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When You Sell Your Desktop Applications, How Do You Handle Refunds?

by Fabian Fuller
10 replies
Let's say you've given someone a refund they requested. Then, for instance, do you somehow disable the program? Or, do you limit the program's features? Or, do nothing and just figure it's a cost of doing business?

Thanks,
Fabian
#applications #desktop #handle #refunds #sell
  • Profile picture of the author devan
    if you have a online database with matching serial numbers, every time the user uses that program on start up it will check with the database, and a simple yes no variable can decided whether to limit the features or stop the program working all together.

    if that makes sense
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
      I don't do anything, I hate DRM. If someone wants a refund, I ask them to delete the copy and issue the refund. I'll never know if they actually deleted it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Fabian Fuller
        Originally Posted by Dan Grossman View Post

        I don't do anything, I hate DRM. If someone wants a refund, I ask them to delete the copy and issue the refund. I'll never know if they actually deleted it.
        That's the kind of thing I'm curious about...how others philosophically approach refunds of desktop applications. Thanks, Dan.

        Fabian
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        • Profile picture of the author rwil02
          It depends on the cost. Huh, twice in one day I wrote a relevant blog post

          Licensing Your Software Is It Important?

          Issuing a refund costs.
          Software theft costs.
          Putting in licensing control costs
          Annoying users with your licensing costs.

          So really it depends on the price you charge, how much profit, how big your target base is, etc.
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          Roger Willcocks
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          • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
            Originally Posted by rwil02 View Post

            Issuing a refund costs.
            Unless they paid by PayPal, which is an amazing bonus for high volume sellers!
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            • Profile picture of the author rwil02
              Originally Posted by Dan Grossman View Post

              Unless they paid by PayPal, which is an amazing bonus for high volume sellers!
              It still costs.
              Time, yours or someone elses, still costs.
              Even a couple of minutes to look up an order number, login, and issue a refund adds a cost.

              That is supposing that you haven't already had a conversation with your dissatisfied customer (you should, so you can collect feedback to reduce future refunds), that they sent you all the details you needed to issue the refund, and that they didn't issue a chargeback.

              Having said that, my record is 9 minutes for a customer who ordered, downloaded, and got a refund from my provider (2checkout) after "Making extensive attempts to contact me and getting no response". Which was impressive considering I was checking my email at the time.
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              Roger Willcocks
              L-Space Design
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              • Profile picture of the author Dan Grossman
                Originally Posted by rwil02

                Having said that, my record is 9 minutes for a customer who ordered, downloaded, and got a refund from my provider (2checkout) after "Making extensive attempts to contact me and getting no response". Which was impressive considering I was checking my email at the time.
                I get those too... as well as "don't you provide support?!" sent 20 minutes after a mail first sent Sunday at 4AM
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                • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
                  If you let people try before they buy by offering a free time-limited trial of your program (ie a week or 2) your refunds will be next to nothing. I do this and my refund rate is less than 1%.

                  I still get the occasional clown who tries out my software for free, then purchases it and refunds right away, just to get the activation code for unlimited use of the program. But it happens so infrequently I don't even worry about it.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Joshua.Taylor
                    I use a really inexpensive peice of software called 1Way at www.atma-software.com. It's easy to use and works great. I have a one year guarantee, so once a month - for the first year - I have the software go to a site I have setup (all in the background) and verify the license is still valid. Once the one year period is up, the software stops checking.

                    Hope that helps.
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                    • Profile picture of the author BIG Mike
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                      • Profile picture of the author tm
                        We always offer a trial version of our products either fully functional and time limited or with some limitations and without a time limit. This allows users to try the software out, ensure it works on their computer set up and fits their requirements. This means we have very very few refund requests. Again like BIG Mike, if we issue a refund, we turn off the Serial Number.

                        We also check how many times a Serial Number is used, which keeps an eye out for misuse that way. Happily this has never been an issue for us, but if it ever was, we would turn off the offending serial number and notify the purchaser asking for an explanation and offering a new serial.
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