Forum Moderators: buckworks
They have been selling online for over a year and have had no complaints from customers. I feel their worries are unfounded... indeed, they are probably losing sales with their policy of "no returns, no refunds".
Would they take a heavy risk of loss by announcing a "satisfaction guarantee", or is the risk of losing sales greater by not offering a guarantee?
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There are many well established brick/mortar reasons for giving money back guarantees (besides some legal reasons!) But consider one overriding factor that is specific to web selling:
Does your client realize how much damage ONE disgruntled web savvy buyer can do to a site's reputation with a few hatchet-job posts on disscussion groups?
If I were really pizzed at a seller, I'd head to Epinions in a minute. What about those boards where customers rank shopping sites? Yeah, I know most gradings are done by the shopping site itself, but I've seen sleazy sellers ripped to shreds.
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"They have been selling online for over a year and have had no complaints from customers."
If it's a high volume seller, there will be a high volume of problems. Take a look at Wal-Mart's busy return counters. Fact of life for virtually any product...no matter how great a job the seller does.
in the case of many transactions or relationships it would be the only sane one to take ..
imagine the maker of customer specificied high value items .... so I commission you to make me a custom $200,000 four poster bed out of walnut with gold trimmings and beaver tails .... oh ... sorry despite that its exactly what you said you would make for me .. I dont want it and whats more I want all my money back .. huh when did we agree to that?
The best type of customer returns is when the customer returns - not the product.
There seems to be a trend at the moment to try to make it so easy to buy things because after all there are so many ways to get out of your commitments afterwards - you need not worry .. any anyhow its on credit and so you did not pay for it yet ... and if the wind blows in a funny way .. you change your mind .. in europe if you have decided in your 7 day cooling off period that your partner was right after all, or world wide if you just decide to do a chargeback .. if you see something on your holiday that you were supposed not to see etc etc ... even consumption of the item bought is no deterrent to chargeback these days in some cases with the CC companies having a bite from the clients and suppliers .. they dont seem to care either way ...
Another approach is for the seller to make it as clear as possible what is being offerred .. no nasty surprises .. no add on costs .. no weak packaging, no overblown expectations
then let people decide that they want to buy something, do not pressure them ... when if they do buy .. they have bought it .. and unless there is something proven wrong with it ..
i.e. unless it fails to perform as to contract . it is their property .. thats that..
Returns departments are not the most productive areas of compaines to staff...
Just playing devils advocate you understand :-)
That said we sell over the phone, so it's fairly black and white – its either our fault or the customer's if they get the wrong product. If it's our fault then we take it back with no quibbles, if it's theirs… well "we don't sell items on a trial basis, sorry".
Certainly I'd never tell a prospective customer they could return an item if they didn't like it, that’s an open invitation to all those muppets out there who think that mail order companies are like libraries that you don't even have to join.
That said it depends on your situation. If returns don't really hurt then its obviously something that might drive extra business, but for us, we do everything in our power to keep them as low as possible.
We stay well within the law (which in some cases means we have to take a return we don't feel morally obliged to), and I don't think any customer of ours could do us any harm as long as they told the truth about any business they've done with us.
Even if they did I could stick the product in to an auction and still make on it.
I really dont think it matters if you have policy listing on the site, only give it if a customer ask.
You'll find that the return rate is generally small if you have a good product and are a good vendor. Mine is <1% easily, and most returns come when I do something wrong. Also, you only need to state a basic policy of returns on the site, and you can make the customer jump through hoops before accepting the returns after the fact. Have them call you, give you the transaction number and credit card number, force them to ship you the product on their own $ - all before completing the returns.
It's much like the rebates on many computer parts these days. Computer companies offer large rebates on computer parts, force the customer to make a photocopy of the reciept, cut the UPC out of a thick cardboard box (work), write a huge address on a label, fill out a paper form that they have to print from a pdf online, pay for the stamp, do it all within 2 days of ordering and still wait 6 months for the rebate. It increases the sales drastically, but due to the effort and the psychology of money in your pocket vs. money being sent to you, the rebate redemption rates are often very low (like 40% or lower, even on large $ rebates).
On the other hand, if you are selling custom 50,000 furniture...all sales are final.
A cornerstone of just about every successful (U.S.) general merchandise retailer is a very liberal return/guarantee policy. On the web, that's even more important.
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In any event, this is easy enough to test online. Advertise a "buyer beware" return policy one month, a liberal one the next. Compare results.
On the other hand, use the fact that they can get their money back as a selling point. Announce it clearly on every page that you have a money-back satisfaction guarantee. And if someone does complain, ask them to send the item back in saleable condition and give them the refund if they do. You end up with a happy customer who will likely buy from you again and may tell others how wonderful you are.
Let's face it. Trying to get a refund online is a hassle. I just don't see people jumping to take undue advantage of a refund policy unless your product is truly a disappointment.
But that's my opinion. I'd love to hear some real life examples of what actually happens.
Our products include clothing and footwear that must fit properly. Shoes are the worst. With a little work we can often persuade the customer to exchange the product rather than get a refund.
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A middle ground might be to accept returns but with a small restocking charge of say 10%. That's commonly done, but I think its a bit small-time.
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Can't be certain, but I believe very, very few customers are trying to take advantage of us. Note, too, that we rarely refund shipping costs.
Jordan
I don't think you should ever agree to give refund based on subjective criteria. Nothing is to stop a person from just claiming to be (insert subjective criteria here) and skip out on paying a huge amount
I advise my clients to insist on the return of the product in saleable condition before giving a refund. If the item arrived damaged, the customer is instructed to contact the carrier and file a damage claim.
Under no circumstances should you give anyone money back and let them keep the product. That is just asking for trouble.
Our full satisfaction guarantee requires that they return the item to us for a refund less shipping costs. In rare cases, we'll refund the shipping.
They almost never get to keep the product AND get a refund. Once or twice we've so mishandled an order that we let the customer keep the item and receive their money back.
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We're damn good at filling orders, but we mess things up about .5% of the time. About once a year an order goes horribly awry. One shipment I recall was lost in the UPS system for more than a month!
- Different Strokes for Different Folks -
It is quite possible that the only thing the businesses about which people are posting in this thread have in common is that the people involved in them are posting in this thread.
The term ecommerce is taken to mean different things by different people.
And as for the business model, market type, consumables vs non, capital items, b2b or 2c, household / domestic, different statutory rights and expectations in different markets etc its a little hard to see the discussion yet as being a constructive one.
If your competitors are doing something then you may be forced into it to compete unless your offerings are perceived as being superior in other ways.
Because some people who say they are doing ecommerce are doing something does not mean your business has to do it.
Benchmarking might be most valuable against people in the same sector with the same route to market but otherwise its just not apples and apples.
imho
We sell a good product that is a great value so we have very few returns. Although it does suck to get a return for an order that was place 2.5 months ago and we have to refund it.
The other we do is NOT offer a return policy on custom orders and we don't refund shipping.
From my limited experience with E-commerce I really think that trust = sales.
