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05-27-2013, 06:07 PM #1Web Hosting Master
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30 Day Money Back Guarantee - is it worth it?
As the title says really, 30 Day Money Back Guarantee is it worth offering this as part of the service?
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05-27-2013, 06:16 PM #2Moving the Web Forward
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05-27-2013, 06:33 PM #3Disabled
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In my opinion it is worth it although there may be some people that decide to be host hoppers and abuse money back guarantees.
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05-27-2013, 06:58 PM #4Web Hosting Master
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As you are in the UK the distance selling rules state that you must offer a minimum 14 day cancellation period. From that you can deduct any reasonable charges such as a one off setup fee, bandwidth use and so on.
So as a minimum you should be offering that however personally I don't give any more than the 14 days, it's ample in my view, different countries will have different rules, some none at all.
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05-27-2013, 07:56 PM #5The Linux Specialist
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Yes and No.
Yes, good for serious clients.
No, good for abusers and possibly make your server blocked from spam list.
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05-27-2013, 08:22 PM #6Junior Guru
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Clients always appreciate a 30 day guarantee (or whatever time period you may offer). Some clients are more likely to signup just because they know they can get their money back if your services does not suit their needs and like mentioned above, if the customer is serious and finds you service fitting they will most likely stay and not ask for a refund. If you do give refunds, take into consideration that there are always people that signup and ask for a refund at last minute just to have get your service free for a month. It's just part of the business.
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05-28-2013, 04:19 AM #7Web Hosting Master
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That's not what the distance selling act says at all. The distance selling act also doesn't apply to web hosting as it's a service.
I think a money back guarantee is important part of gaining a customer's confidence and trust. As others have said though, actually honouring the guarantee is also important. You can have a few caveats, for example, not covering things like SSL certificates or domain names, but in the main the more difficult you make it for someone to leave, the less likely they are to come back in the future.Darren Lingham - Stablepoint Hosting
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05-28-2013, 04:55 AM #8Best Customer Service..ALWAYS!
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Actually the distance selling act does apply to web hosting, it applies to any UK business selling anything on the internet or mail order etc regardless of whether it's physical goods or not.
If you sign up with O2 for one of their mobile tariffs, you have 14 days in which you can cancel. It's a service, but they still have to comply with the distance selling act.
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05-28-2013, 04:59 AM #9Best Customer Service..ALWAYS!
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As to the OP's question. Yes it's a good idea to offer a money back guarantee. A lot of clients would be put off signing up with you if you did not offer one.
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05-28-2013, 05:16 AM #10Web Hosting Master
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it is really troublesome. i believe offer longer cancelled days will get more new clients's confidence. but it may also attract bad man.because i ever get a bad experience,a bad man put office and windows files on my server for downloading over days,when i find the issue,i terminate his account because i had tell all the users they can not do such service on my server,then,he ask me need to refund him or he want to accuse me to government and public forums,finally,i agree to refund him.
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05-28-2013, 03:11 PM #11Web Hosting Master
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05-28-2013, 03:23 PM #12WHT Addict
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I always appreciate host that offers 100% money back even just in few days.
In my case I am always looking for a high performance shared hosting and I never give up on trying new discovered hosting provider.
Personally I think since last year I have tested almost 15 shared reseller hosting and I have save a lot of money because of the money back guarantee.
I really think a hosting company that are confident with their service should offer a money back guarantee but tied up with fair terms and conditions for abusers and violators.
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05-28-2013, 05:58 PM #13Web Hosting Master
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This is a very important feature that you can offer with your services. This is what makes your clients lockin when purchasing your services.
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05-28-2013, 06:12 PM #14Web Hosting Guru
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Absolutely! It's a big time trust builder and lets your users try your service risk-free. Look at it from their perspective. How would you feel about trying a service and have no recourse if it doesn't work up to your standards?
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05-29-2013, 03:27 AM #15Web Hosting Master
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Sorry, you're right it does apply to web hosting. However, it only applies for 7 working days and only where performance of the contract has not yet begun. So in the case of web hosting, performance of the contract begins almost immediately (essentially when the client has their control panel details and can start using the service).
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05-29-2013, 05:31 AM #16Junior Guru Wannabe
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I am just starting out but intend to offer 14-30 days money back guarantee. However, I am not really sure about the no questions asked, but ultimately I will do it knowing that I will have to deal with a few host hoppers.
Who would move their content every month anyway?
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06-01-2013, 11:06 AM #17Web Hosting Master
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I think offering a 30 day money back period is good for business and good for new serious clients - it allows them time to try the service and if its not what they really want they can get a refund and look for another provider.
The downside to this is that we tend to get a few clients per month that signup and then within 12 hours they cancel and request the refund and give no reason why they want a refund. We always issue the refund but it would be nice to get some feed back.
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06-01-2013, 11:40 AM #18WHT Addict
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Re: 30 Day Money Back Guarantee - is it worth it?
From a small-time customer's POV:
For shared hosting, I definitely expect a 14-30 day money-back guarantee, else the host has 0 chance of ever getting a cent from me. There are just too many variables involved.
For VPS, I expect no money-back guarantee whatsoever unless the host wants a year's fees up-front, even though there are still variables beyond my control despite root access.
I'm thinking that the different mindset is, in large part, merely due to expectations created by so many shared hosts competing for market share over the years.
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06-01-2013, 04:42 PM #19Web Hosting Master
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We always offered it when we ran our VPS provider. One thing you must however do is use fraud screening and a call service (MaxMind and Telesign are very cheap - you'd be a fool not to use them really) as this helps to cut out a majority of the bad eggs.
If you find yourself getting a lot of fraud, disable free email accounts - it didn't hurt our business at all really, and very rarely did we get a fraud signup after doing this.WHSuite - Billing, Automation and Client Management Software.
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06-01-2013, 05:35 PM #20Web Hosting Master
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Some good feedback. Thanks for all the replies.
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06-02-2013, 05:56 PM #21Retired Moderator
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So glad the right answer finally appeared
Crucially though, you must draw your customer's attention to the fact that their right to cancel ends when the service begins, and that the service will begin before the end of the usual cooling off period. If not, they've potentially got three months to cancel and request a refund!Alasdair
Long time ex-host, ex-billing software owner/developer/support staff. Recent lurker.
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06-03-2013, 05:30 PM #22Web Hosting Master
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Yes. It's absolutely worth it to offer and actually make good on that 30 day money back guarantee.
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06-03-2013, 07:41 PM #23Web Hosting Evangelist
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when you guys offer money back guarantee, what are you meant to do in regards to non-refundable items such as domain names?
is it fair to offer 100% money back guarantee for hosting, but NOT domain names costs?.
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06-03-2013, 08:55 PM #24Web Hosting Master
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It is fair. This is where your Terms of Service will come in. Standard practices;
- refund on shared hosting for a time period
- no refunds on domain names
- no refunds on vps or servers
- no refund on service work performed
Just like an offline business....you can refund a customer on some parts, but your time (service) can never be refunded.
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06-07-2013, 05:23 PM #25
We offer something like that. Even if I didn't want to offer it, what is the result going to be if someone is unhappy, didn't get what they expected, wants a refund, and I don't give it to them? Well, they'll charge back their card, complain about my company in public, who knows. So really, policy or not, you'll end up giving the refund. You may as well score some brownie points by advertising up front that you will give it, instead of letting it be kept a secret.
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