[Hidden-tech] fair refund policy feedback request

[Tom Kopec]

non-answer follows:

Yes, I suppose, it would be The Right Thing To Do to refund the unused 
portion. But, an agreement is an agreement.

Having been in the consulting game myself for a while now, it really 
comes down to Karma.
Both sides have a valid argument. The client says "hey, I'm not getting 
what I need from this" and the consultant says "hey, I blocked out this 
time for you" ..
So, the amicable solution is somewhere in the middle. Everybody 
hopefully learns something ("experience is what you get when you didn't 
get what you wanted").

And hopefully both parties can look at themselves in the mirror while 
brushing their teeth the next morning.

I sleep well at night; my clients may or may not, but that's their 
problem. They don't lay awake cursing me, though.

...tom

On 6/27/2013 2:44 PM, Val Nelson wrote:
>
> Hi HT friends,
>
> I wonder what you would consider standard practice for a freelancer in 
> a case like this.
>
> Let's say you hire someone and pre-pay for a 20-hour package where 
> time is tracked and the fee is based on the hours. Then you find it's 
> not working as expected, despite giving it a try for at least 10 
> hours, trying to adjust things to make it work. Would you expect they 
> would give you a refund of the unused 10 hours (when both agree on how 
> much is unused)? Or would you think it's fair for them to say that's 
> too bad because it was a pre-paid package.
>
> To me, it seems like bad business not to refund the unused portion 
> when a customer is unhappy...  no matter how you package the payment 
> plan, and frankly no matter what agreement is in place. I would think 
> keeping the customer happy or ending on good terms is always the 
> priority. I welcome hearing opinions on both sides in case I'm missing 
> something.
>
> Thank you,
> Val