Refund or no? I need some advice...

So.. yeah.

I have a product for sale. Someone bought it. They now want a refund.
That's the short version.

Long version:

They bought my product to use with a specific AV. They don't like how it works together with this other product, so they've asked for a refund. Very nicely, but they asked, all the same.

Now, in RL, I would do this with no hesitation, as I can just go ahead and resell the item and I'm not at a loss.

But in SL, I have an infinite supply of the product. I also have no way of knowing whether the person has, in fact, "given back" the product (i.e. Deleted it from inventory).
So there's no resale factor and there's no way to guarantee that I'm not being scammed.

I trust that they're not going to, but the problem I have is that it's really not my fault that a) it doesn't work with someone elses product and b) they don't like the way it works.

I wonder if they're asking the AV creator for a refund as well!

On the flip side, there's the "Creating customers of quality" factor.
Do I eat it and give the refund at the risk of being scammed or deny the refund and risk pissing the person off, thus potentially losing future sales?

Anyone have any ideas/advice?

(The first thing I'm doing is making an "All sales final" sign to hang, as well as adding that to a notecard on the vendor!)

It depends on the permissions on the item.

If it was Transfer Only, I would say that if giving the refund isn't going to break the bank then it is a nice thing to do. They get their money back and will likely say nice things about your shop (rather then saying, "The stuff from that shop doesn't work!" (Make sure they give you the item back before you refund the money)

HOWEVER, if it has a copy flag on then the answer should be no, as there is no way for you to be sure they will remove the item from their inventory. Simply state that no shop in SL gives refunds on objects that have copy permissions.

I would say something along the lines of "Oh, I'm sorry that my product is incompatible with your av! Please let me know the creator's name and I will see if I can work with them to make a new version which *is*."

There have been some posts at http://slcaveatemptor.blogspot.com/ that may be of interest to you. If it's trans, get them to send it back to you. If it isn't, they wont be able to resell it anyway. If it's no transfer... Hmm, tricky. If they're being polite with you about it, I would. But in future you should post some no-refund/exchange signs up, or have a notecard giver with your store policies.

I would say post the note definitely.

But give 'em their money back - object or no - then keep a note of their name.

If they show up again in a few weeks asking for another refund say no and ask around other shops and see if the name is common.

( I had one the other night - someone bought an object and claimed it never arrived - however I have auto registration on my stuff so saw in my email the purchase AND them rezzing it in world - so they got a No, a ban, and a mute )

I assume it's a copy/no transfer item since you say you can't tell if they deleted it from inventory. I also assume you didn't have a "no refunds" policy listed anywhere since you say you're now going to add a sign and update the notecard.

Given that, I'd say refund the money and make the "no refund" policy clear. Right or wrong, many people are going to assume it's ok to ask for a refund unless explicitly told otherwise.

HP

Sorry, my bad for not explaining properly.

It's not that the product doesn't work, it's just that they don't like the way it looks with the AV. They knew what my product looks like, they knew what the other product looked like, but, when put together after purchasing, they decided they didn't like the look. There's nothing wrong with my product, other than they don't like the way it looks when combined with someone else's product.

Does this make a difference?

If the product was broken, then I wouldn't be in this quandary! *grin*

It's just that they don't like it.

"Just not liking it" is a bit of a dubious reason, assuming you have pictures and/or demos etc. I mean, I have plenty of things that don't go with other things.

can you post the perms for the aforementioned object?

I'm probably going to end up refunding, but, in the back of my head, I'm thinking, like...

If I bought a shirt and, because my AV is really short, it doesn't look good on me - there's nothing wrong with the shirt, great looking shirt, it just looks terrible on me - do I ask for a refund? Is it right to ask for one?
Why should the person that made it lose the money I paid for it just because I chose to wear an AV that it doesn't look good on?

I do see the other side of this, it's just that THIS thought is niggling in my head.

gotta think too..
this could be someone saying i want a refund...then a few weeks later someone might want a refund again..could be the same person just trying to get free shtuff..
If the object or w/e is no transfer= no refund
also u could put a time limit within 24 hours or else NO refund

just my 2 cents

I've always said a friend is better than a customer.

Give them their money back and be nice about it.

I hear what you're saying, however, I don't see anything wrong with asking for a refund even if there's nothing technically wrong with it.

In your example, you bought a shirt that looked good in the store pictures and you thought it would look good on you. But, because in SL shirts aren't something you typically get to try on before you buy, you had to actually buy it first to see how it fits on you. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit so well.

Why should you be out money and stuck with a shirt you can't wear?

I do understand that in your case, the item can't be returned due to the permissions and that does change things. It's easy to think "they're trying to rip me off."

Seems like it's just this one person this one time, so do yourself a favor and give yourself some good joo joo and return the money. Then, of course, institute and enforce a well-defined return policy.

HP

Did they bother asking you if your product would/not work with that particular av?

If not, they did not perform the necessary "good faith" effort to make sure it would. If they just said, "what the hell, I can always get a refund", then I'd say no.

I like Fog Creek's tagline:


Though they are doing it for software, my refund policy similar to theirs. Of course, if someone starts abusing it, I'll notice and stop refunding for that person. And as long as refunds are only a small percentage, I'd rather have happy, returning customers.