Can an online customer file dispute or legal action against for something not ordered?
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Can an online customer file dispute or legal action against for something not ordered?
We sell reborn dolls on Etsy. A custom order was placed for a doll to have light brown hair and dark blue eyes. We shipped the doll to the customer completed. The customer messaged us after receiving it all mad saying she ordered dark brown/wavy hair and wanted it fixed. We told her she did not order that and that we could change it for a fee because it is very time consuming. She was very mad and said she wanted a refund. We don’t accept refunds on custom orders so we offered to do the work for free as a courtesy. She shipped the doll back and in the meantime gave us a 1 star review on our shop before we could even make changes, making it sound like it was all our fault. There was a letter sent with the doll demanding that she get the doll back by the 9th of this month to take it to a doll show – impossible. We were trying to bend over backwards for this customer but have now decided to just send the doll back to her untouched without the changes since she again got very rude and disrespectful about not being able to get it before the 9th. Can she sue us? We feel that we did nothing wrong. We technically honored her order and shipped her what she ordered.
Asked on July 2, 2019 under Business Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
Legally, if you did what she requested (and can prove that: e.g. you have a written order or email or text, etc. from her substantiating her order), she has no grounds to sue you so long as your work was of professional quality: a customer's subjective dissatisfaction or her changing her mind is not grounds for a lawsuit so long as the vendor followed specifications and did professional-quality work.
That does not mean that, if sufficiently irate or irreasonable, that she might not try to file a lawsuit: unfortunately, the courts do not "prescreen" lawsuits to make sure they are viable, and bad lawsuits get filed. But you would have a good defense to it.
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