I'm going to do a chargeback anyway!

[Kusanagi]

This is a doozy. This customer wasn't home last week for her delivery and wants us to reschedule her. We get to the part where she needs to pay another delivery fee and she blows up at me.

SC: I thought you would do a call ahead! I'm five minutes away!
Me: We called the day before and gave you a four hour time window.
SC: I know, I got that call. I'm not sure they even showed up at my house. My NEIGHBOR says a truck never showed up.
Me: :gives description of house, as related by the drivers, and the time they showed up:
SC: ...well, I guess they did.
Me: I can't get around the redelivery fee. I tried, but corporate is telling me no.
SC: Why not?
Me: Ma'am, we did nothing wrong. You admit they were there, you admit you got the time window on the day that you picked for delivery. We can't issue a redelivery charge waiver because we did nothing wrong.
SC: I think I'm just going to call Visa and have them do a chargeback. Just cancel the order.
Me: I can cancel the order, but there will be a 20% restocking fee and we will not refund you the original delivery charge. We have the signed contract that states you understood these terms and conditions. If you do a chargeback I don't believe it will go in your favor.
SC: I know it will go in my favor, I do them all the time [not suprising], I'm going to do it anyway. We could be repeat customers, you know [dangle carrot]
Me: Ma'am, I can't do anything. We didn't do anything wrong. Do you want to have it redelivered on Friday, do you want to cancel and we'll refund you everything but the delivery and restocking fee? I need to know. We are NOT redelivering it for free.
SC: Give me my money back!
Me: That's between you and VISA.
SC: I expect a call back within the hour to let me know what you're going to do! :hangs up:

I documented everything in an email to my supervisors. Too bad I didn't get the call recorded where she admits that we did nothing wrong. Flat out. Just PURE gimme gimme gimme trash. I would love to relate to VISA how by her own admission she was the one completely at fault and wants to do the chargeback anyway.

I mean, usually with entitlement whores, I can figure out what is going on with their sense of entitlement. I can KIND of see their warped logic.

This one, though...there isn't even a ghost of us doing something wrong, she never even played it from that angle.

I gave her corporates number, I'll let them deal with it. The sad thing is? While we won't bend over, she's almost 100% correct that VISA will because of the thought that they will lose the customer.

And we get shafted in the process.

[ToasterQueen]

Ugh, entitlement whores are the worst.

They're so....Veruca Salt.

"Everything isn't going my way! *DUMP OVER CHESSBOARD*"

[Kusanagi]

Let's just say the pit I would throw them into would lead straight into hell.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And hopefully, like the aforementioned Veruca Salt, this particular SC will take a trip down the garbage chute--or into the .

Maybe I'm missing something, but at least it's not like you're out the money and the item. If she's going to be such a brat over a delivery charge, then who needs her?

[DarthRetard]

Wow kusanagi, my facial expression just matched Hobbes' there....man i love that cartoon.

[Kusanagi]

And hopefully, like the aforementioned Veruca Salt, this particular SC will take a trip down the garbage chute--or into the .

Maybe I'm missing something, but at least it's not like you're out the money and the item. If she's going to be such a brat over a delivery charge, then who needs her?

Personally, I am losing money because I lose commission on a really good sale when it cancels (hey, it happens, I don't get it taken out of my check though, I just don't get it tacked on.) but the company is losing money as well, and that's the problem.

We sub out our delivery service and the drivers charge us for going to an address - in her case, almost $200 to deliver a living room set. The drivers took the time and the gas to get out there, and regardless if she was there or she wasn't there, they still need to get paid. If we redeliver it for free, we need to pay the $200, if they do a complete chargeback, we need to eat the restocking cost and also still pay the drivers that delivery fee. Restocking a piece of furniture that is shipped a hundred miles is a bit more of a hassle than just walking back and putting it back on a shelf

[BookstoreEscapee]

And hopefully, like the aforementioned Veruca Salt, this particular SC will take a trip down the garbage chute--or into the .

How about a loooong garbage shute (like, say, from the top of the Empire State Building) that empties into the ?

[Bliss]

The thing is, if VISA takes back the whole ammount, they're taking back money thay doesn't belongs neither to the client nor to them, since it was an exchange for service and products UNDER SIGNED CONTRACT, thus even when the cost of taking it to court would be too big, the customer should be liable for breach of contract, and visa for THEFT.

For once I would SO love to see an entitlement whore in jail.

[Kusanagi]

VISA never really handles complaints like this seriously, in my experience (from the merchant end). They can simply brush it off. Almost every retailer can't afford to lose the ability to process VISA cards, and they know it.

I hate VISA and DISCOVER with a passion. I also hate AMEX. A customer in a similar situation did the AMEX chargeback, were refused, so they filed the chargeback AGAIN and this time AMEX let it go through because they didn't drop it.

Spineless lots, all of them. They can't be intimately familiar with the policies of every one of their merchants, so 9 times out of 10 they simply cave in to the customer and the retailer is out of money.

Strangely, never did have a problem with MasterCard. Mastercard asks to see the relevant paperwork, sees that the customer signed the contract, sees we didn't break it in any way, and says no to the customer.

She called me back today, and this is how the conversation went:

SC: What are you going to do about this?
Me: You have two options at this point and I need to know what you want to do. We can redeliver the furniture on Friday like you're scheduled for and you need to either come into the store to pay the charge or have a cashiers check ready to go for us, or you can cancel the order and we keep the original delivery charge and 20% of the cost of the furniture as a restocking fee (Total of about $530).
SC: That's completely unacceptable! I will not pay a dime! You deliver that furniture on Friday.
Me: Ma'am, I need an answer. Because we are not going to deliver the furniture if you aren't going to pay. If you don't have the cashiers check or money order when we get there we WILL turn around and take the furniture back and you'll be hit with ANOTHER delivery charge. It's on the front of the contract right where you sign in big white letters on a black background to make it stand out that if you are not home for delivery, you'll be charged a full redelivery charge.
SC: So what do I do if I cancel?
Me: We refund everything but the $530.
SC: So how am I going to get that money back?
Me: No idea ma'am. That's between you and Visa. But I do have to say, if you do, you won't win the chargeback. We have a signed contract and you admitted that there was no wrongdoing on our part, and there wasn't. You got the call the day before to give you the time window, you said you would be there. It's not our fault you stayed at the office a few blocks away and expected us to call you when we got there. We have a business to run, we had 30 deliveries that day, if you aren't ready when we get there we turn around and go to the next house.
SC: We'll see about that! :hangs up:

[ShortTemperHatesStupidity]

Yeah, um, I seriously don't understand how VISA can take back the non-refundable delivery and restocking fee. How does that even work?

[nick1091]

The thing is, if VISA takes back the whole ammount, they're taking back money thay doesn't belongs neither to the client nor to them, since it was an exchange for service and products UNDER SIGNED CONTRACT, thus even when the cost of taking it to court would be too big, the customer should be liable for breach of contract, and visa for THEFT.

Well, that's halfway true. Yes, the customer would be breaching the contract, but Visa is just a payment agent, and not really stealing anything. The disputing customer usually has to fill out some paperwork stating their side of the story and swearing it's the truth. The business gives their side of the story, and Visa then either sides with the business, or gives the client back their money. It's not theft because they're not keeping it.

To Kusanagi, as someone too familiar with the chargeback system than I'd like to be, I'm suprised you haven't really had a problem with Mastercard. It seems to me that AMEX is pretty great, but MC & Visa are both terrible when it comes to siding with the customer no matter what. Heck, in my experiences Mastercard almost seems to stack the deck against the company. I've gotten paperwork dated about two weeks before the datestamp on their letter, giving me about a day to complete their needlessly laborious paperwork, which they pretty much ignore.

Then again, I'm in the service industry as opposed to tangible goods, so maybe that's why.