I had a run-in with a refund artist earlier this week.
A refund artist is someone who buys from you with the intention of asking for a refund.
Unfortunately they’re quite common in the online world – although I’ve been lucky to avoid most of them up until this point (out of the 65 Group Gold program sales that I did during my birthday week sale in June, I got just one refund request, from a guy that finished 10% of the program).
This week’s fellow ate up a spot in my group program about three weeks ago by opting for the instalment plan (so he paid just 1/3 of the total fee), and after one group call he messaged me the next morning to ask what my refund policy is.
My answer? I don’t have a refund policy for my 1:1 or group coaching.
He claimed he saw something on the sales page, but I politely informed him that he was mistaken (I have money back guarantees for my DIY online programs, but nowhere does it say that for my group program).
When he realized that I wasn’t playing his game, he got angry and starting spouting off about “bait and switch” and acting like I did something wrong.
Although I could have said “tough luck” and told him he was stuck, I ended up refunding him.
I don’t want a negative person ruining the vibe of the group, so I gave him his money back (minus 25% of it because he did one of the four monthly calls … think of it as an “a**hole tax).
A funny thing happened during this experience:
I had a strategy call with a great coach from Alberta the same day that I refunded this guy, and she told me that she wanted to do the group program.
I told her that I had a sudden opening, and she jumped at the chance to be in it. So I traded one refund artist for a serious, committed coach!
#Win
There will always be refund artists online, that goes with the territory.
Don’t let them knock you off your game, keep doing your thing.
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