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Extremely late return

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lkup

Junior Member
Illinois -

Small online retail business. Have record of all contact. Customer purchased in April 2015 with 30 day return period. In December the manufacturer advised the customer to take the system to an electrician, who promptly did everything wrong and damaged it beyond repair. I told customer that we'd make a gross exception and refund him December 21 2015, without specifying return date. He just contacted me today, September 8 2016 to inform me of return shipment.

I told the customer we would not accept the package or process the return because of the 9 month lapse in communication and shipment. He threatened legal action because I gave him no date by which to return it. This seems outrageously unreasonable to me, but do not wish to be taken to court (customer is in NH, so this would be even more complicated). Is there any sort of protection I am under, especially because I have his and mine written email documentation of communication?
 


quincy

Senior Member
Illinois -

Small online retail business. Have record of all contact. Customer purchased in April 2015 with 30 day return period. In December the manufacturer advised the customer to take the system to an electrician, who promptly did everything wrong and damaged it beyond repair. I told customer that we'd make a gross exception and refund him December 21 2015, without specifying return date. He just contacted me today, September 8 2016 to inform me of return shipment.

I told the customer we would not accept the package or process the return because of the 9 month lapse in communication and shipment. He threatened legal action because I gave him no date by which to return it. This seems outrageously unreasonable to me, but do not wish to be taken to court (customer is in NH, so this would be even more complicated). Is there any sort of protection I am under, especially because I have his and mine written email documentation of communication?
What was wrong with the item that required contact from the manufacturer? Was the product recalled?
 

lkup

Junior Member
What was wrong with the item that required contact from the manufacturer? Was the product recalled?
No - there was a fuse that broke, a thing that we've encountered before and usually fix here, but the manufacturer informed him to go to an electrician to save time and money on shipping. He called the manufacturer - the manufacturer did not start contact. It generally costs us about $2.00 and 5 minutes to fix, which is frustrating.
 
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quincy

Senior Member
No - there was a fuse that broke, a thing that we've encountered before and usually fix here, but the manufacturer informed him to go to an electrician to save time and money on shipping. He called the manufacturer - the manufacturer did not start contact. It generally costs us about $2.00 and 5 minutes to fix, which is frustrating.
You have both business interests and legal interests to consider.

From a customer relations standpoint, it can often be best to accept returns from a customer and write the returns off as a loss.

From a legal standpoint, there does not appear to be anything that can support a legal action against you if you decide not to accept the return after all this time and after the customer has altered the condition of the product.
 

lkup

Junior Member
Update

The customer is now threatening to start websites about how we ripped him off, start an aggressive social media campaign, and basically start telling everyone that we lied to him, along with starting a law suit. Based on the fact that every contract we have with him states that his eighteen months outside of his return period, this can't be legal on his part, can it?

In response to writing returns off at a loss: this product alone will be a $10,000 loss for our company. When I say we are small, I mean there are 3 employees. $10,000 is an ENORMOUS cost to us.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
I don't see why your employee count is relevant to anything. I've known business owners with that many or fewer employees that have net incomes in the millions of dollars annually.


How do you know the product is beyond repair? All you have statesd is customer was directed to source a repair locally and it was not effective. Have you actually inspected the equipment?

Have you spoken to the manufacturer about this matter? After all, their directive led to this. Is it possible the manufacturer will step up and do something?

Personally I wouldn't likely agree with an outright return and refund. I might consider an exchange of some sort (if a refurbished unit is available from the manufacturer that would help you in such an exchange) or a partial refund but as it stands, I believe you are on the legal high ground here.


As to your protections; if the customer publishes false claims that damage your business you can sue him (that costs money and it's hard to undo damage already realized)
 

quincy

Senior Member
The customer is now threatening to start websites about how we ripped him off, start an aggressive social media campaign, and basically start telling everyone that we lied to him, along with starting a law suit. Based on the fact that every contract we have with him states that his eighteen months outside of his return period, this can't be legal on his part, can it?

In response to writing returns off at a loss: this product alone will be a $10,000 loss for our company. When I say we are small, I mean there are 3 employees. $10,000 is an ENORMOUS cost to us.
A $10,000 loss is a big loss for any size company. That said, you said earlier were willing to take this loss.

The long delay in the return and the fact that the purchaser "messed" with the product certainly favors you should the purchaser take this matter to court but I am not sure that this longer delay makes much difference overall. I am not sure that this longer delay should be one that changes your earlier willingness to accept the return for a complete refund, especially when balanced against the purchaser's threats (whether legitimate ones that he intends to carry out or not).

You have a few options that I can see. You can accept the return and refund the money and write off the loss. You can refuse to accept the return with a refund of money and see if the purchaser follows through on any of his threats (and then deal with this at that time). Or you can contact an attorney in your area and have the attorney send a "scary letter" to the purchaser, threatening legal action of your own (whatever legal action it is that your attorney might find supportable based on the facts).

It is ultimately up to you what to do. It is not an easy decision to make. Good luck.
 

single317dad

Senior Member
Worth noting that neither accepting or denying the return will prevent the customer from making negative claims and remarks on websites or social media. Your remedy for any false or defamatory statements is reactionary, as justalayman noted previously.
 

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