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We just had a person learn a hard lesson.
3 months ago they placed an order for a $20,000 office. Once that order is entered into the system things start getting built immediately. Once things start getting built it is next to impossible to stop out in the plant and catch everything, so once that order is entered the customer owns the product. There is no cancellation, there is no refund, there is no return policy. Everything is custom made when ordered.
So, this $20K office gets built over the next two months. It is packed in boxes. The DAY before it is to ship out the customer calls and says that they want to cancel the order. We inform them that there is no such thing. They don't care, they want to cancel the order. We inform them that they have already PAID for the furniture, and that there will be no refund, and they will not receive the furniture. Basically, we will take the return, but with a 100% restocking fee. They agree to that.
To get things in writing we had them send us an e-mail "We would like to cancel our order, and understand that we will not receive any refund, credit, or furniture." They sent it.
So, the furniture is useless. The owner of the company donates it to a local charity for their offices.
That was a month ago.
Today they called up "hey, that order we canceled, we are ready for it now. Can you ship it out this week?"
Us: No, you canceled the order. We have no furniture for you.
Them: But we paid for it. We knew that you will not warehouse stuff, and we were not ready to receive the furniture, so we canceled the order. We figured that it would sit there, because what are the odds of someone ordering EXACTLY what we did. We paid for it, it is ours, we need it to ship this week.
Us: Well, we don’t warehouse. Once you canceled the order you sent us a message saying "We would like to cancel our order, and understand that we will not receive any refund, credit, or furniture." Once you canceled the order the furniture was donated to charity.
Them: WHAT!!!! THAT IS OUR FUNITURE!!! You can't just give away our furniture!
Us: You do not own our furniture, you canceled your order. At that point it became OUR furniture, and we are free to do with it as we please.
Them: Well, I'm going to sue the charity for being in possession of stolen property, and you for stealing it.
Us: ok. Have fun with that.
They hung up.
The owner of our company was called to tell him the situation. He called the charity. They discussed it. Then he called the customer back.
Us: I have been in contact with our lawyers and they assure me that you stand a snowballs chance in hell of not being held in contempt for even filing such a charge. I have also been in contact with the charity. They said that they are willing to have a charity auction for that office of furniture. The opening bid is $25,000. You are the only bidder. Would you like to bid?
The Customer slammed down the phone.
45 minutes later our owner got a call from the charity that "someone" called them and placed a bid of $25,000 on the office, and is sending a crew to un-install and pack everything at their expense.
It is my favorite kind of day to watch a customer get their own medicine turned on them. Basically, we charge them a high rate to warehouse anything. They were trying to scam a month of free storage out of us. Unfortunately, they were stupid enough to do it in a way that screws them.
3 months ago they placed an order for a $20,000 office. Once that order is entered into the system things start getting built immediately. Once things start getting built it is next to impossible to stop out in the plant and catch everything, so once that order is entered the customer owns the product. There is no cancellation, there is no refund, there is no return policy. Everything is custom made when ordered.
So, this $20K office gets built over the next two months. It is packed in boxes. The DAY before it is to ship out the customer calls and says that they want to cancel the order. We inform them that there is no such thing. They don't care, they want to cancel the order. We inform them that they have already PAID for the furniture, and that there will be no refund, and they will not receive the furniture. Basically, we will take the return, but with a 100% restocking fee. They agree to that.
To get things in writing we had them send us an e-mail "We would like to cancel our order, and understand that we will not receive any refund, credit, or furniture." They sent it.
So, the furniture is useless. The owner of the company donates it to a local charity for their offices.
That was a month ago.
Today they called up "hey, that order we canceled, we are ready for it now. Can you ship it out this week?"
Us: No, you canceled the order. We have no furniture for you.
Them: But we paid for it. We knew that you will not warehouse stuff, and we were not ready to receive the furniture, so we canceled the order. We figured that it would sit there, because what are the odds of someone ordering EXACTLY what we did. We paid for it, it is ours, we need it to ship this week.
Us: Well, we don’t warehouse. Once you canceled the order you sent us a message saying "We would like to cancel our order, and understand that we will not receive any refund, credit, or furniture." Once you canceled the order the furniture was donated to charity.
Them: WHAT!!!! THAT IS OUR FUNITURE!!! You can't just give away our furniture!
Us: You do not own our furniture, you canceled your order. At that point it became OUR furniture, and we are free to do with it as we please.
Them: Well, I'm going to sue the charity for being in possession of stolen property, and you for stealing it.
Us: ok. Have fun with that.
They hung up.
The owner of our company was called to tell him the situation. He called the charity. They discussed it. Then he called the customer back.
Us: I have been in contact with our lawyers and they assure me that you stand a snowballs chance in hell of not being held in contempt for even filing such a charge. I have also been in contact with the charity. They said that they are willing to have a charity auction for that office of furniture. The opening bid is $25,000. You are the only bidder. Would you like to bid?
The Customer slammed down the phone.
45 minutes later our owner got a call from the charity that "someone" called them and placed a bid of $25,000 on the office, and is sending a crew to un-install and pack everything at their expense.
It is my favorite kind of day to watch a customer get their own medicine turned on them. Basically, we charge them a high rate to warehouse anything. They were trying to scam a month of free storage out of us. Unfortunately, they were stupid enough to do it in a way that screws them.
All because they weren't willing to pay someone $50 to store it for a month until they were ready for it.
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