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Just wondering how other people would have responded to this customer.

I received a phone call at about 2pm yesterday saying that a guy had gone in to the New Ferry shop and was kicking off about a phone we'd unlocked for him two weeks earlier hadn't been done properly.

I asked them to book it back in and I'd check it to be told that he hadn't come in with the phone, he'd had it unlocked "properly" elsewhere and wanted his money back.

As we couldn't check the phone, and if he'd had the job done we couldn't redo it he was asked where it'd been unlocked as we'd call them and if they confirmed the job and the IMEI number we'd refund the cost (I was pretty certain it had been unlocked as this particular phone takes a while to do and I remembered it but there was always a chance).

He then said that it was somewhere on the Isle of Man, but he didn't know the name of the place, or the shop, nor did he have a receipt. He wasn't being too nice in his attitude either he just wanted them to hand money over.

He was told that they couldn't do that so he said he was going to wait in the shop all day and tell everyone how bad we were.

Well, every person that came in laughed at him, (which probably didn't help to be honest), and one guy after being told that a job he'd been quoted a large amount for elsewhere was just a few minutes fix and free gave them a large tip, for the job, and for "putting up with that pr**k".

3.30pm he storms off with a cry of "I'll be back".

Today he phones the Rock Ferry shop (obviously he thought it was the same place) with a "remember me" and "I was in your place yesterday about the job you didn't do" type thing, which the staff there knew nothing about. Apparently he's spent the day writing bad reviews about us all over the net (haven't seen one yet) and how he hopes we go bust and everyone loses their job (nice).

Just wondering how anybody else would have responded.

I personally think that he didn't know this was another shop and thought it was a new business so was trying it on. Did he really think that someone would just give him his money back because he said it didn't work without letting us check it ?

We've let people take items home to check first, let people pay next day when they've found themselves short, even stayed on well into the early hours when someone needed a computer desperately for an important event, basically all the things local shops can do and big stores can't, but people like this....

I have never been into either of your shops but I have had some good advice on the forum from you and everybody on Wiki talks very highly of you and says how good you all are.No doubt that this guy was trying it on and basically you called his bluff by asking him to bring it back.The further proof that he is a baddun is that he tried your other shop.I think if he makes any further contact by any method with either of your shops you should tell him you will contact the police and let them sort it out.As regards his threat of writing bad reports that can be taken with a very large dose of salt.

Dr that's outrageous. Your staff did entirely the right thing. Have a look on the net and see if you can find any bad reviews that he's written. Then if you've got contact details for him ring him and give him 24 hours to remove ALL of it otherwise threaten to sue him for libel.

what shop you got?

Thumbs up to you and your staff.

No receipt for proof, no refund, that's univeral. You did the right thing Doc. Go down the libel route.

It doesn't seem that you or your staff have done anything wrong. You listened to him ,offered to correct the situation and were happy to offer a refund if he produced receipt from whoever unlocked it.

Can't really see what he's got to complain about, he should have returned with the phone as soon as he knew it wasn't working properly.

Policy in other places is to give a full refund on producing a receipt, if the goods are not up to scratch.

Personally, I'd give him a refund without any todo, and leave it at that. Sometimes it takes the wind out of their sails if you are over polite, very apologetic and gushy.(we can all do a bit of acting) If he should come in again, maybe best to say you can't fix it.
Should't even worry about his threats,all bluff and nothing to complain about if he has his refund.

I'd also have his full refund in an envelope and ready to give as soon as the critter walks into your shop.

give him a refund and you give him what he wants. money for nothing.

Nobody has to give a refund if they don't want to, just might be a better option than going through all the harrasment that he's likey to cause. Yes, that's what he wants, we know that, he also wants to make a big issue out of it.

next time someone like that is in, just call the police, surely there's a law against camping out in a shop when you're not wanted there?

If we've got it wrong (and it can happen), we sort out repairs, refunds etc, all the usual bits and pieces, and and as our tills store the information on every item item we've ever sold and every job we've ever done we don't always need receipts, but this guy basically just wanted to come in and be given money.

The problem, as I saw it, is that if you do this for no reason it'll get around fairly quickly that if you go in "there" and make a fuss they give you money for nothing.

I couldn't see the police treating it as a priority, the staff just got on with their work and customers coming it (it was a quiet afternoon) just laughed at him.

I think they got it right, if he'd have come back in with the phone, or even called us when he found out it wasn't unlocked (which is what he claimed), could have told us where he had done the the job "properly" (there are two mobile phone repair places on the Isle of Man that I know of, neither had done this job recently) then it could have been resolved quite easily, but to storm in screaming that we hadn't unlocked his phone and he wanted his money back, well, it was never going to endear him to us was it.

I appreciate what you're saying granny, just give him a refund and get shut of the idiot but I don't think you should give him even a partial refund Dr. As far as you're concerned you did the job that he paid you for.

As already said on this thread, you get great reviews on this site so you should stand up to the chancer who's threatening to jeopardise your reputation.

I've done a tiny bit of research and you really could sue him for libel if he's been 'slagging you off' on the internet.

In this economic climate there's a lot of chancers about, if we all gave in to them then we'd be doomed!!!

thanks to reddragon i now know your shop and i will say i use it alot lol.we got the pwer pack of you last week was funny cause i phoned the shop in rockferry and when hubby went to pick it up they said it must be ib the other shop did not realise you had 2 shops lol.
will say we have always been treated fair in your shope and that staff are brilliant and very helpful

Maybe Doc. you could bring in a policy of NO REFUNDS unless it is proven beyond doubt, that any work undertaken has not been completed to the satisfactory requirements.

That at least, should cover you and stop anyone else from hoping to get away with the same scam.

Zubee,I think there would be little point in sueing him , for whatever reason, if he hasn't got any or much money.

One more thing, if you should, by any chance give a refund, make sure he signs for the amount given and it is dated. You probably know that already, sorry!

I have used your services and will do again,I have passed your name onto others who are more than happy.
Refund I think not.

I would of played the nice guy lol, with a bit of sarcasm thrown in, i would of offered him a chair to sit on while he waited in shop, and offered him a cup of tea and a paper to read while he waited.

But refund, not a chance.

If am honest I have done this my self in Vodafone shop in Liverpool, I bought a phone, and it was broke, I asked for refund they refused, so I say in chair by till and refused to move, explaing to customers why I was there, and within 5 mins I had my money back, and an extra £20 top up voucher.

Doc this guy was probs after some money for his next score of drugs, and if you had of given in, next thing you know his bag head mates would all be in trying it on.

If he comes back call the police, its your shop, and you have the right to refuse people entry.

He can post things about the shop all he wants, you have built up a reputation, and people are not going to believe that crap.

I have only managed to find one such review which looks like him

http://directory.independent.co.uk/company/bigabyte/10011604

i'd have been tempted to knock him out, which is probably why i'm not in retail any more......

You did the right thing.

However, how would you deal with a potential customer who has PM'd you for advice and wanting you to upgrade his computer for him? Would you read the PM and not reply?

Seen this sort of thing before - usually they are desperate for cash. The others are right about his mates trying it on as well if you give in to the pressure. If he turns up again I suggest you call the law to move him on.

Some people think that if they shout and bluster they'll get what they want so people will just get rid of them. I'm glad your staff stood up to him in a nice way. If he had been genuine then he would have stayed to sort it out reasonably and had proof of where he had the work done. If you find out where he has given you bad reviews let me know and I'll put in an excellent review to counter it. Your staff were fabulous with me and my problem when my PC was riddled with viruses.

The guy is an obvious arsehole trying it on, your staff did the right thing.

PB

Point 1: It takes a lot to sit in a shop all day and make a t_t of yourself.

Point 2: If he was after easy money 'for drugs', you'd not have seen him again after he got the knock back. He certainly wouldn't have carried it on into next day or 2 and onto the internet with what appears to be a full name.

Point 2.1: people who 'try it on' don't publicise their attempted con doing the above.

So I think he sounds legit: he says couldn't bring the phone in for repair as he'd sent it off to the IoM.

You also appear to acknowledge that this phone was in your hands... so a reciept isn't really needed as you both agree on this.

Your rememdy appears to be for the recievee to post the phone back to the shop. That's got to be at least £2-£4 every time it goes in a padded envelope. Plus the hassle of the recievee being without the phone.

BUT it's only fair that you should have had the chance to see this 'fault' and to have had a go at rectifying it yourself.

So to prove a fault excisted, and to prove he's paid out again at a second shop to fix your work, he (or this IoM person... the recievee) should be able to provide that shops Phone No/contact details. That said, he's asking the recievee to return to the shop and get details and maybe the OK for the first shop to ring up on. I think that's a big ask and is maybe too much hassle.

Bottom line: there probably was a fault but as he's gone about it the wrong way, he now can't prove that to you... plus it was your error to fix.

p.s. I admit the tale of 'its gone to the IoM is a bit 'well you would say that, wouldn't you' but... this stuff happens to me. Did he mention the destination prior to delivery?

Do your 2 shops share the same name? If so, he's looked online or yellow pages and took the wrong phone No down.

i have used your services also and would do again.

Thank you

In reply to SpamEater:

I agree, he went around it the wrong way, coming in and shouting at the young girl is never going to help your (his) cause.

Every phone that comes in has its details taken, so he wasn't asked for a receipt, just some proof of any sort that the phone wasn't unlocked. This was easy enough to do, either let me see the phone or tell me who unlocked it.

I KNOW that this phone was unlocked, the reason I KNOW is that when the phone came in I can normally do this one in a few hours, however somebody had messed around with the software on it and I had to reflash the phone (at no extra charge), which takes a while on these. When the reflash is done you then connect the phone to your computer and the software is read, the information is sent off to a server and the code comes back, you put a SIM card in and when it asks for the unlock code you type it in, I remember doing it, HOWEVER, you can always doubt yourself, and years ago certain phones "could" relock (haven't heard about it in a long time though) so he was simply asked either for the phone (to which he said a place on the IoM had done it) or the name of the place.

Mistakes do happen in business (and in everyday life) from time to time and when they do you either fix them or pay for them. I've done it many times over the years, but I don't respond well to threats.

He never has come back again, the following day he rang another shop and the same day he wrote a bad review, about the wrong shop. Haven't heard a word from him since.

If he was genuine and he was reasonable it would have been sorted, the amount of money wasn't the issue, it was the bullying attitude towards the staff and his evasiveness about where the phone had been done.

Many shops and supermarkets have notices in them now about staff having the RIGHT to work without harassment threats or violence from customers, and that action is taken against those who perform such acts. If he'd have come in in a reasonable manner we'd likely have just rung the two places on the IoM to see if they'd done it, come in screaming and shouting means you'll probably be ignored.

TheDr, your attitude sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

On a serious note, I've used him and would do again... however, there seems to be a problem with PM's which make TheDr look silly.

He said he's replied to me yet I've not had anything, I also sent him a PM telling him I'd replied and had no reply.

Please, admin, can you investigate?

Hi, you PM'd me last week asking for a price on some upgrades for your Mac, you mentioned (on here) that I didn't reply to PM's and I responded (via PM) by pointing out the message I'd already sent to you with various ideas and costings for the different upgrades you asked about, which shows in my folder as being read.

Not entirely sure what else I can do, if there's a problem with PM's that's something for Admin to resolve, I'm strictly forbidden from "advertising" on here which is why I never mention the shop name, any offers we are doing or list for sale any item that is also for sale in the shop. This means I can't give you the prices on an open forum. Sorry

Hi Dr
I hope I didn't come across as unsympathetic: it's not easy to be a shopkeeper/trader as it seems like your arms are tied while all societys fools, bandits and ne'er do wells take pot shots at you... and hours(plural) of work for £20???

The law behind the contract between you says that if there's an (alleged) fault, his first responsibilty is to return the item to you, the trader, for you to provide remedy. Because he failed in that, what he's done, in effect, is to ask for his money back saying 'trust me'. So it's pretty clear why he got no joy. I don't think anyone would have refunded under that circumstance.

But from his later actions, it looks like he's thought he's been wronged. No one knows whether that is true.

Cheers

having had the run round from various pc shops on the wirral, i was passed the docs number so started to use his shop a couple of years ago even tho its well out my "local" area.

Service is superb, workmanship is top quality, parts used to a high standard and the staff are knowledgable , very freindly and helpfull and advice is always free.

Its the first decent computer shop ive ever found !