A question about : Online sales, not happy? Tips: How to Complain if you use Paypal
Hi all
I found these forums after finding a post in which one of my own unhappy customers was venting his spleen about our service (or lack of customer service). Fortnately it's a rare occurance. But I put myself in his shoes, and thought what would I do in the same situation. Then It dawned on me that I look on it from another side, mostly being the seller, so whenever I have a problem, I have some insider knowledge that most shoppers dont.
I realised that as an online seller (with a bricks and mortar business as well) that many people dont know their rights, and many people dont get the best out of their complaint, or really how to complain properly. (effectively).
I thought a few posts from the other side couldn't do any harm.
So here's a few tips from an insider for online shoppers.
First know your rights. Basicially these are enshrined in law, and get repeated everywhere, so this is just a very sketchy recap:
With few exceptions you have the right to cancel your order at any time before it arrives
you also have the right to change your mind and ask for a refund (the law says you have seven working days from receiving your goods).
you do not have to give a reason.
the seller HAS to refund you. The law is on your side.
How to get a refund promptly.
Obviously don't annoy the seller. No matter how annoyed you are. Businesses that sell online are not all huge, many (the majority in fact) are small businesses. There is no need to antagonise the seller by demanding a refund and cusssing them at the same time, wishing plagues of boils on them, and If you do that you may end up waiting the full 30 days the law allows for the refund. Remember its a human being you are dealing with.
Even if, in youir opinion, the seller is a total uncaring scumbag, why sink to that level yourself. Its not necessary, and its far from helpful.
be civil, be polite, do tell the seller why you are cancelling.
ask when you might expect your refund.
get a person's name.
give it a few days
keep a record.
If you paid by paypal or the order was processed online by the paypal cart, and you have not received the attention you think you ought to have after a reasonable period (give it a week). Then contact the seller again and:
Mention that you have not been able to resolve the issue, would they like to get back to you as a matter of urgency with, say 48 hours.
You will be using Paypal's resolution centre (dispute procedure) f you dont hear from them. Make it polite and matter of fact, not a threat. After all, a member of staff might be dealing with it, they dont know you, you dont know them, get them on your side. Its human nature.
Now most businesses make mistakes, it happens. Try and keep in mind that in 99.9 percent of cases they are not out to rip you off - but a hundred other things may have gotten in the way of them dealing with your complaint. The person who is dealing with it may be off sick, for example. If things have gone wrong, its seldom personal.
So if you have not heard from them after that gentle prompt about involving paypal you should go straight to the paypal resolution centre (log into your paypal account first). Dont waste your time writing letters or posting on forums or running to trading standards/consumer protection just yet....
Start a dispute. This opens a dialogue between you and the seller and paypal have a record of it.
this is a good time to be (appear) very reasonable, mention in the comments box that you would really like a refund but have had problems with the sellers email, or contacting them by phone, or whatever. The seller will see this and realise that you are not a screamer or a whiner, just a savvy buyer who has no wish to cause trouble, and just wants to give their customer service a big nudge in the right direction.
90% of the time, this will do the trick, and you will get an immediate refund if you are entitled to one.
The buyer may ask you for the good back. Now the law says you do have to return them, but it doesn't say when. But it does say that the seller has to refund you within a reasonable period (30 days is reasonable). If you change your mind it is generally down to you to return the goods at your expense. if you are demanding a refund for other reasons (faulty goods, wrong item sent) then the seller pays for the return. Thats the law.
So ask them how they would like the goods returned. Now this is where your reasonableness is maybe going to pay off if you have only spent a fiver or a tenner - many sellers will say keep it with our compliments, hope you can use them anyway -specially if it is a low value item. They will do this because you might have guilted them out with being so nice about your complaint, or they may treat it as good PR, or a bit of both. Maybe someone will even look at it and think well, they had a bum deal, how would I like to be treated.
Plus getting items back is a pain for the seller, usually costs more than sending them in the first place, then they have a heap of paperwork to do and explain to the taxman where these items are that they didn't return to stock.
You would think that sellers would take umbridge at someone starting a dispute, but the truth is that most of us who have been selling online for a few years and have 1,000s of transactions under their belt (sellers) dont mind at all. In fact it makes our job very simlpe to issue a refund, in our dispute condole a refund is only one mouse click away, a nice easy click. Very easy if the customer isn't shouting the odds and issuing threats in the dialogue box above 
Put yourself in their position: shall I click a button and get it out of the way, or mess about replying, arguing, going through emails, asking staff who spoke to who on the phone and waste half my day on it. Half the time its click. I know, becasue thats what I'd do.
But that hasn't worked.... you have been nice, now its gloves-off: Dont mess about, escalate it to a paypal claim. It WILL then be sorted out by paypal in 30 days.
Verified paypal sellers (almost all business acccount sellers) have authorised paypal to take money out of their bank accounts to settle claims.
All paypal are interested in is the law. If you have not received your goods, and unless the seller can prove (with a delivery signature and other evidence) that you have them, then you will get your money back from paypal, and paypal will get it from the seller later.
Remember that the seller has 30 days worth of claims procedure with PayPal to wade though if necessary, so if he refunds you on day one it's manners to close the claim. This is because paypal will freeze the money in the account until the case is closed. And they have human staff who review the cases. If the seller refunbds you on day one, it may not get looked at for a fortnight before his money gets unfrozen.
You are beginning to see why so many sellers refund promptly at the dispute stage!
Its also worth noting that if you skip the dispute stage, and go straight to claim, then you are not really offering the seller any incentive to act quickly. You have just frozen some of his money. So play it by ear, and make sure you are in the right.
Dont use the paypal claim system too often (dispute system as often as you need to). Paypal monitor disputes, and not only review sellers records, but look at buyers disputes. If you happen to make a claim on 50 percent of your purchases, statistics say you are a scammer. 5% will raise a flag.
This works two ways, though. If a business has too many claims, paypal has many options, ranging from freezing soime or all of their money, to terminating their service.
Hope this is some help. If you have to use paypal dispute or claim, post back and let us know how you get on.
Cheers
Kev
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