The Internet Courtroom And You

By Author: Scott and Linda Davidge
Total Articles: 1
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Online business is great. You sit at home in your pajamas

while customers send email to your autoresponders.

They receive your well crafted, irresistible sales message

and visit your website. When they arrive, they find a dream

come true!

YOU, yes you, have the exact widget that they have been

searching for and for 50% LESS than the rat they were

thinking of buying it from. To them, you are indeed the

site of the month, maybe the year!

They eagerly click your Order Here button and happily place

their order. They wish to pay by credit card and you have

wisely provided a super secure page for just that purpose.

Your fulfillment company ships the super duper widget and

you get paid.

All is well in Online land.

Except that when they receive the widget they claim it is

defective (of course they have simply changed their minds)

and want a refund. They won't pay for return shipping.

They say that until their account is credited they won't

be ...
... returning the widget at all. Next, your phone rings.

It's your merchant account provider.

It seems that the card is over the limit and they are going to

have to "investigate" any possible shady dealings by your

customer before any decisions can be made about settlement.

In the meantime they have debited your account for the

transaction. But they are sure it will be cleared up

soon and they really appreciate your business.

Storm clouds are building in Online land and you are

some kind of .... let's say upset.

WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?

Life is still OK in Online land because you have options.

You contact the bank who handles your merchant account but

figure out quickly that you'll be on hold, listening to their

lame music PLUS a message about how they really care, until

you retire. You hang up. Still OK. Next option.

You email the customer that you are sure you can work the

problem out together. In about 2 1/2 seconds you get a reply

that says something like "yeah ... right". Not encouraging,

but still OK. You have options. So you decide to exercise the

ultimate option of all. You own the business.

You are captain of your ship. You are decisive and being

decisive you decide to blow the whole thing off. After all,

it's a $20 widget. You can't call your attorney over $20.

You email the customer that you wish it had worked out.

You email your merchant account holder that you are

blowing it off. Calm has returned to Online land.

The next night at 2:30 a.m. you wake with that terrible

feeling of All is NOT well. You check your books and discover

that you have blown off over 100 widgets this year. None of

them were worth calling the lawyer. Not good. Not good at all.

The bottom line is that you are a small business and need

to protect yourself. The nightmare above could happen to

any of us but it DOES NOT HAVE TO!