Refund Requests from months ago...

Anything over 30 days really surprises me. As soon as I've paid for info I have a quick glance over it all and make a decision if it's worthwhile - if it is absolutely dreadful and I've been mislead I will request a refund if the guarantee is there. I'd never request one more than 30 days after purchase - it seems a bit wrong.

I worry about the people that give 'lifetime guarantees' - if you say 'lifetime' you have to mean lifetime, and follow it through.

Do what Jason Fladlien (from here actually) does, he attempts to sell something similar to them for a discount when they request a refund. Or says 'what can I do to make you stay' and does it for them, if they're on a continuity program they usually forget they ever complained and stay signed up. Tough work!

Pure buyers remorse. They suddenly remembered the purchase while cleaning the inbox and request a refund.

Personally, I don't care what you do, what you say, how big you write it on your Thank You Page -- when people get their CC statement or paypal statement they don't know what CLCKB*NK or whatever your payment processor is.

I see this problem with Clickbank all the time. Instead of researching exactly what the charge is for, they simply ask for a refund, which Clickbank offers all too easily, even to the point of having a big link saying "Request Refund"

There is nothing you can do about it, and it is partly due to the dumbing down of society and everyone wanting something for nothing.

I just got a chargeback for a sale that was made FIVE MONTHS AGO! I feel your pain.

just got this by email...

after I asked why, after so long, they asked for a refund:

My personal circumstances did not allow me to implement. It's alright Mike, I withdraw my request for a refund.

And the buyer went on to ask a few questions...

But still - after so long... WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

It sucks, but it happens.

I just give them the refund,
and go on about my business.

Life's too short to worry about
the one or two jerks that crawl
out of the walls.

Michael

I frequently go through a frenzy of buying stuff, and then don't have time to go through it all. So I store it in a special folder, and as I have time, I pull it out and go through it.

It might be several weeks before I get to something. I have a course on using Camtasia which I bought about a month and a half ago. Haven't even unzipped it.

I also have three inexpensive membership-site plugins for WordPress. One of them, I've had since December. One of these days, I'll get around to trying them. As it stands, I have three membership sites planned, but I haven't gone any further than registering the domains. The idea is that I'll put each plugin on one site, and whichever one I like best I'll migrate to the other two sites.

Now, if I were the kind of person who asked for refunds, I can see potentially saying "I should never have bought this Camtasia course" and asking for a refund without ever looking at it. I can also see starting to watch it and saying "this course sucks arse" and asking for a refund. And with the membership plugins, I could see trying to get a refund for the two I don't use.

But I'm not the kind of person who asks for refunds, ever, so none of those things will happen. I'm just figuring that if I were that kind of person, this is why I might ask for a refund long after the purchase.

Just refund and keep moving. Save the trouble

Like someone here said, it's nothing but
buyer's remorse, especially when they
notice they spent more than they should
and now have less money than they
should,

Kingsley

It's pretty sad really on the buyers part. The *only* reason somebody should ask for a refund is if the product is crap - which can be open to interpretation - and I'm in no doubt that's why so many rehashed bags of cat's ass still make lots of money.

But that, I feel, is the *only* reason!!

Actually, a second reason: if the buyer has been blatantly misled which, again, could be open to interpretation.

It does rile me though and I don't even have a product yet! It's like buying a hamburger, eating half, chucking it in bin, letting it go moldy THEN returning a month later, fishing it out and taking it back to the counter for a refund.

Just because I have a magic hamburger cloner doesn't mean you're getting a refund!

BUT I would also agree on the above - despite the moral issues, it's often better to just issue a refund and be on your way.

Broke ass people will remain broke.

I just had someone literally send me an email "Hi may I haz refund?" along with another person who requested a FREE supplemental report then refunded days later. I wanted to give them some choice words but instead informed them they are on my blacklist and no longer welcome to my future products!!!!!

Months? That's nothing...I got a refund request after three and a half years!

The guy looked at his credit card statement one day and saw he had been paying our monthly membership fee ($47) for 42 months straight without realizing it. He wanted the whole lot refunded.

Shame he didn't get it...

Wow,
That does get annoying but at least it isn't a regular event for you. I'm guessing your product pricing is also on the higher range right? As another thread mentioned earlier those on the higher range for some reason get fewer charge back. I guess it really the type of consumer you're attracting.

And the thing that makes it even worse is Paypal rarely sides with the vendor with online digital products as I've soon experienced.

Anyways too bad I can't help much but I wish you all the Best.

Some are "professionals" and know about the 60 days refund policy eg. on clickbank. And they refund on the very last day.

I had a clickbank refund request on a recurring billing after 10 months ...clickbank still refunded the last 2 months payments.

I tried to get a straight answer from them as to why they fell that asking for a refund after 10 months actually justifies one.

still not had a satisfactory answer

Send a refund. It's better for you in many ways.

I purchased a CB product becuase of one single part of the product that was mentioned. This was just a couple of weeks ago...

After going thru what seemed like 10 upsell and downsell pages, I finally got to the product page. What was there? 3 videos that had been "removed for copyright infringement". The thing - the part that I wanted - was nowhere to be found.

I not only asked for a refund, I informed CB of what was up and now the product has been taken down.

So yeah - I think you should ask for refunds when warranted.

Refund requests suck..but you never really know the truth behind the request. If in fact the person is just short on cash to pay a bill I still wouldn't sweat it. Life is to short and I rather focus on the goodness in things. If my giving them a refund helps them out of bind, I can live with that.

Now if its a repeat offender thats a different story...

If I keep getting refunds, well then the problem is me or my product...

If it's just a normal or out of the blue refund...no biggie...I'll refund it with a smile and move along.

I also have no problem personally asking for a refund if...

1.Your product is ass...

2.You oversold it to me in the sales letter and I don't think it worth what your charging...

3.It's just not the right fit for me...

I don't get this bullsh*t marketers creed where were not suppose to ask for refunds from other marketers, because we to are marketers...Forget that man, if I buy something from a brick and mortar store I have no problem getting a refund. Buying an information or digital product is no different for me.

I received a refund request last week. The guy started by telling me what a great product I created, but said that he disagreed with one sentence that he pasted in the email for me. Because of this one sentence, he wanted a refund.

I replied and asked if he would be implementing the rest of the course. He said that he had implemented it and that he made his first profit already.

I refused the refund. He filed a dispute. I contested the dispute and pasted his email. I lost the dispute.

If you don't want people asking for a refund months after they purchased the product then don't make the refund deadling so long.

I don't currently own any of my own products, however:

If I had a solid product that required even a moderate amount of action to implement, then I would feel a lot better about refunds closer to the deadline.

Why?

Because that at least means there is a better chance they actually tried to make it work. Someone who purchases and is contacting you the next day for a refund would seem a lot more suspicious to me.

Again, this is assuming the product is solid. If that isn't the case, then a refund would certainly be warranted.

It must be tough owning digital products, knowing that this sort of thing happens. But, as mentioned, I guess that just comes with the territory.

I think this is one reason why it would be beneficial to build a list with a solid foundation (i.e. - "relationship"). If you've bonded with your customers, they'd logically be less inclined to want to put one over on you.

That's a general statement, of course - not directed at the op. I don't know how you run things. :-)

Just my two cents.

-Mike

Sometimes I'm good, but most of the time, there's about a 1-2 month lag time between me buying something and then actually going through it and implementing it. And then, if I get to it and it sucks - and I'm within the deadline window - I'll request a refund.

What kind of refund deadline do you have up? If you have a lifetime guarantee, change it to something you feel is more appropriate - a month or two, perhaps. You'll always get people who request refunds late, but at least then you can point them to your established policy.

I took ages to ask for a refund on something simply because I am a newbie and was afraid to stick my neck out and say I wasn't happy with the product I had bought. Actually I never received what was advertised.

I never got the refund as the seller just ignored all of my communiactations.

I have had a refund at blockbusters twice, no argument invlolved, just told them what the problem was. Of course if I had simply not liked the film then i would not ever have though about a refund.

Fisrt time - they put the wrong film in the box ( almost identical title but different classification).

Second time film was worn and didn' t play properly.

Blockbuster gave refund on both occasioans without difficulty.

If the product is is not as was advertised then the seller should give refunds wthout question.