When Do You Ask For A Refund?
Have you ever asked to have your money refunded after buying something online? Do you do this often? What are the reasons you've asked for refunds? Savvy marketers will try to find out why without making you feel you should not have asked. This would be valuable information to them. Anyone selling on the internet should be willing to have a fair and prompt refund policy. To back up their products and claims without hesitation. It is especially important to do with online sales since the transaction is done without being able to "read" the salesperson and operation face to face.
Fairness and ethical behavior goes both ways. Due to the fact that online info products and downloadable software are easy to copy and keep while also obtaining a refund, the buyer kind of has a special "burden of honor" too. I have asked for refunds when a product was totally misrepresented and poorly done. In one instance the video and audio courses were sold as being "convenient and viewable anytime and anyplace. Turns out it was a convenience for the marketer since you had to view them from his site, and you guessed it, the site was very, very S-L-O-W. If I buy something costly and you sell me like that, I want to download and OWN it.
Another time I went through an ebook that had not been cheap to buy and it just didn't contain too much I didn't already know. I was just about to ask for a refund (and no, I don't do that often, only a few times EVER) when I decided to look again at the ads that made me bite on the offer. The seller had not misrepresented anything. And his offer and
presentation were not "junky". I simply had learned more about the subject than I thought and hadn't realized it. Good for me! The additional value for me then became studying what was very good ad copy. I didn't ask for that refund.
A common situation you may find yourself in is not being ready for the level of material you are reading. A little more study at the basic level and perhaps simply putting the material away until you are ready may be the answer. Some advanced topics will not make sense without base knowledge. Due to the vast scope of some subjects it might be hard to cover it in one product or course series.
Don't hesitate to ask for a refund if you truly feel the product was misrepresented. Educate that marketer about what you feel was wrong. If they don't improve, they deserve to give all their money back. Just don't be one of those awful people who buys an expensive product KNOWING they are going to ask for a refund. That's the same as stealing and is unethical. If we want the convenience and gratification of being able to immediately download what we have purchased to continue, we can't bleed the online merchants dry.
Copyright 2004 Kim D Regan All Rights Reserved
This article may be distibuted freely, as long as this entire article, including links and resource box are unchanged.
Kim Regan is a web entrepreneur with experience in the small business, online marketing and technology fields.
FortuneExpo http://www.fortuneexpo.com
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