Go Away you snotty beggar!

[Jan]

ahhhh, that's better, I like a happy ending.

Regards,

[brian.mc]

A most unexpected result ... I stood my ground and the customer was understanding. Must be a first

That's been my experience in the past. If the situation is explained to them politely, but firmly, most reasonable people will calm down and realise they were wrong in their original approach.

[leehack]

Fair play to her for that, there are very few genuinely rude people in the world, the fact they are communicating via email or by telephone usually means they speak in a way they would not if face to face.

Nice one Jont - nice ending.

[Buzby]

We currently have a complaint going through at the moment.

Customer orders in one name and ships to a different name and delivery address. We assume this is a gift and forward an invoice to the invoice address.

The recipient of the gift opens the invoice at the invoice address although it is not addressed to them and sees that it is an item of jewellery that was going to be a present for them.

Client says we have ruined the most important day of her life as this item was going to be an engagement ring and is now seeking financial compensation from us for the tears that she has shed over this and the loss of that special day.

Incidentally the young lady (our client) has since changed her surname and address so we can only assume that she was premureturely using her partners surname and the surprise of the engagement ring didn’t go down very well.

Client is now threatening to report us to trading standards for ruining her surprise.

[fleetwood]

We no longer deal with America.
I know sweeping generalisations are wrong, but I'd estimate that over half of ALL orders we received from there (when we were accepting them) caused trouble - totally unreasonable requests or complaints, threats, obscenities and selfish actions (placing special requests, then changing or cancelling).
The most stupid aspect of it all - 99% of all goods we sell are imported from the USA!!

I once had a guy place a large order from the US, then email me (luckily before the goods had been despatched), calling me all sorts of names, and blaming me for his credit card going into the red! All we had done was charge for the goods he ordered, at the price he was quoted. No delay, no excess postage!!

[brian.mc]

The recipient of the gift opens the invoice at the invoice address although it is not addressed to them and sees that it is an item of jewellery that was going to be a present for them.

Client says we have ruined the most important day of her life as this item was going to be an engagement ring and is now seeking financial compensation from us for the tears that she has shed over this and the loss of that special day.Client is now threatening to report us to trading standards for ruining her surprise.

I don't think you have done anything wrong here. Point out to her that it is an offence to open mail addressed to someone else without their permission. If she and her partner are in the habit of opening each other's mail then she should have anticipated that this might happen.

[george]

We currently have a complaint going through at the moment.

Customer orders in one name and ships to a different name and delivery address. We assume this is a gift and forward an invoice to the invoice address.

The recipient of the gift opens the invoice at the invoice address although it is not addressed to them and sees that it is an item of jewellery that was going to be a present for them.

Client says we have ruined the most important day of her life as this item was going to be an engagement ring and is now seeking financial compensation from us for the tears that she has shed over this and the loss of that special day.

Incidentally the young lady (our client) has since changed her surname and address so we can only assume that she was premureturely using her partners surname and the surprise of the engagement ring didn’t go down very well.

Client is now threatening to report us to trading standards for ruining her surprise.

I give it two years max.

PS: How could you possibly have handled it any different?

PPS: "opens the invoice at the invoice address although it is not addressed to them"..... *puts tongue behind lower lip* Doh!

[pnagames]

We currently have a complaint going through at the moment.

Customer orders in one name and ships to a different name and delivery address. We assume this is a gift and forward an invoice to the invoice address.

The recipient of the gift opens the invoice at the invoice address although it is not addressed to them and sees that it is an item of jewellery that was going to be a present for them.

Client says we have ruined the most important day of her life as this item was going to be an engagement ring and is now seeking financial compensation from us for the tears that she has shed over this and the loss of that special day.

Incidentally the young lady (our client) has since changed her surname and address so we can only assume that she was premureturely using her partners surname and the surprise of the engagement ring didn’t go down very well.

Client is now threatening to report us to trading standards for ruining her surprise.

explain that you have performed ALL your legal duties.

if it was me a "pissed off" day i would just email her back saying :"be my guest and take us to trading standards but if we have to use a lawyer we will invoice you the legal costs as soon as we win this case (and we know taht we will win because we have operated within the Legal framework".

(then ofcourse i would not hit the send button since i would have second thoughts.)

[Buzby]

We have basically refused to accept responsibility or even apologise for the situation as we also feel that everything that we have done is legal and correct.

We have also refused any refund or compensation as I would rather spend money digging my heels in than to give in and open the flood gates for all the people that she would tell.

We have now advised her that we are unable to continue with her complaint and have given her the contact details for Safebuy.

We hardly ever receive complaints and this is the first that we have not been able to resolve a problem with a client.

[george]

Just had a thought Jason, are you members of the FSB?

[Buzby]

No i'm not but it is something that I have been considering.

[Darren B]

Just leave it Darren. Let him do the chargeback thing. And delete any orders he places in future. If he can't be *rsed to go to the sorting office...

I have almost forgotten, i have not heard anything from the guy and shall let the charge back take it course, it means i will be out of pocket for the delivery but hey i get a few quids worth of satisfaction knowing he's got to do the running around.

I know not the right attitude but these people really get to me, short of going and getting it and hand delivering it i do not know what more i could do.

Cheers
Darren

[bentleybloke]

Darren,

I had exactly the same problem with something I sent to London and sympathise totally. The customer requested special delivery on an item over 2kg (so that's 19 quid) and ordered late on in the day. I run around like a blue arsed fly to get it upto the GPO to dispatch it.

A month later the box is back on my doorstep following a failed delivery attempt, I'd not heard from the customer at all so assumed all was well! I write to the customer at his invoice and billing addresses, no response. Two weeks later the chargeback letter comes from Barclaycard Merchant Services. I phone them up and the SOB has signed the paperwork to say that he didn't auth the transaction.

I phone BMS and they were increadably helpful although the couldn't do anything because I had got the goods back. I just ended up 19 quid down on the shipping.

As a result I've disabled Special Delivery to UK mainland and just have it as an option for Highlands and UK off-shore. It's not so bad being 5 quid down for Parcelforce.

Having said that, with the lack of communication from the customer I suspected it was fraudulent and the transaction also set off alarm bells when I processed it too. So maybe not such a bad outcome :-)

[george]

Try comparing that to supplying a (geniune) company with over two and a half grands worth of stuff, them paying by credit card, then them going bust a week or so later.


*takes deep breath, then dreads the postie for the next few months*

[bentleybloke]

We've been given bouncy cheques for upto 2k, but we now don't accept cheques over 500 or credit cards over 1000 unless the card holder is present and it's chip and pin. Anyone remotely suspect is now asked to bring cash and mail order over 1k is direct bank transfer we then move it into another account as soon as it is credited. International mail order is bank transfer over 500 in Europe or over 100 for rest of World. If the customer is uncooperative they're probably fraudulent or a troublemaker so no great loss.

Luckily, a lot of the stuff I sell can't be easily sourced at the same price elsewhere or as quickly.

them paying by credit card, then them going bust a week or so later.

Think that may be the card issuer's problem rather than yours? Have you contacted the FSB? They'll be able to give you expert advice.