I want to talk to you today about the ideal refund policy. There are so many scenarios when it comes to refunds, but I recommend a “no refund” policy in your contracts. It’s the best way to protect your business and you can make adjustments on a case-by-case basis.
In this episode we will cover:
- Why to have a “no refund policy”.
- Going above and beyond
- Cancel culture and bullying.
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The Legalpreneur Podcast is advertising/marketing material. It is not legal advice. Please consult with your attorney on these topics. Copyright Legalpreneur Inc 2022
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Episode 218: The Ideal Refund Policy Transcript
Andrea: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Legalpreneur Podcast. I’m your host, Andrea Sager, founder and CEO of Legalpreneur, Inc. As a serial entrepreneur and someone that works exclusively with small business owners legally protecting their business, I’m dedicated to covering common legal issues faced by business owners, providing you with the business knowledge you need to catapult your businesses growth and showing you just how some of the world’s most elite entrepreneurs have handled these legal and business issues themselves in true attorney fashion. The information in this episode is not legal advice. This is for informational purposes only, and you should always consult with your attorney before implementing any of the information in the show.
Andrea: [00:00:48] Hello there. Welcome back. I hope you’re having a wonderful week. We’ve been cranking along. We’ve had so much going on this week. And I’m so excited to announce that as of today, we now have a two payment option for Dream Bigger. So many people have reached out and they’re like, Look, I want to pay for the hotel. I want to get there, I want the VIP. But right now, just a lot. And so we recognize that it may be an issue right now. There’s a lot going on in the economy. So we did just put up a two pay option for dream bigger. They’re 30 days apart so you can pay half now and then half in 30 days, which is actually after the event. So if you have been kind of towing the line, this is available for General and VIP. Seriously going to be such an epic event. I’m so excited that we’re going to have an IV bar there. We’re going to have so many amazing vendors to connect with and find new resources for your business. On top of our amazing speakers Allie Webb, Danielle Canty, Chris Harder, Dr. Wayne Parnell, Jake Talfer, Lizzie Hoefer. The list goes on. I’m so excited. I really, really, really hope to see you all there. I You don’t need a discount code. Just go to the Legalpreneur slash dream. Bigger sign up and we’ll see you there and make sure you book your hotel ASAP because the room block is filling up and we only have so many rooms, so get that booked before the rooms are taken.
Andrea: [00:02:18] Getting into today’s episode, the ideal refund policy. Now, for some reason, I don’t know if there’s something in the air, but a lot. Honestly, I think it might have to do with the economy. But I’ve had a lot of clients asking about refunds lately, like, Hey, this person is asking you a refund, what do I do? My contract says No refunds or what do I do about this, what I do about that. And I just want to just put it all out there. I haven’t covered this in quite a while, so. What I’m going to tell you what I think the ideal refund policy is. You are free to do whatever you want for the refund policy. I just want to tell you what I think the ideal refund policy is. So I think you should have in your contract. No refunds. And but hear me out. I’m not going to just say, okay, that’s it. Bye. So ideally, you want to have in your contract no refunds. The reason is because you can always go back on your contract if somebody asks, and that just shows that you’re going above and beyond, but by default, you don’t want to allow refunds. So one client I had, it was really two clients in particular one. The other part was wanting a $7,500 refund.
Andrea: [00:03:39] Even though my client went above and beyond, they just weren’t happy with results. So the client, they have an ad agency and ad agencies like. There’s never guarantees with results. And we make sure their contracts are rock solid of, hey, you may not make a dime on these ads and really ads. You have to be running them for a certain amount of time. There is a whole thing, a process, like there’s a method to the madness with ads. And they actually did get this person a lot of sales. They I think they were just expecting my client to make them $1,000,000 business overnight. I don’t I don’t know. But their client wasn’t happy. They wanted like a $7,500 refund, which was almost like half of what they paid. And this was at the end of the contract. So my client had already fulfilled all the services. And I was like, girlfriend, no. I was like, You don’t even have to offer anything. And obviously the contracts are no refunds and the client was threatening to put bad reviews. Do this, do that. And I was like, I am sick and tired of people wanting to bully small business owners. And it’s not even just like not wanting to bully my clients, but I see it all the time, whether they’re my clients or not. So many small business owners are getting bullied. They’re like, Oh, I’m going to run your name through the mud.
Andrea: [00:04:59] And this because we’ve seen cancel culture. It’s shit. And I mean sometimes yes, I think it’s called for, but most of the time it’s not. And in this situation, clearly it wasn’t so. And of course, the other party was threatening to get an attorney involved, blah, blah, blah. And I told my client they were doing all the back and forth messaging. And finally I was like, look, just see me on the email because so there are legal per client and that’s what I we allow that with the legal membership they can CC the attorney if they don’t want to pay to get them involved yet it’s said to me because they were threatening to get their attorney involved and I was like, just put me on the email and say, Hey, we’ve tried. We’ve talked about this with our attorney there. Sit here, let us know if you have any questions. Literally, they were like, okay, fine, like. Done the same thing with my other client, who he has a book agency. Book writing agency client just didn’t want to put in the work and she was asking for a refund. He was like, she’s like, she doesn’t deserve a refund. Like, I’ve done what I’m supposed to. And that’s why I think you. Need to have a no refund policy and then you can go back on it and which makes it look like you are going above and beyond.
Andrea: [00:06:10] So this party, they just hadn’t put in the work. Like, they it’s pretty much access. It’s like a group program. So there’s part like recorded videos and then like part one on one access with my client and he was like enjoying it. Like she’s like she has access to everything. She’s just not doing the work and she wants a refund because she doesn’t have time right now. And I was like, Dude, you can offer a refund, but you don’t have to. And quite frankly, and I gave him the whole spiel. I was like, I’m so tired of this. So I just think you should stick your ground and not give a refund. And it’s just I’m tired of people trying to bully small business owners, threaten this, threaten that. And so when it comes to refund policies, I think you should always have no refunds if you’re a product based business. I think you should you should also have no refunds. Of course, if it’s damaged or anything like that, that’s a completely different story. If the products are damaged. And then especially for product based businesses, possibly allow returns. And then based on how what the products, why they want to return, maybe maybe you pay for shipping if it is damage or you should pay for shipping if it’s damaged. If they just want to exchange because they don’t like the item, then they need to pay for shipping.
Andrea: [00:07:27] I mean, there’s a million different possibilities, but just some considerations when creating your own refund policy and just be aware you can always change it. So once you have a refund policy, it’s not set in stone. If you do change your refund policy, you do need to give 30 days notice for any changes. And if you if you’re a service based business and they’re let’s say it’s a group program or it’s a course. I wouldn’t change it if it’s a launch like you do launches. I wouldn’t change it if it’s like let’s say it’s a six week course and. If you just launched it and you’re in the six weeks, I wouldn’t change it until the next time you launch it. So if you’re in the middle of a launch, don’t change it after they’ve already purchased. I would do it after like after that cohort and just do it for the next launch if you have changes to it. I mean, we can talk all day long about refunds. It’s really a case by case basis. And that’s why a lot of people love the Legalpreneur membership is because. These are things that come up more than anything else. Questions about refunds or, hey, this person wants this, this person wants that. It’s not in the contract. So we can kind of chat more about even though it’s not in the contract, should you do it? Should you do this measure of good faith or are they just trying to see what they can get? Because a lot of times people are asking just to see if you’ll say yes.
Andrea: [00:08:55] And even if you say no, they probably respect you more because it’s like, Hey, I did sign this contract. I they’re sticking to it. I got to stick to it as well. So that’s my spiel on refund policies. If you have specific questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. I mean, just to recap, I think you should say no refunds and then take it on a case by case basis and not tell them that you take it on a case by case basis. But if somebody does ask you for a refund, then you personally can consider it on a case by case basis. Because if you say no refunds or refunds are only allowed on a case by case basis, you’re going to get more people that come to you pleading for a refund instead of if you just said no refunds and then they come pleading to you, they’re going to self qualify or self disqualify themselves and say, Oh, no refunds. I’m not going to ask. A few people still will, but you want to keep that to a minimum. So just straight up say no refunds. But of course we can always chat more. Feel free to reach out. We have the membership. Let me know if you have questions the entire time.
Andrea: [00:10:01] Here at Legalpreneur. We’re committed to providing a supportive legal community for all business owners. I know how scary the legal stuff can be. If you found this information helpful. I would be so grateful if you could share it with the fellow business owner. And quite frankly, it doesn’t cost anything to rate, review or subscribe to the show. Your support helps me reach more listeners, which allows me to support more business owners in their entrepreneurial journey. Have any questions or comments about the show? Feel free to drop me a line on Instagram, I promise. I read all of the messages and comments and if you want to be a guest on the show or know someone that would make a great guest, simply fill out our application form and a team member will reach out if we think it’s a good fit. I’ll see you in the next episode.
