Angela of Little Bow Peep asked me
“I had someone email me and say they placed an order for several things and never received any of it yet. What should I do if I know an order hasn’t been placed? What should I do if the person demands their products but never paid for any of it?”
That is a great question. Also challenging. The customer obviously wants your product so you don’t want to turn them away.
Here is what I would do:
1) Be certain that you didn’t get the money. Triple check in your Flying Cart order section. Check all your PayPal and Google Checkout records.
2) Apologize and ask the customer for proof of the order. An electronic receipt or amount charged on their credit card would do.
3) Call them up and talk to them over the phone. If the still are making demands with no proof ask them to order something else and you will ship the other items at cost.
What would you do? All ideas/comments welcome.
Tags: good advice, help
Rishi is right on the money.
Handling this type of issue should be handled as though you had a brick and mortar store. Asking for proof of purchase is not unreasonable.
I would definitely send an email to your customer and request that they call you if you have an ’800′ number. If not, send an email asking them when a good time for you to call them would be. This is so they do not incurr any additional charges. Try to get a window like 5pm to 7pm or something like that.
If they happen to ‘prove the purchase’, I would definitely throw in some sort of freebie from your store as a show of appreciation. With social networking, twitter and places like Facebook, it is easy for a bad reputation to spread like wildfire.
Hope this helps…
Good luck
great ideas Cobra – Do you know a good way for our people to get an 800 number?
I totally agree with Rishi and Cobra. I don’t know of any company, online or b&m, that doesn’t ask for proof of purchase every time they facilitate a customer request.
There’s an additional possibility–she placed an order through someone else with a similar store name to yours. When she didn’t get her products, she Googled and found your store. Simple case of mistaken identity.
I once bought something at Home Depot and had to return it, but lost the receipt. At the time, I thought I had bought it at Lowe’s (they are both home improvement stores–easy mistake to make). It happens!
As for getting an 800# or toll-free #, I highly recommend Vonage. Their service is amazing, and very inexpensive for small businesses (my wife’s company has used it for years without one hiccup). It starts around $25/mo for unlimited calling anywhere in the US and some international, too. You can add a toll-free # for around $5/mo.
If you end up going this route, email me and let me know because I can get you 2 free months through their refer-a-friend program!