Refuting ridiculous complaints - can I use this?

Also need email response time standards

[Sunshyn]

I tell you, when I get a bad customer, they're bad through and through. I just received another email from the problem customer I mentioned in another post. I'm torn between being irked and laughing, it's so ridiculous.

Apparently, just our response time to her emails was slow enough to qualify for a complaint. She emailed an excessive number of times and we answered less than 36 hours (1 business day) after the first even though a letter was already in the mail regarding the same topic. Beyond that, the email headers were sent under an alternate name and all but the last lacked the needed reference number to connect it to an order. We replied by email less than 2 hours after that last and that well after business hours.
I'm sure this is considered very good response time indeed and would love to have a resource showing what the standard reply times for personally written customer service emails so I could quote it in the official response.

Of course this person claims the item wasn't damaged as much as it was. I have the item and will take pictures. It's all too obvious that damage couldn't have happened as she claimed it did. It certainly doesn't come close to qualifying under our written policy of returns needing to be suitable for resale, pristine condition for full refund. However, this one doesn't even come into play because she *was* sent a full refund regardless.

Apparently she doesn't realize that we would have copies of our own emails. She entirely twisted our email inquiry concerning how and in what way the piece was broken which was sent with possible suggestions of how we might be able to custom alter the piece so it could be made to work for the customer. Here again, I feel such an email and offer tends to be considered good customer service to sane minds. However, she goes so far as to call it a "nasty letter". ::snort::

Then there came a bunch of childish insults which I won't go into.

From what I can see, her very complaints put our customer service in very good light. She even managed to insult those who wrote our customer testimonials while claiming they were faked by myself. I'm sure those loyal customers would be very interested to read that...

Between all the above and the obvious, spiteful nature of the letter, I am thinking this particular email could do a great deal to *help* my business. I certainly can think of no better response than a polite thank you for such help. I forget the legalities. Can I post this email without listing name or email address or do I have to wait for the official complaint? Is this a bad idea?

[Longhaired Genius]

Don't provoke her, get her out of your life as quickly as possible. Concentrate your time, thoughts and energy on your good customers.

[bcc1234]

We had two chargebacks from a customer who placed two orders 1 business day before the Mothers Day, ground shipping. Now she claims that we shouldn't have displayed any Mothers Day items on our site if were unable to delivery them on time.

When we explained that the ground delivery takes much more time than 1 business day, as stated on our shipping info page, and that we display all items all year long (we didn't have anything stating that we would charge for ground delivery but get the package to the customer overnight) - she changed her story and said that the items were never received. Of course, we have UPS tracking numbers for both packages.

After learning that we have tracking numbers, she said that she can't understand how someone could be in business of shipping live flowers with ground delivery, and that she is not going to pay.

It's all nice and all, but WE DON'T SELL LIVE FLOWERS.

After mentioning that to her, and sending her the links of the items she ordered - she stopped responding. I guess, she ran out of moronic things she could say.

Result - 2 x $25 chargeback fines + 2 x ~$6.70 shipping + ~$80 in merchandise.

Oh yeah, her order comments that she wanted to place on the package were something like: "Hey Mom, sorry, I stopped taking my medication." Or something like that :)

So talking to a customer like that is pretty much pointless.

I'm sure they'll have a good laugh at her issuing bank when they get all our paperwork. I'm just sad that their fun might be at our expense.

[sem4u]

Oh yeah, her order comments that she wanted to place on the package were something like: "Hey Mom, sorry, I stopped taking my medication." Or something like that :)

ROFLMAO!

If you get a bad customer it is best to just leave them be (after you have sorted the situation out). Use your time to concentrate on your good customers.

[gi3wgk]

I read your comments on charge back and to a point agree. However I am must grateful for charge back. Customers are not always to blame. I purchased software and payment was taken via a certain XL registration company who stated an unlock code would be sent to me once the credit details were checked. When that email didn't arrive some two days I emailed the XXXXXX registration company asking for help. They sent me a copy of an email sent to the software company about my complaint. The software company emailed me to say they could not understand why I did not receive my unlock key and was not prepared to send another, so I asked for my money back and the answer was " on our opening page in three place plus before you submit your order it states "no refund under any circumstances". I sought help via my credit card company and got my money back. I then tried to purchase different software from another company but found my account was blocked by the XXXXX registration company. I emailed them for an explanation and was told under no circumstance could my new order go through unless I paid for my old order plus the charge back fee.
I did a search on the net only to find the XXXXX registration company had done the same to other clients. That is "they argue that they only collect the money and the software company is responsible for the unlock key".
I contacted BBS and Internet Fraud and in 5 days I received a letter of apology from the XXXXX registration company saying a junior member made a mistake.
There are good companies but also some bad.
There are good customers but also some bad.

Thanks for the help given by credit card companies

[CernyM]

I'd go with the "final email" here.

Something like:

"Dear XYZ:

I'm sorry you've been unhappy with our products. We do our best to ensure that all our customers are delighted with our products and we can't help but feel like we've somehow dropped the ball here.

Unfortunately though, the time has come for us step back and part ways as amicably as we can. We've taken the item back and refunded the full purchase price.

Beyond that, there's not much we can do other suggest a few other companies who make our sort of products that might be able to help you. You may find them at:

www.competitor1.com
www.competitor2.com
www.competitor3.com

Thank you for the opportunity to show you our merchandise.

Best Regards,

--ABC"

Send that, and then ignore anything from her that doesn't come from a lawyer. Since you've already refunded her money and I'm certain that you wouldn't accept additional orders from her, continuing the conversatio is pointless. The professional thing to do is send a nice Dear Jane letter and move on.

[buckworks]

I'm sorry you've been unhappy with our products. We do our best to ensure that all our customers are delighted with our products and we can't help but feel like we've somehow dropped the ball here.

Be careful about using a loaded phrase like "dropped the ball". Unless you genuinely did mess up somehow, don't say something that looks like you're admitting fault. It might come back to bite you.

Suggestion: say something neutral like "We are sorry that our service did not meet your expectations". That lets you express regret without conceding that their expectations were reasonable!

[digitalv]

If you've refunded their money already there is nothing they can do against you anyway even if you DID screw up. There is no point in sending anything to this customer anymore ... just ignore them and move on.

[lorax]

>> It might come back to bite you.

Totally agree here. Keep your letter affable and professional. No fault mentioned or explained.

I like the idea of listing a few of your competitors as an alternate source. It shows your sincerity at resolving her issues.

[Raymond]

I am sure alot of us have our own share of bad customers. As CernyM said, send her a nice letter, good bye, send her your competitors way.

On a side note, could she be your competitor who just wants to give you some trouble? It happened to me once. A client ordered something and she kept on emailing us about this and that and how she wants to return the item because the measurements was slightly off. (was supposed to be 11x13x3, and we wrote 10x13x3).

She demanded refund and refused to send us back the item unless we pay for the return shipping, which she claims it cost 3 times as much as she paid for when we sent her the item. We refunded everything and just gave her the item and I banned her IP range ever since.

One day I was doing research on my competitors whois and happen to find the exact same address of that woman. So I assumed she was just trying to give us some trouble.

[Sunshyn]

Good suggestion CernyM. I'm afraid, that final letter was mailed and all this is after the fact. We've replied only the once since (the one "slow" response mentioned above) and that was very brief note explaining that her refund and check were in the mail. Any more contacts than that would probably just provoke her, so I wasn't planning to respond again except to the BBB.

Wish I'd thought of the competitor thing. There might even be one I could wish this person on, but none that I know of make the type of item she tried to keep buying.

[Sunshyn]

Oh. I forgot. We did email once aside from that notice about the refund to ask on what basis she was filing a complaint.

[bcc1234]

Update to my previous rant.
Just got a copy of the customer's statement which she sent to her credit card company when asking for a chargeback.

It had three transactions right next to each other:

mm/dd -- some_name Flowers some_name $...
mm/dd -- Our Site $...
mm/dd -- Our Site $...

Two of the transactions (our two) where circled with a pen and a hand-written sign next to them: "Please take the charge off. The Flowers were never delivered!"

Now, what kind of a mor^H^H^H forgetful person one must be to look at her statement, see a company with a word "Flowers" as a part of their name, and assume that it's the OTHER company that was supposed to deliver flowers...

I'm begining to agree with this:

[sfgate.com...]

[hjil]

I've found that in some of these cases you can contest, depending which credit card it is and what merchant bank the chargeback is going through (Some merchant banks will give you more attention than others). I had a good experience with Discover recently where I did get my money back because the customer's claim was just untrue, even though I had no supporting documents (no signed authorization, no copy of credit card etc) . But to get it I had to speak to the manager of the chargeback department and explain to her the whole story. It depends if the chargeback is big enough to be worth the time calling the chargeback department and writing up your counter-claim.

[bcc1234]

hjil, In my experience, AMEX is the best to deal with (contrary to popular belief).

I've never had to deal with a Discover chargeback (at last I don't remember such case), but with AMEX, it's the same thing - you can explain the situation, and they will listen.

With Visa/MC - you are dealing with the merchant bank, but the final decision is made by the issuing bank. So the people you get to talk to can only follow a flow chart or a set of instructions, and then pass your info to the other bank. So it's impossible to reason with them.

We had one case with an AMEX chargeback, where the customer returned some items and claimed that we didn't issue a refund. After checking things out, we noticed that the tracking number of the return indicated that it was mailed out 2 days before the customer got our original package. So it could not possibly be our merchandise that was being returned.
So simply subtmitting paperwork with only two tracking numbers and an explanation highlighting the inconsistencies was enough.
After that, the customer requested a chargeback the second time, and we won it again by probiding the same info (copy of the first claim) and some additional explanation.

But with Visa/MC it's useless most of the time. Especially if you are shipping to a different address (not what you've used for the AVS check).

BTW, I also found out last night that we lost those two chargebacks because the person who accepted the packages was a medical care worker at that location. Basically an outside person... So nothing we can really do, since it was a Visa card.

[hjil]

I have found that with Visa/MC, the merchant bank can sometimes be helpful, but I have never found any US merchant bank to be helpful. On the other hand, some foreign banks are very helpful if you're a big customer and you'd be amazed what percent of your contests are successful when your chargeback department actually cares and tries to support you.

[Leosghost]

All dissatisfed customers should be told .."you should try living in France"..
Customer service is non existant .. The terms are just amazing ...
Items bought from one branch of any national store can only be returned to that same branch ( never ever buy anthing when you're away from home!)...

All items are only considered for repair/return/refund ( refund is at merchants discretion ) if in orignal box with full packaging ...So If you buy a 6' high fridge/freezer combo with a 5 year guarrantee ( extra cost per year ) you have to pay for storage somewhere for the carton for 5 years in case it breaks cos you gotta put it back in the box and take it to them ..

Some items even if defective will only be exchanged if returned intact with packaging UNOPENED ....Think about this one ..

And If you insist on how dumb that one is ..they slam the phone down on you ( specially if you have an Anglophone accent ..sometimes if you're lucky you get insulted first as ( "Dirty whatever" )...

Oh and if you try via a consumer organisation ( there's just the One .it's ...Government controlled!)..All legal disputes of any commercial nature must be fought in the town where the company chose to incorporate ( other commercial courts have no juristiction over it ) ..
So if you buy a Monitor for example that dies after 1 month ..and you live in Marseille about 800 miles from Paris where it was made ...you pay return freight ( it is expressly excluded in all returns of whatever even if the company admits that the thing is faulty ) ...

To ship a monitor this distance costs at least 100 € /120 $...

Your customers are so lucky ....

Oh yeah ..nearly forgot ..our banks won't allow customers to do charge backs or cancel a check ...without you fill in a special form ..from " La Banque de France" ( the national central bank )..detailing all the whys and wherefores ..
If the merchant disputes the charge back ( always in its town of incorporation ...you don't go there to appear in person? written evidence isn't admissable ..but you still must pay for a lawyer ..you are not allowed to represent yourself .. you lose ) ...
You may then be laible for criminal prosecution by the " Banque de France " ..and risk Jail and or a heavy fine and or the banning from holding a French bank account for Life....

theres a new conciliatory service just started up ..run from Paris by phone only ..special number 1.50$ per minute .....Larf ..I nearly died ..!

So just tell your unreasonable customers ...Hey it could be so much worse ..than you could ever imagine :)

Ps .I have a small mail order business amongst other stuff :) in case you think I might be biased ..