[Clementefan]

As someone who has spent his second career in mediation and arbritration trying to get warring parties to an acceptable peace may I put in my two cents as per the Heritage - gordonanalytic situation. I find that cooperation and cooler heads leads to productive results. A couple of points:

1. "A teaspoon of honey helps the medicine go down."
I find that with animated/agitated people like gordonanalytic that the best approach is to cool them off. Like putting ice in a cup of hot coffee.
This can be done with a simple "I am sorry, what can we do for you...?" as opposed to what allegedly was reported..."if you escalate the matter then we will no longer do business with you." That sounds like an ultimatum.

It is a fact that patients who get along with their doctors are much less likely to sue them for medical malpractice. The same with customers and retail establishments. If the customer feels that the retailer has listened and offered some help then the angry customer tends to cool off. On the other hand, an angry customer will no longer do business with the retailer and will tell many other people about his/her poor treatment.

The retailer loses the customer's business today and tomorrow. And the retailer could lose business from the customer telling other people about his poor experience with that firm. On the other hand, the customer loses the utility/value of having done business with the retailer.

In other words, a "lose - lose" situation. No winners, just losers.

The way to create a "win - win" is to find out what each party can agree upon.

Is the issue money? reputation? respect?
Perhaps people from the board can offer an opinion.... How much would a fake Mantle signature affect a 1953 NY Yankees team signed baseball? A few hundred dollars ? I don't know. But it cannot be too much money.
With that dollar amount there must be some creative way to resolve the matter.
Jon - is gordonanalytic a repeat customer... with 200 (?) emails it would indicate that he/she has done business with Heritage.
gordonanalytic - what exactly are you looking for?

2. "Everyone gets dirty when mud is being slung around."
gordonanalytic - repeatedly badmouthing the retailer will not help the situation. Think about it... if someone repeatedly insulted you would you be willing to work them to a satisfactory resolution. Probably, possibly unequivocally... not.

The same behavior applies to the retailer,.... Jon. Stating something like "200 email messages" is a convenient round number which implies exaggeration. It is meant to discredit the customer, but in fact it indicates lazy research. How many of the emails were in response to a question from the retailer?

Anyway, everyone looks bad with bickering...