# Return/refund policies



## ccdesignco (May 21, 2011)

I have an out-of-state customer order 43 t-shirts from us. This was a custom design, with a Gold/Yellow ink on Black tees.

A little background: I work from my garage, and order my screens from my supplier, who's turnaround is great. Due to a holiday, the screen shipment was delayed by 1 day.

The customer wanted these for an event(shirts were not event specific), and requested a rush on them. The day before the screen arrived, I was informed by the customer that they needed the shirts on Thursday (before I was only told by the weekend). This gave me one less shipping day to get them to them. 

I received the screens with 3 hours to print and get to the shipping office to ship them, overnight, to meet the customer deadline.

When the customer received them, they emailed saying they did not like the way the ink laid on the shirt at all, and that some of the black from the shirt was showing through. 

Obviously, if I thought they looked bad, I would not have shipped them. However, I apologized that she was unhappy with them, and offered to reprint the entire order, although they would not arrive for her event. 

She said that she would look at a reprinted shirt to see if it would work. Once she received the new print sample, with NO black showing through, and a crisp image printed on it, she informed me that there was too much ink on the shirt and the wording was distorted (not true). She also informed me that a "friend that prints shirts locally", said that she was not wrong and that the shirts were awful!. She was demanding a full refund.

As a small company, I had not charged her a rush fee, and I can't afford the cost of refunding her 100%. Overnight shipping at the cheapest was $108 without discounts. I also have never made any statements regarding a satisfaction guarantee or refund/return policy, as my business has so far, been word of mouth. 

She also finally admitted that she had already hired another printer to print the shirts, right after receiving the first batch, and before receiving the reprinted image. While I have offered to reprint, she says that because I found the first batch to be acceptable, we are not on the same page when it comes to quality. 

I have agreed to refund all but the shipping cost I spent, and a $35 fee for having to adapt and resize her artwork for the screen, but only after she returns the items at her expense.

She said she would not return them, but would prove that she had destroyed them. I have insisted on a return before she gets her refund, and I believe she is looking to do that now. She paid with a check and has threatened to cancel the check.

My question is, how do you all deal with refund/return policies, and difficult customers?

I have not had any other complaints of this nature since I began screen printing. I have made mistakes, but I have been able to correct them, and the customers have always come back!

I am usually of the belief that the customer is always right, but I feel that this customer is being unreasonable, and did not plan to give us the opportunity to correct the issue with a reprint.

Feedback? Am I in the wrong here?


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## sandmanbjj (Oct 26, 2011)

You offered to reprint to entire order, and scrambled to get the order in her hands. She may have unmeetable expectations. This won't ruin your rep. 

Wait for the shirts to come back before releasing funds. She may have used the shirts for her event and has no further need for them, then played this game so she didn't have to pay for them.


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## johnnyb57 (May 26, 2012)

Tell her to take a long walk off a short pier...


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## Olperez1 (Feb 24, 2013)

I would tell her to return all the shirts at her expense, and if they seem worn (smell them, find dirt on them) etc, then tell her they were used.

You should expect a bad review from her out of anger because you caught on to her scam. If she said a local printer confirmed the poor work done by you, why didn't she get them from them to begin with? Something is fishy here. Just make sure you respond and handle it professional and always keep your cool. If she puts a bad review on your yelp or anywhere else, respond to it, kindly, and state how you handled it and be very honest, but never sounding like you lost your temper. This way people will see she was the problem as a customer, not your company as the vendor. Remember, bad reviews also help people see the real you and how you handled your situation, so it might help you more than you think.


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## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

Sounds to me like she found a sucker -- you -- and got some shirts for free. Like Otto points out, if she ended up with a local printer anyway, it begs the question why she would have opted for someone like you out of state, paid extra for shipping, and so on. Doesn't add up.

Next time you MUST charge for rush jobs. Spell out in the case of defective goods you will replace or refund at your discretion, etc. The classic scam ruse is to insist on a rush, where you have little time to check things out. While there are legitimate reasons a customer needs work done quickly, it's often the first sign of a scam, especially if you're not local. A legit customer will not want to risk mail order for something that is so time sensitive, particularly when shipping costs are high.

Inform her that she may not stop payment without risk of your claiming she wrote a bad check, for which she can be held liable for up to 3X in damages. Tell her she must return the goods, unaltered and unused, at her expense. Unless you indicated you didn't want the shirts back, she cannot even consider a refund until she does.

Your legal recourse is limited because she's out of state, and difficult to sue. You'll end up eating money. The best you can come out of this is a little wiser for next time.


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## ccdesignco (May 21, 2011)

The biggest problem is that I know her personally. I have for many years. She claims she used me to help out my business. I think she didn't like the original shirts, and rather than wait for me to reprint, she hired someone else. She was probably mad that she couldn't take the shirts to the event she wanted to sell them at first. I wouldn't have done a rush job, without upcharging, if it were someone I didn't know. Although, that won't happen again, either way.

She has said that she will ship them back, and I've let her know that I will not refund anything until they are here. 

She actually tried to compare custom printing to purchasing goods at Target. Because if she didn't like it, she could return it for a full refund. How absurd! 

Anyway, once I get the shirts back and refund her, I will be done with it. As someone told me yesterday, there are some customers you just don't want, and she is one of them. 

Thanks everyone for your input!


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Tell her no refunds on custom merchandise. Offer to refund the inking labor only since she can't return the shirts.

If she stops payment, sue her locally in small claims court. I sued a cousin once.

And put up a policy statement on your website immediately.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using T-Shirt Forums


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## Olperez1 (Feb 24, 2013)

If you feel you need to refund her cause you know her, I would also suggest saying there is a restocking fee so you can atleast make up the loss of the whole shirt costs and screen prices. My 2 cents. I always have family and friends asking me to give them discounts, and i tell them that this is a business and I don't go their jobs asking for discounts. They need to know from the get go that you do this for a living not for charity, and if they don't like it, don't do business with them, point blank. They might not like it at first, but they will know you are serious.

Sorry for your stress on this, but sometimes you have to take the loss and learn from it. But i wouldn't offer a refund until I see the merchandise in my hands, making sure it is all accounted for, not used, and in the same condition you sent it. Restocking fee always works as long as you get an agreement from her via email/writing that she agrees to atleast cover that restocking fee. So she can't sue you later for not giving the full refund.

Good luck.


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## WindoraBug (May 29, 2013)

I'm sorry you had to deal with something like this. Why would she offer to accept another order past the event deadline?!?! Smells like cod..... And as another stated, she had a local review, why didn't she go to him initially. As well you should ask her to send photos of the problem , then its debunked if she can show you or not. 

There's always going to be people like this, sad thing is you have to try to deal with them as best as possible. And all the meanwhile not get bent over, and then them break it off in you! I'd love to see photos!


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## jfisk3475 (Jan 28, 2011)

Suks 2 b her. did you she send you a picture of the reprints from the other company? I would ask for proof of this. with a receipt that she paid for them at the time that she did. she is BSing you. had this happen before and call them out on it and they were lying.

Sent from my SGH-T679 using T-Shirt Forums


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## sandmanbjj (Oct 26, 2011)

Keep us updated.


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## Mtnview (Nov 5, 2009)

johnnyb57 said:


> Tell her to take a long walk off a short pier...


Uuhhh...No. Make it a long pier so she has time to think what an a** she is.


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## johnnyb57 (May 26, 2012)

That's a good option...


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