As many of you will know- we are a printing company. We have a big customer who needed some invitation cards doing for a launch event with foiling - something we couldn't offer. However, they were content for us find somebody who could offer it and source and supply. We found a company who said they could do it - we sent them an e-mail giveng the go ahead and to invoice us, but only if they got to us by Tuesday last week. We rang on Tuesday to find that the cards hadn't left the factory. The person we dealt with who we think is a manager or the owner said they were waiting on the address to send to - we clearly had given them the address to send them to on the e-mail giving them the go ahead if they could deliver on time. We made it clear in the e-mail and telephone conversations how urgent they were.
The company apologised (We were very angry) and sent them out next day deliver via Royal mail. Royal mail lost the parcel and we spent the next day chasing and trying to find a solution as we were letting down a major customer who was really angry. I think the parcel was put on the wrong van as it was located on Wednesday evening and my brother had to make a 2.5 hour round trip to the depot to collect. We were unhappy with the lax attitude of teh company.
The lateness of the cards caused our customer significant hassle and additional expense, and as we didn't deliver on time they didn't pay us. We offered the company who had let us down the opportunity to refund us but they declined despite us having proof they admitted the blame, stating that we now had teh cards! The manager said he had to take his wife to hospital so couldn't make sure our parcel went out on time, but they seem to have a lot of staff and we don't think it was unreasonable to delegate - given that he knew and had in writing how important we had the order to our deadline. The issue with Royal mail compounded the problem, but they were already late! Our e-mail giving the go ahead, clearly stated it was on condition of them being able to meet our deadline.
I am going to make a small claims court claim today - we were willing to accept just a refund, but are now inclined to claim our losses - small profit we would have made on the items and time we spent having to try to resolve it. Does anybody have any advice on what it is best to do? We are very angry and it has become a matter of principle apart from anything else for us!
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Comments
Going to court as a matter of principle can lead to irrational decisions.
@MuttleyCAFC as long as it's in the values they state then claim for it mate. You have a strong case, particularly as you have evidence etc
Sometimes people just need a kick up the arse to respond. Filing a claim should do the trick
https://gov.uk/make-money-claim-online
Glad you got it sorted.
I've had to write a few of them in my time. It's more the time it takes away from you cracking on with more important stuff that irks
Hopefully though they will be better themselves going forwards.
Personally, I would contact the MD of the company and explain the consequences. If they have any sense, they should be prepared to stand by the consequences of there business. Screw up's happen, but in print they are literally there in black and white, or 4 colour so to speak. By the sounds of it you outsourced this to a specialist company, ( I have just done this for two wedding invites, and found them a bit casual to be honest, albeit the quality was excellent on receipt,) but then I am the type that would turn up and load the car myself, or van in the case of a certain magazine printer in Plymouth. Everyone makes mistakes, it is how the business deals with the consequences, when things go wrong.
Nobody wins in this instance, but it is only right the company who made the mistake loses too or they will keep on adopting their lacklustre approach.
On two occasions the people I had issued a summons against backed down and settled in full withiin two days of the date that the case was due to be heard.
On the third occasion ithe case went to court. The case was that I owned a flat. The tenant moved in his girlfriend. I later believed that she was a prostitute and was using the flat as her place of business. When they moved out the flat was a complete mess. I withheld £800 of the deposit to pay for the damage.
The judge listened to the case. Then she instructed myself and the tenant to go to a private room and try to agree a settlement. She said that one of us would be unhappy and unless we were 100% sure of our facts it would be better to reach a compromise. I eventualy backed down and accepted £500 damages.
The Small Claims Court is an excellent way of settling financial disputes. It is not unduly difficult to do and I would recommend it to anyone who has a problem.