The Debate Over 'Refunds' vs. 'No Refunds'

Wether you want to or not users can take a refund through your processor or their charged back CC.

Always easier to offer the refund up front. You will make more sales and have happier clients.

the longer the refund period you offer the less refunds you will get.

for example if you say you have 7 days to try out this product and if you want a refund it must be in 7 days you'll get a lot of refunds.

however if you give 30,60,90 day refund periods the people are not in a hurry to read the product and demand a refund. they feel as sure i have 30 days or more to evaluate it.

most people then forget about the product

yeah that sounds harsh but it's a reality. a good 60% plus of people buy products and never use them

therefore the longer the refund period the less refunds in my experience.

richard

If you intend to have refunds,also live a phone number for refunds. better have the customer contact you by phone to explain the reason why they want a refund. Most times, they never call back.

Here's my take on the 'NO REFUND' policies on place within membership sites...

I believe the main reason for the no refund policy you see on many membership sites is due, in part, by the fact that many of the products included within the members only download areas are to be sold for some dollar amount and cannot be given away for free, or without cost.

So, if you offered a XX amount of days refund policy to your members, and they took advantage of that, then all the products they previously downloaded after their initial payment would have been downloaded free of charge. That would break many of the products terms.

At least, that's why I put in place the 'NO REFUND' policy on my membership site, and I suspect many others do as well.


Tracy

In my experience, offering a refund guarantee will increase sales. In addition, with a "no refunds" policy people will still ask for them, complain to your payment processor and file chargebacks.

LB is right, this can, and probably will happen if you place a 'NO REFUNDS' policy associated with your offer. But at least you're being upfront about everything with your potential customers/members right from the get go.

And, if someone were to do a chargeback from their CC company, whether you're selling a one off product or a membership, there's little you can do about that anyway. You'll just be S.O.L. on that sale. Just the way it is.

However, if you're customer is a 'serial refunder' and tries to open a dispute via PayPal to basically get your product/membership free of charge, you might have a chance at winning that dispute...IF you have done everything required of you AND you are NOT offering any type of refund policy associated with your product.


Tracy

I would definitely offer a refund policy. Most people will forget about the refund deadline anyways, I've found that a 60 day refund is better than a 30 day refund policy, there is less refunds and more time for the buyer to use your product or forget it. They won't feel so pressured to take action or lose out on the refund...

Everyone has theories. I believe in just doing what works. I'm on ClickBank with my product so I have to offer a refund as per policy. It is 8 weeks (60 days). If I could, I would make it 90 days. I believe it would be perceived better by customers.

I have only had a very small number of refund requests (about 1%). Of these, I had ONE customer who asked for a refund because she wanted my product to help her with potty training her son. The product is not a potty training product, it is a toddler communication product. I issued the refund. Fair enough. The other refunds have ALL been people who either: 1) had download problems and gave up; 2) thought they were buying physical CDs. That's it.

A 1% refund rate tells me that the refund policy is COSTING me almost nothing, and certainly adding comfort for the buyer and increasing my conversion rate.

BUT - if you sell crap your refund rate will soar. Stats show you that people are generally honest. People who won't offer refunds probably sell crap. That's what buyers think. True or not, it does not matter. The buyer's opinion RULES.

Have any of you had a problem lately
with buyers using other peoples paypal
account to buy your product??

I have had this happen 6x's this week.

Wondering if its just me. Also paypal
keeps lodging investigations into my
sales without the buyer instigating any
action.

Ive had this premier business account
since the early 2000's and am somewhat
shocked @ the lack of respect paypal has
for digital product sellers.

Offering a refund boosts sales and shows the customer that you (the creator) TRUST the quality of the product.

Psychologically the thought process is "well if he/she trusts his/her product enough to offer a guarantee then that's one more reason I should try it.". Essentially it boils down to risk reversal.

But if the quality of your product is high enough - guess what? Super low returns.

Bottom Line: (In my experience) as both a consumer and merchant having a guarantee in place will mean more sales and less thought of concern on the ability to return and get a refund it if it is...a piece of crap.

If it's a low-cost product, generally you don't see marketers have a money-back guarantee. Usually for a high-ticket product, there are refunds.

But, purely from a business perspective, the merchant loses out here every time. Refunds for low-cost products don't hurt the bottom line quite as much as high-ticket products.

Fabian

Is it illegal NOT to offer refunds due to the distance selling regulations ?