Small business - customer complaint

OneTrader · 1 October 2017 at 5:44PM

Hi, first post but I’m a regular lurker.

I own my own business making and repairing textiles, furnishings.

Customer came for a repair in July, following some emails, they seemed very paranoid, asking lots of questions about quality of products, experience. The questions were not a problem, more a little unusual.
Repair was undertaken and paid for and collected.
Next day customer emailed to say something wasn’t as she requested, we exchanged mail and it came to light that item repair WAS correct it was more she was having user issues.
All went quiet, no apology from customer for moaning incorrectly and accusing me of shoddy work. All my work has 3 months warranty incase of faulty parts.
2 months and 3 weeks into warranty the customer emails to moan about something different, I agree to look at it, they drop it off and I redo a small part of work, more as a goodwill than anything.
Customer very rude to me and stroppy, very uncalled for, I remain polite.
Customer emails next day and moans again about a supposed different issue and demands full refund of amount paid in July.

I’m starting to think customers slightly obsessed or has other issues, item was fine each time it left me and fine on return for repair.
By pandering to her requests to “fix” I seem to have opened a can of worms.
She’s now stating she wants full refund due to lack of confidence, or she will take it to dispute resolution services and beyond.

The amount paid was £90, materials were half of that and labour rest.

What do I do? Stand firm? Let her proceed with dispute resolution?
Refund her as customer always right? And it’s not a huge amount to pay for some peace?

I have offered to look at it again but she’s using the lack of confidence card, I’m not convinced there’s anything wrong as I only had it last week! Unless it’s been deliberately damaged.

Help!!!!

bris · 1 October 2017 at 6:35PM

Tell her no, case closed. Put the ball back in her court.

Dispute resolution to who exactly? The only body you have to answer too is the courts, it wont get that far so just ignore her.

OneTrader · 1 October 2017 at 6:44PM

This was the email content:

“As you have stated above, you are not prepared to offer me a refund, which I am entitled to according to the Consumer Rights Act 2015. I see no alternative but to ask you if you have an official complaints procedure which you can share with me?

Also, are you part of or willing to use an alternative dispute resolution service?

You have 7 days to respond to my two questions, if I have not had a response from you in this time I will be back in touch with an official communication in writing.”

I don’t believe she is entitled to a refund and I am still offering to look at the item at this stage. Is she really entitled to a refund nearly 3 months after the original job after accepting it and inspecting it at the time and it supposedly developing faults nearly 3 months later, convieniently as my personal warranty is due to end?

Pennywise · 1 October 2017 at 6:47PM

Yes, you have been pandering to her I'm afraid. Give an inch and they take a mile. Time to put a stop to it and tell her straight that you've done what she paid for, that repair was fine, and the other issues are separate and nothing to do with what she paid for.

bugslet · 2 October 2017 at 10:50AM

OneTrader wrote: »

This was the email content:

“As you have stated above, you are not prepared to offer me a refund, which I am entitled to according to the Consumer Rights Act 2015. I see no alternative but to ask you if you have an official complaints procedure which you can share with me?

Also, are you part of or willing to use an alternative dispute resolution service?

You have 7 days to respond to my two questions, if I have not had a response from you in this time I will be back in touch with an official communication in writing.”

I don’t believe she is entitled to a refund and I am still offering to look at the item at this stage. Is she really entitled to a refund nearly 3 months after the original job after accepting it and inspecting it at the time and it supposedly developing faults nearly 3 months later, convieniently as my personal warranty is due to end?

Really I'd be telling her to crack on. If it goes anywhere, which it may well not, then point out that you did things on the grounds of goodwill not because your work was at fault.

Just don't stand for any waffle from her and in the future if you get the feeling that someone is a PITA, don't go near them with a barge pole. I say that as a fellow business owner.

Pennywise · 2 October 2017 at 11:09AM

bugslet wrote: »

in the future if you get the feeling that someone is a PITA, don't go near them with a barge pole.

This is one of the most valuable things to learn in business. PITA clients simply aren't worth having, regardless of how much they spend nor how desperate you are for customers. They suck your time, enthusiasm and motivation, all of which are far too valuable to waste on a PITA.

I will never meet a client until I've had a fairly lengthy phone conversation or email exchange to find out exactly what they want, their motivations, etc. Probably half the people who contact me get "filtered out" for one of many possible reasons, before I waste too much time on meeting them, preparing quotes, etc. Yes, I fully accept that I'll have missed some golden clients but that's a risk I'm happy to take if it means I avoid the time wasters, PITAs, etc.

bris · 2 October 2017 at 1:40PM

She does have consumer rights yes. In the first 6 months any faults are deemed to have been present at the time of manufacture, or in your case the service must be of satisfactory quality, unless you can prove otherwise.

Warranties mean nothing (as far as consumer rights are concerned) and are over and above a customers statutory rights, which is what she is trying to claim on.

If you are 100% certain she is complaining about nothing then you have nothing to worry about. If the faults however are to do with the work you did then it's not for us to say whether she has a case or not. only you can see if she if has a point and then for the courts to enforce that.

She can't make you do anything at this stage and you don't need to enter any kind of dispute resolution service. Hold your position and the chances of it going any further are in your favour but you can never tell what's in a stubborn persons mind.

paddyrg · 2 October 2017 at 3:38PM

You've nothing to lose really by letting this go to court, if she bothers. In the event that through some perverse twist the court says you owe a full refund (which is very, very unlikely from the sound of things) and have to pay small claims court costs, it's not a lot of money

firefox1956 · 2 October 2017 at 4:37PM

I would now ignore her completely.
If you respond further in any way you are just digging yourself into a deeper hole.
I spent some 32 years in retailing & these sort of people come along once in a while.
Upsetting for you as you have done your best to address her complaints.
Again ignore completely...............
HTH ( makes you feel a little better )

baldelectrician · 24 October 2017 at 11:11PM

I have been in business for 14 years now and come across 1-2 a year of these type.
I have got better at dealing with this and a long lead time puts them off (I am usually booked up 3-4 weeks in advance).

My advice - trust your instinct.

You have provided a repair for an existing product- this means that any defect she finds will be in a product over 6 months old, the EU rules apply on new products.

I would politely email her telling her you do not belong to a body that has a dispute resolution process and you consider the matter closed.
Inform her that you will not respond to any communication on this matter but will respond to a court summons.

Worst case scenario if she takes you to court and you lose it will cost you < £250 including her fees etc- and if you pay within 30 days of losing at court it wont appear on your credit file at all.

I also have call recording for this stuff

I had a client's wife email to say I overcharged and she 'would take it further'
I emailed her a copy of the call recording where I had clearly explained all my costs to her husband over the phone and had actually charged slightly less per item than I had quoted.

Job done.

Small business - customer complaint

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free