Originally posted by: Shadowknight
Originally posted by: Exterous
I have had my life threatened, been to court over a lawsuit against our store
So... details?
Both were over laptops. The first guy agreed to pay $45 for a laptop motherboard cleaning over the phone and then refused to pay it when he came in to pick up the laptop. He tried to tell me that since it wasn't in writing I couldn't make him pay it. I told him he wasn't getting his laptop back unless he paid $45. A long arguing match ensued. Finally, after 30minutes of arguing with this guy, the store manager came over and asked what the problem was. The guy told him and the manager asked "So, you agreed to it over the phone?"
"Yes"
"Then to get your laptop back you have to pay the $45"
The guy lost it and started screaming, absolute screaming at us. The rest of the store was dead silent while the guy yelled at us. We quickly told the guy he would have to leave and would not be allowed back into the store until he calmed down. As he was leaving his exact quote (as I told the police) was "I am going to come back and kill both of you!" Well, he didn't come back, although I was a bit nervous when I went home for the evening.
As for the lawsuit: a guy came in and wanted us to install a new HDD in his laptop. He said it wasn't working right. I told him it might be more than the HDD and offered to do a diagnostic for him - for the usual fee. He said "No, I know alot about computers and its definitely the hard drive." I said ok and then started to go over the waiver form with him - which includes turning it on and noting what does/doesn't work when the customer comes in. He said "I don't have time for this" signed the form and left without going over anything with me.
Before installing the hard drive I noticed that the laptop would not turn on without the battery out. Whatever, he didn't pay for me to look at that so I continued installing the new HDD. Needless to say that after he picked it up he called us saying "The new hard drive didn't fix the problem" and wanted to know why. I told him I didn't know because he didn't pay me to find out. Then he wanted a refund for the install. I told him he could refund the drive but not the labor. He got pissed and wanted to know why, if he paid for a service and it didn't work, he couldn't get his money back. I told him that I tested the drive when I was done and it worked fine, as the work order stated. Therefore the labor was done correctly and was not refundable. He got pretty pissed at me, but thats nothing new.
Then he tries to tell me that I broke the laptop since it wouldn't work with the battery in. I told him I didn't break it and I noted that issue on the work order upon dropoff. He told me it worked before he brought it in and I told him "I don't know when the problem happened, but when it reached my store it did not work."
His response: "Listen here you little $hit - you broke it and I can (insert entire F word here) prove it." He didn't realize it, but at this point the conversation was over. Oh, we still talked on the phone, but he wasn't going to get anywhere now.
Signed waiver in hand I responded with "It was not working correctly when you brought it in and no, you can't prove I broke anything."
He started swearing more. I spoke over him saying "If you have any other relevant questions you should call back when you can be civil." and hung up on him.
2 or 3 months later we were in court. The case was over pretty quickly. Since I had the signed form noting the issue with the battery and that the customer refused to go over it with me - the case became his word versus mine - which the defendant always wins due to burden of proof. It helped that all my paper work was in order and the guy was kinda a jerk to the judge.
Funny thing is - the guy came into the store like a month later (who goes into a store they tried to sue to buy something?) and I told him "See? I told you you couldn't prove it." His face turned red and he left - I haven't seen him since, but that last part still makes me laugh
(I know I can antagonize people but as long as you are civil or (gasp) nice I am a very nice, helpful guy who will try to go out of his way to save you money. The moment you start swearing/yelling at me or telling me I did my job wrong when it was done right I am not a very pleasant person to deal with)