Hobby sewist needs help with unhappy customer

PragmaticMoneySaver

Before she can take any further action then surely you should be given the opportunity to put things right - regardless of whether you are acting as a business or individual.  We say again and again for consumers that they must allow the trader to "put things right" before further action.

When you say things went back and forth and she settled on a refund, is this because she wasn't willing to allow you to put things right?  Surely this should be the end of the matter.

I'd also be tempted to deal directly with her not a 'claims handler' - there is no claim to handle unless they have paid out on some insurance.  I think she's trying to bully you with making things sound more serious....

Aylesbury_Duck

xToshTxx said:

Okell said:

The best you can do - as others have said - is to wait and see what happens.

If they try to take this any further (eg a letter before action and a court claim) and you are adamant that you did not cause any damage to the dress, then you use that as your defence.

If it comes to court it will all be down to who the court believes most - you or your "customer".

Others have mentioned that you might have legal cover provided on your car/house/contents insurance.  If you do you could try asking them - but if they consider you were acting in a business capacity they will probably refuse to help.

If you want to continue providing sewing services to friends and acquaintances, that's fine*, but charging them for that service probably isn't a good idea unless you want to be held to business standards.  Even if you don't charge them you are probably still obliged to do the work with reasonable care and skill - so you should be wary about taking on any jobs you aren't confident with.


*I say "that's fine" but in my experience doing favours for friends and acquaintances often ends in tears...

Thank you!
I have now taken out business insurance as of today so hopefully any claims from today onwards, I am covered for. Like I said, lesson learned and I will definitely be re-thinking this whole thing. I enjoy using my skills to help people and like seeing them happy - which everyone apart from this one time, has been. 
Thanks again for your advice everyone. I'll wait and see what happens.

I don't know if business insurers are the same as vehicle insurers for example, but have you declared a potential live case to them?  From your wording, you seem to understand that this particular case wouldn't be covered, but the fact you have a potential case rumbling away might change your risk profile and the insurer's willingness to cover you.

DullGreyGuy

PragmaticMoneySaver said:
We say again and again for consumers that they must allow the trader to "put things right" before further action.

She is legally obliged to under the CPR, thats what the letter before action is supposed to do, however that doesn't stop her being able to file a claim nor is it grounds for the claim to be thrown out. It is however an opportunity to raise abuse of process, this won't change if the customer wins or loses the case however will be considered when awarding costs. 

Typically in Small Track (aka Small Claims Court) the court fees and witness expenses are the only allowable costs of action that can be claimed however the Judge has a lot of leeway to deviate from this in a case of breach of process or a vexatious claim. At the most basic level they may decide that despite winning the case that the claimant won't receive their court fees back because it never should have gotten to court and only did because they didnt follow the process. In more extreme cases legal fees and expenses have also been awarded of £10,000+ when the claimant lost the case

bluelad1927

xToshTxx said:

Okell said:

The best you can do - as others have said - is to wait and see what happens.

If they try to take this any further (eg a letter before action and a court claim) and you are adamant that you did not cause any damage to the dress, then you use that as your defence.

If it comes to court it will all be down to who the court believes most - you or your "customer".

Others have mentioned that you might have legal cover provided on your car/house/contents insurance.  If you do you could try asking them - but if they consider you were acting in a business capacity they will probably refuse to help.

If you want to continue providing sewing services to friends and acquaintances, that's fine*, but charging them for that service probably isn't a good idea unless you want to be held to business standards.  Even if you don't charge them you are probably still obliged to do the work with reasonable care and skill - so you should be wary about taking on any jobs you aren't confident with.


*I say "that's fine" but in my experience doing favours for friends and acquaintances often ends in tears...

Thank you!
I have now taken out business insurance as of today so hopefully any claims from today onwards, I am covered for. Like I said, lesson learned and I will definitely be re-thinking this whole thing. I enjoy using my skills to help people and like seeing them happy - which everyone apart from this one time, has been. 
Thanks again for your advice everyone. I'll wait and see what happens.

This may be totally irrelevant  but I'm assuming from the small scale this work is run from your home?

This will impact your home insurance policy if not already considered

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hello OP

Generally speaking services should be carried out with due care and skill, for goods the Consumer Rights Act has reverse burden of proof stated for goods (meaning for the first 6 months the trader must prove the goods are fine) however no such prevision is mentioned for services so AFAIK the party making the claim must prove (on the balance of probabilities, i.e 50/50) that the service you carried out wasn't done with due care and skill.

It's very hard for us to say with something like this, the service was both measure and alter so the clothes shouldn't tear or come apart at the seams from normal wear so it would suggest deliberate damage if the service was carried out sufficiently.

One of things to take away from this going forward is to not admit fault, large businesses often talk about "goodwill" and your comments where you apologised and refunded might count against you so if something like this ever crops up again (hopefully not ) and you aren't sure where fault lies but want to offer something to keep the peace it's a good idea to ensure any offer you make is clearly detailed as "goodwill". 

xToshTxx said:

I explained before touching the dress that all alterations are a risk, I cant work miracles, I am a hobby sewist and not a business - she was happy to proceed. 

OP I'm not going to lecture on the whole business or not topic but just one thing to note here as far as consumer rights go, when offering a service like this on a regular basis in exchange for a reward you would be classed as a trader and the part about services being carried out with due care and skill are implied terms of the contract and can't be contracted out. 

It sounds as if, apart for this issue, everyone has been happy so it's probably best to leave out the at risk, etc and present yourself with confidence with the knowledge that if you ever fell short of the expected standard there would be a potential loss for refunding customers or covering any damage to their garments.