I am a lazy man who prefers staying at home (as much as possible) than travelling around (especially by driving on my own) and I take very little care of my car (I can't recall when was the last time I wash it). I always describe my car as: "All components are either malfunction or not in the right shape except for those mandatory/must have parts which make my car moves"
The othe day, I send my little poor car for repair because of a major part problem, guess what, the 50 years old (I guess) mechanic throws at me (in bad tone) words like "I can't believe it, your car is in such a sh-t condition, the xxxx is gone, your yyyy is so bad and ..." And this is before he start repairing my car (i.e. he might loss me as a customer and make no money) But I just smile in response to his "father teaches son" style of comment (and I pay as much as he claimed after the car is repaired), the reasons are simple:
1) He is a car mechanic - a good one, I suppose, because he love my car more than my money...
I believe the better a mechanic the more he/she loves to see a car in good shape, though he/she might express his/her techinical love badly!
2) If I get angry with him, dispute with him, I am quite sure at the end he will make no money from me but what is next?
I will have to drive miles further (which I don't think I will want to) to get another mechanic who really understands what is "Customer is always right" . Anyway, I normally will need to pay more to this kind of mechanic for the same service.
I am not saying someone is like the old mechanic nor hinting that he is as old as 50, I just feel his eagerness to get things techinically right is as great as the old mechanic and he expresses it as bad as the old mechanic.
Also, I don't mean to urge the party who argue with him to instead smile to him like what I do to the old mechanic, I only wish to point out that there is no gain in a moody argue.
[link from boingboing]