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Thread: Legal Advice Small Claims Court Letter

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    Legal Advice Small Claims Court Letter

    Hi All.

    If possible im looking for some advice.

    We recently had a customer come back to us and handed me a letter which he had typed up confirming a full refund on the work we did for him, as he wasn't satisfied with the work we carried out for him.

    He has been a minor pain in my side recently as ever since we completed the job for him he has been causing issues.

    IN Summary.

    Job was booked in, job was completed apart from one small item which we agreed would be done a couple of weeks later. Customer was happy, no complaints at all, loved the job.

    Customer then comes back on the agreed date a couple of weeks later to complete the work.
    However due to some delays in our workshop, it didnt get started on till late and customer turned up early by about 45 mins to pick up the car, and could see we had only just started.

    He got upset said he had to be in a meeting at 7pm in Pretoria, instructed us to stop the work and left. However if he had just waited around to our agreed collection time of 5pm, or possibly 30 minutes later than that, the job would of been completed to our high standards.

    Since then he has been emailing us, coming up with some craxy numbers as to the refund he thinks we should give him. We have offered him a refund on the part of the job that didnt get complete. we have then since made a second offer he has refused, we have a 3 year warranty on our work, and he is now refusing to come back to us for us to complete and fix any problems that have occurred, he point blank refuses to come back to us so we can sort the issue out.

    Now he delivery a letter to us demanding a full refund or else he will take us to the small claims court.

    He delivered me a letter expecting me to sign it, I refused and said I would need to speak to a lawyer first. He then said he would go to the police station and sign an affidavit stating he has delivered the letter and that i refused to sign the letter.

    So he has issues us with 14 days or he will take us to small claims.

    Am I right in saying that he doesnt really have a leg to stand on, we have a warranty in place, we have offered refunds, we have offered to fix any issues however he wont come back to us. So in theory I have done everything I am required to do to try and resolve the situation but he is just being plain difficult. I have been informed that he wont have a leg to stand on in the small claims court, so would apprecaite any feedback from experienced professionals.

    Thanks

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    However due to some delays in our workshop, it didnt get started on till late and customer turned up early by about 45 mins to pick up the car, and could see we had only just started.
    If you look at it from his point of view - he waited a long time (couple of weeks) for you to finish the job - he then comes back to you and you have only started working on his car. I think he is quite in his rights to be pissed off.
    It seems you had a delay right in the beginning and you had another delay when he came in weeks later - why ? Is this the customers fault ? He might very well be needing to get to a meeting, which you are now causing a delay again.

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    I completly understand his point of view, and we have had to try and accomodate him as much as possible, he could of come back the next day if he wanted but he didnt come back for over 2 weeks.

    We have tried to get him in, and been as advisable as possible to try and fix the situation.

    But as I said if he had just hung on till the time that he was supposed to pick up there would of been no problems and issues sorted.

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    Why don't you just give him his money back and everybody will be happy and you might gain more business out of it ? Very often it is how an unhappy client is treated and a problem is resolved that determines your business integrity and more often than not will gain you a lot of points and more business.

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    I don't think the Court will rule in his favour for the FULL job - he has benefitted from that.

    Offer refund for the undone portion only...

    Don't think he will be back, anyway...

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    If there is a full refund, then there is also no warranty, can not have both.
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

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    The way I understand the law is they use the "reasonable" man principle. Is he being reasonable by wanting to go court without trying your offer are you being reasonable with your offer?

    Then there is reputation, I had a set of business cards returned because there is an dot which shouldn't be there, but when I asked the customer to show me the dot he couldn't. Then he started moaning about a white edge, hello most paper stock is white and a lot of other nonsense. In the end we paid him his money back and have put him on our blacklist of people we won't deal with.

    It was a loss on that job but overall we all feel better that we won't deal with him again, and he hasn't been back.

    Anyway I would try the pragmatic approach and offer him a say 10% refund and be prepared to up up it to 20%. Put that in writing so if it goes to court you show you are willing to accommodate him. Even though you feel you are right is it worth the extra hassle?
    Only stress when you can change the outcome!

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