Sole Trader. Awkward situation. Advice needed!
Discussion
Little bit of advice needed please. Moral and legal if possible.
I'm a sole trader - mostly travelling to people's houses / work premises to diagnose / resolve issues they have with Audio / Visual items / systems. Got called to a job about 2 months back - tested out the system thoroughly and found one part to be faulty. Replaced it - and also sorted out a few niggly bits (dodgy connections etc) and everything works perfectly. Customer paid £150 total & is very happy. Part fitted is around 30% of £150 total - rest is labour.
Fast forward to today, I've just returned from a 3 week holiday. Customer above calls me and demands full £150 refund. I ask them to explain why / what's happened. They say that the new part failed 3 weeks ago & they called me but got answerphone message about being on holiday etc.
Couldn't wait three weeks (I do understand this - item is related to TV reception) so they got another firm to come and give free advice. They said it was the new part I fitted. Customer then calls another independent firm and they diagnose same problem. They then proceed to swap the unit with another one and charge the same amount £150.
This is quite a difficult one for me. Obviously want customer to be happy - but at the same time a full refund doesn't seem correct when it's just an unfortunate timing issue. The part has been removed now so I can't test it in situ. But I can collect and test to confirm the diagnosis. I warranty these items for three years (they seldom go wrong) so it would have been a free replacement if I wasn't on holiday.
I think they've done everything right in getting two firms out to check the faulty part - but of course I have no way to verify any of this. First thoughts would be it's not their fault and it's not my fault - just unfortunate timing. So offer them 50% refund. But if they are genuine - then ideally they wouldn't have had to pay an additional £75 (half my original bill) through no fault of their own.
Thoughts?
I'm a sole trader - mostly travelling to people's houses / work premises to diagnose / resolve issues they have with Audio / Visual items / systems. Got called to a job about 2 months back - tested out the system thoroughly and found one part to be faulty. Replaced it - and also sorted out a few niggly bits (dodgy connections etc) and everything works perfectly. Customer paid £150 total & is very happy. Part fitted is around 30% of £150 total - rest is labour.
Fast forward to today, I've just returned from a 3 week holiday. Customer above calls me and demands full £150 refund. I ask them to explain why / what's happened. They say that the new part failed 3 weeks ago & they called me but got answerphone message about being on holiday etc.
Couldn't wait three weeks (I do understand this - item is related to TV reception) so they got another firm to come and give free advice. They said it was the new part I fitted. Customer then calls another independent firm and they diagnose same problem. They then proceed to swap the unit with another one and charge the same amount £150.
This is quite a difficult one for me. Obviously want customer to be happy - but at the same time a full refund doesn't seem correct when it's just an unfortunate timing issue. The part has been removed now so I can't test it in situ. But I can collect and test to confirm the diagnosis. I warranty these items for three years (they seldom go wrong) so it would have been a free replacement if I wasn't on holiday.
I think they've done everything right in getting two firms out to check the faulty part - but of course I have no way to verify any of this. First thoughts would be it's not their fault and it's not my fault - just unfortunate timing. So offer them 50% refund. But if they are genuine - then ideally they wouldn't have had to pay an additional £75 (half my original bill) through no fault of their own.
Thoughts?
In your shoes I'd offer them a £50 refund on a 'without prejudice' basis to cover the cost of the failed part. Explain that you would happily have done the replacement yourself at your own labour cost but were on holiday. It was their choice not to wait for your return and their choice to originally contract with a sole trader, where personal holidays restricting the response times is a natural possibility.
janesmith1950 said:
In your shoes I'd offer them a £50 refund on a 'without prejudice' basis to cover the cost of the failed part. Explain that you would happily have done the replacement yourself at your own labour cost but were on holiday. It was their choice not to wait for your return and their choice to originally contract with a sole trader, where personal holidays restricting the response times is a natural possibility.
This.Reputations are hard won and easily lost. Your customer did the right thing and tried to contact you so can't really be held responsible.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
Beetnik said:
Reputations are hard won and easily lost. Your customer did the right thing and tried to contact you so can't really be held responsible.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
Tough situation... but... that.For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
Beetnik said:
Reputations are hard won and easily lost. Your customer did the right thing and tried to contact you so can't really be held responsible.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
This.For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
I suspect legally you only have to refund the faulty item. In these days of social media etc you cannot afford to p
s off a customer just for £100 and it doesn't sound like he is being completely unreasonable.Beetnik said:
Reputations are hard won and easily lost. Your customer did the right thing and tried to contact you so can't really be held responsible.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
Goodwill, integrity and reputation will be worth a lot more than £150.00.For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
I'd reply with a "Of course I'll refund you, wouldn't dream of charging you...."
hornetrider said:
Beetnik said:
Reputations are hard won and easily lost. Your customer did the right thing and tried to contact you so can't really be held responsible.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
Tough situation... but... that.For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
£150, move on!!
Some good replies. The voicemail did say to contact via text for anything urgent as I'm always available that way - but it's a valid point that even if they had text me - I couldn't have asked them to wait three weeks for my return.
I'd have had to recommend someone else and refund the cost. The kicker is the other firm must have been told the original cost & knew they could get away with charging the same amount just for swapping out the bit of kit.
I'll chalk it to bad luck and refund them. Obviously once I've collected the old kit and confirmed it's faulty....
Thanks for the advice.
I'd have had to recommend someone else and refund the cost. The kicker is the other firm must have been told the original cost & knew they could get away with charging the same amount just for swapping out the bit of kit.
I'll chalk it to bad luck and refund them. Obviously once I've collected the old kit and confirmed it's faulty....
Thanks for the advice.
Beetnik said:
Reputations are hard won and easily lost. Your customer did the right thing and tried to contact you so can't really be held responsible.
For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
Agreed. It's not something that happens often so £150 is neither here nor there and your reputation is worth way more than £150. People are very quick to hit Facebook if they are not happy.For the amount involved I'd make a full refund. That way you have a happy customer who will sing your praises and may well come back to you next time.
carpmaster said:
I'll chalk it to bad luck and refund them. Obviously once I've collected the old kit and confirmed it's faulty.
If you test it and it's working ok, what will you do then? Refuse the refund? Surely not, from the customer's POV it's clear that when a non working system has a part replaced and the system then works, it has to be the part that is faulty, regardless of what the supplier might claim. So refund right away.BigLion said:
stinkspanner said:
Ask for the old part and a copy of the secondary repair invoice, and if that's in order you should refund the bloke
+1Simpo Two said:
+2. You won't get any kudos, recommendations or future work for handing over £150 on request. At least make him work a little for it/prove what he says - but be nice about it.
Depends on how he gets his custom. No, he won't get recommendations. But someone whinging on the local mum's facebook group really doesn't help.And we aren't talking about £150, we are talking about £100. Minus the time spent trying to sort it all out. Life is too short......
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