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Refund Policy for IM Products

by footbag_man
26 replies
Hey Warriors,

So I am hearing mixed reviews about what type of refund policy you should put on your IM related info products.

I have experienced a high refund % when I set my refund guarantee to 10 days. I believe this is because a shorter refund period puts urgency in the customers mind to request a refund.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how to optimize a refund guarantee.
#policy #products #refund
  • Profile picture of the author BloggingPro
    I opt for a 30-day refund policy on every digital download. I make it a point in my sales pages that there is absolutely ZERO risk... because there really isn't any!

    30 days is more than enough time for a buyer to get my product, read through it, and start implementing it.

    I've seen people offer a 60-day and even a 1-year guarantee, which I personally don't think is necessary. 30 Days seems to be the sweet spot to me.

    BP
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan Even
    I like 30 Days or 60 Days If You're Using Something like Clickbank.

    Anything beyond that your merchant account company tends to get uneasy about it, not to mention if you're waiting for the refund period to be over before you pay your affiliates that can be a long-time for them to wait to get paid.
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  • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
    A 10 day refund policy is probably a little too short. I had best success with 30 days.

    Another thing that has worked very well for me: Stating that you give a refund only if people have used the method described.
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  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    We provide content writing services. We don't indicate a specific deadline as to when our clients can request for a refund. But we make it literally very specific as to when a refund is only possible.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cpawhiz
      Originally Posted by Ryan Even View Post

      I like 30 Days or 60 Days If You're Using Something like Clickbank.

      Anything beyond that your merchant account company tends to get uneasy about it, not to mention if you're waiting for the refund period to be over before you pay your affiliates that can be a long-time for them to wait to get paid.
      Are you saying you do not pay your affiliates till the refund period is over with?
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    • Profile picture of the author David-JP
      Clickbank has a 60 day policy, so if using them- you may as well say it!
      30 days is pretty standard.

      I use a month to month policy for my membership sites- that is, they can request a refund for the current month that they've paid.

      David
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  • Profile picture of the author Willie Crawford
    A really short refund period does force people to very
    quickly decide whether or not they are satisfied with
    your product.

    I tend to prefer 30-60 days because that makes credit
    card processors most comfortable. At the same time, if
    a customer is unhappy, I typically just refund.

    When I hosted my first seminar back in 2003, I did
    something really crazy. I offered a 1-year money-back
    guarantee. I told them to go all the way through my
    seminar, then take a full year to decide if they felt that
    it was worth the money. A few friends said that I was
    just begging for attendees to come back to me when they
    found themselves in a cash crunch... but not a single
    attendee did.

    One attendee emailed saying that he didn't feel involved
    enough in the interactions... and I told him that he sort
    of withdrew, and he agreed that he was to blame for not
    getting more value, and decided that he didn't want a
    refund.

    So, with a 1-year refund policy, I had no requests, but
    relationships with audience members came into play too.
    I'm sure that if my merchant account provider had noticed
    that guarantee, they would have called me on it

    Willie
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    • Profile picture of the author footbag_man
      Originally Posted by Willie Crawford View Post

      A really short refund period does force people to very
      quickly decide whether or not they are satisfied with
      your product.

      I tend to prefer 30-60 days because that makes credit
      card processors most comfortable. At the same time, if
      a customer is unhappy, I typically just refund.

      When I hosted my first seminar back in 2003, I did
      something really crazy. I offered a 1-year money-back
      guarantee. I told them to go all the way through my
      seminar, then take a full year to decide if they felt that
      it was worth the money. A few friends said that I was
      just begging for attendees to come back to me when they
      found themselves in a cash crunch... but not a single
      attendee did.

      One attendee emailed saying that he didn't feel involved
      enough in the interactions... and I told him that he sort
      of withdrew, and he agreed that he was to blame for not
      getting more value, and decided that he didn't want a
      refund.

      So, with a 1-year refund policy, I had no requests, but
      relationships with audience members came into play too.
      I'm sure that if my merchant account provider had noticed
      that guarantee, they would have called me on it

      Willie
      Thats awesome Willie and thank you for the detailed responce.

      I think I'll go with a 30 day for my next launch and see how that plans out.

      Thanks again.
      Fergal
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Hugall
    30 days is the best in my mind and it is what most people are conditioned to see on an offer. I also like the 365 day one. Makes me feel as though I have forever but forget is a day.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    10 days is way too short. Obviously it depends on the type of product you are selling as to how long they need to implement the techniques and methods you are teaching but 10 days is generally too short for most products.

    Take a hint from me. Clickbank have a 60 day refund guarantee and I can assure you they have done some solid testing back in their day.
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    • Profile picture of the author IntoughShape
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      10 days is way too short. Obviously it depends on the type of product you are selling as to how long they need to implement the techniques and methods you are teaching but 10 days is generally too short for most products.

      Take a hint from me. Clickbank have a 60 day refund guarantee and I can assure you they have done some solid testing back in their day.
      WillR nice post thanx, Honestly I think 60 days is too long but ye your right it depends on how long it will take to implement the strategies of the product.

      However do you have to wait for 60 days to get paid :O? What if they want a refund and you already got paid?
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by IntoughShape View Post

        WillR nice post thanx, Honestly I think 60 days is too long but ye your right it depends on how long it will take to implement the strategies of the product.

        However do you have to wait for 60 days to get paid :O? What if they want a refund and you already got paid?
        60 days is too long for what? You will generally find the longer the refund policy, the less refunds you get -- assuming all other things are equal.

        As to whether you get paid for the product upfront that depends on how you sell the product. If you sell it through Warrior Plus or Paypal then you get the money right away and would have to refund the money to anyone requesting a refund. If you are selling through a network like Clickbank they they generally hold 1o% of your sales to cover things such as refunds and chargebacks.

        The whole point is though you should only be getting a tiny amount of refunds, if any at all. Offering a refund policy generally means you will get a small number of refunds, that's part and parcel of offering a refund policy. But you shouldn't concentrate on those small amount of people who refund -- you should instead focus on the larger number of people who purchased your product because you offered that refund policy.
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        • Profile picture of the author IntoughShape
          Originally Posted by WillR View Post

          60 days is too long for what? You will generally find the longer the refund policy, the less refunds you get -- assuming all other things are equal.

          As to whether you get paid for the product upfront that depends on how you sell the product. If you sell it through Warrior Plus or Paypal then you get the money right away and would have to refund the money to anyone requesting a refund. If you are selling through a network like Clickbank they they generally hold 1o% of your sales to cover things such as refunds and chargebacks.

          The whole point is though you should only be getting a tiny amount of refunds, if any at all. Offering a refund policy generally means you will get a small number of refunds, that's part and parcel of offering a refund policy. But you shouldn't concentrate on those small amount of people who refund -- you should instead focus on the larger number of people who purchased your product because you offered that refund policy.
          Thanks for the insight. If you don't mind me asking, what payment processor do you use? And do you use paypal?
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          • Profile picture of the author WillR
            Originally Posted by IntoughShape View Post

            Thanks for the insight. If you don't mind me asking, what payment processor do you use? And do you use paypal?
            I use several. The main ones being Paypal and Clickbank.
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            • Profile picture of the author IntoughShape
              Originally Posted by WillR View Post

              I use several. The main ones being Paypal and Clickbank.
              Awesome, one last thing, what do you do to avoid people from taking the download or thank you page url and giving it out to anyone who can potentialy download it for free after they have payed with paypal. Also does clickbank provide a method for vendors to be able to avoid this as well?

              thanks
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              • Profile picture of the author WillR
                Originally Posted by IntoughShape View Post

                Awesome, one last thing, what do you do to avoid people from taking the download or thank you page url and giving it out to anyone who can potentialy download it for free after they have payed with paypal. Also does clickbank provide a method for vendors to be able to avoid this as well?

                thanks
                All of my content is always inside of a members area so the links can't be shared around. All of my download links are also encrypted and expire after certain period of time so they also can't be passed around.
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                • Profile picture of the author Mike Roncone
                  A 10 day refund period would drive me absolutely nuts. I want to have time to implement the strategy and see if it does anything.

                  If I've only got ten days (quite often it takes longer than that to rank in the Search Engines) then I'm almost certainly going to request a refund for it not working unless I SOMEHOW started getting sales even before the method had time to properly set in.

                  I would definitely aim for the 30-60 day refund, you might even call it split at 45 days, which is the type of thing you typically see me doing (Just because I can).

                  Best,
                  -Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Offer a 12-month money back guarantee. This will give them all the time in the world to be-labor over your product. Longer guarantees refund LESS than short guarantees.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gerald Arno
    Banned
    Originally Posted by footbag_man View Post

    Hey Warriors,

    So I am hearing mixed reviews about what type of refund policy you should put on your IM related info products.

    I have experienced a high refund % when I set my refund guarantee to 10 days. I believe this is because a shorter refund period puts urgency in the customers mind to request a refund.

    I would love to hear your thoughts on how to optimize a refund guarantee.
    What you're pointing out here makes total sense.

    I personally have a 60 day refund guarantee for my information products. However, I'd prefer to not have a refund guarantee for eBooks since my landing pages clearly outline and highlight what people get when purchasing my product.

    I've never asked for a refund since doing internet marketing because it is just not the right thing to do.

    You buy an eBook and ask for a refund 30 days later? What for? You should know when you buy the product if you need it or not. If I'm into a niche and buy a product for information purposes, I always gain and never lose a $.

    People who ask for a refund, particularly for eBook are either not committed, broke or didn't read the landing/sales page carefully.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas W
    Refund policy can be easily abused. Personally you have to figure out is the Cost worth it for the refund.

    For example, any digital download type product doesn't really have a cost to it. Therefore it's easier to provide a refund, rather than trying to fight off a chargeback.

    But if it's something you put serious hours in.. ie 1 on 1 coaching, designing, programming.. Then you might want limit your refund policy.

    Keep in mind that Visa/MC account holders can dispute a charge for upto 6 months. So refund policy is moot point if the customer wants their money back anyways.

    But to satisfy Merchant Banks you have to state some kind of refund policy and 30 days is pretty much standard practice
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  • Profile picture of the author Joey Evans
    Definitely 30 days...

    ...just enough time to 'get' what your offering.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    I have been doing 0 day refund policies lately. We are weeding out the tire kickers and focusing on the serious marketers who understand value and don't buy everything to end up saying nothing is new.

    It hasn't hurt conversions in fact some say they like the confidence it shows in our offers.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I don't use one at all on my sales pages. That gives me the luxury of deciding on a case by case basis whether it's a legit request or someone who downloads products and within minutes requests a refund. The latter doesn't get one. Period. I don't get many requests though.
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  • Profile picture of the author therichb
    Offering a 30 day or 45 days refund policy is not a bad idea for any provider or IM unless & until you have something that has some physical existence which we call a product.

    For ones, who offer services, offering refunds can be a tedious activity as someone can take advantage by no means & the provider will be harmed in terms of multiple resources they are investing in it.
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  • Profile picture of the author KeithSneed
    I think 30 day refund policies are the best for a couple reasons.
    1: If the customer does as they should, goes through the whole product and implements it, they have sufficient time to know if they have made a good purchase or not.
    2: If the customer is a sucker for every product, and never takes action on anything, they will think that they have plenty of time to refund, and before they know it a month goes by. For these people, I don't feel sorry for them because it is their responsibility to go through the product and decide if they are happy with it. These people miss out because they don't do anything with the knowledge. (I say this without guilt because I used to be one. )
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