“Due to the nature of this product, it cannot be returned to us and there are no guarantees that a customer will delete it from their computer, so to discourage fraudulent refund claims we ask that you write your reasons for wishing a refund. This will also help us to better serve our customers. If you claim this refund, you may download this title again at a later date, but will not be elegible for a second refund.” e-Book publisher’s return policy

Back in the good old days when we were able to preview books before we bought them, 30-day return policies were the norm. They have been used forever to close the deal on buying a book; it was a means for helping the customer set aside any lingering doubts about the usefulness of a particular book product. If you didn’t like it or find it helpful, then you could return it.

There’s no reason the same can’t be said for ebooks. While there are some obvious differences, namely the publisher won’t get the copy back to verify the customer no longer has it, that in and of itself shouldn’t be a reason for not offering the policy. The downside—loss of goodwill—is much greater, particularly if your ebook prices don’t vary much from your print.

There’s also another reason, and I think it was summed up nicely in a 2002 post by Tim O’Reilly: customers want to do the right thing. The vast majority of our customers have respected both our trade dress and copyrights. Have there been some problems? Sure, but that’s always going to happen. Adopting restrictive sales policies to prevent potential theft from a small percentage of your customers doesn’t make good business sense. It punishes those most loyal to your product lines. And if you’re truly interested in the wholesale adoption of electronic text as a platform for delivering your content, you have to make the barrier to entry as least restrictive as possible.

But a lot of vendors don’t think that way. To most, the inner thief in you is just waiting for the right time to make an appearance. This can be confirmed with a quick survey of the web, which shows numerous ebook non-return policies ranging from the simple “due to the nature of ebooks, you can’t return them,” to this gem:

Our primary objective is Customer Satisfaction.  As such, we will do everything reasonably possible to assure your experience with us is enjoyable.  We want you feel confident that you can recommend us to your friends and family. Fortunately, the nature of our program’s formatting allows little room for error.  If you have been able to follow our easy instructions for downloading your eBooksSaleStore book, you should be able to begin viewing your ebook immediately.  The purchase and unlock programming is integrated directly within the application.  Therefore, if you are able to complete the transaction, you have indicated that you are satisfied with the ebook and it is functioning properly. We are also fortunate that our typical customer base are family oriented people and generally not prone to dishonest practices. We also try to take steps to eliminate any reason someone would ask for a refund.  The most significant of these steps is to provide the ability to sample  each book for free. We are not totally opposed to providing refunds for legitimate concerns. By industry standard Digital Products are non-returnable. We do understand that not everything in the computer world is perfect and there may be an occasion that something simply doesn’t work.  However, we are reserving our right to make all reasonable attempts to assure that your program functions properly and determine if a refund request is for good cause.  If there is a problem with your program, please don’t hesitate to contact us via contact us form and we will be happy to assist to the best of our ability. (Emphasis added.)

I have always felt that if you create something you believe to be useful, then offer it at a reasonable price to give others an opportunity to agree with you. That doesn’t mean I won’t take steps to protect my rights in that product, I will. I just believe you and I want the same thing: to feel valued.

[Image fotologic.]