>>>>>Well, the solution would be quite easy in restructuring the menu if the customer wasn't such a complicated one.
>>>>
>>>>The saying that "the customer is always right" isn't always true, I have had my share of difficult ones myself.
>>>
>>>Depends on your definition of "Right." My version says that that
>>>
>>>Right = Makes the final decision
>>>
>>>and the customer is that person.
>>>
>>>If my customer (I've always worked in a corporate environment so my customer is my supervisor) says
>>>
>>>"I want every letter in the menu option to be a different color and every third letter should be underlined"
>>>
>>>I will tell hir (him or her - I hate the use of them/they/etc and it's "politically incorrect" to use him as general term the way we did for the past 100 years or so)
>>>
>>>"It's ugly, violates our standard interface, and a terrible idea. Our user's will get migrane headaches if we implement that"
>>>
>>>When the customer say, "But that's what I want" then I do it.
>>
>>The point of the phrase is to make the customer feel that they are "good little children". It does not mean you build a bridge out of swiss cheese because they have the funds to pay for it.
>
>If .......
>the customer wants a bridge out of swiss cheese
>I explain the problems inherent with the bridge
>the customer still wants the bridge
>
>then
>while you may be in a position to lose the business but I am not so ..........
>
>I build the bridge

A bridge is a really bad analogy here, since building a bridge out of swiss cheese (or whatever inadequate materials) is life-threatening and illegal. I imagine that if a client asked you to build an application that involved cooking the books in some way, you would turn down that work. There are clients I would turn away because of the nature of their business. (Easy example: I wouldn't work for a cigarette or gun manufacturer.)

Tamar