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Lame @ss "Customer" Rant

by Linx99
31 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
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This post is nothing more than a rant so feel free to skip reading it! I just need to vent.

I reluctantly use the word "Customer" in the title as in reality this guy had no intention of ever paying any money to me.

I just had a guy send me the following refund request email:

"Hello Doug

I purchased this in the spring but did not get around to requesting a refund.

Kindly refund at your earliest convenience."

Now I do offer a 90 day money back guarantee on the product which I always honor instantly (and I did so here as well). BUT I really take objection to this guy:

1. he purchased the product over 90 days ago.
2. he purchased the product at an early bird special price of about $6 [for a $30 product]
3. the tone of his email - "did not get around to" as if as a matter of course he just buys and refunds. Perhaps he sets up a calendar reminder to refund request at the end of every guarantee period.
4. the complexities of purchasing a digital product were too much for this guy. First complaint: The download link doesn't work. Please email to me. Second complaint: I know you emailed me the product separately but I couldnt open it. Third complaint: Email is too large. 15 minutes of messing around to help this guy out!

Now before everyone jumps on me with things like "if you had a better product you wouldnt get refunds", let me first counter with the fact that this particular product has a very low refund rate and has been very well received by clients as being very helpful to solve their particular problem.

Does this guy not have anything better to do with his time than chase down refunds for inexpensive products he bought 3 months ago? It beggars belief!

I checked out his site in his signature and sure enough, its a cr@ppy looking thin affiliate site with bland material, lame graphics and some terrible sales pitch haphazardly splashed across it.

If the guy spent even 1/10th of the time he probably spends buying and refunding other people's hard work instead on producing quality content and helping other people maybe he wouldnt be freaking out over $6!

Anyway rant over. Freebie seekers are just a part of life and normally I just move on with my life and continue running my business but this guy just irked me!

Feel free to sympathize/share your stories/tell me to stop being a cry baby!

Doug
#@ss #customer #lame #rant
  • Profile picture of the author Scott Kennedy
    Just take satisfaction knowing that he will probably never make a single dollar online if he doesn't know how to open an email and download a product.
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    I'd give him back twice what he paid ($12) to promise to never be my customer again.
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    • Profile picture of the author Meonthe
      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

      I'd give him back twice what he paid ($12) to promise to never be my customer again.
      And to save both me and my buyers the trouble, I'd just give $12 and my product away for free for everyone who tries to order my product.
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  • Profile picture of the author zeroday
    eh its $12, I'd just give him it back, because one bad sale can ruin your whole customer base. He may say that your name is associated with scammy / shady product's and that in turn could ruin your future client's.
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    • Profile picture of the author Nick Walker
      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

      I'd give him back twice what he paid ($12) to promise to never be my customer again.
      This

      Originally Posted by zeroday View Post

      eh its $12, I'd just give him it back, because one bad sale can ruin your whole customer base. He may say that your name is associated with scammy / shady product's and that in turn could ruin your future client's.
      Its $6 you thought $12 cheap, there you go $6...

      OT: Unless the WSOs i buy are junks or do not work as it should have, i don't ask for refunds. but that client of yours is really... childish?
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  • Profile picture of the author IronRing
    Banned
    If it makes you feel any better, the fact that he felt compelled to ask for a $6 refund long after 90 days (chances are I'm guessing your product quality is more than fine o/w he and many others would have asked for refunds much earlier), then it kind of implies he has a scarcity mindset which probably reflects his mediocre money making successes (or lack thereof).
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      You must not have had much objection to this guy. Otherwise you wouldn't have issued a refund for his request that was after your refund period.
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      • Profile picture of the author Linx99
        Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat View Post

        You must not have had much objection to this guy. Otherwise you wouldn't have issued a refund for his request that was after your refund period.
        To be honest, ive never really seen the point in disputing a refund request. Although he is outwith our contractually agreed 90 day refund period he can just cause me problems by initiating chargebacks through his credit card or paypal.

        My route is to cut my losses, refund the jackass, ban his ip address then moan to you guys!
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        • Profile picture of the author JamieSEO
          Originally Posted by Linx99 View Post

          To be honest, ive never really seen the point in disputing a refund request. Although he is outwith our contractually agreed 90 day refund period he can just cause me problems by initiating chargebacks through his credit card or paypal.

          My route is to cut my losses, refund the jackass, ban his ip address then moan to you guys!
          I really stick with my refund policies. If he wasn't disappointed enough with the product to bother asking for a refund until AFTER 90 days, then he was not disappointed with the product and is just after stuff for free.

          There are unfortunately a few of these a$$hats around, but giving in to them is what makes them do it over and over again.

          After that period of time has elapsed the only way PayPal/Credit Card company would side with him is if he claimed it was an unauthorized transaction.
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  • Profile picture of the author Newbieee
    To me it will be very simple.

    As long as its within the stipulated time frame i will give, i dont care what his reason is.

    Same with outdated guarantee time, i will not entertain, i dont care what his reasons are. hahaha

    i think its fairly reasonable.

    but of cos depends on my mood.
    if its a $6 thing and he is whining so much i wil just give it to him after all you dont want bad name.

    but u reserve the right to decline his refund if its out of guarantee time.

    Dont u just love this when you need to use it. "all rights reserved!"
    hahahahha!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    1. he purchased the product over 90 days ago.
    2. he purchased the product at an early bird special price of about $6 [for a $30 product]
    3. the tone of his email - "did not get around to" as if as a matter of course he just buys and refunds. Perhaps he sets up a calendar reminder to refund request at the end of every guarantee period.
    4. the complexities of purchasing a digital product were too much for this guy. First complaint: The download link doesn't work. Please email to me. Second complaint: I know you emailed me the product separately but I couldnt open it. Third complaint: Email is too large. 15 minutes of messing around to help this guy out!
    Sometimes that's what you get in exchange for a $6 dollar customer.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Linx99 View Post

    Does this guy not have anything better to do with his time than chase down refunds for inexpensive products he bought 3 months ago? It beggars belief!

    Doug
    Just refund and feel good knowing that this loser will always be a loser. Nothing more you can do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mickyf
    My route is to cut my losses, refund the jackass, ban his ip address then moan to you guys!

    Hi yes I agree with you I would just refund him
    lots of times it's more hassle than its worth to dispute it.
    Your always going to get people who are confused or just plain refund seekers.
    just refund him and wish him well, and yep you could ban his ip address if he becomes a serial refunder
    Cheers Mick
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  • Profile picture of the author TiffanyLambert
    I always think people like this wind up needing money so they go back and try to refund everything they bought that year. I like x3xsolxdierx3x's suggestion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Miranda
    Refund him happily. Block and blacklist him if your product delivery methods allows and take great joy in knowing he is gone from your life.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
    Maybe the refund fed his kids for a day...
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    Gun control means never having to say, "I missed you."

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  • Profile picture of the author funkynassau
    I think you have good reason to whine about this guy, I'd have done the same. Best to just refund his 6 bucks and be rid of him.

    We offer a 60 day replacement on our paint, because it will dry up after that and be unusable. I've had two people tell me it dried up around 40 days. I dont believe that unless they left the lid off of the bottle. But I will replace it, all in the spirit of good business and being a nice person :-) I've had a couple of people want replacement paint after about 6 months. I say sorry, no can do. I suggest they buy the economy kit that we offer that will give them fresh paint and a solution they need to go with it.

    There are jerks everywhere you go, nothing you can do about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    I have an informational website for a specific niche. At the time I dealt with this lamebrain, all the information was available, even if someone wasn't registered and logged in.

    I got an e-mail from this woman, telling me she's having trouble registering and logging in to the website. I tried to tell her that all sections of the site were viewable, even if she wasn't logged in, but she was insistent that she needed to be able to register and log in. We exchanged a couple e-mails, trying to figure out the problem and help her resolve it. She then asked me to call her and walk her through it so she could log in, and I responded that I didn't feel this was necessary. She sent me a diatribe about the lousy "customer service" she's getting and how she MUST HAVE access to the site in order to complete homework assignments for the classes she's enrolled in, berating me for not being willing to call her up and walk her through the process so she can log in and do her assignments.

    That did it for me. I e-mailed her back and told her (1) the information at the website is free, so she's not really a "customer," (2) if she had any brains, she'd realize that all the information was accessible, regardless of whether she was registered and logged in, which I'd been telling her all along, and (3) if she wanted to pay a fee, I'd be happy to hold her hand and resolve what I am certain was a user/idiot problem, but otherwise her sense of entitlement was unbelievable. Then I banned her from the site altogether, so she couldn't even view it. The little twit can go somewhere else to do her homework.
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    • Profile picture of the author MValmont
      That's why you need to hire a personal assistant to take care of that for you
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    • Profile picture of the author funkynassau
      txconx, what a nutbar that woman was! Did she really think you were going to call her after she berated you so badly? Good on you to block her.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jamie Charles
    Don't let it get to you!
    Don't let it get to you!
    Don't let it get to you!

    I have to remind myself of this too.
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    Action! - Action! - Action!
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    • Profile picture of the author anton343
      In my opinon there is no such thing as a Lame @ss "Customer" whatever his reason for refunding thats his choice basically you could have just issued the refund as you did then let it go instead of having your rant
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Linx99 View Post

    I purchased this in the spring but did not get around to requesting a refund.

    Kindly refund at your earliest convenience.
    "Well, thank God you caught this oversight.

    I am so glad you realised your mistake and recognised how simply unfair it was to have given someone money for a product, kept the product for several months, and actually let that person continue to have the money.

    As you know, all the money in product development is really coming from the interest earned during the few hours or occasionally days between purchases and refunds.

    But honestly, thank you very much for the opportunity to earn an extra twelve point three cents in interest while you graciously allowed the refund period to expire.

    I'll refund your money immediately, and I look forward to refunding other purchases for you in the future."
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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    • Profile picture of the author Linx99
      Originally Posted by anton343 View Post

      In my opinon there is no such thing as a Lame @ss "Customer" whatever his reason for refunding thats his choice basically you could have just issued the refund as you did then let it go instead of having your rant
      Disagree. It's not his choice if the contractually agreed guarantee period has expired. But whatever.

      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      "Well, thank God you caught this oversight.

      I am so glad you realised your mistake and recognised how simply unfair it was to have given someone money for a product, kept the product for several months, and actually let that person continue to have the money.

      As you know, all the money in product development is really coming from the interest earned during the few hours or occasionally days between purchases and refunds.

      But honestly, thank you very much for the opportunity to earn an extra twelve point three cents in interest while you graciously allowed the refund period to expire.

      I'll refund your money immediately, and I look forward to refunding other purchases for you in the future."
      Love this! Wish I had sent this to him.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jamie Charles
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      "Well, thank God you caught this oversight.

      I am so glad you realised your mistake and recognised how simply unfair it was to have given someone money for a product, kept the product for several months, and actually let that person continue to have the money.

      As you know, all the money in product development is really coming from the interest earned during the few hours or occasionally days between purchases and refunds.

      But honestly, thank you very much for the opportunity to earn an extra twelve point three cents in interest while you graciously allowed the refund period to expire.

      I'll refund your money immediately, and I look forward to refunding other purchases for you in the future."
      Lol this is going in the swipe file! I hope to use it someday, thank you sir.
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  • Profile picture of the author builder4580
    All you need now is for someone to claim a refund on any free wso you have made available! Actually, at $6 this is pretty much this guy.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Whenever I get a refund request like this I will always just refund the customer and be done with it. My time is worth a lot more to me than to sit there corresponding back and forth with idiots like this. I'll log into Paypal, refund, and be done with it. Nice quick 2 minute job.

    I also send them an email confirming the refund has been processed and ask them if they could kindly provide some feedback as to how they felt the product differed from what was outlined on the sales page.

    Those people who provide feedback, even if it's something simple like they just didn't have the time to get around to implementing things, I will thank them for the feedback and wish them well. I won't blacklist these people from purchasing future products from me.

    Those who never reply to this email will get blacklisted. It's more than likely they were just out for a freebie and even if they weren't, if they don't have the courtesy to let me know why the product was not worth the money then I don't want to have them as customers.

    Originally Posted by JamieSEO View Post

    I really stick with my refund policies. If he wasn't disappointed enough with the product to bother asking for a refund until AFTER 90 days, then he was not disappointed with the product and is just after stuff for free.
    That's all good and well to say but these people can often cause more trouble than it's worth if the transaction was processed through Paypal. They can even do a straight chargeback or unauthorized transaction. Often they will do these things without ever contacting you first.

    I had a guy contact me the other day telling me he did not have the download details for my product. The name rang a bell so I looked up the transaction and he had purchased over 3 weeks ago and requested a refund the day after he purchased the product. I had given him the refund 3 weeks ago and he was still trying to get into my product.

    They will try anything!
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Originally Posted by Linx99 View Post

    "Hello Doug

    I purchased this in the spring but did not get around to requesting a refund.

    Kindly refund at your earliest convenience."
    Cool. How about 2014? I've set that entire year aside to refund expired guarantees. :rolleyes:
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author mongsky
    he should've went at it right away so if it doesn't suit him he could have gotten a refund.
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    Refund requests are always an irritant, but they are sadly come with the territory, they are always folks mischieviously or not who will always ask for refunds, and their tact may get on your nerves, so just roll with the punches
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    OK, Linx.... I will play devil's advocate!

    FIRST of all, he may not realize it is so late. I have had similar problems, but usually don't bother.

    Maybe the download link DOESN'T work! It is astounding how many DON'T! They either use a special technology, or aren't supported by a browser, or the file is corrupt, or the file is too large and the connection is not PERFECT! HECK, I have access to a product that is in the millions of dollars *****NO JOKE*****, and it uses a technology that makes it effectively impossible to download! I have to download it to my WINDOWS system, and then upload it to the target system. So it takes me like 8 times as long as it should. It is over like 9GB of info, so it takes DAYS! Just because THEY want a special download process!

    OBVIOUSLY, he couldn't run it from Email because it was too big. You DO know that MOST email has a definite size limit, right?

    He apparently DID have better things to do, as he took over 90 days to ask for a refund. As for websites? What does THAT have to do with anything? It may not even be his best website. So you feel that all ordering from yu should have a site as nice as microsofts whole network? Do ****YOU**** have such a site?

    Steve
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