We often say it—and we mean it: We have the best customers in the world. Every message, every exchange, whether by email, phone, or social media, is friendly, warm, and often very personal. We are continually touched by how openly many people talk to us about their experiences and, sometimes, their concerns.
Of course, things don't always go smoothly. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes they happen on the other side. And sometimes everything just seems to go wrong. But so far, we've always worked with our clients to find a solution that both sides are happy with.
Almost always. Because in very rare cases—in fact, only twice so far—a complaint escalates to such an extent that no one is happy in the end. Today, we'd like to tell you about one such case, which occurred just this week. Not to point the finger, but to make transparent how we handle such situations—and what we learn from them.
The case: White chocolate with an aftertaste
On May 5th we received the following message:
"Hi, I've ordered from you several times now. But this time, something's wrong with the chocolate. It tastes totally rancid. I tried an old package, and it tastes completely different."
The customer had ordered ten Plamil white chocolate bars. We immediately responded and asked if multiple bars were affected. At our request, she opened two more – these, she said, also tasted "rancid."
Meanwhile, we opened a bar from the same batch from our warehouse. The chocolate was visually flawless, had a shelf life of 18 months, and showed no abnormalities in our sensory test.
We then sent the customer the following message:
"That's really strange. The chocolate still has a long shelf life... I'm enclosing a return label. Please return all bars to us—including the opened ones. We'll refund you the purchase price and, if necessary, have the chocolate tested in a lab."
The return – and the turning point
The package arrived on Saturday, May 10th. We opened it on Monday morning – unfortunately, the condition of the returned item was catastrophic. All the boards were broken in several places, placed loose in the package, without any padding or protection. Our employee documented the condition with photos.
In the afternoon, we conducted further sensory tests – again, no abnormalities were found. But before we could inform the customer, the situation escalated: At 7:30 p.m., she opened a dispute with PayPal.
It said: “The product was returned because it tasted rancid.”
PayPal reacted promptly: The payment to us was blocked, and we were forced to submit a statement – and a clear one. For PayPal, there's only black and white. We were now forced to submit a statement to PayPal that either awarded the customer the full purchase price or us.
Our response to PayPal
We described the case objectively, documented the return, pointed out the impeccable quality of the chocolate, and explained that the goods had been completely destroyed due to improper packaging—a total loss.
The attempt to calm the waters
At the same time, we wrote directly to the customer:
Good morning Ms. B,We received your return yesterday morning (actually on Saturday, but no one is processing the return then).Unfortunately, PayPal has blocked payouts due to the escalation.Why do you think this step was necessary?What made you feel the need to file a complaint with PayPal?I find this development very regrettable, as I place great value on good customer service...
The answer came promptly:
Especially in the age of the Internet, I have unfortunately fallen flat on my face so many times.
Sorry. I haven't heard anything, no confirmation, nothing...
hence the step.
Ms. B then voluntarily closed the case with PayPal – the payment to us was released again.
One last attempt – and a bitter end
The damage had been done. Ms. B continued to insist on a full refund. But the returned item was so poorly packaged that we could no longer use the item—and that wasn't our fault.
We thought long and hard about how to handle this situation. In the end, we decided to write directly to Ms. B again...
Even though this message did not contain any new information—much of which we had already communicated via PayPal—it was important to us to reach a respectful and understandable conclusion .
But the reaction was not long in coming:
I'm really angry.I'll be posting this review everywhere now. This isn't how you treat customers.First promises... then this.I had my family try it, and everyone liked it better than the first batch (when I still had one). So they're not taking me for a fool.Crazy... what a shame. As a person with intolerances, you're dependent on companies like this and then you get ripped off.I'll wait until noon. If I don't hear back, I'll report it to PayPal again and write reviews, especially in various groups for people with intolerances.So that no more people fall for them...
A few more emails followed, but they were no longer relevant to the further course of events.
At noon, Ms. B followed through on her announcement and left a negative Google review.
And now?
We ask ourselves:
Should we have refunded the customer the full amount for the sake of simplicity – for the sake of peace?
Or was it right to draw a line in the sand with such poorly packaged returns that resulted in a total loss?
We will reflect on this case internally and draw our conclusions.
But we are also curious about your opinion:
👉 How would you have decided?
Feel free to write to us here in the comments or directly to kontakt@schoko-wunderland.de .