Money Back Guarantee?

[GnadeGames]

I was curious if anyone has instituted a money back guarantee for their games. I would think it would be a good policy, but my fear would be people downloading the game and paying for it and then saying it sucked to get their money back. Meanwhile, they still are playing and enjoying your game. I like the confidence it gives potential buyers, but the feasibility of implementing it seems difficult. Thoughts?

[mahlzeit]

If you allow people to buy your games using a credit card, then you implicitly offer a money back guarantee already (through chargebacks). So you might as well make it a selling point and use it to your advantage. If you use a payment processor to handle payments, then they already handle the refunds, so there's nothing to it, really.

[GnadeGames]

I meant explicitly stating that if you don't like this game in xdays we'll give you a full refund. Yes credit card companies will give refunds, but not just because someone contacts them and says "nevermind I didn't want this." Does that make sense?

[Savant]

I would think it would be a good policy, but my fear would be people downloading the game and paying for it and then saying it sucked to get their money back.
This is always the fear but never the reality. Very few customers request refunds for purposes of scamming the developer.

[Ryan Clark]

We have a 60-day money-back guarantee, and it rarely gets used. Far fewer than 1% of sales end in a refund.

[Jamie W]

I'd imagine it fosters good customer relations. It's good karma. It's telling the customer that we (the company) trust your integrity and honesty in your dealings with us. If you say you don't like our game, we'll take you at face value and trust you, and give you a refund.

Personally I think it's a great idea.

[Greg Squire]

Lots of indie's do this already, just look around some and you'll notice. Also for implementing it, just make the process go through email. I wouldn't try to automate that in any way. You wan't to automate the process of people giving you money, but not the other way around. ;)

[arcadetown]

Never offer refunds, heck why not do like Cliffski and reject all refunds since they should have downloaded the game and tested it before buying...

Nuts, I wish. In reality were happy to give em as figure a liberal policy will draw far more sales by giving that warm and fuzzy feeling than would lose from the < 1% refund rate. We get more chargebacks than refunds anyhow.

[mahlzeit]

We get more chargebacks than refunds anyhow.
Note that some payment processors charge extra for chargebacks (actually, the credit card company charges them and the payment processor passes on the cost to you). Not all of them do this, but in general you're better off with refunds than chargebacks.

[Teq]

Should make them write an e-mail reasoning why they want the money back, after all just saying the game sucks is not really good enough (seeing as you offer a try before you buy system)

[mahlzeit]

Should make them write an e-mail reasoning why they want the money back
It's good to get feedback, so that might make it worth it (and if you can solve their problem, you may turn this person into a happy and loyal customer) -- but on the other hand, why bother putting time into people who aren't any good to your business? There *is* such a thing as a bad customer.

(seeing as you offer a try before you buy system)

Note that try-before-you-buy doesn't necessarily mean they actually do that. I've had a customer purchase a $250 site license for my application minutes after he downloaded the trial version. Five minutes later he realizes that it missed a feature he really needs. I couldn't implement that feature in a few hours, so I pointed him to a competing product that did have that particular feature and gave him a refund.

It sucks, but in my opinion that is part of customer service too. There was no point in being greedy and keeping the 250 bucks. It was that customer's fault, of course, for not looking better, but hey, everybody makes those kinds of mistakes. If it were you, wouldn't you want your money back? Refunds and unhappy customers are just a part of doing business, even with try-before-you-buy.

[Teq]

It's good to get feedback, so that might make it worth it (and if you can solve their problem, you may turn this person into a happy and loyal customer) -- but on the other hand, why bother putting time into people who aren't any good to your business? There *is* such a thing as a bad customer.



Note that try-before-you-buy doesn't necessarily mean they actually do that. I've had a customer purchase a $250 site license for my application minutes after he downloaded the trial version. Five minutes later he realizes that it missed a feature he really needs. I couldn't implement that feature in a few hours, so I pointed him to a competing product that did have that particular feature and gave him a refund.

It sucks, but in my opinion that is part of customer service too. There was no point in being greedy and keeping the 250 bucks. It was that customer's fault, of course, for not looking better, but hey, everybody makes those kinds of mistakes. If it were you, wouldn't you want your money back? Refunds and unhappy customers are just a part of doing business, even with try-before-you-buy.

True, forgot about those that do not realise that they should try the product first :) Its a shame you had to recommend the competition in that case though, but keeping him/her happy might mean that they return at a later date...

[GnadeGames]

Thanks a lot everyone! It looks like I should definitely offer a guarantee. Makes sense and I do like the customer service thing.