When someone insists they know better, even though they don’t have the right information, it’s bound to create a tense situation.

So, what would you do if a customer walked into your store, demanding a specific car part without the details, and refused to listen to any advice that could avoid a big headache later?

Do you just give them what they want immediately?

Or do you first try to make sure they get what they need?

In the following story, an AutoZone employee finds himself in this exact situation and ends up teaching the customer a lesson.

Here’s how it played out.

Just get me a spark plug. They’re all the same.

Many years ago, I worked at AutoZone.

If you’ve never worked in one, here’s what you need to know about it.

Customers are rude. I would say, “Hi, how are you today?” They reply, “1995 Chevy Truck, alternator.”

Customers think that they know everything about cars.

They don’t.

Customers are jerks.

They would buy the wrong part, kick it around the dirt in their driveway for an hour, and then return it and demand their money back.

We’d refund them because the profit margins on these Chinese parts were so high that it wasn’t worth losing the customer over.

A customer was looking for a motorcycle spark plug but arrived unprepared.

And this particular store had a problem with the AC, so it was constantly a sweatbox.

After 6 months of this, I was not a nice guy anymore.

One day, a man came in looking for a spark plug for an old dirt bike.

Motorcycle plugs are hard to match since our database is limited, and so is our stock of plugs, but I made my best effort.

Here’s how their conversation started.

“Do you have the old plug with you? I can cross-reference the number on the old plug and find a match.”

“No. I just need a plug.”

“Yes, sir. I want to be sure I get the right one for you. Do you know the make and model of the bike?”

He gave me the make and model, but our system didn’t have any information on that bike, so I’ve got no way of finding the right plug.

Meanwhile, the customer is becoming more insistent that he “just needs a plug; they’re all the same.”

No luck finding it in the store computer, he tried the Internet.

I pulled out my phone and tried to look up the part number online.

No luck.

I asked the guy if there was anyone at home who could pull the plug out and give us the part number.

The customer has had enough of me trying to help him and barks, “Just give me a ****** spark plug! I don’t have time for this!”

I’d had enough of sweating in this store and being treated like an idiot by jerks.

I wanted this guy to learn a lesson.

Frustrated, he grabbed the first plug he could and sold it to the guy.

I turned to the rack of plugs and grabbed the first one on the top left. Since they were sorted by number, this was a plug that would fit a 1960s Chevy V8.

It was twice the size of anything that might fit on a dirtbike.

I handed it to the customer and said, “This will not work. The cash register’s over there,” and then went to help the next customer.

I should mention that this was a store in the country.

It wasn’t unusual for a customer to drive an hour to get to us.

Several hours later, the guy returned, tail between his legs and with the old spark plug.

“You were right. It didn’t fit.”

I took the old plug, cross-referenced the part number, and sent him on his way with the right part.

Hopefully, the extra round trip taught him to be a little more respectful next time.

The customer should’ve been more cooperative.

Let’s see how the fine folks over at Reddit relate to this situation.

This person would’ve never acted like that customer.

Apparently, not all shades of black are equal for Honda.

Great point.

This AutoZone employee really gets it.

Hopefully he learned a lesson.

It’s always sad to see people get rude when someone is just trying to do their job.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.