DISPUTES? CHARGEBACKS? The Bad Guys Found a Loophole!
Strategic networking connects you with great as well as the “not-so-great” people. So, what do you do when you connect with professionals who break the rules and get away with it?
I’ve always been a big believer that a good product or service, solid operations, trustworthy partners, and a focus on helping valued clients is all you needed to be successful in business.
Not anymore.
At least not when it comes to client disputes and relying on the fairness and reliability of merchant banks.
I learned the hard way.
Last spring, I brought onboard a very difficult client.
He spent months making unreasonable demands, scraping our data, exploiting our resources, and hard-selling to our members.
Later, out of the blue, he filed a dispute with Wells Fargo (his bank) to get his money back.
Since he filed the claim after 90 days of the purchase and his claim lacked merit, I decided to dispute it. I felt fortunate that I saved the proper documentation and his emails that directly refuted his case. His only claim for a refund was that we didn’t hold the meetings he wanted to attend which was a direct contradiction to his own emails.
It was a clear-cut case, or so I thought, and didn’t put much more thought into it.
A month later, Wells Fargo clawed back the funds, gave it to him, and hit me with a chargeback fee.
Wait … what?
I was shocked.
It was then I realized…
The Bad Guys Found a Loophole
As I dug deeper, I found I was not alone.
I talked to several small business owners that have suffered a similar fate at some point over the last couple years.
For example, I was told of one bad guy who proudly built his practice of making unreasonable refund demands, disputes, and chargebacks into his business model because it reduced his costs by as much as 15% per year. He bragged that half the vendors would give him a refund upfront (even though he always kept the product or benefited from the service) and he got the rest of his funds back by filing disputes with his bank. He gloated that his bank always sided with him even though they were con jobs (big surprise!)
I know of another associate that sells online courses that offered a 14-day refund policy. She had a customer that would buy the course, use it extensively for 13 days and then request a refund.
The course creator lamented, “I desperately tried to block the customer from future transactions but the client kept purchasing other courses under different names and email addresses.”
The worse part?
The customer was copying the course material and selling it at a discount.
When she refuted the dispute with the processor, she lost the case. She suffered not only the chargeback but was hit with a dispute fee and was threatened to have her merchant account closed.
What happened to the dishonest customer?
He got a full refund from the bank and continues to resell the course material.
I believe there is something very wrong with the credit card industry today and the bad guys are taking full advantage of the massive loopholes.
How Do We Protect Ourselves from the Bad Apples?
Since the banks almost always side with their client, there is no surefire way to stop the bad apples from exploiting a flawed system.
So, we must be wary of the “red flags” that the bad apples will to reveal to us.
What are some of the warning signs?
I can only speak from experience, but I can share some of my own observations.
RED FLAG #1: Prior Warning Signs
I ignored the salesforce notes that a sales representative had written a year earlier on the client. Big mistake! If I had read the prior notes on this customer I would NEVER have dealings with him again.
Red flag #1 Conclusion - Those who do not observe mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat it.
RED FLAG #2: Contradictions in Communication
Over 3 months, I received a flurry of emails with unreasonable demands, twisted logic, and veiled threats.
Mike, I haven’t been able to attend the last couple of San Diego meetings in person but I plan to. How do I get the list of recent participants, is this in the app?
Thanks,
Mike, …. So the App is really the way of connecting with my local community, and it is very saturated and inundated.
Mike … came up on my app with a promotion for branding and marketing services within San Diego. When I joined as a paid member in July, it was with the understanding that I would have category exclusivity for marketing and related services for all of San Diego
Ok, let’s take a closer look at these statements …
1.) Wells Fargo Bank issued him a refund because he stated there were no meetings for him to attend but he states in his email “I haven’t been able to attend the last couple meetings ...”
2.) He originally complained that there weren’t enough users on the app but was now stating “it is very saturated and inundated…”
3.) He claimed he was promised to be the only marketing client “for all of San Diego”. Never happened.
Red flag #2 Conclusion - When a customer consistently contradicts themselves it’s not worth arguing and time to move on … the sooner the better!
RED FLAG #3: Member Complaints
Over the course of several months, I had several members complain that this client was aggressive with his sales approach and applying high-pressured sales tactics.
“I can work with him on that”, I thought, “I can educate him on the the importance of helping people with strategic networking and not hard-selling them”.
“A golden opportunity to help someone” I believed.
Red Flags #3 Conclusion - It’s great to be optimistic about people but the reality is that there are just some bad apples out there. Again, don’t waste your time and resources on them - move on!
What I Learned
Watch for the warning signs! All bad guys have them.
Don’t overextend yourself in trying to meet unreasonable demands. The bad guys see it as a sign of weakness and demand even more or will be encouraged to continue with their unscrupulous ways.
Relying on the banks and credit card processors to fairly resolve a matter is not a solution - they are part of the problem. The banks make the ultimate decision on disputes and will favor their client 90% of the time. After all, the client is the bank’s customer - not you.
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