I think I’m a great customer. If I do say so myself (and apparently I do).
I’ve been buying information products for at least 7 years. And I can’t recall even one time asking for a refund. Even when it turns out I already know much of the content inside the report… Even the time I bought a product that detailed how to pull off a joint venture that I believe I invented.
Why? You can usually find one or two great ideas from any competent product. I even discovered a cool original tip from the product that explained my joint venture.
I consider finding one or two cool tips a success. But people with a different mindset are outraged. They write emails like this,
“I bought your product a few minutes ago and realized I already knew most of what’s in your report. Please send me a refund.”
Fair enough. I usually offer a no-questions-asked refund. But that doesn’t mean I’ll continue to do business with you.
You’re banned!
I know the value of my products. If they didn’t provide value, I wouldn’t release them. If a refunder doesn’t see the value, then we’re probably not going to see eye to eye in the future. Seeya, do business somewhere else.
I also know that my products are original. I get my information from DOING this business, not just reading about it. So if I get an email saying they learned nothing knew, I can only assume they haven’t checked out the product yet. There’s no reason to continue doing business with a person like this.
So here’s what I do.
Sitting on my hard drive is a text file called “bannedIPs.txt”. This text file is only 208 bytes (not kbs) large, but it saves me a ton of headaches. It contains the IP address of people who have requested refunds.
These people will have a hard time purchasing from me in the future… in fact, they won’t even be able to see my sales page.
On the route directory of my websites, I have a filed called “.htaccess”. Inside this file you’ll find text that looks like this…
order allow,deny
deny from xxx.xx.x.x
deny from xxx.xx.x.x
deny from xxx.xx.x.x
allow from all
The “xxx.xx.x.x” lists the IP address of a refunder. This way they won’t be able to purchase from me in the future.
Why wouldn’t I want them to purchase from me in the future? Because “refunders” tend to be “habitual refunders.” They do it again and again. They ask for the most support. And they’re a drain on your business.
I recommend trying a banned IP list. Even if you don’t get very many refunds. Many of my products have never received a refund request, and yet I still see the value of adding this function to my business.
What do you think?
November 20th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I have heard of people keeping a banned list, and I believe some of the shopping carts have a banned credit card list where you can achieve the same.
Apparently clickbank will automatically do the same to someone who has refunded twice.
brilliant post, appreciate the exact ‘how to do it’ element of it.
cheers,
Tony.