I hate refunds

[Kanalah]

*hugs for spark*

I hate doing refunds too. Not because I don't want the quilt back - because I want my customers to be happy.

The only real "refund me!" people I have were capslock ragey for no reason, so they got refunded and blocked. One even said that I was scamming her - and no I didn't cave and let her have the quilt at half price.

On custom orders I do 50% down and that's to buy materials. I always let people know that if they cancel, the deposit is non-refundable. I'm actually working on making custom orders more "non-quilt-person" friendly.

[raudf]

The only thing I can think of to offset the loss is if you've already purchased the mats, to just make the suit and set it up for general sale.

Unfortunately, due to the permission system in Second Life, I have to have a strict no refund policy, because customers can't very well give me the gown back. But there are certain situations that I will give refunds on, like if the customer accidentally paid twice for a gown/color, or if the item is missing or texture screwed in my inventory. For items failing to send? Forget it. I have other ways of making sure you get the item you paid for.. and I will get it to you! (Unless SL is having an asset server issue, then it might be a day before anyone gets ANYTHING.)

I also don't take commissions, but rather requests or suggestions. Saves me loads of time and headache.

[spark]

It's not like I can't use the materials on other projects. I am a fabric hoarder, so into the hoard they go! That's better than finishing a project that I may or may not be able to find a buyer for.

[Rebel1012]

Having skipped quite a few posts in this thread sorry if its already been said.
You need a published terms and conditions to cover this, you can change them to suit your own needs but i am thinking along the lines of a non refundable deposit to the approx value of materials you need to order plus a small extra to cover time already spent. Dont know what your deposit is currently like but if it works say 15% non refundable deposit up front.
Make sure customers know clearly its non refundable as this will cover your costs to start and you cannot recover them if they cancel.
Plus if someone does cancel and you have already used their deposit to purchase supplies, you are ahead a bit as you can then use the supplies to make another item for general sale (time willing etc)
I have had to start taking a 25% deposit when people hire me for large jobs as i have turned up a few times with a work crew and they have said oh i dont want it doing now, or pretending not to be in yet manage to answer their house phone and ask you to cancel

[spark]

I have my terms on my website. (You didn't just skip quite a few, you skipped 'em all, because that was in the second comment in this thread.)

[Dreamstalker]

Nobody reads terms and conditions anymore. It's the internet, everything should be the way I want it

[Gizmo]

Nobody reads terms and conditions anymore. It's the internet, everything should be the way I want it

I wish it was just the internet... We print T&C's on every document we send to people and highlight the major ones in bold on documents (such as "any shortages or unaccepted items must be notified to us in writing within three days of receipt of this shipment") and still the customers come round 2+ months later expecting to get away with not paying.