According to the old saying, “The customer is always right.” But not every time – as a tribunal ruled a manager was wrongly sacked after standing up to the ‘world’s worst customer’.
Garry Hardy, 60, has won an unfair dismissal claim against Topps Tiles after he lost his job following an interaction with an ‘aggressive’ man who came into the shop to complain about an order.
The angry customer accused staff of being unable to ‘organise a p*** up in a brewery’ before Mr Hardy asked him to leave and gestured while holding a cup of tea – ‘accidentally’ splashing the customer in the face, the tribunal heard.
The man complained, accusing the manager of ‘abuse’ and hurling the drink at him. The Topps Tiles store in Sunderland fired Mr Hardy in 2019 as they believed the customer’s version of events.
A Newcastle tribunal ruled that he had been unfairly fired and that the company did not consider the fact that he needed to defend members of the general public.
Garry Hardy, 60, has won an unfair dismissal claim against Topps Tiles after he lost his job following an interaction with an ‘aggressive’ man who came into the shop to complain about an order. Pictured, file photo
It heard the man ‘became increasingly aggressive’ and said ‘apparently I’m the world’s worst customer’. Employment judge Sharon Langridge said: ‘This appears to be a case where Topps Tiles took the view that the customer is always right.’
Compensation will be determined at a second hearing.
After working there since 2002, Mr Hardy sued the company for unfair dismissal.
A tribunal heard that Hardy was also depressed and could struggle to manage his anger when he reacts to an event such as the difficult customer.
The tribunal ruled he was unfairly dismissed as the customer’s version of events was not challenged or subjected to any scrutiny.
Employment Judge Sharon Langridge said: ‘No weight was attached to the possibility the customer was making a false or exaggerated pre-emptive complaint, nor to his own admissions of serious verbal abuse.
‘Overall, this appears to be a case where Topps Tiles took the view that the customer is always right, with little or no regard for the need for a store manager to stand up to a customer in order to protect himself or his colleagues from unwarranted abuse.’
He also claimed that Mr Hardy’s dismissal was discriminatory due to his depression. Topps Tiles didn’t take this into consideration when investigating the incident and when they fired him.