Do Nice Guys
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There are 2 sides to every question and true to form, REFUNDS has 3. 1. Yes I will offer a refund because I don't want even one of my customers to go away from my business thinking they have been cheated. 2. No, due to the nature and timeliness of my product I cannot make refunds. 3. No, I won't offer a refund. Anyone that places an order and then asks for a refund is a thief and a scoundrel and I will give them a good cussing then send them packing. Refunds in a business such as restaurants, car wash, service station, apartments are pretty well standardized. If you go to a car wash or a service station and come out unhappy you just bite your tongue and tell your friends to avoid the place like the plague. "That guy .." It's when you go into a car wash and come out with all the mud from the car ahead of you dumped inside your car that a refund is usually felt to be in order. But that's my philosophy of success... I firmly believe that everyone in business has the right, and the obligation to rise and fall on their published refund policy. Most stores offer to refund your money if you are not satisfied and that is pretty standard fare,, Others wanting to let people know the owner is proud of their product or service will offer a DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK if not satisfied -- but it is still up to the business owner whether to offer double your money back, just your money back, or even a NO REFUNDS WILL BE MADE refund policy. | Reduce Your Pile Of Debt Be Your Own Banker * Modern economic terms * Bargains for Budding Millionaires *You Can Be A Power Boat Captain * 5 Reasons to Check Your Own Credit Report * Bargains in auto insurance * Money Secrets * Learn How To Write professionally * Hundreds of free books that you can download. Build Your Own Web Site and Make Money From It * Birds * Beaches * Deep Water * Shortcuts for Travel * Get the Jump on Warts * Essays About War * allergies * World Travel * Diabetes * Fishing * family * Health Builders * The X-Files * The Gardening Angel * Working From Home * Painting Your Home * Humor Is Funny Medicine * Inspirational Essays * |
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I firmly believe that everyone in business has the right, and the obligation to establish a refund policy. It should be up to the business owner whether to offer double your money back, just your money back, or even a NO REFUNDS WILL BE MADE refund policy. In today's world a NO REFUNDS policy is rather unusual and therefore it is usually stated in big, bold letters... "Because of the nature of this product or service, no refunds will be issued." People understand and make up their mind if they want to take the risk. Buying anything online is a risk. So is placing an order by mail. Thomas L. Hall from the 50s and 60s of last century, pretty well stuck with his "double your money back if.." 60 years later I remember my purchases from Mr. Hall with vivid pleasure; That man delivered real value. Others in mail order, that don't offer any kind of guarantee, felt like they could deliver any kind of trash. They went by the theory that if 100 people hated what you sent you would receive no more than 5 requests for a refund -- thriving on the goodness of man to make a living for themselves. When they are inundated with requests for refunds most merchants will pull back and reappraise their product, instead of raking their customers over the coals for not seeing things their way. But there are also those merchants that have a grand old time making fun of the customer. |
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By not mentioning a guarantee, trashy dealers claim they are not required to give anyone a refund. This particular, extremely well-written literature says his products
Well, if there is no guarantee then it's the same thing as declaring, "BUT DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT!" When this particular package was delivered, the ONLY instructions were in video format. None of the videos would work. The owner said that this was my fault; I didn't have the latest software. It was good enough for the order I placed yesterday for a brand new product, but suddenly it's no good, according to him? I ask you! Before you go deciding not to offer a refund to your customers, ask yourself which of these two ads you would respond to.. TRIPLE your reading speed in less than an HOUR! Blast through an average 200-page book in just over 30 MINUTES! If this sounds good to you, send me $50 Or..
Yeah, I'd want to check out the nature of those free gifts first, too -- and that first ad reads pretty good -- until you study it a bit and realize all you are sure of getting is a joyous noise for your $50.. That's along the lines of the advertising I responded to.. it sure sounded good, until I had it in my hands.. After telling me that this would work with any machine and then telling me my machine wasn't good enough, this came like a slap across the face. Maybe he hadn't meant for his words to be insulting, but boy, it sure came across that way. And maybe my short request for a refund struck him just as wrong as his judgment of my machine struck me -- one thing's for sure.. the refund process can be laid on treacherous soil for both parties. It's just that I don't want another patch... every time some company patches my software up without asking me I have to figure that one, or a dozen, of my other programs will be affected. Every patch that gets slung at my computer is another chance to mess with the functionality of my machine -- and why does he state that it will work on any machine when my almost new machine won't use his product? Never mind, Get it or else. Do I want this product? Yes! So, I got it and hoped for the best.. Instead, he got the best of me. Even when the videos were functioning properly the references that I could understand were unclear, and nothing inside the package matched up with what was seen in the video. The accent was,,, disturbing. "If you can do it, please issue a refund. But you don't have to look too hard for an excuse to give me one because I'm not dealing with you again." This owner responded with a volume of verbal abuse insisting that anyone that asks for a refund is simply a crook. (Now, how does he know this, I wonder? He tells me..) Because so many people had taken advantage of his refund policy in the past he had quit issuing any and now never made refunds. There were just so many crooks in the world, ordering merchandise and then asking for a refund on one pretext or another.
Let's compare his premise to that of a car dealer living by that same premise. On the windshield he posts "45 miles per gallon" On the front window we see a sign saying, "Low mileage," On the back window we see a sign saying, "power steering, power brakes, power seats, air conditioned. You buy the car and quickly discover that none of these things are true. will the state attorney general haul this dealer to court to recover your purchase price? If you have proof these statements were made then, YES, Mr. Car Dealer can be taken to court and most likely he will do jail time as well as refunding your purchase price. You will have done the world a service by turning this critter in. Our owner says that this package is made for "use by complete newbies" and yet I'm no newbie; I've been putting videos on my web sites for 8 years now. He says that I don't know how to read advertising? and yet I understand advertising so well that I've been making money off the advertising I write since 1963. Nowhere on any of his sales pages connected with this offer does he mention that no refunds will be issued. It turned out none of the videos would work with my machine. The only instructions that had been furnished were available only on video and the videos would not work on my machine. the owner said I had a cheap machine and suggested I get the latest patch. Even with that, and even with the training videos, I could not understand a thing. With no manual, just the videos, I spent hours backing up, listening again, and still not getting anything at all from the instructions on the videos. I said that I had deleted everything off my hard drive, and if a refund were possible I would appreciate it but not to go to any extra effort because he had already lost my business and I was removing him from my list of contacts. In other words, "If you can't give a refund, don't even write back because this transaction is complete." Maybe he misunderstood my generosity: My money was gone, but I was willing to let it go for the sake of peace in my life. The owner definitely gets right back to his customers. He wrote back immediately to say that only crooks asked for refunds. Every time I responded to one of his blasts he would write RIGHT back to me. The first time, he wrote right back and hotly explained that it wasn't his fault I couldn't read. Because so many people had taken advantage of his refund policy in the past he had quit issuing any and now never made refunds. There were just so many crooks in the world, ordering merchandise and then asking for a refund on one pretext or another. With his product there was no way people could return the merchandise and how was he to know if someone had deleted everything or not? The message was plain: He wasn't going to make refunds to anyone and especially not to crooks and anyone that asked for a refund. My position here is: He wasn't issuing a refund, therefore he had no call to even write back and insult me (a genuine customer). I had plainly indicated that we were through. The issue escalated. I responded with the message that every business owner had the right to not make a refund and that if he had a NO REFUNDS policy then just drop the matter. I mean, throwing $20 down his toilet is not that big a deal to me and I had saved a lot of money learning that none of his products were guaranteed. I had not received what I wanted and if I had overlooked his stated policy not to offer a refund then it was my loss. Instead, the issue escalated again. His carefully crafted response is copied and pasted below so there can be no possibility of misinterpretation about his reaction to my offer to just forget the matter so we wouldn't come at loggerheads . "I am glad that you didn't purchase the whole graphics package deal when you had the chance, because chances are very high that you wouldn't have understood it either and for sure, you would have thought you could just tell me how confused you are and expected to get a refund on the deal as well. I don't deliver any products that gives any reason to cause someone to need a refund. And take it offensive when someone does ask for a refund." Okay, pause here and let's recap his officially explained position on refunds. Remember, this comes right from the horse's mouth He used to offer refunds, but too many people asked for refunds. Why do people ask for refunds? Well, the only reason I know of is because they are unhappy. Well, sometimes the customer orders one thing and expects another. This had happened here, but the product that I did receive was not usable to me as it had no material in it that explained what it was explaining. I had spent hours trying to understand what it was referenced to. Nothing in that package would do what those videos were saying.. Is it really only crooks that ask the owner for a refund? The owner thinks everyone is a crook and therefore, they would waste hours of their time to get their own money back. In fact, he takes it as offensive when someone asks for a refund. I can't see any percentage in that kind of business transaction, can you? Back to quoting the owner.. "I guess it comes down to the fact that you just can't interpret what you are reading. Finally on a couple of more notes here.... You asking me not to respond to you is like me coming and slapping you in the head and then telling you not to dare any retaliation.... DO NOT come around my websites or place any more orders at all... I am banning you from any more orders, I hate people that get a delivery and then expect a refund... my pet peeve .... You are for sure not welcome around here anymore... I especially can't stand those that don't get their way and then try to be insulting about it... Shake it off, Lin,,, it for sure is not very becoming of you.... See, I don't have to kiss anyone's ass... I have more than enough repeat buyers and am doing very well and do have an awesome future !!! And forget any counter offer... I was over extending something to someone that doesn't deserve it !!! Now you can go !!!! Shoo off ... Scram... Get Lost and don't ever come back !!! We don't want nor deserve you kind around here !!!" That is the fiery end of the statement. If I was in the wrong, okay, no refund, but wouldn't it have been a lot better for customer relations if he had just said NO and dropped this matter as I asked him to? As it is I still feel insulted, cussed at, slime-balled and generally put upon. Not only that, I lost my money because I thought he was a nice guy. He fooled me on that count, 5 times -- That's another thing he's good at. |
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| This owner maintains that
Nice Guys don't have to give
refunds. That's his policy
and he's sticking to it. Is
that policy the right one for
you? Mail order, from Sears
forward, was pretty much based
on a good guarantee. Even
today, most
copywriters guilty of "spilling
the beans" insist that you
will always make more sales by
offering a guarantee, especially
as your customers come to trust
your integrity.
If anyone at all asks me for a refund I usually suspect I am the one that has done something wrong. "Have I led them to expect something else?" My reaction was to rush a refund to them, and then suggest that they keep the product, and let me see if I can help them fix it, from my end, or theirs, according to where the problem showed up. All too often it was on my end, and I would suggest you remember that if anyone ever does ask you for a refund. Maybe your software doesn't work with EVERY computer. Now, if I even think someone is trying to be a crook then the refund policy I finally worked out for my own business was to rush the refund to the customer AND then give them another product that was selling for twice as much. I still lost a few customers, but most of them gave me my refund back and remained customers for years. If it isn't right for you to offer a refund then your best policy is to plainly state that on your pages. Just remember, if you don't offer a guarantee, customers will wonder why you don't, and they will wonder if they can trust any of the statements on your sales pages. Without your word and your bond behind it, not one phrase on your web site has any integrity. Are you declaring it is new? That it is better? Is it the best ever? It won't work; Even "This is best" turns into the rush of air being released from a hot air balloon when the owner wants to fall to the earth.
As Isaiah said in the
5th chapter, |
the end
About the author:
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