Stoopid Thief

customer wants to exchange stolen item

[sleepy_eye]

Well my boss wanted me to post this.
About a week ago we got a call from a lady who ordered an item online from us. She wanted to exchange for a different item. A higher priced item. And she even wanted us to cover the difference in price.
Looking at her order I saw it was from a year ago. Then I read some notes made in her order.
We had gotten a chargeback from her for that item she wanted to exchange. She claimed she never got the item, UPS investigated and said later she admitted she did. And I checked her order, was the same type color size sku etc
I checked with our bank, yep the funds did get taken out.
So I called her back told her go ahead and ship us the item.
Its been about a week, ups ground be here anytime.
I will send her a little copy of the charge back and a smiley face.
What nerve, just wanting to return something from a year ago is bad enough.

[Demaestro]

Bah hahahaha.

If she returns it I will laugh (harder)... please post back with updates.

[bwnbwn]

yes please be the first time I ever read this

[LifeinAsia]

Too bad you didn't file a police report. It would have been fun to attach a copy of that as well. :)

[mvander]

Nice to hear :) Thank you for sharing that story.

I hate getting burned. I think sometimes consumers just assume it doesn't matter, ("its a write off") but when you are a small business it DOES matter.

[Rugles]

That is fantastic! Please keep us updated.

[ytswy]

Hah! I needed that, thanks! :)

[Mesozoic]

Haha that's pretty hilarious if she sends it back

[BillyS]

This stuff happens all the time. I know a guy that pulls these stunts on a regular basis. I'm always hoping he gets caught.

Keep us posted on what happens.

[youfoundjake]

Classic, I look forward to seeing what happens.
Can she do anything legally once you receive the item?

[ytswy]

Can she do anything legally once you receive the item?

I suppose she could report herself to the police for fraud :) They aren't going to care much in normal circumstances, but if she insisted on being investigated, who knows...

[gpilling]

Too bad you didn't file a police report. It would have been fun to attach a copy of that as well. :)

Why not file it now? She is sending the evidence back after all. :)

[bcc1234]

So, did you get the package back? :) I bookmarked this thread just so I can read how it plays out.

[sleepy_eye]

1st I wanted to thank everyone for posting. All of us here at work had fun reading your comments.
But, sadly they did not send back the package :(
I called a couple times but only got their machine and left messages letting them know it was still ok to ship the package back. Maybe they will. Probly not tho. I'm guessing they realized their mistake :( Oh well, woulda been fun if they had shipped it back.

[samc]

she is probably waiting for a call tag ;)

[Rugles]

Keep phoning! In fact, call after your regular business hours.

[sleepy_eye]

she is probably waiting for a call tag ;)

Will do, great suggestion.

[Demaestro]

I say forget the ruse and call her out.

Tell her you have transcripts of her admitting she has the item and wishes to return it and that you are re-billing her card. Tell her if she disputes it again you will use her communications as evidence against her that she is commuting fraud and you will contact the district attorney to press charges.

That is some serious moxie she has, she needs to be put in her place.

[MrHard]

Send collections after them. Perfectly legal, if they don't pay credit is ruined, after many months of phone calls and even personal visits if you get one in their area. Then they sell the bad dept to someone else and the process starts all over again.

[tangor]

I have also followed this thread with anticipation we might really have a Kodak Moment of Thief Caught In the Act... but in reality, unless the loss has been significant, this is not worth pursuing if the fish won't take the bait. I've not had one quite like this, but have had some similar. My time is better served in business rather than catch-a-crook. After all, I'm a businessman, not a policeman. YMMV.

[Super_Chunk]

I was dying to see if anything else happened on this thread! I had a similar situation last year when a customer in our B&M shop bought something, then bounced their cheque which was several hundred. A few months later, they phoned us complaining that their widget had stopped working and I traced the sale back to them so… I mentioned the bounced cheque, and never heard from them again.
We stopped accepting cheque payment now.
Still makes me chuckle!

[engine]

Super_Chunk, welcome to WebmasterWorld.

I mentioned the bounced cheque, and never heard from them again.

I might have asked them to return it for repair before mentioning the bounced cheque. ;)

[jwhansen]

Its about time the good guys win one! Hopefully she returns it!

[sleepy_eye]

Update on customer -- Happy ending !
Well it's been about two months since I started this post.
I had emailed and sent her a call tag but no response.
Then last Monday (may 31) she calls and asks if we got her return back yet. I could not believe it!
Today Friday (june 4) we actually received her return. And amazingly the item is in good condition so we can put it back in stock. After her having it for 2 years ( I was wrong before when I typed one year) I figured the item would be all messed up but getting it back would be just a small victory.
We all are just busting up with laughter here.
We have yet to deliver the bad news to her, sniff sniff. I'll see how my boss wants to do that.

[Demaestro]

We have yet to deliver the bad news to her, sniff sniff. I'll see how my boss wants to do that.

Don't leave us out on these details please. I recount this story to people I know, would love to have a funny ending.

[lorax]

Bravo! I like to hear about happy - semi-happy and otherwise - endings.

[sleepy_eye]

Update
The lady called us yesterday and talked to my boss. She said he had given her permission to get a refund/exchange, which is a lie. My boss told her thanks for sending back the item, both my boss and I laughed. I was on the extension listening. She said if she would have known we weren't going to give her a refund she never would have sent it back, well duh. My boss told her she did the right thing sending it back and we were even now. He also had to tell her a few times how she never paid for the item so how could we do a refund? She complained about shipping and again how we said she would get a refund. We never said that, we did say it was ok to ship it back. She started yelling about something, my boss said have a nice day and hung up. Man, the nerve of some people.
Thanks for reading and your posts, we have all had fun with this one.

[Matthew1980]

Hi sleepy_eye,

Great story that, I just caught the conclusion of this, so I read the entire thread. I am amazed that the unit was good enough to return to stock after it was returned, now at least you can sell it on, and this time you actually receive some money for it from a decent customer.

Thanks for the post, and thanks for completing the thread ;)

Cheers,
MRb

[Demaestro]

Awesome story.. thanks for sharing.

The only way I could have got more satisfaction from it is if you had audio of that phone call.

[LifeinAsia]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this- definitely love hearing that karma works with bad customers. :)

She said if she would have known we weren't going to give her a refund she never would have sent it back

Well, if we knew you were going to issue a chargeback to avoid paying for it, we never would have shipped it to you in the first place!