Customers unreasonable expectations

[Blue123]

should a customer expect a garage to be able to issue a duplicate inv from five years ago - when it is not computerised and the original was supplied at the time

[Pezza54]

A company should keep invoices for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to.

[Blue123]

Yes that is for purposes of VAT/business accounts -this is regarding a customer expecting a replacement inv when he was provided with one at the time

[PallasAthena]

If you could find it quickly if HMRC VAT asked for it then no reason why you should not provide it to a customer.

It's about good customer service. AFAIK there's no legal obligation to provide a duplicate to a customer (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about that).

[Blue123]

actually in this instance it is a large company that were not computerised in full then so records are in storage - a lot of boxes!!

[wales01man]

actually in this instance it is a large company that were not computerised in full then so records are in storage - a lot of boxes!!

Are the boxes not labelled month year? Is there a reason they want this copy?

[pt2537]

should a customer expect a garage to be able to issue a duplicate inv from five years ago - when it is not computerised and the original was supplied at the time

How difficult would it be to locate the invoice?

[Blue123]

It would be held in storage away from the premies, and would take time to locate - no deffo date provided so could take hours to route through -big files - the reason for a copy is they lost the original -

[atticus]

Have you asked what it would cost to retrieve the box from storage and locate the invoice in question? And if so, have you offered to pay this cost? After all, obtaining a copy of this invoice is for your benefit.

You have not explained why it is thought necessary to replace this lost original.

[Blue123]

it isn't me that wants the inv but a customer from 5 years ago - the only reason they want it is for the history on the vehicle to show how much was paid then that's all - they are not a business - can I tell them costs will be incurred trying to find a file from so long ago ?

[R0b]

Unless there is a contractual term agreed to supply lost copies, the immediate answer would be no, you are not required to comply with the request and you could make a reasonable charge for searching for it, although you would be wise to ask for the month and year when the work was performed. Reasonable rates might be based on someone's hourly rate since they are being diverted away from usual activities.

The customer could circumvent this by making a subject access request for any personal information you hold about that customer and you should comply within one month of the request. At that point, unless you are the data protection officer for the company I suggest you pass that on to the person in charge of handling SARs.

There are some special rules under the UK GDPR that means some requests are not covered. For example, unstructured manual data which is data that is not classified or organised in a particular manner such as the example given by Walesman01 above, would not be covered as part of the individuals rights to access data you hold. The key question is whether the data is part of a relevant filing system i.e. data that is structured in a particular way.

Based on what you describe, it's possible you could argue that you would not need to comply with a SAR from the customer on the basis that the information you hold about them is archived in an unstructured format and the UK GDPR does not apply to unstructured data. Of course, the customer could disagree with you and end up issuing legal proceedings for breach of your duties to comply. It would then be up to your company to provide evidence or other reasons why you do not need to comply and that the data being held is not part of a relevant filing system.

Finally, if this is a large company we are talking about, do you not have in-house lawyers you can reach out to for advice? If so, I would suggest you speak to them for further advice and guidance.

[atticus]

it isn't me that wants the inv but a customer from 5 years ago - the only reason they want it is for the history on the vehicle to show how much was paid then that's all - they are not a business - can I tell them costs will be incurred trying to find a file from so long ago ?

Of course you can. Tell them what the retrieval and admin charge will be, and request payment up front.

[Blue123]

thank you everyone for your help here - very useful now and for in the future