Sometimes you need to fire your customer

[TigerSoftware]

Yep, that is what I have been doing.

You can either fight on principle which I am normally inclined to do or just refund the person and make your life a whole lot happier. I had to remind myself that just today.

I have been doing the latter and that has made things a lot easier for me. I tend to naturally fight this position because I believe I am in the right.

Being right doesn't matter when it comes to some anonymous people on the internet. A lot of them are cowards and have nothing better to do than to make your lives more miserable.

That is why I have been going against my natural behavior to fight and just refund. Sometimes I dip back into the fight but in the end I come to my senses and issue a refund to enjoy the peace.

Sure it is sometimes hard to swallow your ego but it makes life so much more pleasant. hehe

So don't be afraid to refund someone even when they don't want the refund. It really is true that the minority of people will be the biggest problems. Fire that minority...

Life is too great to worry about those types of people. The negativity will just bring you down to their level.

We move on, meet better people and throw some coin in our bank accounts. :)

I am blessed with the customers I have and try to remember that even though I have at times concentrated on the bad stuff, I have met and become friends with great people.


Thomas

[Alton]

I know what you mean. I try to help my customers too, but once it appears that they are just trying to cause problems, I have to move on. I can't waste my time with that. I generally send the refund and move on. Fighting with them does me no good. It is going to end badly anyway. You did the right thing.

As I sell more products, it becomes easier to sense the direction things are heading.

Alton

[TigerSoftware]

I know what you mean. I try to help my customers too, but once it appears that they are just trying to cause problems, I have to move on. I can't waste my time with that. I generally send the refund and move on. Fighting with them does me no good. It is going to end badly anyway. You did the right thing.

As I sell more products, it becomes easier to sense the direction things are heading.

Alton


It does get easier but that ego part of me is sometimes difficult to keep in check. hehe

It will drive us crazy if we don't move on faster and hopefully people can learn from my mistakes. :)


Thomas

[MikeM]

Amen brother. I had a customer buy some action scripts, and about an hour later wanted a refund because they didn't work. I told him that they do indeed work, and quite well, and that if he had a problem I would be more than happy to help him.

So, I worked into the night, trying to tell him the action scripts need to be installed in a specific folder, spelled a specific way, and that if he would only use the automatic installer instead of trying to do it manually, he would have no more problems. Well, after working back and forth for many hours, he finally got the message, thanked me profusely, and then continued to follow through with his refund from clickbank.

So, I called him on it, and he said: Oh, I thought I cancelled that refund request.

I informed him that no, he did not, because the refund went through. So, he asks, what can he do to make it right. I told him just go rebuy the action scripts. Well, a day or so later, he wanted some information on how to use the scripts. I again pointed out he should first go buy them again, and even sent him to another site of mine where I have videos that go with the scripts for only 20.00 more. So, things are quiet for a few days, then he contacts me again, and asks if I can just give him the one video he wants to watch to learn how to combine the actions so he could have a box and some cd's.

OK, so now I'm really pissed off :mad:

So I politely emailed him and asked him if he was for real. I informed him that first off, he's in violation of a few laws for even using the action scripts, because he got a refund and was supposed to delete them. Then I asked him for a reason he hadn't deleted them, then I put the huge guilt trip on him about how much time I spent working with him to get him going, and then he refunds anyways.

So, of course I haven't heard from him since, and he hasn't re-purchased the scripts. He's just some professional refund asshole. But, I did admire his balls for asking if I would send him the videos even after he burned me ;)

Anyways, I guess I worked hard to make him happy, and he rufunded anyways. But, that is the game and I would do it again for the next person, because I have a need to make people happy with my products, even though I know the result in the end. But for every one that did get refunded, there are lots more I helped and went the extra mile with that did not refund and went away happy. Those are the real people.

[TigerSoftware]

So, of course I haven't heard from him since, and he hasn't re-purchased the scripts. He's just some professional refund asshole. But, I did admire his balls for asking if I would send him the videos even after he burned me ;)

Anyways, I guess I worked hard to make him happy, and he rufunded anyways. But, that is the game and I would do it again for the next person, because I have a need to make people happy with my products, even though I know the result in the end. But for every one that did get refunded, there are lots more I helped and went the extra mile with that did not refund and went away happy. Those are the real people.


That is funny and reminds me of a few people that refunded and still requested support. That is until I set the software to stop working once a refund went through. (I am still trying to find a way to incorporate this into TSB programs)

We really need to concentrate on the good customers and let those people (in your posts) go away. I know it helps me stay motivated and happy when I focus my attention on the people that matter.

I am a pretty straight shooter which gets me into trouble at times. I never back down from fights but that has also caused me more stress than I really need.

Still, your post made me giggle a little just because of the audacity of some people. lol


I just had someone threaten to post communication if I didn't refund a no refunds purchase. They knew there was no refunds on the purchase. The were having problems (so they say) but a lot of what they were saying didn't add up. They didn't answer specific questions and just complained.

Of course they didn't post all the communication and conveniently left out some of my private messages... ;)

Now I normally don't back down from these threats. Doing business online will get you some of these types and I fought them every time. This time I just refunded and moved on. I told the person to post the communication and I would be glad to full in the missing pm's he didn't have. hehe



Thomas

[Alton]

When I sell on Ebay, I have to put it on a disc and mail it to them. If they want a refund, I tell them to send back the cd. About half will not send it back, so no refund. Of course, I trash any cd that comes back.

Don't misunderstand me, I want to help my customers, but I also deserve to be treated fairly. It would be great if we could "turn off" our software products when we do a refund. I do ban them in my DLGuard setup.

Alton

[TigerSoftware]

When I sell on Ebay, I have to put it on a disc and mail it to them. If they want a refund, I tell them to send back the cd. About half will not send it back, so no refund. Of course, I trash any cd that comes back.

Don't misunderstand me, I want to help my customers, but I also deserve to be treated fairly. It would be great if we could "turn off" our software products when we do a refund. I do ban them in my DLGuard setup.

Alton


That is something I really want to add to TSB. I have it working with RAP right now with the TSB and TSMaker products but it is hard coded.

I am trying to figure out a way to do this without hardcoding the locations and easy for you to install.

I will create a post to get some feedback on how everyone is delivering their products. I don't know how to really make this seamless like it is working with RAP when everyone doesn't use the same script.

That is one of the reasons I have been thinking of the physcial delivery. I purchased the RAP kunaki addon but like the memberships where people can log in to get the latest version. Both addons won't work together.


Thomas

[MikeM]

What good is sending a CD and getting it back? They can still download the program off it and continue using it. I guess the only answer would be that if they don't send it back, no refund. Except of course for ClickBank, who just refund anything. I actuall totally quit using them.

I have tried a number of delivery scripts, including RAP, but dumped them because it takes so long to setup a site, and I wanted to move all my sites to WordPress. So I tested wishlist member, and it seemed to work OK, but still 300.00 for multi site got the best of me and I sent it back. I may need it again once I decide on my monthly software site. I'm going to test memberwing next. They have a free version.

So, right now, I am using wordpress and DLGuard for delivery and iDevAffiliate for my affiliate program and Auto Response Plus for my list building. They all integrate so nicely, and it is very easy to get the site up and going.

Any script I try to use needs to integrate with iDev and Auto Response Plus. I think I will go back and rebuy wishlist member once I make a bit more money because I was able to get everything to work together, except encrypted download links, but they said they may have that this year.

Any ways, being able to turn the software off after a refund would be HUGE and really make me feel like GOD once I told the refunders their software wouldn't work any more :D

[TigerSoftware]

What good is sending a CD and getting it back? They can still download the program off it and continue using it. I guess the only answer would be that if they don't send it back, no refund. Except of course for ClickBank, who just refund anything. I actuall totally quit using them.




Most people won't send it back which will cut down on the refunds. Normally you will require the product to be sent back for the refund to happen.

I won't use Clickbank.



Thomas

[dimeco]

<snip>....Any ways, being able to turn the software off after a refund would be HUGE and really make me feel like GOD once I told the refunders their software wouldn't work any more :D

This would be a HUGE thing for me as well...

And/Or the ability to limit the # of times a person can install it. (Because more than 2-3 times means they're sharing it!)

I know there's software out that does this, so obviously plugging it in would be incredible.

I too have the RAP system and I like it for 'fast offer' type sales, but frankly I rarely use it because it only tackles paypal and not the other two payment systems I use (Alertpay and 2Checkout), which I get at least a 1/3 of my sales from these two. Actually, a promotion I ran back in march, was an opposite - more than 60% used Alertpay, 30% used paypal and 10% used 2checkout.

RAP makes me lose sales when that type of thing occurs.

Thanks Mike for reminding me of DLGuard.

Now we just have to tackle the ability to turn off software :D

Amber

[schmutly]

I think its a good idea too.
I was trying to find a software 'wrapper' like knight protector and in searching
found this COLLECTION of pro's con's of different methods interesting
http://www.developer-resource.com/how-to-protect-software.htm

But i agree with above. I solely use clickbank as resource material to see the 'buzz' , selling on their -
no thanks. I use DLGuard v4 myself too..and i think it is easier to refund then have the email-debating-stressometer going for some dweeboid who tugs his todger by mouse light:eek: :D...LOL

[MikeM]

I have a script that will wrap the exe file and only allow it to be installed how ever many times you want, but it was a pain to use and relied on the payment processor returning the purchaser to the page to get the registration code and then to the download. Wasn't real great when using DLGuard or any other script that needed details from the sales.