Could this lower refunds?

11 replies
I was wondering about ways to stop the professional refunders, as in those who buy a product from clickbank or anywhere else and then just refund it regardless of the quality of it.

I saw one sales page which had a line in the refund policy which said "refunds can only be processed once the file and any duplicates have been removed from your computer".

The product is just a regular PDF so i doubt they have any tracking system in place, however just wording it like that might make serial refunders think twice about a refund if they actually like and want to keep the product?

Does anyone feel this could help and is it ethical?
#lower #refunds
  • Profile picture of the author Brent Miller
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      I don't see any question of ethics here. When you return something to a store, they don't give you the money until you've given them the item back.

      Of course, I don't see how most sellers are going to really know but if it stops a few serial refunders, great.
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    Ok, so lets pretend we are a serial refunder for a moment.

    Asking for a refund doesn't seem to be an issue for them. Simply buy product then request refund.

    Doesn't matter what your refund policy says. You could tell them that they have to burn their computer and they'll reply, "Ok just burned my computer... where is my refund?"

    You have no clue whether they did or not. If it makes you feel better then add it, but it seems like it would be adding some perceived barrier to the actual purchase of your product.

    Think of how that will sound to someone who is NOT serial refunder, but is an actual customer sitting on the fence about buying your product. People are concerned enough about privacy on their computer, that adding that line might be bad.

    "Does this guy install something on my machine to know that the product has really been deleted?"

    I could see that question being common, especially among those who have no clue what their computer is capable of.

    As always my $.02...
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  • Profile picture of the author WillDL
    Nothing unethical about it, but it would stop me from buying. It's either unenforceable (you take the serial refunder's lying word about deleting it) or ridiculous (demanding some "proof" from legit customers)

    Either way, it strikes me as unprofessional.

    The only real way to avoid serial refunders is to bite the bullet and create a physical product that they need return for a refund.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rambo007
    I see, So to the average internet buyer...

    They wouldnt think that perhaps the product itself is electronically tracked? Similar to how kindle books are tracked, so when you refund a kindle book it disapeers from your device?
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  • Profile picture of the author DanielleLynnCopy
    The amount of sales you'll make by offering a clean and easy refund policy outweighs the number of refund requests you'll get.

    The only real way to avoid serial refunders is to bite the bullet and create a physical product that they need return for a refund.
    Selling certain kinds of software also can stop serial refunders, especially if they need support/updates
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Clickbank will refund no matter what you put on your page. What you are suggesting cannot be verified and most people know that.

    If it's not a Clickbank product, you can use DLGuard. When someone refunds, add them to the ban list and they can never buy from you again. Prevents serial refunding from you and is very effective.

    If you are promoting Clickbank products, promote products that have lower refund rates. Bad products have high refund rates. Avoid them.
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  • Profile picture of the author rockfuse
    stop using clickbank and dont offer refunds. Problem solved
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    If it is a serial refunder, they probably know enough to not believe this ploy. It is a nice trick to stop some first time refunders though. As far as it being ethical, I would say it leans towards unethical as it leans towards being a scare tactic.
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  • Profile picture of the author rickfrazier1
    Lots of problems with serial refunders, not a lot of ways to fix them from an individual vendor approach. It really needs to be done at the level of the payment processor, like ClickBank or PayPal. You could spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to combat them, and nearly anything you can do as an individual just makes it more frustrating for your legitimate customers...

    WSO Pro allows you to block someone from your future WSOs if you think they are a serial refunder, but don't know if it will work anywhere but for a WSO.

    Given the sheer number of transactions someone like ClickBank processes, and the extremely high refund rate of certain promotions, I'd be beating the hell out of the programmers to get this sort of hole fixed, if I were in management at ClickBank... It really wouldn't cost them an arm and a leg, and could make some serious "brownie points" with the vendors. I know some vendors that would immediately put a few of their products on ClickBank if they had a "serial refunder filter" offered...

    To make a shameless plug for my own WSO, there are other ways you may be losing revenue or seeing your files go to folks that aren't paying for them. My WSO describes just how many vendors are essentially giving away the farm, by showing you how the bad guys are finding and downloading your files without even going through the process of a serial refunder... They are essentially finding and downloading your files invisibly. If you've noticed your dowload statistics seem high compared to your sales figures, you may be affected. Even some big name vendors are wide open, though I can't imagine why, as they have IT or Web folk that should be taking care of this sort of thing for them...

    The WSO also provides some tips that can increase conversions on your site for folks that get to places you didn't necessarily expect... All in all, a great bargain for the current price just over 7 bucks.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by rickfrazier1 View Post

      WSO Pro allows you to block someone from your future WSOs if you think they are a serial refunder, but don't know if it will work anywhere but for a WSO.
      I know this is the case and I have blocked several people but if this is just done on IP address, which I'm sure it is, it doesn't really stop much. They can just purchase from another computer. A lot of ISP's these days will change your IP address around all the time anyway. So this doesn't solve the problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author RobCopywriter
    Yes, that would work well. Maybe that would stop people.. I know it would definitely put me off doing that (not that I do/would anyway)
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