Last week I had gotten an email from Square Up, my mobile credit card processor, that says they’ve been contacted by the card holder’s CC company stating “goods/services they had received were not as described” and my account will be debited $25 - They were a Groupon customer, $100 off the $125 cleaning. I emailed Square back and said that I guarantee my work and would rather repeat the cleaning or resolve the issue rather than give an uncontested refund, hence, I do not authorize the refund.
They take the money out anyway.
I get a second email stating the cardholder has disputed the quality of the services you provided and need a proof of service. I reply saying, “just take the $25, this isn’t worth any more of my time.” Then I called the customer, left a polite VM about what’s happening and would like to know why they were unsatisfied.
Yes, this was a Groupon customer…and I don’t want to hear about that fact. Other than the cleaning being performed on July 9th - that’s right, almost 3 months ago, can people really just take their money back without me giving the okay? or at least having a chance to get my name in good standing allowing me to back-up my work and remedy the situation?
I do offer a 3 month guarantee, but a lot can happen in that time, gutters are going to inevitably fill again so I’d like to see if it was my fault from the previous cleaning or if it was a new batch of leaves/seeds/squirrel that caused the issue.
Let’s get real here. It must be understood that there are customers who will only use our services in the case of an otherwise unrealistic offer such as the one referenced in the above post. This is a perfect example of why this type of extremely low pricing in promotions is not recommended. One can and must, in most circumstances, have and use the ability to discern between those potential customers who will jerk us around when we give them $75 or $100 bucks worth of work for as little as $25 or $35 bucks in the attempt to gain their long-term loyalty on one hand, and those who will most likely tip us big-time just for doing the work and honoring the promotional price on the other. I personally hate the former. Anyways, learn your lesson, stay away from Groupon when it comes to washing windows, and don’t ever under-price your services so far that no other outcome other than anger and displeasure on both sides can be reasonably expected. I learned this early on and will never screw up in this regard again. Have the confidence to believe that all of our customers, potential and those already loyal, respect us for getting paid well for what we do for them. Those who do not don’t deserve our professional service or our loyalty.
That’s it Larry? I can see you reading that and coming up with at least 50 questions that would help him correct the situation. Either you’re really distracted or you’re slipping.
Consumers have a ton of rights over businesses when it comes to card charges, no matter who processes for you. There’s always a way to screw a business over when using a card – say your card was stolen, cancel before a recurring charge is run again, say you were overcharged, etc. There’s not much you can do.
I would try and get in touch with the client and see what’s up, but it’s totally up to her if she pays you or not… I’d just forget the $25, and focus on making sure she was just ripping you off and not actually upset and going to leave poor reviews. And ban her as a client, obviously.
read the agreement you sign with the credit card merchant service provider. You might find your answer there to dispute resolutions and charge backs. You did read the agreement before you signed it, right?
It is a little known secret that consumers can dispute ANY charge on their credit card, and more than liekly the credit card companies will favor the consumer versus the service provider/business.
couldn’t you just run the card again? They authorized you to run the card for services rendered and you provided the service. If it was me I would wait a little time and run it again! people don’t always keep track of what they charge so if you wait they may miss the charge, and you have a right to get paid. I had a customer do the same thing to me. I even had a signed contract from the manager of the store to do their job on a regular basis and to run their card for the services. The owner of the store said he did not give authorization for it, which was a lie. When I ran it the first time the charge was denied. I waited a couple of months and reran the card and it went through.
years ago in a previous business i was about to set up the credit card thing. i backed off when told i must sign to say that id give immediate refunds no matter what reason the customer gave .
I guess you have to weigh up the big plus of taking cards from the masses versus the occasional refund to a rogue customer
Like I said, I did leave a message with the customer and they have yet to reply.
I’ve decided to just let it go. I don’t know how to prevent this from happening in the future, I’ll have to figure out the wording in my contracts. Out of 250+ customers this year, this was the only case of anyone demanding a refund, or just taking it for that matter. Even if I had the card number in my possession, I would never run it without authorization.
Even if the value was higher, it’s worth more to me to just let it go, give them the refund, and never worry about the a-hole customers again.
I total get the point you feel ripped off…but its a groupon customer. Take the loss and the lesson learned. These sites are ok for somethings but I dont think services like ours work there. Plus when services are discounted, thats what people start to think the normal price is. Just hurts everyone in the long run. Groupon people are there for one reason- to get products and services for almost free. I don’t have stats on how many groupon customers use a business again at the full price… but I bet its really really low. I would bet down right pathetic. Being frugal isn’t a crime but if you market to these frugal people, you’ll soon be out of business.
Wow! I hate to hear of any contractor getting ripped off.
But, I don’t believe I’d do business with Groupon or their clients. Have you ever watched that show on TLC (or whichever channel it’s on) where the objective of the professional couponer’s is to walk out of a store with hundreds of dollars worth of product for $0.00? In my opinion, those type people are simply looking for a free ride in life and they could care less about hurting some small business, or any business for that matter, in order to get what they want for free or next to nothing.
Your decision to let it go is the best choice, IMHO, because if you escalated it to the next level (small claims court) for $25(?), odds are you’d lose and have to pay court costs, as well as their attorney fees, AND probably windup with a complaint submitted to the BBB, which will NEVER go away.
Keep in mind this isn’t just a groupon issue it can happen with any customer. My experience over the years has led me to believe that there are certain people out there who get services done with absolutely no intention of paying for them. We usually experience a couple a year in our window cleaning business. Amex is the worst if your a vendor, higher % points and they ALWAYS side with the consumer.
But as a customer I ALWAYS use AMEX. A few years ago I ordered 500,000 post cards. They came out really bad, completely unusable and the low cost print company I used wasn’t going to do anything about it, they refused to reprint any of them. Never fear when you purchase with Amex, 1 phone call wiped that bill right out and the shady print company immediately changed there tune after Amex sucked the funds out of their account.
Last year a local towing company charged me $685 to get towed like 5 miles. Good thing I paid with Amex! They thought it was to much as well and the problem got fixed right up.
where do you feel there is a problem with that approach? Its just like someone giving you a hot check. Most organizations will represent a check if there is insufficient funds when it was presented the first time. I don’t see where there is any risk in rerunning it. I don’t see any recourse the customer has other than to deny the charge again “if” they catch it. He only has to gain from attempting it again. If they deny it then let it go. I say its at least worth a shot based on principle. I get it if he doesn’t want to mess with it because it’s such a small amount, but he has every right to rerun the card.
