[Hidden-tech] Refund policies - marketing issue

[Stephen Michel]

For what it's worth, I believe that this change in PayPal and Stripe policy is a reaction to changes in credit card processing fees. That is, when faced with the same decision, they choose to pass on the fees.

For the actual question, I don't have much in the way of advice, but I do have an alternative idea you can consider: if your customers have accounts, you could eat the loss on their first refund only (or one per year, or per X orders, etc).

On February 25, 2020 3:51:58 PM UTC, Marcia Yudkin via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>Looking for your responses on money-back refunds in the light of new payment processor policies.
>
>Paypal now charges sellers the normal processing fees where there is a refund to the customer.  Before, when you gave a refund the fees were reversed as well, but no longer.
>
>I just learned that Stripe, which handles many of my transactions, is going to have the same policy starting April 1st.
>
>Now this might not seem like a big deal, but last month I had a customer sign up for an event and then two minutes later ask me for a refund, because they had forgotten to check their calendar.  Their forgetfulness cost me $9.00!
>
>I have always been a big fan of no-risk, money back for any reason policies if you are not satisfied, with a few exceptions.
>
>But it seems massively unfair for the seller to lose money because of customer flightiness or mistakes.  
>
>On the other hand, telling customers about the new policies and either restricting refunds or charging the fee to the customer seems wrong in most instances.  I think they will expect you to absorb the extra charges as a "cost of doing business."
>
>What is your opinion?
>
>Marcia Yudkin
>Goshen
>www.yudkin.com
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