you don’t fire customers.
you just refuse their patronage.
the wordgame is childish semantics for those who don’t believe they are in control of their own lives.
you never fired a customer.
As the owner, I am comfortable using the word firing.
In my business a customer is supposed to be for life, and once they find the right plumber or mechanic, (or doctor), they can be kind of desperate to keep them, and if they are the right kind of customer, then you want to retain them in return.
Occasionally a customer just doesn’t meet your standard, and you have to fire him, even if he has been a customer for years.
That can be quite a shock to the customer who never realized that someone like a doctor or plumber might decide that the relationship was not meeting their standard, and that they did not want to continue the relationship and that the customer was being cut loose, let go.