Perils of Clickbank: What Utter Morons!

by mattyjg

Posted: 12 years ago 17 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Howdy fellow Warriors!

Just wanted an opinion of Clickbank. A few months ago I established my first product to sell and quite frankly it's been a waste of my time!

The volume of refunds is around 30% with the majority of buyers requesting a refund within a few minutes. In fact I recently had two buyers request their refund within 6 minutes and 3 minutes after the purchase time. They wouldn't even have the opportunity to read and absorb the content!

Clickbank customer service are comparable to eBay, i.e. non-existent and don't tend to respond to my legitimate concern that a buyer is unable to read my product within just a few minutes after the initial download. Clickbank have NEVER responded to any message.

I think, from my perspective, the most frustrating factor is chargebacks. I have had so many that I'm now leaving Clickbank and finding an alternative. I have other websites and ventures and have NEVER received a chargeback elsewhere. Frustratingly, some of these chargebacks also occur within minutes after purchase. A good job the individual had access to his/her credit card when it was being misused I think you'll agree!

Anyone else had any similar issues or problems with Clickbank? Have a cool day guys,

Matt.

#clickbank #morons #perils #utter

Taniwha 12 years ago

What niche is your product, if you don't mind me asking?

I assume the refund rates (in under 10 minutes, like you stated) for MMO products are far higher than other niches. But I could be totally wrong.
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arranrice

12 years ago

Originally Posted by mattyjg

Howdy fellow Warriors!
Clickbank customer service are comparable to eBay, i.e. non-existent and don't tend to respond to my legitimate concern that a buyer is unable to read my product within just a few minutes after the initial download. Clickbank have NEVER responded to any message.

Ebay has good live support for both sellers and buyers. When I remember clickbank, I remember their support to be quite good as well.

Thanks
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mattyjg 12 years ago

Originally Posted by arranrice

Ebay has good live support for both sellers and buyers. When I remember clickbank, I remember their support to be quite good as well.

From my personal experience, I compose an email detailing my frustration at customers requesting refunds before they can read, let alone use my product and my messages have been totally ignored!

eBay live support is the same. In fact a recent survey (I forget which company) concluded that eBay is in the bottom 30 large organisations for customer support.

It seems to me that these types of company have valid and competent support systems for the buying customer but NOT the vendor/seller. What they don't appear to appreciate is that as a vendor/seller we are also a customer of that company.
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salegurus 12 years ago

Originally Posted by arranrice

Ebay has good live support for both sellers and buyers.

I don't know if we are talking about the same ebay?
Their customer support is shocking to say the least. After speaking to a CS rep you are left with more questions than answers...
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HelpingYouBeAnExpert 12 years ago

Originally Posted by mattyjg

The volume of refunds is around 30%

Are you profitable at 30%? It's unfortunate that people realize they can buy and get their money back the next minute and keep the product and not have to ask the product owner but a middle man (clickbank) but the question is if you sell 1000 and keep 700 customers and bring them into a relationship with you and develop a fantastic experience that they buy other stuff in the future from you what does it matter that 30% left?

Are you in positive? Can you make it positive with 30%? Can you make the product in a way that 30% goes down?

Thousands of people make click bank work and thousands don't.

Good luck and I hope you are in the 1st 1000!
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- An Al 12 years ago
  
  Switching from CB ain't gonna stop chargebacks. The people filing chargebacks probably don't even know you're selling with CB.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  superpayouts 12 years ago
  
  mattyjg,
  
  I feel your frustration. It's sad that this has to happen to those who put in allot of work and effort in trying to make a business out of selling CB products. Unfortunately with CB, there's not much you can do since this is part of their business model. It almost seems to me like they welcome refunds with their 60 day money back guarantee. It's actually quite ridiculous because its well known over the web that one can purchase a product and request a refund after receiving the product in question. Some people's livelihoods count on those sales and they work hard for them. They shouldn't be stripped of a valid sale just because someone decides its cool or OK to file a refund. IMO it's theft however you want to look at it, but it is what it is.
  
  The only other thing is to just sell your products elsewhere with other merchants. There are many other merchants out there that you could check out that do not offer refunds on certain products. (Depending on the reasoning of course, like not receiving the product within 48 hours.) The end buyer would have to file a charge back through their credit card company directly which is much more difficult. This helps to drop the charge back rate, and it's much more difficult for them to simply say "product not as described" as a reason to get a refund by the merchant itself.
  
  Hope you find something that works for you! Good luck.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  KenJ 12 years ago
  
  Sorry to disagree.
  
  Clickbank are not utter morons. That name badge must lie elsewhere. Maybe with some of the vendors and customers.
  
  They facilitate me and many other people to make money with digital products.
  
  KenJ
  
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  shazshaz 12 years ago
  
  you didn't explain you problem
  
  so how much refund did you get per 100 sales??
  
  my first product was a clickbank product and i am pretty sure got less than 5 refunds on morethan 1,200 sales on IM niche(that was in 2008)
  
  Thanks
  
  2 replies
  
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  Daniel Evans 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by shazshaz
  
  my first product was a clickbank product and i am pretty sure got less than 5 refunds on morethan 1,200 sales on IM niche(that was in 2008)
  
  I'd be honestly be utterly amazed if anyone in the history of CB could sport that ratio in any niche.
  
  Daniel
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  myob 12 years ago
  
  As an affiliate, if any product that I was promoting had such a high refund rate among my subscribers I would drop it like a hot potato. It may seem counter-intuitive, but what I have found is that conspicuously mentioning Clickbank's refund policy in all promotions such as presell pages and email marketing has been extremely effective for increasing conversion rates and also in minimizing refunds. IMNSHO, such high refund rates seem to be the result of moronic marketing methods such as over-hyped sales copy or untargeted traffic. :rolleyes:
  
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  SunilTanna 12 years ago
  
  I have 3 accounts. My refund rates are small fraction of yours, averaged over 14 years. And I'm pretty sure have fallen gradually as cb have improved their systems, and I have improved my products and sales process.
  
  The question I would ask is why is your refund rate so high? Is it something to do with your product? Or maybe to do with your sales process? Do a significant proportion of your customers feel deceived, disappointed, or remorseful after purchase?
  
  Have you asked your customers why they wanted a refund? What did they say?
  
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RobinInTexas 12 years ago

At least you don't have the problem we had at a retail store, where a customer came in and purchased a product and would come back an hour later with the product still sealed in the factory packaging and ask for a refund. He claimed he had lost the receipt and the cashier would remember the sale and manager would authorize the refund.

He would then proceed to another location a few miles down the road, surreptitiously grab the identical product from a shelf and ask for a refund, presenting the receipt from the other store.

Keep what you get from honest customers and consider the fact that it costs virtually nothing to deliver to the serial refunders.
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...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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mojojuju 12 years ago

I'd focus on figuring out why people want refunds after purchasing your product. Some vendors will cry out "serial refunders", but I don't think that's most often the case.
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Ryan Thomas 12 years ago

Add a physical component...could just be the same product on a CD. If your product isn't garbage, that alone will drop your refund rate significantly, since they have to return the CD to get their refund. Most won't bother.
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FeelessLeader 12 years ago

I wouldn't fully say that it is CB causing the chargebacks. Without seeing the site, I'm guessing that with CB its a MMO product or some sort of info product.

How descriptive are you with your products? Does the end user actually know what they are going to receive, or is it a bunch of fluff to get a conversion?

If you want, post or send me your sales page. Either way if its ok I'm going to link to a post I have about reducing chargebacks. Maybe it can help: Top 10 Ways To Reduce Chargebacks | FeelessLeader.com

(If a link is not allowed, please inform and i'll remove).
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Randall Magwood 12 years ago

I love Clickbank. No problems here... when i was a beginning affiliate, the only thing that "ticked" me was that i had to get 5 different orders from 5 different credit card sales.... no Paypal.

Once i got over that hump, it was all good.
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Perils of Clickbank: What Utter Morons!

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