customer doesn't know where he lives!

[rampzoid]

recently had a courier parcel returned as undelivered due to 'insuffient address'.

i phoned the customer to say parcel was returned & also for him to confirm his address.

he confirmed shipping address correct as per lable but it still looked a bit 'iffy' to me.

i checked with postal service & found that he did not put the 'park' bit on his street address.

phoned him again & he said oh yea, forgot to mention, some vandals had sprayed over the 'park' bit of his street sign.

heres the point, he still (rudely) insists that he lives in 'whatever' instead of 'whatever park' & remains adamant that we should pay for the full return postage costs (£15).

i said that i would meet him halfway with costs & return it to 'whatever park' - no, he again insists on returning it to 'whatever' & that i should cover the full costs.

now he wants a full refund - should i refund the full shipping costs or is he liable for all or part of it under the circumstances above?

just feel a bit miffed that he did not mention the address problem when i phoned the first time.

basically, what do you do in a case of parcels returned as 'not collected' etc - i just resend the smaller parcels at my expense - the larger i ask for half the costs - would you do the same?

[jdMorgan]

Whatever you decide, put it in your published "Returns and undeliverable shipments" Policy Statement, and stick to it.

Jim

[jbinbpt]

At least you have your product back. Cut your loss, Stop spending time with him.

[sun818]

If you still make a profit even with paying for re-shipping, then I would do it. If the product is a repeatable like printer ink/toner, then you could do what the customer says and recoup on repeat purchases. If the item is a one time purchase and you have no potential for repeat business, you can probably do whatever is most advantageous to you. Buyers like what you describe really have no business shopping online - he wants merchants to absorb all risk and not take any responsibility for their own actions (not putting park in their address because of vandalism is rubbish).

[Rugles]

Refund the price of the goods, he eats the shipping cost. End of story.

That is what we would do.

You fulfilled your obligation, it was his responsibility to provide a complete address, no matter what the vandals did to his street signs. You can be sure the maps the couriers use have complete street names.

[HRoth]

Usually I will not reship it to the same address unless it is an obvious error. I will just refund them or if they really want the order, I will ship it to their work with a signature confirmation. If it's a goodly amount for shipping, I have not refunded that. Otherwise, I just refund the whole amount in order to avoid a possible chargeback. If this guy is a crank, and he sounds like he is, I would refund the whole thing in order to get rid of him.

It seems weird to me that the mail carrier in your case did not deliver the package, since all that was missing was a "Pk." After all, the postal code must have been correct. I don't get it.

[dpd1]

If it had been the postal service, it would have got there. Couriers give up a lot more easily. But the fact that the guy thinks he should leave off part of his street name because somebody painted one sign is hilarious. Bottom line, he didn't give you the full address needed. I'd refund minus the shipping, or at least half the shipping. A street doesn't stop being a street because somebody changed the sign.

[derekwong28]

I would refund the full amount including the shipping costs. This customer sounds like the type who could mount a chargeback. We have retained shipping costs before only to have it chargebacked. We had to swallow the chargeback as well, it is just worth it.

For whatever reason, it is a non-delivery and you will not able to win any chargebacks raised against you.

[ispy]

You can go to USPS website check addresses, correct addresses etc. We usually change them on our own if there is an error without even contacting the customer and things get there with no problems. There is also expensive software you can purchase to 'clean' addresses for those who dont have the time to do them manually.

Typos and people just plain misspelling their addresses and zip codes!

[piatkow]

As a student I did a spell delivering post at Christmas. Nothing in this thread comes as a surprise!

[jecasc]

I would refund the full amount including the shipping costs. This customer sounds like the type who could mount a chargeback. We have retained shipping costs before only to have it chargebacked. We had to swallow the chargeback as well, it is just worth it.

For whatever reason, it is a non-delivery and you will not able to win any chargebacks raised against you.

If you put yourself at the mercy of the credit card companies you are lost anyway. If someone does a chargeback screw the credit card company, start collecting the money yourself. Immediately.

[robbo]

Try to avoid confrontation.
Maybe the customer did make a mistake,but it is not unusual.
Either refund in full as you have the product back,or reship at your expense if you will still make something and you feel that the customer will appreciate your understanding.
At the end of the day the courier should have delivered if they have the name, post code,most of the address and possibly a phone number.
The deck is stacked against you if you try to make the customer share some of the extra shipping - You could well get a chargeback - not worth it.
Let the customer bad mouth the courier and sing your praises for fixing his/her problem.

[rampzoid]

the parcel was being delivered to eire & they don't have postcodes outside dublin.

the 'whatever' street also had grove, walk, crescent & park.

it was a large parcel so i assume it was being delivered by a relief driver?

if the guy admitted that he lived in 'whatever park' then i would probably have refunded the lot but he won't concede that he give an incomplete address.

lol - he even sent me a pic of his street sign with the 'park' bit sprayed out.

you can't win.

[HugeNerd]

To err is human. To forgive, divine. To refund or reship...is prudent and more cost effective when you take into account the time and misery (not to mention further processing fees and the cost of a chargeback should he be so vindictive).

[edited by: HugeNerd at 2:21 pm (utc) on July 25, 2008]

[TowerOfPower]

Just give him what he wants and eat the cost. Why create a headache for yourself and waste your valuable time?