down your customer service representatives dealing with people who can't be helped. This person has been 'worn down' and is probably not going to be very helpful to your customers at all. It's a common thing; customer service is a hard job. It pays poorly and offers few opportunities for advancement. If you keep customers who can't be helped around, your customer service people often spend the majority of their time on people who can not be helped, something that would be incredibly frustrating even if the job paid okay and had reasonable opportunities for advancement. Secondarily, even if the person still feels like you gave them poor service, the 'at least I got a refund' quite often mollifies them to the point of not complaining (or at least complaining less) in public. I mean, I don't want to let myself be held hostage by public complaints; some people will complain no matter what you do. But, I think that a refund when a customer is unsatisfied is quite often the easiest, most polite, and in the end, cheapest way to fire a customer who needs firing.