Customer is accusing me of 'theft' in every email..

blue_monkey_2

I guess there is nowhere I can complain to but she will not leave me alone and I do not know what else to do.

A woman placed 2 orders on my site
Order 1 for item £5 plus £2.50 P&P
Order 2 for item £5 plus £2.50 P&P.

As I defer payment until the order is ready to be dispatched I combined the orders, sent in the same package and charged £7.50 and £5 respectively by Paypal.

Her parcel did not arrive and so the fun begins - I had proof of postage so nothing to worry about I thought. She told me that she did not believe I had sent it (I have been trading 9 years, do I really need to 'steal' £12.50 from her??) She then said she was going to the police about it.

I asked her to wait the 15 days as it had gone by 1st class.

She said she was not happy because I had clearly not sent it, but she would.

After 15 days (to the day) I emailed her and asked whether it had arrived - no answer.

A week later I got another email saying it had still not arrived, she had taken 'legal advice' and I had 7 days to refund her or send more items. I had to 'decide what I was going to do'.

She said 'my reputation was on the line'.

I told her that this would have been easy to sort as this is why we have a clause in the T&C about missing parcels but that she was very rude and made false allegations and that I did not want her custom and so I was not sending replacements, I was going to refund her money straight away (and I did). I also told her I was blocking her from my website and also her email address (but that did not work for some reason, the emails still keep on coming but I have ticked to delete from the server).

Tonight I have come home to MORE emails accusing me of stealing her money not refunding her £15. She only has received £5 and I HAVE to pay her the £10 I owe her and her 'Legal Advisor' has all of the paperwork and documents to prove I owe the money.

She has the bloody money, I have refunded her in full as I said I would - or the person that sent me the money has the money, it was not her name on the payment (I have pointed that out). I have sent her an email with all the Paypal details on it, transactions, dates, amounts, refund amounts, etc.. and I have told her I want a full apology for the accusations and that I will print out the information and send it to her 'legal advisor' by recorded delivery tomorrow.

How the hell do I get rid of this woman. Is there anywhere I can go, anything I can do to tell her to leave me alone or do I just have to put up with this? In ever email she has accused me of stealing her money. It is even in the T&C of the site what to do if a parcel goes missing FGS, she clearly has not even bothered reading those.

:mad::mad::mad:

The rant has made me feel better though. God, what a cow. Wish we could vet our customers first.

paddyrg

Blimey, hope that feels better!

DSR's mean she probably holds the cards on this one. It is up to you to make sure the goods are delivered, not her to chase the post office. If that means sending everything 'signed for', so be it. It's an extra 74p or so.

As for paying her 'Legal Advisor', ignore it. As for whose paypal account was used - you accepted the money so too late to use that against her. I'd send her the tenner and just be done with.

blue_monkey_2

Paddy, but I already HAVE refunded her in full (I have put a little edit in) but I have written there that I sent a full refund - I always do if something does not arrive and I've been selling online a long time.

I never expected her to chase the post office but you do have to wait 15 days to see if it arrives. That is in the T&C but she never read those anyway.

I did it as soon as I heard from her. She reckons she only got one refund of £5 and now she wants another £10 and that I am untrustworthy etc.... She did not even pay me £15 because I tried to do her a favour by combining the postage. Pah. I wish I had never bothered.

I also thought on this, she has a crap financial advisor. She reckons he has her statements but why would he not make her check the Paypal account to see what was taken and put back in before accusing me (again)? If he has the emails then he would see I have told her I gave a shipping discount.

Yes did feel better thanks. Needed to have a good rant.

I am still waiting for my apology from her though. I wonder how long that will take.

And ironically somewhat, I had my busiest trading night in ages.

Ballymackeonan

You could tell her that, if she persists in her allegations, your legal advisor has indicated that you have a strong case to take proceedings for libel against her, and she would be made to pay punitive damages - plus legal costs! Or that this counts as threatening behaviour...

chalkie99

I would probably just send a simple mail along the lines of:

I am sorry you have been unhappy with your transaction.

However, as previously stated, a total of £10 was charged to the PayPal account used to place your order and the whole amount has been refunded to that account. The PayPal account used will verify this for you.

Our correspondence is now closed.

Annoying as some customers are you simply cannot win with them so I don't see any point in prolonging this by asking for apologies even though you are in the right.

krlyr

As above, I'd just reply with the facts, that you've refunded x amount with transaction reference #xyz. Everything would be easy enough to trace online/through Paypal so if you've sent her a full refund then I really doubt anyone would take on her case against you.
I wouldn't communicate any further, don't expect an apology or persue one. I wouldn't worry about blocking her, just ignore her emails (set up a filter on your email software to send them straight to the deleted items if you don't feel you can resist replying - but might be worth reading them just to see what she's saying). If she decides to go around slagging you off then consider getting a letter sent to her warning her of libel (I think you can get bog standard legal type letters sent by official looking companies for a few quid) if you're that worried.

Catapa

My rule is not getting into discussions with such people. You have refunded her, now just blacklist her so she can't order again.

vax2002

Ballymackeonan wrote: »

You could tell her that, if she persists in her allegations, your legal advisor has indicated that you have a strong case to take proceedings for libel against her,.

That would make the OP look silly, as her comments have not been published within the public domain, no libel has occurred.

Makeandsave

To me it seems that this person has the items and the money back and thought how easy it was and now wants you to send more money to them! Just keep the emails she sends you i see these has threats that if you dont send money she will do "so and so". This person is just after a freebie!

Mistral001

blue_monkey wrote: »

I
.. and I have told her I want a full apology for the accusations and that I will print out the information and send it to her 'legal advisor' by recorded delivery tomorrow.


:mad::mad::mad:

The rant has made me feel better though. God, what a cow. Wish we could vet our customers first.

When in business you have to take "sh*t" from customers. You cannot demand that people you deal with are polite. I am afraid you have decided to go into business and you have to take the rough with the smooth. keep emails if you send them to a few short businesslike sentences even if you get a whole rant from a customer trying to make it personal.

As others have said it is not libel as the emails are one-to-one. If you have had to pay a legal advisor to help you out with this matter, that is just a business cost like any other such as stationery, accountancy fees etc.

blue_monkey_2

Makeandsave wrote: »

To me it seems that this person has the items and the money back and thought how easy it was and now wants you to send more money to them! Just keep the emails she sends you i see these has threats that if you dont send money she will do "so and so". This person is just after a freebie!

My husband said the same thing really. Especially as the package 'never arrived' in the first place. Sadly, when people ask for their money back within a week it usually gets me thinking they have received it really. I do not have many problems, it has to be said, but you can tell the difference between an enquiry as to when it was sent to 'I want my money back now' attitude.

I did think that if she continued to accuse me I was going to tell her (by RD letter) that I would be seeking legal advice on the matter and that I would sue her for the costs in the Small Claims Court for it. Let's see her legal advisor deal with that.

Thanks for listening to me rant though.

I do think it is wrong that we have put up with crap like that from customers and beng spoken to - I gave her the money back without question. I was nothing but polite to her and to be accused to stealing - it sadly just takes one word from somewhere - even a forum like this - to put your business in the mire. I did ask her what on earth she was thnking of to keep on emailing me with all of these accusations.

I did think that that if she could not use Paypal, could not read the T&C and thought that mail going missing was 'tampering with her mail and police action against me would ensue' that she would not be savvy enough to know how to use an internet forum.

I am still waiting for my apology though.

How do I block emails though, please? I am using Live Mail. I ticked the box and added the email address on the Rules but they still are coming through. Maybe the apology got bounced and only the complaints and moaning ones come through....