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"Use it for a FULL Year" means "buy it, sure you will forget it?"

by radhika
22 replies
1. Full year refunds means the product is cheap quality?

2. It makes people relax and take him out of urgency to test it and ask refund? (and slowly they forget about it?)

Personally that type of guarantee puts me in comfortzone and make me think - 'ok. I have one year to test it and check it out". And sure I have bought products with that type of gurantee, but not asked a refund. Not even for one of them. Mostly I forget about it I guess.

Your opinion? How it looks on a web page?

.
#means #use it for a full year
  • Profile picture of the author JustVisiting
    Hi

    The guarantee period should allow the customer a reasonable time-frame to check out the vendor's claims about a product. I agree with your point 2 Radhika that most people probably forget, or would feel embarrassed about asking for a refund after such a long period.

    A $47 ebook or software doesn't need this sort of guarantee period although perhaps a $1500 product does? Even then I reckon 60 days is long enough for any product.

    Cheers
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    • Profile picture of the author radhika
      ... most people probably forget, or would feel embarrassed about asking for a refund after such a long period ...
      Or they have simply lost their transaction details of the purchase, which I do mostly. So they can't even point the sale id to the vendor.

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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    I think the chances of a refund request probably diminish with a longer refund window. If a refund is offered for 30 days, you can bet I'll make sure I evaluate the product quickly. If a year is allowed, I'm very likely to put it off and end up forgetting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    A longer gurantee will certainly allow the customer to "forget" about getting a refund. Still the information has to be quality or they will send it back right away no matter how long the gurantee.

    The more "stuff" in the box the better.

    Yanik did something brilliant that probably curbed many refunds. He included a certificate for $500 off any upcoming seminar. Not many would want to return the package with that in there. I never used the certificate, yet I saved it in a place of honor just in case.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    Many people use longer guarantees because they have found that it reduces refunds. Customers feel more secure and yes, they do forget the order details and they do forget the transaction IDs.

    TomG.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lance K
      Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

      Many people use longer guarantees because they have found that it reduces refunds.
      I'd say that most people who use a longer guarantee do so for the boost in sales.

      A guarantee is a risk reversal mechanism used to remove purchasing barriers.

      Using a guarantee is NOT about refund rates (the quality of your product should take care of that regardless of the length of your refund period). It IS about making more sales.
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      • Profile picture of the author sylviad
        I agree that it removes the barrier to buying. If someone is looking at your product but doesn't need it right away, they might decide to put off buying it if there is a limited refund period. With a year, which pretty much equates to an open-ended guarantee, the buyer is more likely to buy knowing he has as much time as he needs to look at it and use it.

        This is a tactic used offline as well. Use it for a year and pay for it then. "No Payments Until 2010" is commonly seen this time of year for fridges, furniture, all kinds of things. Of course, that's the mentality that got the Economy in such bad shape.

        If Clickbank allowed a year for refunds, I'd be okay with that.

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        • Profile picture of the author BIG Mike
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          • Profile picture of the author radhika
            I agree that it removes the barrier to buying. If someone is looking at your product but doesn't need it right away, they might decide to put off buying it if there is a limited refund period. With a year, which pretty much equates to an open-ended guarantee, the buyer is more likely to buy knowing he has as much time as he needs to look at it and use it.
            Exactly. It is a technique to keep the buyer at ease with buying the product.

            Advantage with it:
            * Increase sales
            * Minimize refunds


            If Clickbank allowed a year for refunds, I'd be okay with that.
            Not only CB, most other processors don't allow merchants to offer 1 year money back guarantee. I wonder how the people are offering 1 year guarantees on some web sites.

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            • Profile picture of the author Adam Kenzington
              Originally Posted by radhika View Post

              Not only CB, most other processors don't allow merchants to offer 1 year money back guarantee. I wonder how the people are offering 1 year guarantees on some web sites..
              Maybe they aren't using these companies. They could be doing straight PayPal & Credit Card.

              But I am a firm believer in the 1 year guarantee, for all the good reasons listed before I chimed in.

              The 1 year shows how sure you are of the quality of your product. Some people offer a Lifetime Guarantee, but in this economy, I wouldn't do that. Some people would be going through their old software and saying to themselves, "OK, let's get back some of the money I've spent"

              There is so much trash I've bought in the past, I would love that they offered an extended guarantee.

              XSitePro2 is one of them. They used to offer a 1 year guarantee on XSP1, but have lowered the guarantee to 30 days for XSP2, and for good reason. The new program is so buggy, they'd be hammered with refund requests. But it really takes more than 30 days to figure out the problem is in the program and not just you going through the learning curve. I wish I had gotten in when the original product was still being sold. They should have waited to release V.2 until they were sure it was working properly. They have just released a new update, but I haven't tested it out. I got disgusted and went and got DreamWeaver.

              Bottom line, I like the extended warrantees.

              Adam
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              • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
                I was taught to offer a longer guarantee in order to lessen the risk that the
                prospect feels that he is taking.

                If he feels that he has a very long time to purchase and review the product,
                he will be more likely to buy it.

                I've split tested longer guarantees against shorter guarantees and while the
                difference hasn't been staggering, the longer guarantees do better.
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        • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
          Originally Posted by sylviad View Post

          This is a tactic used offline as well. Use it for a year and pay for it then. "No Payments Until 2010" is commonly seen this time of year for fridges, furniture, all kinds of things. Of course, that's the mentality that got the Economy in such bad shape.
          Another reason for that is collecting interest, since they know many people won't pay off the item in time and will get hit with interest from the date of purchase.

          I don't agree about the "mentality", though. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of this type of offer as long as you pay it off in time. I once bought a computer and paid for it 18 months later with no interest added, which is a smart thing to do. In fact, since there were some mail-in rebates involved, they actually paid me about $400 within 60 days for taking it off their hands.

          I helped the economy by buying it. Wanna hurt the economy? Don't buy anything. The current advice in the media to not buy things is much worse for the economy than no-interest financing.
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          • Profile picture of the author sylviad
            Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

            Clickbank is an animal of a different stripe. While on the surface, they are acting as a payment processor, they are technically a reseller. When I buy your product via CB, Clickbank 'buys' it from you and 'sells' it to me, collecting a commission they call a processing fee.

            When CB sets refund periods, they are doing so as the seller of the product...
            I know you're using "" to show 'buys' and 'sells' as examples and not the real thing, because CB does not buy your product from you. The best analogy might be that they are 'resellers', just like affiliate marketers, and making a commission on each sale. The only difference with CB is they don't make the % the vendor is seeking. Of course, we have to look at their costs to run the Merchant system, sending cheques to vendors and making refunds, etc. It's not like they're drawing money unnecessarily, in my view. However, they most likely do add a little extra for their efforts.

            Originally Posted by Adam Kenzington View Post

            ...The 1 year shows how sure you are of the quality of your product. Some people offer a Lifetime Guarantee, but in this economy, I wouldn't do that. Some people would be going through their old software and saying to themselves, "OK, let's get back some of the money I've spent"

            There is so much trash I've bought in the past, I would love that they offered an extended guarantee...
            Adam
            That certainly is a reasonable conclusion for buyers to make - quality of product. It would be interesting to know how many buyers actually make that connection between quality and length of guarantee. :confused:

            If you have a good product, you should feel comfortable offering a lengthy guarantee, if for no other reason than to show that you are that confident in your work.

            Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

            Another reason for that is collecting interest, since they know many people won't pay off the item in time and will get hit with interest from the date of purchase.

            I don't agree about the "mentality", though. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of this type of offer as long as you pay it off in time...
            Unfortunately, too many people fall into that. If they can't afford it now, what makes them think they can afford it 1 year from now?

            Wording of such offers has a unique effect, making it sound like you don't have to pay interest or taxes, when in fact if you don't pay within 1 year, you get blasted with huge interest that more than covers any deal you might have made. In some instances, they claim it's "Free for a year". And we all know how powerful that word is. It's a psychological trick to get you to buy now.

            Too, some people buy on these deals because it's something they actually need right away. Like when my fridge broke a few months back. Had I not found a cheap one, I would have had to take one of those 'deals'.

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            • Profile picture of the author radhika
              After reading all posts I get to know that it is not a bad strategy after all ... sure to increase some sales by keeping the buyer in comfortzone ...

              Now not sure how to implement it when PPs don't allow merchants to offer more than 2 months guarantee though?

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            • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
              Originally Posted by sylviad View Post

              Unfortunately, too many people fall into that. If they can't afford it now, what makes them think they can afford it 1 year from now?
              You'd have to ask them, whoever they are.

              But they would have 12 months or whatever to save up the money.

              Every time I've taken advantage of one of those offers, I had the cash to pay for the item, but why do that if I'm offered a deal like that?

              If people buy things they can't afford, that's their issue.
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              • Profile picture of the author sylviad
                I totally agree, Chris. But as you know, desperate people make bad decisions. I'm not blaming the advertisers, if that's how it sounded. I was simply stating the obvious.

                Sylvia
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                • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
                  I think you might be overlooking the fact that a longer guarantee is...longer.

                  Your customers have more time to exercise their guarantee.

                  If your product stinks you'll still get a STACK of refund requests and if your product is really good value for money and delivers on the promises you make your refund requests are likely to be much lower.

                  Generally speaking the longer the guarantee period the less refunds you get but that's not always true.

                  And if you're being swamped with refund requests because your product sucks and you think making your refund period longer will help then you have a lot to learn about marketing.

                  Personally I recommend long refund periods...12 months is great.

                  But I also recommend creating high quality products that really deliver.

                  Kindest regards,
                  Andrew Cavanagh
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                  • Profile picture of the author radhika
                    Originally Posted by AndrewCavanagh View Post

                    If your product stinks you'll still get a STACK of refund requests and if your product is really good value for money and delivers on the promises you make your refund requests are likely to be much lower.

                    Generally speaking the longer the guarantee period the less refunds you get but that's not always true.

                    And if you're being swamped with refund requests because your product sucks and you think making your refund period longer will help then you have a lot to learn about marketing.
                    In my personal experience most refunds are with in one month of purchase. If they don't ask refund in that period means refund rate down the road would be zero to very remote.

                    So if product sucks the refund rate (whatever percentage that is) increases in that window period of 1 month. (say it 4 - 6 weeks).

                    So 1 year guarantee increases the sales not the refund rate, I guess. How many of you dig up your harddrive and email the merchants from who you bought the products for refunds?

                    Because the reasons might be different like -
                    * product is good and you will think of using it in future or
                    * losing the transaction ids or
                    * a simple courtesy towards the merchants as you are one

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      • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
        Originally Posted by Lance K View Post

        I'd say that most people who use a longer guarantee do so for the boost in sales.

        A guarantee is a risk reversal mechanism used to remove purchasing barriers.

        Using a guarantee is NOT about refund rates (the quality of your product should take care of that regardless of the length of your refund period). It IS about making more sales.
        Thank you for setting the record straight.

        This is my main complaint with clickbank: Why can't I merely send them a check for refund for products purchased over 60 days ago?

        I wish they would let me do that. It doesn't cost them anything, but it might make us both some extra dollars.

        Anyone at clickbank want to tell me about this?
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        • Profile picture of the author naruq
          Sometimes it may take a full-year so the customer can implement the strategies. A 30 day money back guarantee will not be enough time to implement specific strategies and develop a plan of action
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  • Profile picture of the author ibringjoy
    Originally Posted by radhika View Post

    1. Full year refunds means the product is cheap quality?

    2. It makes people relax and take him out of urgency to test it and ask refund? (and slowly they forget about it?)

    Personally that type of guarantee puts me in comfortzone and make me think - 'ok. I have one year to test it and check it out". And sure I have bought products with that type of gurantee, but not asked a refund. Not even for one of them. Mostly I forget about it I guess.

    Your opinion? How it looks on a web page?

    .
    Actually, the full year refund period is supposed to vouch for the great quality of the product, not cheapen it at all. If a product is good enough to use it for a full year, and thoroughly test it out, it is supposed to show it is a great product.

    Plus, it sure does cut down on the refunds, too, for all those reasons everyone already mentioned, most notably, people forget about it by then.

    Kathryn
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  • Profile picture of the author Dick Doe
    Originally Posted by radhika View Post

    1. Full year refunds means the product is cheap quality?

    2. It makes people relax and take him out of urgency to test it and ask refund? (and slowly they forget about it?)

    Personally that type of guarantee puts me in comfortzone and make me think - 'ok. I have one year to test it and check it out". And sure I have bought products with that type of gurantee, but not asked a refund. Not even for one of them. Mostly I forget about it I guess.

    Your opinion? How it looks on a web page?

    .
    I usually offer a 30-day money back guarantee on my products, and sometimes even 90-day guarantees. But never tried the 1 year guarantee. That said, I have seen some marketers use those types of long guarantee periods and they say that it boosts conversions. Guess it is time to test
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Clickbank is an animal of a different stripe. While on the surface, they are acting as a payment processor, they are technically a reseller. When I buy your product via CB, Clickbank 'buys' it from you and 'sells' it to me, collecting a commission they call a processing fee.

      When CB sets refund periods, they are doing so as the seller of the product.

      The same goes for many of the other third-party processors.

      If you run your sales through a pure payment processor like PayPal or a true merchant account, you can set whatever guarantee period you choose. Want to offer a lifetime guarantee? Go for it...
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