How do you handle refund requests?

Hi I'm new to the business world in SL. I recently opened up a shop with womens clothing. Sales are going great, but recently I got a request for a refund.

I make my prim clothes attachments mod/copy so that they can be modified to fit. I even supply a posing stand and detailed instructions on how to mod prim clothes with every purchased item. Today I got a message asking for a refund because the attachments didn't fit (meaning they didn't know how to mod to fit or they didn't like the items and this is an excuse lol).

How do you handle this situation?

I don't have a clear "no refund" policy posted in my store yet so I'm not sure what I should do. I could:

1) offer inworld help to fit the items (but this could be difficult I imagine, and I don't want to make this a habit),

2) just give the refund and post a sign in the future expressing no refunds so I don't have to deal with this issue anymore, or

3) don't give a refund and say "no refunds" (though this seems rude to me).

Give me your advice.

Thanks!

Refund the money this time and then either make them no copy but mod, or no copy/no mod. Either way, posting your policy would make good sense

Number 2. Then put up a big sign saying no refunds.

I would give the refund then post a sign clearing stating you do not give refund on no transfer items
and if any part of the outfit that was purchased IS transferable, ask for it back (after all if she wants her money back that means she doesn't want the item) right...

I used to not have a policy, but I recently put up one so folks would know I do offer refunds, but only if it is due to incorrect ad, or something is wrong with the product.

so far it has been really good and no one has been any problem for me at all (knock on wood, do not want to jinx myself)

I am not a big time seller by any stretch, but have been designing and selling for nearly 2 years. It is fun and rewarding when folks like your items.

Well, to be honest I think clothes should also have demos, just like hair and skins. I really can't understand why fashion shops still don't have demos and get away with it. From every clothing item I buy, I am disappointed with almost 1/3 of what I buy, because the clothes look very different than on the vendor.

But with that said, I think you should just refund if customers explain well why they want to give the item back. I have a furniture shop and all my items are displayed. So people can see what they buy, no excuses about the product itself. But there can always be other reasons why people ask for a refund. When a reason is good enough, I just refund.

I don't buy at shops with big 'no refund' signs at their front door. It's very customer unfriendly.

I agree with your first paragraph Paulo,I would love to see clothing demos. There have been so many times the pictures look ten times better than the outfit. And I am talking screwed up seams and bad textures,not just the fit.

I would always give a refund, unless you get some huge trend of it happening; which in that case you need to evaluate the product. The good will is worth far more than the paltry Linden dollars you gave back. A good reputation is worth way more than a lot of people think.

Just a shopper's perspective, when I tp into a store and see a big "no refunds" sign, I think either "a-hole" or "poor quality stuff" and just leave. I'll bet you Ricardo does the same thing.

I'm very helpful to my customers, and I don't remember a time when I've said no to a reasonable request, but I don't think I would give a refund on a copyable item. I only sell one copyable item, so I don't get asked.

It's not the one occasion that would concern me. It doesn't matter if one person gets away with cheating. What would concern me is when that person ends up with a very useable item for free, and tells friends where to do the same. That could snowball, and people would be just stealing the stuff. I guess that refunding once, and then putting a clear notice up that there are no refunds on copyable items is a good way to deal with it.

if you refund, they still have a non-transferrable copy of your product in their inventory?

i say that since the customer said "asking for a refund because the attachments didn't fit" that you should follow your advice of meeting them inworld and helping them fit it.

since it's mod and copy, but not transfer, they should be willing to accept a 2nd one and a personal fitting vs. a refund.... (because i have a feeling they ruined the texture [i've done that] and they are embarrassed).

if your policy is no refunds, whether posted or not, if you go the extra mile to help them fit the clothing (especially since that is their claim), you are within your ethical obligations.

no refund. YES full-on bend-over backwards to please the client customer service.

option 1 may be a good will gesture in this case, but I agree it can't be a habit. Optin 2 is fine, option 3 may not be a good idea. My suggestion. Offer to help in this case, they truly might not know how to edit the items, they will learn something. For the future, include a note card with instructions on how to edit the item. If this can be available before they buy, even better, and you can include a No Refund policy as well. You could even, if you want, to offer to assist in fitting for a nominal fee.

The way I look at it is, it's *way* cheaper - from the point of view of *my* time - to give a refund/replacement (about 30secs) than to worry about the relatively small cost of the product.

You need to keep track of this, tho, as it could be abused (like Phil points out).


QFT.

You will get a lot of goodwill by trying option 1), and you might make a new friend

I would suggest that whilst you might state 2) (no refunds), in practice, if there is a good reason, you should still give a refund - again from the goodwill perspective.

I would refund then make a little note in their profile. I would also go the extra mile and offer to help fit what they have already That may sound daft, but seriously sending away a happy customer could bring you many, many more, or at least you would hope return business from that single customer. Word of mouth is the best advert..customer support provides that.

To maybe help you with this situation in the future, posting a sign may help, though to be honest you will still have customers that will ask for help or a refund because thats retail! I would err on the side of judging on a case by case basis. I know its hard because you never want to feel someone has "got one over" on you, but 99% of the time they will be genuine.

There was one time when I refused even to do a swap. I'd inadvertantly left a sex bed for sale at 10L, and the next day I saw that a guy had bought 4 of them. Later that day he came back saying that he'd bought a bed by mistake, and asked me if I'd swap it for a sex sofabed that I do. As he'd also bought a 1000L bed I said sure, so he rezzed the bed. It was one of the 4 10L ones, so I wouldn't swap of course. Cheaky sod lol

I would give them the option of either a refund, or you helping out to fit the attachments to the best of your ability. Personal customer service goes a long way to cementing a positive experience and potentially leading to recommendations and referrals.

If the person wants the refund, then they just didn't like the item and this is their out. Make a note, refund the money and move on.

If the person wants help with the modification/fitting, then you have a golden opportunity to make a new customer for life and possibly their friends as well. Afterwards, give this person an item from your shop totally for free. That will really cement just how awesome you are in this person's mind.

the only thing that bothers me here is you assume they dont know how to fit it or they didnt like it...do you realize how many modable items i have that no matter how much moding of each lil piece i do it doesnt always fit right...i have at least 100 items in my inventory ill never wear because i dont have a typical body shape and can not get things to fit properly ...because i dont have the typical "model" body in sl not everything will fit right and ive wasted tons and tons of lindens as a result just because its not working for her doesnt mean she doesnt know how or doesnt like it

You may have something here, Arua! Seems many SL designers (not necessarily accusing the OP) make things for 5' nothing, 98# anorexics....or (much more rarely) go to the far extreme and do it for the 100% on ever slider uberbuff avatars.

My avatar is tall (7') and while muscular, not 100% on sliders. So ANYTHING with prims is a 1 hour+ battle....and as Arua posted, sometimes it just flat out cannot be resized and look even remotely correct. Could be the case for this person. If the OP is doing ANYTHING with prim parts, they may want to consider doing a S, M, L version rather than the usual waif / schwartzenegger either-or that most designers do.

well they do have to put the prims SOMEWHERE when designing something.

If you are larger or smaller than most people - you have to expect that its going to take effort with fitted objects.

My Av is short and round by SL standards, I have to refit everything.

as to the OP

I give refunds without much fuss. Very few people have ever asked for one in the 2+ years I've been in business.

I agree, refunds should definitely be provided on items that don't fit. I'm also sure that clothing creators would completely understand that reason.

I know Bare Rose Tokyo provides demos for any outfits that they know might not be suitable for all body types, and that likely saves them a lot of grief.

I've generally always provided refunds/replacements, though it's never been a "a don't like it" so much as an obvious purchase mistake (I seem to have one fellow a week who buys a sidesaddle by accident ).

As someone said, you have to evaluate the cost/gain thingee. If I grant a refund immediately, I may have someone stealing one or two real dollars from me. But, there is no overhead; if they are that much of a twit, I doubt they would have actually bought anything. On the other hand, a real customer/nice person who makes an honest mistake isn't going to be too thrilled about me cross examining them or just saying "NO REFUNDS! Read the **** 'd sign next time!".

Try to put yourself in the customer's shoes and think about how you would like to be treated, and you can never go too far wrong.

Offering a refund would be the easiest solution in terms of your time - and then have a very clear NO REFUNDS policy listed for the future.

However, if you do want to help in-world, the easiest way to do this is for the customer to give you her shape (provided it's not one she's bought). You can wear that shape yourself while you mod the clothes to fit, then give her the clothes back afterwards.

It looks a bit freaky when you suddenly turn into their twin, but it works pretty well

Blaze has demo's for L$1, you might want to have a look at that to see if it is something that you would like to do.

I only asked to return something once at a different vendor and that is just because it was impossible to fit on my avi. I thought it was very kind of them to refund my money, no questions asked. They were nice to me and I will always continue to shop there now because of that. If you decide to make refunds part of your policy I would definitely put a time limit on it like most rl stores do.

While I don't sell anything, I can give you the perspective of a customer. Never having asked for a refund, I did IM an owner once because I thought the item I had bought was defective. I was pretty new and like most newbies didn't understand about the 'edit' function. She took the time to walk me through the basics (about 5 minutes of her time) without once laughing at my ineptness, at least I think she wasn't laughing. She even gave me another one in a different colour. I couldn't believe how kind she was. Of course, depending on how big your business is, not everyone can afford to do this with all their customers requesting help. Whenever I am asked for store names, I include her location and rave about her.

I think it's great that you have included a detailed notecard about editing. I would check the person's rez date, maybe she lost the notecard, or didn't think of reading it. Ask what exactly they didn't like about the item and if there was anything you could do to make it better. Refund them this time.

As a customer, I don't mind it if an owner puts up a sign with the store's policy explained, preferably close to where we arrive so its easy to read while we rez. What does put me off is when it's written over each item description in huge letters. Makes me wonder why all her customers keep bugging her with refund requests - must be something wrong with her merchandise.

Again, I've never asked for a refund, but I know of a few places where it is offered in their policy and I am a repeat customer at those places.

The most valuable product in your store isn't what you sell. It is the level of customer service that you provide.

Good customer service creates customers who happily come back again and again, and bring their friends, and spend lots of money.

Bad customer service drives those customers away, and they tell their friends, and any stranger they meet, to not shop there.

I virtually always give refunds or replacement items when asked. Sometimes I have even contacted customers BEFORE they asked, to see if they wanted a refund on what appeared to be an accidental double purchase.

My process:

Customer says "I bought X from you, and it's defective, or there was nothing delivered, or..."

I check my transaction log to verify that they did in fact make the purchase.

If I find them in my log, I'll first offer replacement merchandise.

If they got the item but it seems broken, or they don't know how to unpack it, or it needs adjusting, I will help them, or will replace the item. It usually doesn't take long, and most people love the personal attention. A scammer trying to say a perfectly good item is no good will get caught at this stage.

If that still doesn't help, I'll give them a refund.

Now, if the same person, or a bunch or people in a row, all come in and say they bought something, didn't get it, and want a refund, I may refuse, based on an apparent pattern of someone trying to milk me for free stuff. But in most cases, I find that doesn't happen.

Mor often than not, that customer goes away from the encounter extremely pleased, and I see return business from them.

My sales can more than cover the few scammers that might slip through the above process.

in response to the comment about putting out demos for clothes.

I would do that, even thought about it, then realized I had a couple options..

1 double the prim count that is used by my items (that is nearly or over 100 prims) which I do not have
1 use a vendor or vendors, which again would use prims, which again I do not have enough of, to make having vendors for each section

and if I put all clothing demos in one vendor, how many ppl would want to scroll through it to find that one piece of clothing to try on

being my stuff is transferable, IF someone bought something, and it was not as advertised, yes of course I would refund

if someone bought something then had buyers remorse, no I would most likely not refund. I strive to make sure my ads are not misleading, showing as much as I can of the article, and I do not "retouch" them except to remove the background and resize to fit my ad template.