People Who Ask For Refunds -Anybody Else Notice This?

Simple: You tell them EXACTLY what they are getting and then you don't offer refunds. They'll know exactly what they are getting.

For instance...if you are selling a downloadable video course on how to set up a wordpress blog and he wants a refund because he wasn't able to download the files due to filesize, then it's HIS problem....especially if he knew what the filesizes where going to be before purchase.

See where I'm going with this?

It's a huge problem with digital goods. There is no control and nothing really protecting the seller.


So if you sell something in the future, give them a nice huge list telling them EXACTLY what they are going to get and going to learn. Normal people (not serial refunders) usually refund because the sales copy misled them.


Cheers
Reinhardt

I have seen it posted somewhere in here that for exmple, culturally speaking Argentinians do not have the notion of paying for information and so any ebook or purely informational product will likely have a refund on short notice.

In my own country ( Spain) Downloads and p2p sharing has been huge for a very long time ( due to both the local laws which still to date say it is not illegal to share something as long as it is not done wih the purpose of making a profit out of it and the impact of the euro, when inflation got mental because everyone and their dog used it as an excuse to raise prices out of all proportion, government included) so the idea of paying for a bit of software they can download for free from emule seems to many people around here just silly (dreadful I know, but the truth nonetheless).

I don´t know if one can go as far as saying that by reading a name and figuring out where that person comes from you will be able to tell if it´s a refund or not; if you have the time to chec thi things out chances are your sample list will not be big enough to use that test as a certainty of any sort, but it can very well be that you can spot trends of that sort if you have been in any kind of business long enough.

It´s a bit like when I was working in a coffee shop as a sore manager and I could tell by looking at peoples faces, clothing and general attitude if they were trying to nick something.

Hi guys

i find this sometimes too

i remember a while ago that someone posted a thread on here saying they couldnt get hold of me to get a refund on a product that i give away for free.

They had obviously bought it from someone else as it had gone viral yet were coming after me instead!!!

I found it really funny that they couldnt remember who they purchased it from and they were from africa were i get a higher refund rate.

kind regards


sam
X

Yes. To quite an extent it can be a Culture thing. But one can't mention specific nationalities on an open forum

Ed

Maybe, payments from real customers should be sent as gift via Paypal because then the seller would not have any problem with the buyer and the buyer wont have any problem with the seller.
I am not saying or implying anything but i am tired of all this that has been going on with Paypal and the disputes.

I sell software and fortunately I've had very few requests for refunds over the years. I sell B2B and I think that helps.

But the biggest problem is that even if you have a sales policy and comply with the laws in your own country the payment processor (RegNow, PayPal etc.) couldn't care less and will do whatever the hell they feel like.

I'm personally try to never ask for a refund (from about 100 products I bought I asked twice for a refund).
But I'm ashamed to admit that in many latin american countries (including my own) people buy and ask refund just to keep the product for free. Is the same problem with piracy and php sharing (which is a kind of "piracy in disguise") is the typical "why should I pay if I can get it for free?" mentality which give us a bad reputation.

But you can still profit from your digital products (e-books, video trainning courses). Put your name, your url, your affiliate link all over the ebook at the foot, at the top, in the context.

That way if your ebook-video is distributed without your authorization, the people who read it will see your name, your url, your affilate link or what-ever-you-put-to-brand-yourself and if he like what you say or teach maybe he actually will go to your site and buy another of your products.

The fact that customers from poorer countries seem to be more likely to want refunds is kind of not too surprising. The sum of $97 might not be much to an American, but in a poor country, that sum could be a week's salary.

What I find kind of interesting is that some specific NON-Anglo Saxon customer names with rich industrialized country billing addresses - still seem to have far far higher refund request rates.

SINGAPORE was always a 100% chargebak /refund country for me......PIRATES?

As soon as I saw an order from Singapore I knew what was coming...and it did

I banned all orders from Singapore.

another bigger around 2000 -2004 was AOL buyers....a larger % did refund...i never knew why?

Have you considered that some of these characters are fake?

but in that case they have buisness buying the product in the first place....I had an Indian guy who asked me all kionds of questions about a$29 product. Happens it was half a weeks wages to him...I told best to hold onto his $$'s. I am sorry but people in that situation should not be spending food money on information.

Well they got their money back....so how can it be "fake"?

I doubt the US has a 10+% refund rate! You would have people left and right refunding, etc... And probably more people here would be complaining.

ALSO, I'll bet a LOT of people in the US, perhaps upwards of 40% of people are NOT citizens, close to 20% are illegal. And credit card companies give almost ANYONE a credit card. CATS are getting credit cards. I think I heard of a fish getting one.

Steve

I use techniques to reduce refunds - like offering upgrades after the refund period. I also give a couple of bonuses that aren't available if they refund - like access to a support forum or access to my help. There are all kinds of tactics and techniques that can be employed.

Love the comment about not giving refunds. Like that is a legitimate option considering credit cards, paypal, and clickbank will refund them.

Not only that do your really want a pissed off customer ranting about you all over the web for the few bucks you didn't want to give back? This just happened to me (name withheld to protect the guilty). A software didn't work with my theme. I've posted this on every forum I participate in when the refund was denied. I let him keep the money because I didn't get his refund policy upfront but I can say for sure I cost him far more in lost sales.

I too have had higher rates by culture/country. However Big Mike has much broader experience and so I'm reconsidering my current policies. The whole "information should be free" attitude would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous. Seems like everything should be free (rights, like healthcare, eduction, retirement and on and on) except their livelihood. Seems like everyone should get paid except for us.

I had never really noticed any cultural patterns with refunds. I am sensitive about profiling the ethnicity of my customer under dataprotection and equality laws. Making assumptions based on names and countries of orgins could lead to some interesting conclusions.

I guess people will do what feels culturally acceptable, it's not right or wrong it just makes them different. As Im's it tells us to consider the needs of our clients when selling to them.

I have totally noticed this. I don't want to point any fingers though.

See opportunity where others see problems.

If the person asks for a refund, ask him fro his feedback on your product. Offer him extra bonuses if he decides to keep the product.

I've had refunders who transformed into fanatical repeat customers by doing this.

Even if they won't give you feedback and will still want to refund, thank them for giving you the opportunity to earn their business.

Let go of anger or any of that stuff.

Great comment George.

Another great way to reduce refund rates is to offer a special bonus only available after the refund period has expired. Of course, that is harder with clickbank offering a 60 day guarantee. But it has worked really well for shorter guarantee periods.

I've had the same experience a few times, where the refunder became one of my best customers.

I also like what Big Mike wrote. In the long run, you come out ahead.


Here's my advice...

Do everything you can (and want) to minimize your refund rate (lots of great advice above,) and then... Move On. Focus your time and energy on your customers. Not on the handful of refunders.

Refunds are a part of business. You could be selling a guaranteed cure for cancer and you'll still get at least one refund. Doesn't mean your product is bad (unless your refund rate is very high - but that could also mean you're targeting the wrong crowd.)

It just so happens that the article I'm finishing up right now is titled, "How I Get Zero Refunds On My Best Products."

I'll post it up in the blog area or something when it's done.

Bryan

Love the advice about seeing positives out of a bad situation by actually helping the customer and asking why he is refunding.

In my opinion that is much better than just giving out a refund and then whining about it.

Also, I don't really give too much importance to refunds. I mean, focus on the satisfied customers, not the few who don't like your product for one reason or another.

Kevin