Forum Moderators: martinibuster
It's never the customer's fault, is it? He says he was "redirected" to Company X when in fact we know all too well that Adsense code requires you to consciously click on an ad.
OK, it's not costing us any money. But it is costing us time when this fool keeps repeatedly ringing and demanding to speak to a manager/director. If we can't get rid of him politely he's threatened to take us to the Small Claims Court. Don't laugh, the Small Claims Court is a bit of a stupid system - they accept ANY case whether or not there is merit in it. They have zero common sense. I've got a lot of experience with SCCs and don't really want to get into defending a silly case like this.
<rant over>
Accepted that this is the first time in over 100,000 clicks that someone has blamed us for an ad on our site. How do you deal with stupid customers like this? We tried contacting company X and they aren't answering their phones. I really don't want to take this to Google. No, I won't take this to Google.
[edited by: Macro at 3:38 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2004]
We also point them to our terms of use policy where we state that we do not necessarily endorse the companies whose ads are shown by third party companies such as Google on the site, and any dealings between the visitors with the advertisers are the sole responsibility of the visitors. We had to do this because we are in the small business sector where a lot of bizopp ads appear.
If they continue to insist that they were automatically redirected, it is quite possible that they were. By spyware/adware that they have on their computer.
If nothing else, the customer needs to be pointed at the "Ads by Google" link at the bottom of your adsense box.
If they continue to insist that they were automatically redirected, it is quite possible that they were. By spyware/adware that they have on their computer.
just imagine what us merchants are dealing with everyday
Just kidding, maybe.
[edited by: nosense at 5:23 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2004]
If he keeps whinging send him a registered letter explaining why you can't help him and threaten to denounce him if he doesn't shut up :)
Added: Naturally you'll get the normal " I'll tell everyone about you, and report you to blah blah" ... whatever!
Had this call today from this guy who wants to cancel his order.
Pay attention to the responses they give you. I would start out with a 20% possibility that he never placed any order at all. If he argues through all of the above, my suspicions would grow.
If he keeps insisting (threatening) to take you to small claims court, ask him to fax a copy of the order. If he can't do that, ask him to fax any proof he has that an order was placed.
refer him to your disclaimer.... You do have one, right?
Galtego, I don't know if that'll dissuade him. He does have our phone number.
john_k, he does sound like he has placed an order. He sounds genuinely aggrevied that he can't cancel it. He paid by Switch and it has come out of his account.
Maybe I'll go with bobothecat's idea and ignore him. If he sues us then I'll have to haul my butt down to the court (the stupid thing is that I'll have to go to his local court because we're a business and he's a private consumer... and his local can be at the other end of the country). If that happens I'll be even more p*ssed off with the UK Small Claims system. (And I'll do something about it. I'll write an article about the sorry state of SCC. I do have contacts who can run that in national newspapers - not that this will achieve anything).
On the plus side - it's been two hours since the idiot has phoned us. Maybe he's forgotten about speaking with a director (hope, hope).
they make .htaccess for phones too.
On that point, if he's making legal threats then you should insist he communicates with you in writing. Just do up a line and a half boiler plate reply and post it to him (second class) whenever he writes or emails you.
I suppose not the best way to diffuse the situation if your worried about being dragged into a time wasting court case. But surely if he does go to court he will talk to a lawyer first, who will tell him he's a nutter and charge him for the privilege (IANAEL [I am not an experienced litigant]).
But surely if he does go to court he will talk to a lawyer first, who will tell him he's a nutter and charge him for the privilege (IANAEL [I am not an experienced litigant]).
In the U.S., a lawyer isn't needed for Small Claims Court, and some such courts don't even permit attorneys. However, several things work to the advantage of the Web publisher in a situation like this:
1) A local Small Claims Court probably won't have jurisdiction, in which case a suit can't be filed. (The obvious exception would be if the AdSense publisher is in the same location as the wannabe plaintiff.)
2) Even if the court accepts jurisdiction and the plaintiff wins, the plaintiff has to collect the judgment. That isn't easy (or cheap), as I once discovered when trying to collect an unpaid bill from a client who turned out to be a scumbag.
...it reminds me to go take another look at my posted site policies and make sure they cover a situation like this.
Good point and I need to update ours to cover the issue.
To do so, I first wanted to do so research to see how others had addressed this issue in their TOU. My first thought was to go to the case study sites provided by Google. To my surprise I only found one that dealt with the issue. Most didn't even have a TOU!
"Including those linked in advertisements" . . . those words added today after reading about Macro's experience.
[edited by: Galtego at 9:54 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2004]
And courts here are such that if you send in a written defence and don't bother attending the hearing for something so obviously merit-less, you will lose. Those pompous, self-important non-judges who hear these cases take it as a personal affront if you don't attend their court in person. And, irrespective of the merits of the case, it will be decided in the plaintiff's favour. I know from personal experience in an even more "non-case" than this one. And from one or two other experiences at a lawyer's I used to work for, and court staffs' off-the-record comments.
[If you don't show up] irrespective of the merits of the case, it will be decided in the plaintiff's favour.
Macro: Works the same way here in the USA in Small Claims Court. Doesn't matter what the merits of the case are or even if the plaintiff has any evidence. If you don't show up as the defendant, you lose.
