Question:
Kavod Harav,
I recently purchased a custom Talis bag with my initials on it. I requested that the fabric should be the same as my son had ordered from that store. The gentleman looked up my sons order & placed the order for me. When I picked up the bag, it was the wrong color. What I didn’t realize was that my son had purchased 2 bags, one in navy blue & one in grey. The salesperson selected the wrong order. Not sure who was at fault so I paid for it & then purchased another custom bag in the right color & paid for that one as well. A few days later I receive an email from the store to approve the color & lettering of the new bag. There was one change that I requested, they emailed me a new proof, which I then approved. I called the main office of this company & it seems that sending a proof is a standard operating procedure for every order. I then emailed the store & asked them why they didn’t send me a proof on my original order, had they done so I would have seen right away the wrong fabric was chosen. It is a few days later & I have not received a response. Frankly, I don’t expect one from them. My question is if I can do a chargeback on the first purchase. A chargeback is when I call my credit card company & ask them to reverse the charge as the vendor didn’t fulfill their obligation. Typically the credit card company will open a claim with the vendor & ask them for their opinion on who is correct & there is a back & forth between the parties. Am I allowed to do this? The store is obviously owned by frum people. Thank you.
Answer:
Hello,
You shouldn’t do it. The reason is because according to halacha, the store didn’t do anything wrong, as they filled the order as you asked them to. The only thing the one can say would be that since the store takes credit cards, that they know that it is according to the laws of the credit card company, and it could be that the credit card company will say that nowadays accepted protocol is to send a confirmation e-mail to the customer. The problem though is that in practice, the credit card company will almost always side with the customer, and the venodor will not be given much of a choice, meaning that the credit may very well be given to you, when it is not rightfully coming to you. Therefore, since you are dealing with fellow Jews, you should leave things the way they are, and your business will have the zechus that you are dealing honesty, which is a great zechus for parnossa.
Best wishes
