Customer wants a refund as the fabric they bought isnt to there liking

[khopkinson]

Hi everyone,

I sell curtain and furnishing fabrics via my website. Customers buy by the metre and we cut it to there requirements. We spend alot of time and effort making sure our photos are accurate and represent the fabrics as closely as possible. Our terms and conditions clearly state we cannot be held responsable for customers monitors not being the same as ours and the colours not being as accurate as they could be on there screens...because of this we offer  a swatch service if a colour match is important. We basically do everything we can to ensure happy customers! and our terms and conditions are clear and easy to understand, and by placing an order the customer is made aware they are agreeing to these and if they dont not to proceed.

Today a customer has been in touch to say the fabric she ordered is not the colours she thought they would be...its a very subtle mid tone green/blue described by me and the manufacturer as aqua...she is saying its more green than aqua and as such is not as described so she wants her money back.

What are my rights with this....i have had 100's of very happy customers and never had a problem but I feel like im being held to ransom! We are a discount retailer and simply cannot afford to offer refunds everytime a customer basically changes there minds, especially when we have cut the fabric to there instructions...thankyou for reading.

[angelleye]

If they file a dispute they will most likely win, and would have to show proof that they've returned your item in order to get their refund finalized. I know that doesn't help you in this scenario, but I'm just warning you that's probably the way it would go down.

It's typically best in this sort of situation to try and work with the customer. They aren't happy with the product for whatever reason. Maybe offer a discount or something if she'll choose to keep it as-is..??

You say you've done hundreds without any issue, but then you say you can't afford to refund people every time this happens. Well, if you're only getting 1% complaints or fewer that doesn't sound like something you shouldn't be able to handle..??

If I were in your shoes I would let the customer know once again that we made it clear we cannot guarantee color specs and a swatch should been ordered if there was any concern on that, but I would still offer a discount that makes sense if that would make them happy.

If they still refuse, and it were me, I'd probably just say to go ahead and return it (or even keep it if you really can't do anything with it now) and submit the refund. It's just not worth the time/money involved fighting it, especially if it's really not happening often. It's just a part of business that should be considered with overall costs.

If you want to fight it you can, and there's a chance you could win it, but the time involved is usually not worth it in my opinion unless you're talking about a very expensive order. That's all up to you as the business owner, I guess.

As for your rights, again, if they file the dispute they will probably win. Not because of PayPal, but because of credit card companies. They pretty much side with buyers in most cases unless there's something extreme going on. If the CC company gives the buyer their money back then PayPal has to follow along.

[khopkinson]

Thankyou for your reply. Firstly when I say I cant afford to refund customers for no reason what i mean really is I refuse to be held to ransom every time i get a big sale online like this one...I did say i would issue a refund if she returned the fabric but Im not prepared to pay the postage costs which i know will be approx £20. What im wondering is would paypal consider this to be a snad case...and are my terms and conditions something they would take into account if this ever happens again? 

[nevadasmith]

she would open INAD case if she knows the ropes,and she has to pay for return shipping,unlike a Ebay dispute.

You may want to start a restocking fee to compensate for your efforts.

[khopkinson]

Thankyou, she has been back in touch and after reading our terms and conditions has decided that maybe it was her fault! and has agreed to return the fabric at her cost the same way we sent it and we will refund her on receipt of the fabric. I suspect she may get a rude awakening when she realises the costs of posting back to us! I have noticed most fabric retailers have exactly the same terms as us but also have a restocking fee of around the 25% mark...i may well do this!

[angelleye]

Yes, that is a common practice.