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Refunding Unused Account Credit
SimpleNode
Member
Do you do it?
We do, only if the customer isn't being a dick about it.
Comments
Gladly, if they don't consider a paypal dispute to be the way to notify me that they want it...
Basically what I meant by "only if the customer isn't being a dick about it."
Nope. Account credit is there for the account, so they can feel free to purchase again.
Only if its over $15, and was gained via been an affiliate.
Well if they are not going to use it then refund it, taking in to account the age of it and - any costs for sending it back
I had an accidental payment go off to ChicagoVPS, was polite and asked if it could be refunded.
They told me its their policy that if you want it back, you have to open a dispute for it. I decided that they could just keep my $7 at that point.
But on topic, yes, I would refund unused credit.
@MrObvious, don't disputes put a black mark on your PP account? That's how I thought it worked. Or is this just chargebacks?
Isn't the mark is on the seller's side?
Anything with PayPal is just black magic.
@fan, that's what I meant.
Account credit is not meant to be refunded back into real money at any point in time. Just ask any accountant you know.
True in real accounting, but we are talking WHMCS here, not real accounting, and if a client makes an over-payment it still becomes account credit in WHMCS, that should be refunded if requested, otherwise you are just stealing money.
So providers that use WHMCS as their billing system aren't doing real accounting?
I'm not sure if it's called stealing.. there is a bit of a gray area there... kinda like how stamps.com is a PITA to cancel and they won't refund anything.
If it was caused in a situation like below, then yes. Otherwise, no.
Invoice #1 is due on the 12th (It is currently the 7th)
Buyer pays it on the 9th
Buyer has a PayPal subscription on the 11th, which causes the account to gain the same credit as Invoice #1's value. With the transaction ID, I'd gladly refund it.
If not much time has passed since last payment and paypal still allows refunds to be issued (45 or 60 days it was, don't remember exactly), then we would gladly refund via paypal. However if it is past this refund deadline by paypal and we would actually need to send money to the customer - no way, our accountant would kill me for doing this.
WHMCS is a billing system, not accounting, so don't confuse the two.
How do you give stamps.com money and not get postage in return? Postage can be used as currency at the post office.
You have to 'add funds' to your account... and when you cancel the account you can't get the 'credit' out. You only pay for what you are purchasing with account credit.
OR maybe I'm wrong..
I think my situation was this - I had a shipping label refunded because it was never used or something.. and that showed up as account credit in my account... and I couldn't get it out.... and they closed my account before telling me I couldn't get it out... when you cancel they don't let the account stay open until the end of the term.
Its not about what system you use, you can account for it either way, the fact remains it is ethical to refund account credit if you know it is not going to be used.
It is also ethical to retain part of that credit to cover your own costs if any.
Usually the only people that ask for this are people that caused trouble already anyway.
@Corey well that is where 'Your Costs' come in to it then.
I disagree, I see this mostly from people that somehow setup 2 subscriptions, or otherwise made an over-payment. I received the funds in error, maybe not my error, but defiantly not my money to keep. takes me a whole minute, two at the most, to look into it and hit refund. Customer, past or current goes away happy, spreading good word of mouth, your best advertising, and it cost you nothing.
I find the same thing as miTgiB I think the real issue here is that to a lot of hosts 'refund' is a dirty word
I don't see that near as much as .... someone gets suspended for abuse, they open a ticket asking for a refund of account credit.
I see near all paypal disputes for this reason, and they are simple, just escalate it and claim virtual goods, wins everytime.
Heck of a lot better word than "dispute" lol
How much is your time worth?
$5 - 7 refund versus spending hours cleaning up WHT/LET/LEB comments, defending yourself, etc. and that's when the trolls / guttersnipes start crawling from under their rocks and before you know it, you have a pretty big waste of time on your hands - all over less than a dinner
I don't get chargebacks, is it not simple enough to just contact your provider and ask for a refund. We will gladly work with people who work with us directly vs going above us and Paypal.
Add this text in your paypal account(In Dispute message notice)
"Please open a ticket instead of dispute and we will refund your full money without asking any question."
So you're saying someone such as myself, who used the VPS for a simple development test box, but canceled at the end of the month because I no longer needed it - someone that had "caused trouble" just because I asked for a refund of account credit because of PayPal thinking it's cool to send a payment?
In the EU, that's a right you have as a costumer IIRC, to be refunded in real money and not "store credit".
Anyway I think it's the ethical thing to do if the costumer it's in good standing.
That said, I claimed about 20 USD from BuyVM in the past and they never refunded me. I suppose that's ok too since I was never forced to pay them that money at the start, but whatever.