posted on April 26, 2001 05:27:34 AM
We want to be caring and understanding with all our customers; but in this instance I am not sure what to do.
We had a customer buy a large chandelier paying approximately $1,600. She also bought some porcelain shoes to be used in her daughter's wedding in June. They paid for them in 2 payments and were extremely nice to work with, and paid it off quickly. THEN, they ask if I would wait to ship to them till spring when they would have a place to store such a large piece. At the time they wrote they were planning on building a new home. Since we have the space to store such, I agreed to store it for them till they notified me to ship. They paid via PayPal.
Today I received this note:
[b]"We have come across a very large dilemma here and I need your help.
Unfortunately my husband works for Pacific Gas and Electric and all is
not well. We were going to build a house for my chandelier but we will be
lucky to hold on to the house we have with any uncertainty. Can we go ahead
and have the shoes sent to us and refund the remainder on the chandelier?
The wedding will go on. (The house is just a dream.) I sent it through pay
pal.
I will wait for your reply and abide by what is fair. Since I know that we
all have to eat. I thank you for all your time and the trouble that I have
created.[/b]
If this had occurred early on, it would be no problem - but 6 months later when commissions on sales have been paid, and 6 months of opportunities to sell the chandelier lost because we presumed it was sold, to be fair to all I am not sure what to do.
I feel for the customer, and honestly believe her story, but I am in a quandary as to how to handle this.
posted on April 26, 2001 05:34:24 AM
Just a thought...what if you considered trying to resell the chandalier on ebay & if it sells for less, refunding the difference to her (less your original & current fees, of course)?
If it sold for more, you would get to keep the additional profit for your trouble.
posted on April 26, 2001 05:52:33 AM
Of course, that doesn't help you (or her) if it doesn't sell again but was just trying to come up with some kind of win-win approach for you both.
posted on April 26, 2001 05:53:30 AM
eventer had a good idea, appears your customer has offered you to do "what is fair", so maybe you can work it out by the re-sale. Hey, who knows, maybe you'll do a cracker-jack job & it will sell for more than the 1st time!
posted on April 26, 2001 05:53:30 AM
eventer had a good idea, appears your customer has offered you to do "what is fair", so maybe you can work it out by the re-sale. Hey, who knows, maybe you'll do a cracker-jack job & it will sell for more than the 1st time!
posted on April 26, 2001 07:12:16 AM
eventer does have a good idea. I’d most definitely make her the offer to try and re-sell the chandelier on ebay less your original & current fees. Frankly if it was me, I wouldn’t consider anything less. Not after six months, storing the items and everything else you did to accommodate this customer. I feel you went above and beyond what is expected of you as a seller. If you make her this offer it is certainly more than fair.
If she doesn’t like this idea I would ship her everything as originally agreed to. Tell her if she no longer has use for the item to re-sell it at a local consignment shop or to sell it on eBay. I’d reiterate your position explaining how you stored the item all this time and the benefits she has received thus far. For one thing she is lucky that after all this time has past that she has a seller who actually still has the merchandise and is ready to ship it. You and I both know there are plenty of unscrupulous sellers out there that would have been long gone by now.
While I feel sympathetic towards her situation there is no guarantee you will be able to re-sell the item the first shot out. It may take you awhile, a long while for that matter. Her dilemma shouldn’t constitute an emergency on your part. Certainly after everything you’ve done thus far.
posted on April 26, 2001 08:00:58 AM
No way. She can resell it herself if she likes. Six months later is past the point of being crazy. Did you charge her extra for storage?
You may not get the same price for your item at this time,so do you want to take such a loss?
Do what you think you can live with its your call.
posted on April 26, 2001 08:44:51 AM
Since customer can probably do a chargeback via PayPal, I suggest trying to be very creative and work something out. As you never ship the item, a PayPal chargeback will leave you no options at all.
But if you are refunding the customer, let them do a chargeback via PayPal. I think you can get a credit back for the PayPal fees, which is a small amount for this transaction.
I guess the moral is if you are going to do a good deed, be sure to spell out all the terms and conditions so that there are no questions in the future.
[ edited by commentary on Apr 26, 2001 08:46 AM ]
posted on April 26, 2001 09:46:11 AM
I think eventer has the idea. If she's really in trouble and you manage to sell it for 1000.00 and she's willing to take that minus the fees, you would still get all your money and she would have 1000.00 more than she has now (or that much less in debt). Either way it would be a big help to her and you wouldn't lose anything. I commend you for being willing to work with this lady.
