Your business may be so new that you haven’t had to figure out the “refund” question yet—or you may be unsatisfied with whatever your current refund policy is and need to revisit it. For some of us, the question is simply: do we give refunds or not? But, it might also be expanded to include decisions about when and why we might give refunds, and whether or not we give a full refund or we subtract a processing fee?
In the world of conference and meeting planning—where I still do some work in addition to my writing work, full refunds are not the norm. Conference and meeting planners usually set a “final date for refunds” which is a few weeks out from the event and it is very common to have a processing fee deducted from any refunds. This is because it really does take labor, time, materials, postage, etc. to process a registration. It makes sense that all that “expense” should at least be covered. This doesn’t mean that there are not exceptions that can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis—but full refunds are not common.
In the retail world, people are quite used to getting their money back when they take back an item for whatever reason. In other businesses—ALL SALES FINAL is the order of the day. You will have to evaluate your refund policy based on both your personal business needs and the norm for your industry; however, I do think you need to take into account the costs to you for processing and refunding a purchase or order.
If you keep fairness in mind and not just trying to make the customer happy no matter what, it may be a better guide for whether or not you should offer a full refund, or deduct a percentage or flat fee for your overhead. Whatever you decide, make sure that you post it clearly and make sure people know how, when, and why they can get their money back if they should want a refund.
Also: Are You Giving Away Too Much for Free?
Should You Formally Guarantee Your Products or Services