I have a customer who says he was double billed for a domain name. I have checked my records and looked online and only see one charge for $14.95 to his credit card. I looked and looked but do not see the double billing.

I am more than willing to refund a customer who has been overcharged, I just want to make sure this is the case. Can anyone give me any advice on what to do? It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Andrew

Ask him to fax you his credit card statement showing both charges.

Originally posted by tribby
Ask him to fax you his credit card statement showing both charges.
Or get him to scan it and email it to you. :)

You have to weigh how important this customer is to you vs. $15.

To me, any customer is worth much more than that! So bite the bullet, refund him $15, he will be surprised at your willingness to help, and it will be a good thing and can do nothing but help you!

If this seems to be a recurring trend with this customer, say, more than 3 times in a year, cancel him but don't fight him!

Good luck.

No. I will disagree with machineman. There is no point in refunding the money which you have never gained. The professional way will be, ask your customer the details how he was charged twice. If there is a mistake at your end, you can honestly refund that amount.

Originally posted by OldOne
No. I will disagree with machineman. There is no point in refunding the money which you have never gained. The professional way will be, ask your customer the details how he was charged twice. If there is a mistake at your end, you can honestly refund that amount.

There is a HUGE point in refunding the money, even if you never gained it! If you treat people with respect (even if they don't deserve it), they will be very good to your business. I'm not saying be stupid about things, but this is one example where for a teeny amount of money, you can win over a customer for life. And probably everyone he refers.

This is also why most hosting companies suck, and quite honestly why we started our own. Customer service, and true appreciation of the customer's business is all but non-existant in this industry!

Well, now you all know my hot buttons! ;-)

Bill

The professional way would to have him, fax over, an notorized copy of his statement, therfore you can verify that if there was an error on your end or not.

I disagree, yet agree with you Bill, it's sort of an catch 22 situation. Anyways good luck getting this under control :).

I'm fairly new to WHT, but not to business and customer service. I have to agree with machineman 110% on this issue. In-fact, I've dealt with business consumers in the past who have used tactics such as the fake support call or claimed "over/double billing" simply to measure the value of their business with a service provider. In other words, they lied to see how far I would go to please them for their business.

It's a sad practice, and I'm not saying it's what's going on in this case either, but you do have to measure the value of a long term relationship with this customer (and any clients they may refer to you as well) against the $15. Is it worth upsetting the customer over in the long run because you seemed to doubt their claim by asking for the credit card bill from them?

Personally, I wouldn't think twice about making the refund, no questions asked, IF this was the first time the client had made such a claim.

Just my $15 worth...

Best wishes,
Scott
scott@banpro.net

Tell him hes a nutbag and to p1ssoff :D

But hey, thats SuckAssHost tactics :)

The professional way would to have him, fax over, an notorized copy of his statement, therfore you can verify that if there was an error on your end or not. .

Yes, as Im sure its worth the persons time to get a notorized copy of his statement, and then to fax it on over to you, making the whole notorization process useless.

This is a tricky subject though, as Im sure many of the people who have posted above didnt take the time to visit your website and review your plans. It seems you are on a tight profit margin, and you might have to take into account which size plan the person signed up for, along with other personal business factors. Its a lot easier for a big host with larger profit margins like FutureQuest, Site5, and the take the loss than it is for startup hosts with $99 servers and scraping along to make a profit.

The choice is yours. If PayPal was used, make sure the user understands that in the PayPal history BOTH the withdrawal from the account and the payment to you is shown, so it appears almost as double.

Enough of me. Good luck.

Well I agree with having him email you a copy of the transactions in question just so you can verify that they both came from you.

In the last month I have had 3 customers ask me about double charges in all 3 cases it turned out they just misread their statements. Didn't look who the charge was processesd by they only went by the amount.

In one case it was due to a refund that I had given a client when he switched billing methods and was double billed. He thought the refund was another charge.

With that said if he was double charged give him extra back for his trouble, the refund I mentioned above was off by .31 cents so I sent an extra $5.00 to his pay pal account as a good will jesture.

Under promise and over deleiver, you will be in business a long time.

I would disagree with machineman.

If I see that I overcharged someone, I refund it. However, if in my records I charged only once, and they say they were charged twice, than I will ask them for some sort of proof.
Fax/Mail/E-Mail.

If I have a client who says that they are overcharged and they where not, I do not even want such clients. I do not want to wait 3 times till they do it.

I had this happen to a customer of mine, he got charged twice, faxed over the statement to me, I only showed one charge, even went back to my merchant provider.

He checked with his bank and it was their mess up.

It could be the customers bank. Check with your merchant provider, if everything is legit, have your customer check with their bank, mine did.

It bad buissness to corret a mistake that never happend. What happens if he turns out to just be a scammer. He says he was double billed, you dont check, and he walks off with a free domain leaving you to pay.

I would definitely get the statement sent, if they have been double billed then of course refund them. If not explain politely what the other charge on the statement was.

Originally posted by ChickenSteak
The professional way would to have him, fax over, an notorized copy of his statement . . . . . . . . . . Make sure you do this if you want to be certain he will no longer be your customer and will tell everyone that will listen how much you suck.


I'd still try to get him to help you see his side. Maybe there is something that you're missing; or you can help him see his error.

Like I mentioned, this doesn't mean you have to blindly go giving money back to every person that asks! Use your common sense about things... if the person is a repeat offender, etc.

And again, we are only talking about $15 in this case. If someone paid for a year in advance ona $50 a month plan, that's $600. I would certainly make sure that the error was cleared up before refunding an amount like that. But even then, I still would not ask them to send a copy of their notarized statement!

Simply asking them once, then explaining a couple situations (as mentioned above) that could result in the wrong interpretation of the charges, and if they still insist, then it's just flat out good customer service to honor their request.

I hate to bring Wal-Mart into this, but you can bring anything back to their store (even something you bought at Target!) and they will give you at least store credit for the item. They know that this will go a long way toward making you a repeat customer because it's 'easy' to shop at Wal-Mart! That's why they are the US's #1 retailer in their category. (However, I still shop at Target... I have something about a clean store. Call me wierd...) ;-)

Good thread though...

Bill

Hello,

Thanks everyone for your advice. Before I posted this I had considered both asking to see a copy of his statement and just giving him 6 months of hosting for free. I am still not sure what I am going to do but my goal is to satisfy the customer.

Thanks again,
Andrew

I would expect my host to request a copy of my statement to prove that I was indeed double billed. I wouldnt have any problems with this niether. If he just turned around and gave me a credit not nowing the facts I would think twice about doing biz. with this company.

There are so many crocks out there just waiting to take advantage of good hearted honest people.

Mike

Originally posted by machineman


There is a HUGE point in refunding the money, even if you never gained it! If you treat people with respect (even if they don't deserve it), they will be very good to your business. I'm not saying be stupid about things, but this is one example where for a teeny amount of money, you can win over a customer for life. And probably everyone he refers.

This is also why most hosting companies suck, and quite honestly why we started our own. Customer service, and true appreciation of the customer's business is all but non-existant in this industry!

Well, now you all know my hot buttons! ;-)

Bill

So, if I was a customer of yours and told you I was billed 10 times (when really only once,) would you refund me 10 times what I paid? No, of course not. You would ask me for a copy of my CC statement and if it was the case cut me a check, otherwise you would not pay me 10 times what I paid you. Com'n!

Originally posted by Refsoft


So, if I was a customer of yours and told you I was billed 10 times (when really only once,) would you refund me 10 times what I paid? No, of course not. You would ask me for a copy of my CC statement and if it was the case cut me a check, otherwise you would not pay me 10 times what I paid you. Com'n!

Obviously, every situation is different... Just use the same common sense when you cross the street!

The bottom line, our philosophy is always always always - "make the customer happy and satisfied". Go above and beyond what they expect.

Bill

Originally posted by machineman
I hate to bring Wal-Mart into this, but you can bring anything back to their store (even something you bought at Target!) and they will give you at least store credit for the item.

Yes, but that's different. This situation is more akin to walking into Wal-Mart without a receipt, and asking them for a refund on something they accidentally rang up twice. It wouldn't happen.

I agree that each situation should be looked at individually, and things such as the length of time the customer has been with you, etc...need to be taken into consideration. However, it is not unreasonable to expect the customer to provide you with some proof of the alleged double-billing. Likewise, I wouldn't expect any reasonable customer to have a problem with providing some evidence to back up his/her claim.

-Bob

Hello everyone,

This issue has been resolved. I have given the customer three months of hosting free of charge in addition to a refund.

Thanks to all that offered advice.

Andrew

When in doubt err in favor of the customer. They put food on the table. That's my customer service philosophy.

Just FYI - if you process electronically the cc company will often remove that amount from thier credit line, and show a charge on online statements, telephone inquiries, etc. When the actual charge comes through it may show up a second time, and shortly later the first disappears. I've seen this personally from 3 different banks. The second charge will usually disappear within a few hours - at least that's my experience. The second charge never showed up on a printed bill.

I'd probably just refund him, or ask him to fax over a copy of the statement if i'm suspicious. Making a customer stay happy is worth my $15.

I know you said the problem was resolved but in case this ever happens to anyone out there, I had something different happen. At one point a customer said they were double charged for a domain. I did the same thing as Andyc, looked and looked for the additional charge to no avail. Well it turns out this customer was looking at their on-line statement and it was showing two charges on their statement for approximately 48 hours. One was an auth and the other the actual charge. After the two days the 1st charge disappeared. So in fact they were not double billed. Keep this in mind in the future :)

Everything is fine now. After I e-mailed him telling him a refund had been issued and that I was giving him some free months of hosting, this is what I got:

"...It is this kind of customer service that made me choose Clicknet Solutions in the first place and is also the reason I'd like to suggest your services to my clients."

So everything is great in the end :)

Andrew

I've been debating a $703.50 charge for about eight months now, do the right thing ;)

Its a lot easier for a big host with larger profit margins like FutureQuest, Site5, and the take the loss than it is for startup hosts with $99 servers and scraping along to make a profit. Heh not really. Remember these "losses" are covered by the clients. Most clients expect the company to operate in such a way that does not waste the funds they send in.

By not attempting to verify a double charge you risk the following:

1) Wasting company funds that could be used to improve and maintain current and/or new services

2) Generating extra double-charges to other clients by not confirming how the one in question happened, therefore doing nothing to ensure there isn't a real problem with your setup, your gateway's setup, your merchant's setup, or your client's bank...

3) Encouraging clients to make such claims because "they know it'll get them something extra"

You can be a wise business person while still offering excellent service to your clients. As a matter of fact, I, as a client, would be gravely disappointed in any business that did not perform their tasks in a professional and 'wise' way.

Though I generally agree with machineman concerning doing everything possible to please the client, I do disagree with his statement that the provider should submit a refund without requesting verification of the problem. machineman seems to be operating with the basic "The Customer is Always Right" foundation yet ignores the customer's statement concerning the host's flaw and does nothing to prevent that mistake from happening again.

If the client was double-billed, then something went wrong. Is it not up to the provider (ya know..the one being accused of double charging) that "wants to do everything they can to please the client" to actually take the steps required to prevent this mistake from happening again? Would that task not include requesting the client to send you more information in an effort to help you pin down this issue to determine as a matter of fact whether or not it really did happen?

Andyc, you have made a client happy and that is awesome! You have also gone above and beyond by giving them more than they requested. Again, this is GREAT! But what you have not done, from the information we have in this thread, is verified whether or not that double charge took place. At this point, we do not know if it really did or not. This means, if it did, whatever went wrong the first time may go wrong again therefore you may loose more revenue over time and begin to disappoint clients that are adversely affected over the double fee (causing them to bounce checks etc). If it didn't happen, then you have not been able to explain to the client how to read the statement correctly, led them to believe it really did hence the refund and free months, and left them reading their statement the same way the next time you charge them which encourages them to make the same complaint next time.

For the record... FutureQuest cannot afford to blindly spend money for things we cannot explain. Finally, we would request the client to help us understand why they felt they were double-billed and do everything we could to a) please them and b) continue digging into the problem until we were able to confirm exactly what happened and resolve it.

Remember -- I can please a child for an hour by allowing them to eat the entire bag of cookies. They may then be sick for an entire day with a tummy ache because of my irresponsible actions.

Keeping a client happy is accomplished by hearing them, in this case hearing their complaint and correcting it. Refunding the money and giving three months free does not correct the issue that was complained about. The refund merely put a band-aide on it until it happens again.

But what you have not done, from the information we have in this thread, is verified whether or not that double charge took place.

Hello Deb,

I researched it a bit more and did find he was double billed. I don't know how I missed it the first time but I did and will hopefully learn from this mistake. I would have never blindly refunded the money, I had plans to call my Merchant Account provider to see what was going on and then go from there.

I felt the three months was needed to make the customer happy and to show that we do make up for our mistakes. Just like someone said "Under promise, over deliver" and that is what I try/tried to do.

Thanks,
Andrew

Originally posted by machineman
I hate to bring Wal-Mart into this, but you can bring anything back to their store (even something you bought at Target!) and they will give you at least store credit for the item. They know that this will go a long way toward making you a repeat customer because it's 'easy' to shop at Wal-Mart! That's why they are the US's #1 retailer in their category. (However, I still shop at Target... I have something about a clean store. Call me wierd...) ;-)

Good thread though...

Bill

FWIW, actually that doesn't seem to be a universal Wal-Mart policy. I got a shirt from a family member for my birthday. I had no receipt and no tag. I just figured that since she always shops at Wal-Mart that's where she bought it. I took it to Wal-Mart and they were able to check and find out that it was not sold from them, so I couldn't return it.