Guarantees on downloadable products

One or the other. If you say there is a refund but have several stipulations then it will make people angry at you. Also, in the end, just do a simple a/b split test and see which one gives you results you desire.

Doug

I've always been a proponent of handling refunds on a case by case basis with a clear process that involves question and answer so I understand why they want a refund, as well as the opportunity to remedy the situation. By having a process in place it makes it less worthwhile for people who just want to take advantage of the system. Generally, I also make people wait a period of time, or even post to paypal so we have "documentation" of the case.

Don't get me wrong. I have done refunds, but I also feel that often refunds can be avoided through communication and having a process in place that is diligent.

Hi Christine,

One thing to keep in mind is that the serial refunders who want their money back have no intention of actually buying any product permanently. They don't really represent sales in the first place. Your idea of making them wait for 30 days sounds like a good one if it's a PayPal thing or something not sold through Clickbank or a similar platform where you don't have the luxury of making them wait 30 days.

Here's something I've thought about trying but I haven't gotten around to it yet. You might give them their download and at the end of your ebook or video product offer them a free bonus. You could say something like...

If you are fully satisfied with this product and would like a complementary bonus to go with it, click on the link below to download it for free.

You could describe the bonus as well. Have that link go to a page with an opt-in form that says the same thing again. Have it say that once they provide their name and email, your auto-responder will send them their download link after they confirm their request for information.

Then, if they request a refund for your originial product, and they opted in for your bonus, you could provide that proof of satisfaction to Clickbank, PayPal, whomever the payment was processed through.

Just a thought I've had in the back of my mind for a while. --Mike

Hey Mike, that's a pretty good idea - I wonder if it would work in convincing ClickBank or PayPal that it's proof of a satisfied customer.

I'd add one thing to it - on the page where you give the free gift have a checkbox that they need to check off after reading a small bit of legalese that states that by accepting this gift they are agreeing that they are satisfied with the original e-book and waive all rights to a refund. Use JavaScript to disable the Submit button until the checkbox is checked.

Can anyone with more legal expertise or experience find a hole in this logic?

Bill

yeah, the checkbox idea might put a nail in their coffin as far as refunds go. I might actually have to follow through and test that out. Good tip!

Offer the refund period. And HONOUR it.

You are going to get somewhere between 3-10% refunds.

Accept it. It's a cost of doing business.

STOP OVERANALYZING stuff, and just DO IT!

For me it's all about testing... I have found that for most of my products sales increase with the addition of a guarantee, consequently refund rates also rise slightly, but in most cases the increased in sales is significant enough to ignore the slightly increased refund rate.

And if I have a product (and I do) where the refund rate was as much as the sales increase, then I leave the guarantee off.

As far as serial refunders go - they represent a tiny fraction of your sales. A good motto to remember is "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" and serial refunders constitute small stuff.

There are always a very small percentage of people who will abuse the refund policy and they are very easy to spot. They are the people who either refund shortly after they buy or wait until they get their credit card statement and decide they don't want to pay for it.

I stressed about this for a long time because I felt that I was being ripped off by these people. Then it was explained to me that the way to look at it was that my product "just wasn't right for the customer" and that I should stop over-analyzing it. That helped me a lot.

Also, to make myself feel better, I always send out the following email after I've processed the refund (which, thank goodness is not very often):

"As per your request, I have issued a refund for [name of product]. Please make sure you completely remove all traces of this package from your computer as retaining this information is in violation of the copyright. Thank you for trying out the package and I’m sorry it did not meet your expectations."

Fortunately, most people know very little about copyright law (and I don't claim to know much more) but I think it sounds good and deters most people from keeping the product after they've refunded. I've actually had several people reply to my email stating that they've removed my product from their computer (although obviously there's no way of knowing if they actually have -- it just makes me feel better though.)

After two refunds, my buyers get their IP blocked. I've only had to do that twice.

It's something worth testing.

I, for one, offer refunds for most of my products. However, if the buyer is a serial refunder, he/she gets blocked after two refunds. Anyone doing a chargeback also gets blocked.

Great idea, Mike McMillan. I really like that concept.

Yes, dbsilva, there are products that do just that. DigitalLockDownPro is one. There is a 7 day free trial to try the product out and $9.97 I believe per month afterwards. But essentially, once a serial refunder or freebie seeker gets their money back, services like these disable access to the download on their computer.

I'm not an affiliate or otherwise connected to the product. Just sharing.

Ina