Threatened a customer with a police report, ugh

[cade_avery]

I own a website business and have been dealing with a difficult customer for the past few weeks. She ordered a product when I was leaving to go out of the country, so I had the order shipped from our warehouse. It took them about 10 days to ship, too slow IMO. At 13 days, she contacted us 8 times and filed a credit card chargeback against us. I was out of the country, so I wasn't able to e-mail her back until the next day. I told her I was out of the country, that her order had been shipped and I would check on the tracking info as soon as I got back- two days later on a Monday. I went through my files at 11:00 pm the night I got home to check on it. She had received the order in the meantime, but not removed the chargeback.

She did not respond to numerous nice e-mails, and also did not remove the chargeback. She finally admitted that she had received the shoes, and said she would remove the chargeback "if she was compenstated for all her time." WTHeck? But I agreed to refund her 30% after she removed the chargeback, just to get this resolved. That was earlier in the week, and she did not remove the chargeback or contact us again. She had to remove the chargeback by tomorrow or it would go against my account.

So I called the police this morning to see if I could file a report. Then I sent her this e-mail:
As you have received the product 4 days ago, please remove the chargeback today. If you do not remove it today, it will revert payment back to you tomorrow. I have spoken with the police in (her town) and (my town) this morning, and they have said I could file a police report if necessary. I do not want to have to do that. We have done thousands of transactions over the past 7 years and have never had a chargaback against us before. I would like to resolve this without any further issues.

And then I hit send, and as that message was going out, in came a message saying she had resolved the chargeback while I was typing the message! Argh! Here's hoping she's not a completely crazy person that will go nuts. I don't think I did anything wrong, but that doesn't mean she won't go nuts. I'm bracing myself. I have already sent her the refund we discussed. I am not confrontational, so stuff like this makes me physically sick. But I also wasn't going to let her keep the money and the product, that's stealing. It's not the money, it's the principle of saying, "I have the product" and not removing a chargeback. I hate stuff like this! Do you think I did the wrong thing?
Thanks for reading my book!

[shsshorty7]

I don't think you should have refunded her anything.. she was being impatient.. especially when you told her you where out of the country...

[sns4063]

Did you tell her prior to her ordering that you were having her item shipped from the warehouse or that you were going to be out of the country and to expect a delay? As a customer, I would done the same thing if the seller had not responded to me AND I hadn't gotten any shipping info within a day or so of ordering. I no longer have patience for people who sell stuff (ESPECIALLY on ebay) and expect payment immediately, yet take their own sweet time in shipping what I ordered. She removed the chargeback, so I'd just let it go.

[tmsmalley]

I'm assuming that once you did get the email that she had reversed the chargeback you sent her something acknowleding that, so consider the matter closed. You've certainly lost a customer here.

I also think that as a customer, I don't care if you're on vacation. If I'm supposed to have something on X day, then I expect to have it on X day, not 4, 5, 6 days later. You need to be sensitive to that and have someone cover for you while you're gone next time.

Finally, toughen up a little. If you're going to run a business, sometimes you have to be tough with customers, supplies, employees. You weren't being mean, you were just saying what the process is.

Tess

[southsider]

Why would you file a police report and not contact her credit card company? This would be a civil not criminal matter.

I had to deal with a chargeback once when I ordered a dresser and had it replaced once because the top was not on straight. The second time the the store was giving me a hard time about either getting a replacement or refunding my debit card. They were not even returning my call and to top it off when I looked in the back there were footprints on it.

Fortunately I had put it through as a credit purchase and I had protection. When I contacted the bank I had to give them all the information and they verified it before putting the chargeback through. I am surprised that the bank did not contact you to get your side first before putting the chargeback through.

When the chargeback was put through they contacted me from the furniture store. The person who called did not even give 24 hours to respond and called a second time threatening me with a lawsuit. Funny thing was I had to take time off from work to wait for the delivery and this time I had leverage to have them come on Saturday to pick it up. I made sure I got a receipt saying that they picked it up.

The dresser was on sale when I bought it but I suspect that they bought a bunch of factory seconds. This was from a furniture store that was supposed to have a good reputation to boot.

[cade_avery]

I didn't file a police report, I just checked to see what my options were.
I totally agree that customers should not be affected by me being out of town. Every order, including hers, was shipped before we left town. I checked the warehouse to make sure it had shipped and they confirmed that it had. After I got back, I got a copy of the complete shipping records and saw that it had shipped as they said. Later than I wanted, but still shipped within our stated time frame. I was gone for 2 complete business days, plus the weekend. I was here for part of 2 other days. I was out of communication for one complete day duing the business days. She e-mailed for the first time that day and e-mailed and called 8 times in 7 hours and then filed the chargeback. That was 13 days after she had placed her order. Our shipping policy on our website says we may take up to 14 days to ship an order. We generally ship within 2-3 days, but we have that policy in writing so we have some time for instances like this. We shipped within our stated time frame. She got the order 15 days after she placed it.

I wasn't upset about the chargeback, just the fact that she had the product and didn't remove the chargeback for more than a week after receiving her order. She was dishonest in her e-mails. She kept changing the dates of her initial order. Then in the one contact I had from her in the last 10 days, she talked about ordering "weeks and weeks" ago and how the item "barely fit" because it had been so long. And how we "held her money hostage for weeks and weeks." It had been 15 days. Not ideal, but not enough to time to outgrow an item or all the weeks and weeks comments.

And I tried to resolve this peacefully. I agreed to the partial refund. I offered to send her a return shipping label and give her a full refund if she no longer wanted them. I apologized for the slow shipping even though it was in our time frame. She didn't respond to my nice e-mails.

I'm not tough, I'll admit it. I absolutely hate controversy. But I have been in business 7 years. We had a store for awhile, until our daughter got a brain tumor. Then we finished out our lease and closed the store to concentrate on her. From that time on, we have just run the website business. I have dealt with dozens of vendors and thousands of customers and generally we have a really good experience so contraoversy is something I have only dealt with a few times over the past 7 years.

[southsider]

I was surprised that you didn't contact the credit card company and that they did not contact you to get your side before they put through the chargeback. It took a few days to go through and they did investigate the incident first when I had my problem.

[cade_avery]

The form from the credit card company only had two options, "I can prove I have refunded the customer." Or "I agree to refund the customer"
I did contact them yesterday to find out if I could prove the shipment had been delivered instead, but had not received a response. And the chargeback was closing tomorrow.
I trusted her when she said she had the product and would close the chargeback early in the week. Then I never heard back from her & she didn't close it. So I didn't work on it until yesterday.

[southsider]

The form from the credit card company only had two options, "I can prove I have refunded the customer." Or "I agree to refund the customer"
I did contact them yesterday to find out if I could prove the shipment had been delivered instead, but had not received a response. And the chargeback was closing tomorrow.
I trusted her when she said she had the product and would close the chargeback early in the week. Then I never heard back from her & she didn't close it. So I didn't work on it until yesterday.

I wonder what the heck she told them. I am also surprised that the credit card company took that stance when it was less that 14 days. Do you think they will give you a chance to see the full report on this incident?

[cade_avery]

I was surprised about the less than 14 days too. I didn't think you could file that soon. I think she just claimed non-receipt.