Customer Is Always Right: Where to draw the line?

Hey Warriors,

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

So by the principles of good business:

"You can never win an argument with a customer"

"The customer is always right"

etc - We've all heard it before.

I've learned (and unfortunately had to have repeated) numerous lessons about dealing with disgruntled customers since being in online business, especially starting out very young and probably with a little too much ego for my own good... but I like to think I've come along way since my beginnings and I'm proud of the way I'm able to handle tough situations with customers these days.

Nevertheless, every now and then a situation comes up that makes me question, where really is the line on the whole "customer is always right" thing?

I'm always willing to accept feedback from an angry customer, an angry review, a stupid refund request, a blatant lie here or there... even stretch our stated refund/cancellation guidelines now and then without much of a peep.

But for me, there are certain things that cross the line.

If someone's going to, despite my politeness during our disagreement, forgo all decency and resort to a personal insult... that's it. Cancel all access, refund payments (if appropriate), block their email.

If someone's going to resort to threatening me... same goes. You lose your rights as a customer who paid me money and I'm not going to give in to you. You'll get a refund based on our policy and I'm not communicating with you any longer.

Those are lines in the sand that have seemed to develop for me but because of the never ending "customer is always right" mantra, I still struggle to hold those lines firm.

What are your lines in the sand?

Where do you draw the line in your business if you've come into these situations?

And what do you think about doing business in this way? Is the customer REALLY always right?

Andrew