Should I give a refund after 6 months?

No way. You keep the money.

I get this all the time and I say, NO DEAL!

In fact you should knock this person off your list because they'll do it again. I would.

It's way too late for a refund. If I go back and look on PayPal for six months I'm sure I would have things I purchased that I can't remember either. Too bad.. I lose.

I agree, 6 months is too long. They had plenty of time to figure out that they ordered something while drunk.

I agree with the others. No refund after that length of time. I bet they're just hurting for money and trying to find it anywhere they can.

Linda

I agree, no way. 6 months is way too long.

you clearly stated 60 days, so no.

they are very well aware that they ordered it or they would of sent that email the day it left there account..
you cant be too nice or you will be right out of business

I don't think he deserves a refund after 6 months. If he didn't order the product then he should have know it the first month (his credit card statement).

Just tell him sorry it's too late and there is no way you can refund his money after 6 months.

You offered a 60 day money back guarantee, which is more than acceptable...keep the money!

Hah - it sucks for him because he is also past the chargeback period.

Don't refund - this is just a common trick to try and get some money back for a product they probably using anyway.

Yup, not a chance. "I didn't mean it" is not even close to a good reason for a refund.

I'd say the translation has a good chance of being "I've owned this product long enough to have had really good use out of it, and now I'm gonna go see if I can get it for free"

Even if that's not the case, it's really still poor form to even ask for a refund at that point in the first place.

Geez, what next, will they ask for a refund 50 years later too? Some people have the nerve.

I agree with everyone else - NO GO on the refund.

Seems this person in question had an intention of asking for a refund when he bought the product, that is if he bought it at all. Seriously, I would keep the money(which I must have already spent) and send him an email explaining that his purchase came with a 60 Days Refund Guarrantee not what he's thinking. Spammers, they never fail to amaze me...

I'm getting the feeling the answer is No Refund, but I'm a bit dense. Is that the message you all are getting

NO WAY!!! What an idiot, why would you even wait 6 months to ask for a refund, he might not remember purchasing it, but it was 6 months ago, he probably purchased a heap of stuff and can't remember half of them.

If he didn't purchase it then why has it taken 6 months to notice. You say 60 days and that is more than enough time, tell him NO!

I've had this happen a couple times before, not the same story but still asking for a refund many many months after the fact. Here is the deal, you're running a business and you've clearly given them ample time to make up their minds if the product / service was good for them.

Clearly they purchased and now perhaps have buyers remorse or could just use the money but no matter what you personally 'feel' on the issue, it would be you that is losing in the end if you were to go back on your own guarantees and your word.

-Chris

Man! That's a really bad excuse to ask for a refund. Either the price he paid was a fortune and now he needs it back badly or he's a tight weirdo.

A deal is a deal though dude, he missed your guarantee deadline. That money is yours!

No way!!!!!

This must be the weekly fund for beer money seeing that the economy is bad at the moment. Well if you don't ask you don't get.

People can be the most stingiest money grabbing people on earth.

My ex land lord used to keep the empty toothpaste tubes for months yukkkkk and steal my bubble bath by filling it back up with water!!!!!

I agree with everyone else. Absolutely NO WAY. If they ordered the product in error they would have noticed it right away. Your "customer" is obviously short on money and is trying to scrape it up any way possible.

Steve

Yes, give the refund. By all means.


LOL I just wanted to add some variety to this thread.

George Wright

If a client was able to file a chargeback after 6 months (due to their card issuer policies) and if this was from a merchant account the answer would be a resounding...

Yes.

Not because the person deserves this but because chargebacks hurt you in ways that most people don't understand.

Your single most important goal in running your business online is not refusing irrational or illegitimate refund requests...

It's avoiding chargebacks.

Its more important to the longevity and ability of your company to process payments online than you realize.

Here is some good reading:

Charge Back Guardian - Prevent, Protract, Process

Definitely don't give the refund. If you have a 60-day return policy posted on your products than that alone is enough. Keep in mind, if you do it for one, word might spread, and then you'll have people knocking on your door asking for the same deal so to speak. Stay firm with your rules.

I'd still look at the human aspect of this. Send him to the place where he can get the product again. Explain, normally I only offer a 60 day refund. If he still wants a refund send me a reply.

Then if he comes back, the chance that he is just lying to you is lower, if you can afford it, give them the refund.

Personally I wouldn't give a refund after 6 months when clearly stated that your guarantee was 60 days, and here's why...

If you do then you are leaving yourself wide open for a bunch of refunds from your other customers and since PayPal doesn't issue refunds after 6 months what's to stop them from creating a charge back anyway, after you have issued a Gift as a refund?

Scammers are getting pretty clever these days so that might have been their intention from the start. Buy a bunch of products, wait until PayPal no longer honors refunds and then request a refund with the threat of a chargeback. In essence they would get a refund in the form of a Gift from you via PayPal but then they would turn around and do a chargeback anyway.

That's pretty harsh I know but I'll bet it happens...

So in that case I would never give back a refund after the stated refund guarantee.

The way information products are consumed it would be like walking into McDonalds 6 months later asking for a refund on the Happy Meal you bought for your wife's sisters nephew.

Mike Hill

No Way. After 6 months that is long enough to decide if you want a product or not. The money is yours

keep the money and here's why

if he has paid for the items by credit card then he only had the first month to declare that he wanted chargeback or refund for the credit card/debit card company after that he is powerless for them to take action,

if he paid by paypal and you gave them 2 months to claim their money back then all is fair in love and war because you gave him enough time to try the product and the ending period of your guarentee ran out

he had 60 days, his loss sorry to say

YES YOU SHOULD!!!!

Just kidding....I think you no the answer is no. This guys likely trying to keep up witht he Jones and now money tight he is lying and trying to pull a fast one.

Translation:
"I'm broke and have to come up with the rent fast. Can I have my money back on this product I bought but intend to take no action with anyway"

Mike

I had something similar via ClickBank of all people. Bearing in mind their refund policy is - what we might call ... liberal i.e. you just have to sneeze and you can have a refund for up to 8 weeks after a sale.

Anyway they contacted me many months after the guarantee had run out with a similar question. My response was that I always honour guarantees. I don't require any reason whatsoever, I always refund no questions asked, 100% of the time - WITHIN the period of the guarantee. As the guarantee period had expired, I instructed them not to issue a refund and they complied with my request.

I agree with what the Warriors above have said - this is an unfair and unreasonable request.

Will

Definitely keep the money. 6 months is entirely too long.

You cannot do a charge back 6 months later in my experience.

Computer says......"No"

WOW! I didn't expect so many responses so quickly.

I definitely got the results I expected and that's a definite NO REFUND.

I had no intention of refunding their money after 6 months. I wanted to see what all of you would say.

What I was surprised at was how many of you have had this same problem.

BTW, this was only a $47 product so it's not like he's going to be able to make a mortgage payment if I were to refund his money.

Thanks for your input,

Jeff Sargent

Keep the money mate, he probably has just got no money and is trying to get ane asy way to making a bit of money back.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that it doesn't pay to budge on your rules. We set a buyer policy for a reason. One time I budged from my rules because I was having a good day, in a good mood, and was in the mindset that not all people are out to screw you over. Boy was that a mistake. I sell a lot of physical items and have a strict policy that the customer must purchase shipping insurance in order to get a refund or replacement for items damaged during shipping. A customer who had not purchased the insurance indicated that their item was damaged in shipping. Being in a good mood, I sent them out a replacement item at no additional charge. Next they claimed that they never recieved the replacement item, so I sent out a third item. Needless to say, I no longer have sympathy for anyone who doesn't follow my buyer policy . . . no matter what mood I'm in. Odds are, the customer was just trying to get as many free items as they could.

Sure, the guy's statement could have been genuine. But if he was too lazy to check and see if there was fraudulent activity in his account before 6 months then he deserves to lose the money. Most people who have any financial sense would have noticed strange activity in their account long before that. You could give him the benefit of the doubt, but I assure you that it's probably not worth your time.

I would NOT give a refund under those circumstances. In fact, I don't really like refunds, but have been known to give them to customers in extenuating circumstances. I much prefer finding a non-financial way to satisfy the customer's needs. One way I have used:

But... for a $47 dollar product, you could simply offer a $20 credit (specific to said customer) to their *next* purchase AS AN APOLOGY for not being able to issue a refund (against PP TOS, not possible).

This excuses you for being UNABLE to issue a refund (you can't), and provides a little something as insurance. If he doesn't use it, then he probably isn't going to buy anything from you again anyway, and it cost you nothing. And if he does use it, then you'll know that you were probably wrong. But you managed to keep another customer who might buy something at some time in the future, cutting your new customer acquisition costs and boosting your bottom line for a digital good (after all).

Either way, everyone wins. So, simply create a single-use coupon for him (give it a use-by date, too) just in case he could be a real customer.

Don't send him a gift however as this would simply make things worse. There's no incentive there at all for him to stay at all. But the coupon buys you a little 'insurance'. 80% chance he doesn't use it, 20% chance he does.

Kenneth

I don't think it is valid or something of value after six months. I'm sure you have some documentation that he ordered it so the reason that he did not intend to is really of no basis at all. A refund should not be given unless he could really provide a valid reason.

They bought the product with the 60 day refund policy so basically tuff titties to them. You hang on to that money..

Just reply to him, and give him a link to this thread!

This response may get me banned (and possibly beat up ) BUT, I would seriously consider GIVING the customer something, if not the refund itself. I like the credit idea but there is another silver lining you can pull from this.

If he bought the product and tried it, tested it and found that he genuinely didnt get any value from it and you give him a refund after the timeframe, that will increase your credibility to this person.

The next WSO you launch, you can put this in your guarantee and this person may come back and give you super praise for what you did.

If the refund isnt going to prevent you from making your mortgage payment, its worth it to consider giving this person a special case refund to up the credibility. Most people arent going to do this to you and if you find that this person or any others do this repeatedly, then its time to say 'no deal' to the refunds.

I had a case where a customer started a project with me, paid for half and then told me they didnt have the budget. I had a contract and everything and could have demanded payment. I spoke with them and decided to give up the payment and eat the time and resources spent on the project.

They recommended 3 other customers and came back when they had the budget to do another project.

So dont always look at it as losing money to some scheister, which he may turn out to be. Try to spin it into a good word of mouth opportunity.

I get that email from time to time "I don't remember ordering this, etc. etc. please refund"

Well, I know I didn't go into their wallet and pull out their credit card. I think it's lunacy for someone to have said that there was a mistake when the only way that things get purchased online is by a person authorizing that amount to leave their card or their paypal account.

The answer is yes. I know that we all need more money, but an angry COSTomer can cost you money. I mean more money than you can imagine. For example they can put a video on Youtube attacking your product or service. That did happen to a friend of mine. After the mini movie went up on Youtube his sales dropped to less than half of what they are before. He is talking about bankruptcy now.

I would say NO.

But you also need to hit them quite hard fro even trying. Tell them firmly that they are outside the terms of the offer and that you will poke them with a sharp stick if they try to do a chargeback. (Or something along those lines).

You need to give the impression that you do not tolerate scammers or cheats, without saying it in that manner :-)

By all means definitely honour guarantees within the time limits you set and even beyond them a little. But this example is taking the p*ss.

Most people will back down when you say know and explain to them why. It should be their loss not yours.

(Over the years I have even had people trying to claim refunds and stir the cr*p with card merchant services and even the authorities when they weren't even customers of ours. Perhaps some just confused us with other companies, but this has happened enough for me to believe there are scammers who use this as a way to try and blackmail you).

Sam

I just got one from 130 days ago because she forgot where she put it on her hard drive and I don't even own the site anymore .... 6 months is ridiculous.

6 months is too long a time to even consider giving refunds,Since you gave a 60 day money back guarantee.