What rights does a company have to cancel an order - Customer from HELL.

[mrsteady]

We have a number of online businesses and we accept credit cards and debit cards as payment etc.

We supply finished physical goods through the mail to people, such as sports equipment, health products, books and other kinds of things.

Occassionally we get a customer from hell and we want to know what our rights are.

If someone orders from us, do we have to have them as a customer or can we simply refund them 100% and ask them to go elsewhere?

There's a long story about why I am asking, but it mainly involves not being able to get the goods to the person for various reasons. Either it can't be delivered, no one there, won't collect from post office, or whatever.

So my question isn't about whether we get the goods back or not. That's the lesser issue. The main issue is that at some point in the process, can we as a company decide, "enough is enough" and just cancel the order/transaction and refund them their money and politely decline to fulfill the order?

What rights does a company have to do this?

It seems that "Joe Public" has all sorts of rights.

But what if a company doesn't want to do business with a particular individual, even after taking their money/order initially?

Many thanks in advance,

Bob

 

[los_design]

Occassionally we get a customer from hell and we want to know what our rights are

Bob

Bob, no such thing mate, all customers are GREAT!

See my other reply to this question for what I think should be done mate!

 

[mrsteady]

Thanks for the reply, but I didn't ask you to moralise or offer an opinion on what we should be doing to run our business etc.

Please stick to the facts of the question asked otherwise it becomes pointless.

You don't have the facts of the issue. I just asked a simple question.

If you want to cloud the issue then be my guest. But why do that?

Bob

 

[los_design]

Thanks for the reply, but I didn't ask you to moralise or offer an opinion on what we should be doing to run our business etc.

Please stick to the facts of the question asked otherwise it becomes pointless.

You don't have the facts of the issue. I just asked a simple question.

If you want to cloud the issue then be my guest. But why do that?

Bob

As stated, read my other post.

And FTR if you cannot spot tongue in cheek then I apologize, no offence intended.

I am not moralising nor telling you how to run your 'business'

regards

 

[M178591]

I think it depends on what your terms & conditioins state about cancelation. You are not under any obligation to accept an order but once you do then you are tied by the terms and conditions of the contract - which are usually your terms and condition of sale. If they give you the right to terminate the contract then you can otherwise I think you have an obligation to fulfill your contractual obligations. In thory, if you don't, your customer could sue you for breach of contract. In practice, as long as you have a good reason and you issue a refund there is unlikely to be any come back. If you don't already have a clause in your terms which allows you to cancel then it might be worth adding one. All my sites have different terms on them depending on what they sell. They ALL have a clause which says something like I reserve the right to cancel the order at any time until the order has been delivered for any reason and refund the customer in full. So far this hasn't caused me any problems on the odd occasion I have had to use it.

Hope this helps.

Mark

 

[termsandconditions]

Mark's right, in my view. Your contract terms are your rules of your business game and set out how you would like to conduct business with your customers. Your terms are also there to protect your business when things go wrong ..and sometimes they do go wrong.

Seller cancels - So with respect to cancellation your terms can specify that the Seller may cancel delivery (usually in writing) whereupon The Seller refunds monies paid towards the Price. You should also state that the Seller (that's you) should not be liable for any loss or damage arising from the cancellation.

Buyer cancels - Whilst you are at it, you should think of the other aspect of cancellation i.e. when the Buyer cancels. In this case, consider how much of the Price you think the Buyer should pay if he cancels delivery of your goods or services. And would you want the Buyer to cover any additional costs incurred up to the point of cancellation? This is important particularly where special jobs or custom/work is involved.

Best Regards

 

[mrsteady]

Excellent answers!

Thank you very much.

Bob

 

[soletrade]

I started new trade with a business to hire chair covers out , but they paid for their first order, cancelled the day before they were due. they then booked 3 more (without paying) and then because one order I had to cancel the order myself and they couldn't get hold of me straight away after it was cancelled they kicked up a fuss and want the money they paid for the one order. Where do I stand. I can't find any legal findings on when a business makes orders to another business and then decides to cancel their orders

 

[scm5436]

Occassionally we get a customer from hell and we want to know what our rights are.

If someone orders from us, do we have to have them as a customer or can we simply refund them 100% and ask them to go elsewhere?

We can and do exactly that in our own business. As previously mentioned if your terms and conditions state you can cancel at any time for any reason (and without being liable for any damages caused) then you should be fine. (though that's my understanding - I'm not a lawyer)

You should also add some wording to your confirmation email stating that it's just an acknowledgement and not that you have 'accepted the order' (I'm sure someone legal can provide the exact wording). That allows you to back out if you do it fairly soon after the order is placed.

We had one recently where we did this and the customer kicked up a fuss and said they had rights under the DSR etc etc. In the end we just decided to send her the order as we just didn't need the hassle coming up to xmas (as we only cancelled it in the first place because she was being an annoying idiot, so it's not like we were going to be out of pocket or anything)

However, even under the DSR I'm sure we're covered - she was stating that the DSR said we were legally obliged to deliver the order within 30 days (which kind of implies that we can't cancel once accepted). However, the DSR also states that if we can't deliver within 30 days then we can negotiate a mutally acceptable delivery date with the customer - but if an agreement can't be reached the contract becomes null and void (ie. the order is cancelled and customer gets a full refund). So in this case we would have just refused to agree on a new delivery date (it takes 2 to agree)...

If the customer is a business the DSR doesn't apply anyway - just your T&C's.

 

[Websitehandyman]

As it's online the is another thing you can do and that's to block their IP address from even accessing your site. So once bitten sort of solution but not the perfect one.