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5 Top Ways to Survive a Refunds Nightmare

How to prevent a lot of refunds and save yourself from a refund nightmare.

Regimantas Andre

April 10, 2008

As an online merchant, one of the things you should be wary of is celebrating after making a sale. You do not know it yet but one of your customers may be contemplating getting a chargeback or demanding a refund. When you do get a customer who is demanding for a refund, do not give in instantly. You might be surprised but more than half of all the refunds demanded were not because of credit card fraud or faulty products. Most of these refunds are demanded by unscrupulous customers who bought your products or e-books with the full intention to make copies of these and refund their original purchases. Although it is more difficult to settle refund issues on online products like e-books and other downloadables, below is a guide on surviving refunds and minimizing them:

1. Use the money back guarantee to your advantage.

Almost all customers who have inquired about money-back guarantee policies have the full intention to use them, often immediately after downloading the product and making copies of it. So if anyone contacts you or your staff through your website, email address, or phone about the existence a money-back guarantee and how it is effected, you and your staff should answer all inquiries politely, but offer no additional information. Most importantly, get this “potential customer’s” name and address and BAN him or her. Prevention is always better than empowering a refunder waiting to happen.

2. Collect pertinent information and verify authenticity.

Before effecting a potential customer’s purchase, take the time to collect important information like names, valid email addresses, phone numbers, and postal address. Make it part of your purchasing procedure to have customers verify their given information before effecting the sale. This reduces chances of refunds claiming identity or credit card theft. For added protection on your part, ensure that you use a secure and efficient payment and information system.
3. Provide accurate product details, pictures, and relevant information.

Most refund claimants say that product dissatisfaction was their motive for demanding a refund or that the product they received or downloaded was different from the one they paid for. Avoid this mess by giving accurate descriptions of your e-books and other product downloads. Offer excerpts, chapter summaries, audio clips, or software demonstration. This may seem like a huge effort but it can provide you with protection should the customer decides to demand a refund based on the given reasons above.

4. Require customers to read your terms and conditions before making their purchases final.

Ensure that your terms and conditions provide you with thorough protection against unscrupulous refunds. Make your terms and conditions visible in your website, your product, and in the delivery email. Have a delivery tracking software to track whether the downloaded product or e-book was actually delivered. Set a strict time frame for refunds and enforce it.

5. Join a credible and secure internet marketing and affiliate network that allows you to control refunds.

Internet marketing and affiliate networks do more than increasing your traffic and generating more sales. Most top players in this industry like Click2Sell.EU affiliate network ( http://www.click2sell.eu ) offers ways by which you can manage orders efficiently and promptly. By signing up for a merchant account and using the Orders Management section, you can view the details of the purchase like the product sold, customer’s name and address, payment option used, amount paid, place delivered, and purchase status. Aside from this, selling your product through an affiliate limits the validity of the download link to ensure that the customer cannot share your products with other people. An internet marketing and affiliate network provides you with an extra layer of protection against unscrupulous refunds. Moreover, such affiliate networks allows you to fully control refunds. You can refund the money to your customer whenever you want or feel it is necessary. This way you could save yourself from a real refund nightmare after a successful product launch.

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