Should we be worried? - HTML Forums

athomas · 08-19-2008, 03:17 PM

I own a company that does website hosting and website development. A customer came across my services and was requesting maintenance to be done on an already existing website. I had been emailing back and forth trying to get more information since he was never descriptive as to what he wanted, and finally two to three weeks later, gave up and in a very rude way asked for a refund. As per my companies terms of service located at www.bkriegtech.net/?page=tos we reserve the right to decide when and if to give refunds. I told him that he will not be receiving a refund, and he is threatening to sue me now. Since he was very evidently short on money we agreed to 4 installments paid monthly of $50.00. He is demanding this back, and says he went to the FBI.

As he sent emails, we did as we were instructed. When we were finished, we sent follow up emails, most of which were not answered, and when they were, they were answered with "I will get this information to you on this day." We emailed the day after that, and he said "I will get this information to you this day" This went on for a couple of weeks until he sent an email demanding a refund, at which point this was forwarded to me and I referred him to the TOS that he should have read, but chose not to. I informed him of this but he is so determined in his thoughts that he is right and all my company is out to do is scam the world.

Should I be worried about anything?

<h1> · 08-19-2008, 07:08 PM

So he already payed the 4 monthly installments? What refund is he asking for?

It doesn't sound like he is going to sue.. If what you are doing is legal, then why ask if you should be worried?

athomas · 08-19-2008, 07:12 PM

Of course my company is legit. We asked him questions and we got no reply most of the time. The only reason I'm worried is because I don't want to go through the whole legal mumbo jumbo, I have a company to run.

Pegasus · 08-19-2008, 07:14 PM

If you haven't supplied him with a product or service, then you're going to have to refund the money. If you've done part of the work, then you only need to refund part of the money. What does the contract say?

afterburn · 08-19-2008, 07:39 PM

not exactly true peg, consulting is a service. and agreeing to something like a project verbal or written is a contract. Thus he should have been pointed to that. Consulting is a service so he could be breaking the contract; in doing so most of the time the person providing the service gets the money because of breach of contract.

athomas · 08-19-2008, 07:44 PM

Also, he chose not to read the Terms of Service which are not in any way hidden from the public's eyes. It is on the left navigation bar, as well as the top and bottom nav bars. I quote this from the TOS:

"i. Refunds

Refunds are issued on a per incident basis, any and all refunds are left up to the discretion of Blitzkrieg Computer Technologies to send to the client. Under no circumstances are refunds ever mandatory. Blitzkrieg Computer Technologies will always make the final decision about whether or not refunds will be given."

Again, not my fault.

Pegasus · 08-19-2008, 07:47 PM

If it should go to court, I'll bet you a judge says "return the money", especially if no service/product has changed hands. If there's no web site created, then there's nothing that's been created, so the money goes back.

athomas · 08-19-2008, 07:50 PM

Well first I doubt the guy has the money to hire a lawyer if he couldn't pay 200 dollars up front, he had to pay in installments.

Secondly, if the TOS was there and he chose not to read it, he is still bound.

Pegasus · 08-19-2008, 08:08 PM

Small claims court doesn't require the hiring of a lawyer, athomas. You can represent yourself. And you can say what you like about refunds, but the law takes precedence over what you want.

athomas · 08-19-2008, 08:15 PM

I don't know how else to explain it, he chose to be a you know what about the whole thing, company policy says we don't have to give a refund, so we chose not to based on the terms of service. How does law have presidence over a company policy that is to be agreed upon for every service?

And to top it off, this is across state lines, and over a measly 50 bucks. Courts have more important stuff to worry about.

Also refer to http://www.oag.state.md.us/consumer/edge91.htm Where it states the actual law, not what people may seem to think.

afterburn · 08-19-2008, 08:58 PM

Yes but was it on the receipt? Was it on the contract? Was it stated in the verbal contract about the ToS or explicitly agreed upon?

athomas · 08-19-2008, 09:07 PM

Return policy was never brought up until he flipped out, i referred him to the TOS which he should have read to begin with, thats when this all started.

And peg, no court "requires" a lawyer. If you show up alone, to our great lawyer, and you are up against a TOS that you chose to not read, doesn't look good for you.

afterburn · 08-19-2008, 09:20 PM

I am not sure it is bindable agreement in that manner; you would have to ask your lawyer about that aspect. but over 50 i would just give it to the guy better to have 1 dissatisfied customer that doesn't any ammo to shot himself with.

athomas · 08-20-2008, 08:14 PM

He gave us money, TOS is in our favor. Not sure how he could win this, and not sure what court would care about this since it's across state lines over 50 bucks...

afterburn · 08-21-2008, 08:58 AM

actually it could be considered wire fraud. which is federal.