Comments on: Friday Q&A: What to Do When Customers Ask You for a Refund

By: Hunter Gravis

Hunter Gravis — Thu, 19 May 2016 23:28:03 +0000

Hey Alex,

LOVE GROOVEHQ.

I have a sharing economy type start up & we are ready to go to market. However due to costs my marketing budget is now minimal. If I launch & have slow growth say over the next 6 months I am worried it would be harder to raise capital from investors.

Q. Should I raise some capital prior to launch or put my balls out there self fund until money dries up and then cross that bridge of investment ?

Any advice Groovers would be MUCH appreciated.

By: Josh Kohlbach

Josh Kohlbach — Mon, 16 May 2016 00:27:37 +0000

Exactly the approach we take, better to just refund and get on with people who want to do business with you. Great article Alex.

By: Maurice Koks

Maurice Koks — Sat, 14 May 2016 05:02:36 +0000

I agree up to a certain level, but would handle it a little different,
If they are Bullying while asking for an unreasonable refund (Quote:If they give you trouble, hound you with lots of emails, or complain about it on social?)
I would mail a pack of condoms, and then personally call the Bully and explain that Despite the fact he/she is absolutely not entitled to a return payment, we have nevertheless decided to give a return payment and that the small gift is intended to prevent that species like him/her reproduce themselves.
//////
Come one guys, if it comes to the worse and i have to give an unreasonable refund to somebody who is unfairly Bullying, let me at least have a little satisfaction.

By: Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson — Fri, 13 May 2016 20:23:25 +0000

I only sort of agree Alex.

At some point you do let yourself be bullied.

And you let that bullying persist in the marketplace.

Our standard is that if we’re impeccable, no refund or cancelation of an agreement. If we miss even one “i” or don’t cross one “T”, then we are flexible.

By: BCichowlas

BCichowlas — Fri, 13 May 2016 19:19:42 +0000

I learned this philosophy on refunds from working in the hospitality industry (hotels, etc.). What you describe is the policy that many teach their employees, even though it is not stated to the public anywhere. And their reasons are the same as yours.

By: John Steer-Fowler

John Steer-Fowler — Fri, 13 May 2016 17:32:53 +0000

Hi Alex,

Great post, I totally agree with the approach you have advocated here.

I would add one extra point… try and find out ‘why’ the person wants a refund in the first place.

A piece of advice that stuck with me was, “people focus on why people are using their product when they should be finding out why people aren’t using their product’. There are a whole lot more people not using your product than people who are.

Understand their reason for wanting their money back and fix it and that could be more valuable to you in the future than that one customer’s lifetime value.

Again… nice Q&A, keep them coming!

By: marklittlewood

marklittlewood — Fri, 13 May 2016 16:30:33 +0000

Derek Sivers has an interesting approach to this. Worth a look. These are his 6 Core Principles of Customer Service: http://businessofsoftware.eu/2015/02/derek-sivers-philosophy-customer-service/

By: Jiraud

Jiraud — Fri, 13 May 2016 16:12:37 +0000

Thankfully, we never had to refund a customer except this one who ordered twice by mistake.

By: Justin Stern

Justin Stern — Fri, 13 May 2016 15:53:03 +0000

Totally agree Alex, despite always providing free trials, we issues refunds no-questions-asked for up to 30 days, and we’ve gone up to 90 days in a couple of special cases. We figure if someone took the time to contact us and ask for a refund, they must not be too happy, and you never know, by providing that refund they may tell a colleague “yeah, we didn’t stick with the service, but the support was great and they at least gave me a refund”. We want the last experience anyone has with us to be a positive one

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 13 May 2016 15:34:29 +0000

Hey Alex,

We get a surprisingly large number of refund requests, with similar reasons to halogenn. Being B2B, does Groove get less of these?