Hi,

Someone signed up for hosting last week. About one week later he decides that he wants a refund because he has founder cheaper hosting with "unlimited" bandwidth!!

We do not offer a trial or 14 day money back guarantee currently and was wondering what I should do in this situation.

The money is irrelevant (it was our cheapest plan) its just that i dont think he should get his money back. Am I able to just refund a portion of the total amount?

He has come back to me quoting....

"I would like to point out an extract form The Sale of Goods Act 1979, the Consumer Protection (Distance Sales) Regulations 2000.

Recovery of sums paid by or on behalf of the consumer on cancellation, and return of security
On the cancellation of a contract under regulation 10, the supplier shall reimburse any sum paid by or on behalf of the consumer under or in relation to the contract to the person by whom it was made free of any charge."


Any help?

Sometimes it is so much easier to do what it takes to make them happy. (and cheaper too) I have a rule of thumb, I see what the monthly bandwidth allowance was. Then I see how much they used, if it was over 50% then no refund and I explain that to them. If they hardly used anything, well I just let them go and give them their money back.

Biggest reason is, chargebacks are a huge pain and usually somone that is "loud" like this is very well versed at and quite comfortable at chargebacks.

Are you located in England? I believe this is what he is referring to: http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/england.sale.of.goods.act.1979/toc.html

Edit: Thinking somewhat more about this, he has not properly and with just reason cancelled the contract. If it was for nonperformance, he has a point. Again though, it prolly isn't worth the headache.

Hmmm I'm curious if that's for services as well since they can't exactly give you back what they used other than the space. Make sure to tell them about unlimited bandwidth, but I'd refund them anyway since it was a cheap plan, they didn't use it long and you (I'm only guessing on this part) don't have anything in your Service Agreement about it (yet). But experienced learned, add something into the TOS stating how you handle refund or that you don't give them.

That regulation doesn't apply in this case. You and him had a contract. You offered him a service and he was going to offer you a monthly money sum. If you have meet your end of the agreement then he has to meet his. He has to pay for that month of hosting.

netsolutions,

I agree with you.

:cool:

"Your final month's service is not prorated..."

A good addition to your TOS.

Sounds like a flightly person anyway, maybe a whacko. Better to just refund the money and not accept any more orders from him.

I'd also add something to the TOS about no refunds (if you want to stay with that policy) and the no prorate as mentioned above, as well as the 50% usage part.

Thanks for that, i'll see what happens.

Let us know what happens. But if you're clearly in the right, which I think you are, it's not impossible to fight chargebacks if you think you have all of the documentation. We do it.

Only problem is if your processor charges you for chargebacks.

Your business met its obligation and did nothing to cause the customer's change of mind. Your business shouldn't be punished.

Those businesses that have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee expect such things, but I'm sure that your business has a reason for not having a guarantee, and you shouldn't be expected to be forced to offer one.

But then our sales guy would say, even the ex-customer is sometimes right, too.

After thinking about it I offered a partial refund (just over 50%) and the would be customer has accepted that.

I think we were in the right, but this way the problem is done and dusted.

Some people are just so fickle - but thats life I suppose.

Once again, cheers for the advice.

Originally posted by Dunthank
"Your final month's service is not prorated..."

A good addition to your TOS.

I like the thought of that - but if you were to offer a 30-day Money Back Guarantee or even something less. Would that be a conflict allow the host to "decide" what they wanted to do.

Are you saying offer 30-day Money Back Guarantee OR final month's service is not prorated? I am drawing a blank in my thought process at this moment.

It's MUCH easier to issue a refund and be done with it. It's almost always better to part with customers on a good note.

Unhappy customers will tell more people about your services (and not in a way that you want them to) than happy ones...it's a proven fact.

Don't make it a power struggle. You're right and can win this battle...but at what cost to your reputation?

--Tina

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Dunthank
"Your final month's service is not prorated..."

A good addition to your TOS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I like the thought of that - but if you were to offer a 30-day Money Back Guarantee or even something less. Would that be a conflict allow the host to "decide" what they wanted to do.

Are you saying offer 30-day Money Back Guarantee OR final month's service is not prorated? I am drawing a blank in my thought process at this moment.
If you offer the Money Back Guarantee then the final month being non-prorated wouldn't apply during the Guarantee period. But since SuperDon doesn't offer this, it would apply from day one. We have both the 30 day guarantee and no prorate the last month. We've not had many cancellations, but we've also not had anyone complain about the no prorate when they have cancelled.

Hi SuperDon,
I'd say that you are luck that this guy has gone.
It always better to have good clients.... also be a good provider.... :)
You can always focus on hosting in the ideal environment...

Have a great day :)

Regards
amar

Originally posted by AffordableHost
It's MUCH easier to issue a refund and be done with it. It's almost always better to part with customers on a good note

I'm with Tina on this one. We do a 30 day money back for good reason. It's gives the customer a chance to move in and try things out. If there are problems we have time to work with the and try to come to a solution. If none can be found it's well within 30 days so we can just cut a refund, and help them find something that suits them better.

It's insane not to offer that in a hosting environment. You'll wear the processor fee but that's a lot less than the chargeback they'll let you wear if they get pissy enough.

And remember to still treat them as a client (Yes Sir) till they're gone. Losing a customer is always a pain in the can, but you need to be adult about it :D

Greg Moore

Hi,

Thanks again for all the help.

Basically we dont curently offer any kind of 30 day money back guarantee, if we did we would have to push prices up to cover the inevitable loss from this. Another reason is we offer a free .co.uk with our packages and this can make things complicated when giving refunds. We understand that people may like a money back guarantee feature but at the moment our clients and potential clients seem to prefer the lower prices.

We have only ever had two people ask for a refund, this guy and another guy who left on very good terms - he basically wanted more time to get his site set up before using pay hosting.

We have now decided that our policy on refunds is basically "refunds are only available at managements discretion" and we are going to offer refunds minus a charge to cover our fees (ie. CC processing, domain registration etc.)

Cheers.