Am I being taken advantage of here?

16 replies
Pardon me as I'm new to mass customer support issues (I mostly do affiliate marketing)

Should I continue to offer a "no questions asked" moneyback guarantee? I recently received these refund requests and here were the reasons (no names)...

1) "Two many upsells" - upsell was optional...

2) "I expected a lot more"

3) "this information was beyond my level of understanding" - This is a person who bought the simpler version and then bought a much more advanced upsell a few days afterward.

Are these normal objections (2nd one I have no issues with) or do you think I'm being taken advantage of here?
#advantage
  • Profile picture of the author PotPieGirl
    Are these Clickbank refunds?

    If so -

    Yes, these are "normal" objections... and yes, you will get taken advantage of.

    And if it IS clickbank, you don't have an option anyway....


    Jennifer
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  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    Some are legit. Some aren't. That's part of business. Question is...do you want a dispute to hit your payment processor?
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  • Profile picture of the author Phil Jones
    Your being taken advantage of BUT you must respect the guarantee you offer.

    I suggest you look at it this way Scott, with refunders you really don't lose anything, offering a no questions asked guarantee is expected and the people who ask for a refund probably wouldn't have bought your product anyway if they couldn't just ask for a refund.

    I know it's not cool but just give those people a refund and move onto something more positive.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Million
      Originally Posted by Phil Jones View Post

      Your being taken advantage of BUT you must respect the guarantee you offer.

      I suggest you look at it this way Scott, with refunders you really don't lose anything, offering a no questions asked guarantee is expected and the people who ask for a refund probably wouldn't have bought your product anyway if they couldn't just ask for a refund.

      I know it's not cool but just give those people a refund and move onto something more positive.
      Thanks Phil...I just wanted to hear from some people who have dealt with this before (otherwise, how would I know what to expect!)

      I like the "move onto something more positive"...right-o. Thanks guys
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  • Profile picture of the author blokh
    Lately I am hearing a lot about people abusing the 30 day "No Questions Asked" refund guarantees ...

    If you have a membership site or a product you can remotely DISABLE, it is a good option, but for information products, etc ... once the product is gone, it's gone ...

    We as Internet Marketers do not have a conscious to do that ... but there are people out there, who can't care less. Don't get me wrong, some are being honest and some are not, but in this case, since you offered the guarantee, you have to honor it, but for future, maybe you can think about making some changes.

    I won't be surprised to see an ebook that comes out soon, without any money back guarantee, with a title - "How to get ALL the Top Internet Marketing Softwares and Ebooks without paying a dime". Sure, why not ... buy the products, take a refund and you're on your way.

    Do not have any suggestions but maybe we need to change the way we make the refunds. You need to have a qualifying objection to ask for a refund and if we can't overcome the rejection, you keep the product and we make a refund.

    But that leads to more threads about who defines "Qualifying" ...Sorry to hear bout the situation Scott.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Million
      Originally Posted by blokh View Post

      Lately I am hearing a lot about people abusing the 30 day "No Questions Asked" refund guarantees ...

      If you have a membership site or a product you can remotely DISABLE, it is a good option, but for information products, etc ... once the product is gone, it's gone ...

      We as Internet Marketers do not have a conscious to do that ... but there are people out there, who can't care less. Don't get me wrong, some are being honest and some are not, but in this case, since you offered the guarantee, you have to honor it, but for future, maybe you can think about making some changes.

      I won't be surprised to see an ebook that comes out soon, without any money back guarantee, with a title - "How to get ALL the Top Internet Marketing Softwares and Ebooks without paying a dime". Sure, why not ... buy the products, take a refund and you're on your way.

      Do not have any suggestions but maybe we need to change the way we make the refunds. You need to have a qualifying objection to ask for a refund and if we can't overcome the rejection, you keep the product and we make a refund.

      But that leads to more threads about who defines "Qualifying" ...Sorry to hear bout the situation Scott.

      Yeah, this was my first time having loads of customers at once (instead over a period of time) and seeing all these "refund please" requests made me feel like I really did something wrong...when I compared it percentage wise though I realized that it's just a numbers game...and I won't take it personal again!
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  • Profile picture of the author DonDavis
    ***I won't be surprised to see an ebook that comes out soon, without any money back guarantee, with a title - "How to get ALL the Top Internet Marketing Softwares and Ebooks without paying a dime". Sure, why not ... buy the products, take a refund and you're on your way.***

    I think that book has already been written. If memory serves me, it was even a WSO!
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Million
      Originally Posted by DonDavis View Post

      ***I won't be surprised to see an ebook that comes out soon, without any money back guarantee, with a title - "How to get ALL the Top Internet Marketing Softwares and Ebooks without paying a dime". Sure, why not ... buy the products, take a refund and you're on your way.***

      I think that book has already been written. If memory serves me, it was even a WSO!
      Wow, that's really messed up
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  • Profile picture of the author Clyde Dennis
    Refunds sort of come with the territory. You can't spend too much time or energy on them. I choose to focus my energies working hard on the more than 95% that don't play the refund game.

    Don't let the 'refunders' bleed your energy. Process it and move on. Put that energy into making 2 or 3 more sales.
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  • Profile picture of the author lgibbon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Scott Million View Post


    1) "Two many upsells"
    There may lay your answer.
    I've bought things in the past where there were so many upsells I thought about just giving up and asking for a refund. There just aren't that many hours in a day.
    I know you're going to say that's marketing, but most of your customers are just that, customers and not marketers.
    When they buy something, they expect to receive what they paid for without having to jump through hoops for it.
    I'd save the upsells for the autoresponder messages after the product has been delivered.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Million
      Originally Posted by Clyde Dennis View Post

      Refunds sort of come with the territory. You can't spend too much time or energy on them. I choose to focus my energies working hard on the more than 95% that don't play the refund game.

      Don't let the 'refunders' bleed your energy. Process it and move on. Put that energy into make 2 or 3 more sales.

      Yeah you're right...what am I doing sulking on this when I have work to do?!

      Thanks a lot, this helped me out BIG time ...mindshifting...now!
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  • Profile picture of the author diannee
    Scott, I think a BIG problem that Internet marketers have with their products is that they are mostly selling ideas, to new people who need how to's. Ideas are great for the moderate and experienced people, but don't help the new ones at all. There is a big difference between telling someone to drive traffic to their site/sales page with articles (idea), and explaining how to write an article with key words, which directories to post it too and how to use it in a blog as well as on their site (how to).



    Most of the stuff I'm seeing sold for noobs is just ideas and not how to's. It is beginner material presented in an advanced manner. It's a bit like handing a book written in Chinese script to someone on their first day in language class and expecting them to be able to do something meaningful with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Melody
    Scott -

    My core business is payment processing and the rule of thumb is that if you are getting more than .75% refunds - then you are putting your merchant account at risk.

    You might not be using a direct merchant account now - but if you were - whatever the issues are that are causing the refund requests either need to be addressed - and corrected - OR you simply accept that you are going to have a fairly high refund request rate and deal with the refunders.

    Because the bottom line for most of us in online businesses is that we will at some point in time probably need our own merchant account - and if we aren't running our businesses to fall within the REQUIRED chargeback/refund rates of under 1% - we will lose our merchant account.

    And once a merchant account has been terminated - it's pretty tough to get another one.

    It's an ugly fact of life - but it's better to do the refund than let the customer do a chargeback and cost you your merchant account.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Million
      Originally Posted by Melody View Post

      Scott -

      My core business is payment processing and the rule of thumb is that if you are getting more than .75% refunds - then you are putting your merchant account at risk.

      You might not be using a direct merchant account now - but if you were - whatever the issues are that are causing the refund requests either need to be addressed - and corrected - OR you simply accept that you are going to have a fairly high refund request rate and deal with the refunders.

      Because the bottom line for most of us in online businesses is that we will at some point in time probably need our own merchant account - and if we aren't running our businesses to fall within the REQUIRED chargeback/refund rates of under 1% - we will lose our merchant account.

      And once a merchant account has been terminated - it's pretty tough to get another one.

      It's an ugly fact of life - but it's better to do the refund than let the customer do a chargeback and cost you your merchant account.
      Clarification...are you saying that .75% of REFUNDS (that you send out) or CHARGEBACKS (maybe this is the same, but I was thinking this was like a credit card dispute) will flag your account? I'm about to get a merchant account and this is definitely important to know!
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  • Profile picture of the author DonDavis
    I think if you are selling online, or anywhere for that matter, a refund rate as low as .75% would be pretty tough to maintain wouldn't it?
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  • Profile picture of the author lazavas
    if u offer a "no questions asked guarantee" then i think u should honour that, i have been burnt by someone offering that and they didnt honour it
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