Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: TrustusJones on February 26, 2012, 12:00 am
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When I started I thought I would just be able to eat the losses and refund the customers 100% but after a few 'expensive' lost shipments I have had to rethink my refund policy to a 50/50 policy. I hate to do this but I cannot afford to eat all bad shipments... I would be out of business in a short period.
So this leads me to ask the following question: as a buyer, what is an acceptable refund policy for you if a shipment is interdicted or lost?
Based on the business as it is I think both seller and buyer should assume a certain amount of monetary risk...
what says you?
Thanks!
TJ
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The better the refund policy you offer, the more likely that customer is to shop with you again.
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I think a 50/50 refund policy and the buyer receiving a mark on their record is pretty fair. The vendor loses only half their money and a customer (likely for life), while the buyer keeps half their money but is marked as a "risky" buyer for vendors. It dissuades scamming on both ends but also holds each side accountable.
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As long as you're transparent about your Policy, it's obvious to the buyer, then there's any number of solutions.
Out of the 2.49% of packages that don't make it, undoubtedly some of that is buyers trying to pull a fast one.
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As a buyer, I think 50% is pretty fair. It helps offset the buyer's loss and ensures the vendor does all they can to make sure their packages arrive, to include using their own discretion as to where and to whom they decide to ship.
Whatever the vendor decides, I like to see it clearly explained on their seller page. Having a clearly stated refund/re-ship policy policy avoids confusion, and makes it more likely I'll trust a vendor.
This is a seller's market to be sure, but the vendors have to earn it.
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If you are upfront about your refund policy, buyers know what they are walking in to. Even if it's only 25% or, as some vendors do, a 50% addition to product weight on the next purchase.
Anarcho47
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As others mentioned before in here, I think having a policy to begin with and being upfront about it is more important than how much you actually refund. pine's shipping survey has given me a whole new outlook on this situation really.
Statistically, the chances of a shipment getting lost or popped are rather slim, so from the buyer perspective, I'd think that if a shipment dun arrive either the seller is shitting me, or it got popped indeed and I'd assume that the shipment being found is in some way at least partially within the seller's responsibility (bad packaging, sloppy address what have you).
Personally, and with that new shipping data we got thanks to pine's great effort, I'd say to me personally 50% would seem fair for domestic shipments, because in a non-border-crossing transaction I feel the rather low risk should be shared evenly, just for fairness' sake.
With border-crossing of course, there is an increased risk, and I think 50/50 would unduly burden the sellers, so I'd settle for lower there and still feel it's fair.
But then again, being a buyer of small quantities for immediate personal use, I'm not so much worried about a few coins, but rather about how the situation is handled. If a seller were to be upfront stating on their page that they dun issue refunds because we know that a really really small percentage of shipments actually disappear, I could live with that. Consistency is key though. If a shipment would indeed disappear, a seller that would appear to be making decisions on an arbitrary and inconsistent case-by-case basis would probably irritate me more, than one that would kindly and politely tell me "I feel for you, but it's my policy".
Do I make any sense, or am I just rambling?!?
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Maybe you should consider trying to fix the problem so you don't have so many orders picked off... or atleast use DCNs.
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Unfortunately I have experienced a vendor posting a policy, then as my order was approaching a couple weeks without arriving, but before resolution, they edited their refund/re-ship policy on their profile. Fortunately the order arrived, then the policy was edited back to the original. My point is even if a vendor is upfront, they can alter their policy for their own benefit and the buyer cant prove otherwise, which is kinda messed up.
Be cautious though, some buyers will take advantage of the policy. Psilocin had a if youre are not completely satisfied I will refund 100 percent. Then some shitty scammer complained the gear wasnt strong enough and caused a big scene demanding a refund according to the stated policy. Eventually a 50% refund was settled on, but sometimes stating your refund policy can also hurt you, just so you are aware. Be very clear under which circumstances a refund is appropriate or not offered. Dont leave room for ambiguity for people to extort you. Still I would agree to clearly state your policy, since I am more likely to use a vendor if I know the policy.
In most cases I feel 50/50 is appropriate. Unless the fault resides completely on one party, like giving a false name or something which wouldnt deserve a refund.
You should use delivery confirmation if you are US, then you have evidence a package was delivered and wont have to offer any refunds on expensive orders for buyers just trying to scam you by saying the parcel never arrived.
On a related note I have a question... I had a small domestic order of 25i that never arrived, and was offered a free re-ship. However this never arrived either, which seemed very sketch to me, given they are the ONLY two packages to never arrive in a significant sample of orders, and that the product was a legal RC which shouldnt have been very conspicuous or confiscated. I felt there was no way the vendor actually shipped them, and both wouldnt arrive to two different addresses. The re-ship actually just pissed me off more in that case cause I was worried I compromised my other safe address as well and no longer wanted to use either, and its not easy to obtain new addresses. I was suspicious so I left a 1/5 for feedback since the vendor stopped responding due to vacation. Said I would update but never heard back. The vendor is well established and no one else seemed to have problems so I just dont understand but felt selectively scammed. Anybody else have thoughts on this, or if a 1 was inappropriate? Thanks!
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And also keep in mind sometimes there are situations where no resolution can be had.
For example, I had a customer over the holiday season who ordered an ounce of mushrooms from me. What I didn't know was that this guy had a fixed window that he was at the address, and wouldn't be able to receive after a certain date. My product got there, only he was gone - never to return. The guy demanded a full refund from me, and I said "look, you didn't give me all of the information on this, and you vacated your receiving address. The fault lies with you."
Needless to say we didn't come to a resolution between the two of us, so when SR Admin finally came along to look I opted for a 10% refund just to give the guy something back and get him off my case. SR fully agreed with me and issued the refund without hesitation. Despite SR being the one who issued the refund, I still got a 1/5 feedback.
Sometimes you can't win. If I were shipping domestic only I would probably be at 100% feedback constantly, but the odd package gets snagged by customs or a scam buyer comes along (which my min. stats policies help with, but only go so far) and it's going to cost you. All part of the game, it's just unfortunate the good buyers are left subsidizing the shenanigans in the aggregate :(
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When I started I thought I would just be able to eat the losses and refund the customers 100% but after a few 'expensive' lost shipments I have had to rethink my refund policy to a 50/50 policy. I hate to do this but I cannot afford to eat all bad shipments... I would be out of business in a short period.
So this leads me to ask the following question: as a buyer, what is an acceptable refund policy for you if a shipment is interdicted or lost?
Based on the business as it is I think both seller and buyer should assume a certain amount of monetary risk...
what says you?
Thanks!
TJ
100%, or resend of product.