Am I the only one not buying it?

Blanket guarantees do increase sales but there are some products
that you cannot give that guarantee (refund) for such as software that
cannot be disabled. There are many product categories that
cannot be returned "once opened". The business owner must
weigh the loss in income from not offering a guarantee to offering
one where the buyer can still continue using your product after
the refund. Of course most digital products fall in this category.

-Ray Edwards

It's not an if, you said so yourself, you are using it anyways. Reading the content is what you're paying for - you aren't paying for having your opinion validated retroactively.

Can you buy a video game, play it for a week and then return it because you like the quality? No, they only accept unopened games. Can you go to a concert and stay til the last song only to get your money back because you thought the light show wasn't impressive enough? What about a bouquet of flowers, can you get a refund from a florist because they didn't smell the way you thought they would?

How am I stepping over dollars to pick up nickles when you refuse to pay for content you've already been given? Because you bought something on speculation instead of research and now you want me to just trust that the information you were exposed to is just not going to be used by you? How about you come let me stay at your house for a night and eat your food and take whatever I want as long as I say I'll replace everything and probably give you a little cash? What, don't be stepping over dollars to make nickles here - I just said that I'd give you money.

I offer no refunds, no money back guarantees, and the only time I have ever offered them was when I was forced to as a terms of Clickbank's platform. Oddly enough that's the only time I've lost money a product launch. But surely you must know more about the business than myself and then scores of other people who would say the exact same thing.

You, as the customer, are paying for a product. I, as the person you are paying for that product, then deliver what you purchased, information. You aren't paying for the PDF. You aren't paying for the book. You aren't paying for the CD. You aren't paying for the canvas. You are paying for the content and you received the content.

As a customer I don't really care either way about money back guarantees as I rarely refund a product...

However, as a product creator I offer them, but for a very different reason...

I offer a guarantee so that I can filter my lists...

If some one refunds a product of mine I will remove them from my list and also add them to the blacklists at the payment processors I use so that they can't buy another product from me and cause me more headache in the future.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule - like when one of my software won't work on their computer, etc.

But generally speaking - I think guarantees are just good business. They offer a piece of mind to the customer and do help to increase sales.

Following this "strategy" I have been able to keep my refunds to a minimum and also get rid of the "serial refunders". My highest refund rate to date is on my Clickbank product which is still currently under 8% which I consider a success.

However, if you are buying and refunding a lot of products then I think there is another issue altogether. I think you should quit buying products and focus on one thing - only buy products related to that "one thing". Stick to one thing for at least 6 months and I think you'll probably stop buying as many products altogether. This was true for me at least.

Cheers,
Coby

As always with threads of this topic, I refer to...


Not to toss gas on an open flame, but Gamestop gives a 14 day no questions return policy, opened or not. I know because last week my mother purchased Skyrim for my father for the holidays. She unwrapped the game to remove the price tag, wrapped it in giftwrap, and gave it to him early so he could play. After opening the game, he let her know he already had a copy. She returned it the next day, completely open, and without any issue.

Lucky you

If you want to sell me something you need to figure out the way to protect your product so I could test it first.
If I want to buy something from you, it’s my job to check if I can return that product if I don’t like it. If I can’t, I simply won’t buy it.

I wondering, how exactly do you 'return' a digital product such as a E-Book or a Software? How exactly do you return knowledge? Do you wipe your brain clean some how? Do you pack up the electrons that carried the digital information to your computer and send them back?

First let me say that I sell software, and I do offer a refund policy (30 days). However with digital products buyers cant 'return' the product. They can get there money back but they can never return the product.

Believe me to, people abuse this all the time.

-I have had buyers buy a software, download it and then within 3 minutes email me for a refund.

-I have had buyers buy a software, download it and then ask for a refund, but STILL post a great review of how much they love it.

-I have had buyers buy a software, download it, ask for a refund, and then later ask me if they can be an affiliate for it because of 'how great it is'.

-I have had buyers buy a software, not even download it, ask for a refund and then later email me asking how they can get there download that they bought.

Its this kind of abuse that has lead some sellers to not offer a refund policy. Some like myself still do have a refund policy, and just consider these people the 'cost of doing business' but some sellers, selling legitimate and high quality products are of the very fair mind set of, since you cant give it back, there is no refund period.

Keep that in mind the next time your considering not buying a product because there is no refund period.

As for your whole argument of "If I get 20% more sales and 5% more refunds Im in the black." Thats a lot of guesstimation there, might make sense and might be a good business strategy. But then again money is not everything and some sellers dont want to be stolen from (and buying with the intent of asking for a refund, but keeping the product is theft) Also you have to consider that 5% more refunds looks bad to your affiliates.

Either way its up to the buyer to decide what they want to offer. There are pro's / cons of each tactic.

Probably true in some cases, but on the other hand a lot of buyers don't understand investment. They're too cheap to invest in their mind, and many who do fail to understand that not every investment has an equal payout.

When you invest in your mind you invest in your future. With some investments it's hard to see the immediate value. However, there can be hidden value that only becomes apparent later, once a certain level of knowledge or skill is attained.