Refunding Client

[TouchtonsCLC]

Our client wants to cancel service, due to other circumstances beyond lawn care. He was paying a flat, monthly rate. Would you refund him based on services provided versus what he paid, or since he broke our agreement, only refund him this month (the month he walked away)? We have no signed contract.

__________________
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business." - Henry Ford

Touchton's Complete Lawn Care

[bruces]

Lawn care business tips

we need more info such as what was paid for,what was done,what wasnt done ,why it wasnt done ,and some info about the payment and why buddy wants his cash back .

[CHEESE2009]

Let's say I buy a cup of coffee every morning for a week (Mon-Fri)

I basically made 5 purchases.

Now, the 5th cup of coffee I had bought on Friday had the wrong combination of sugar and cream. I ask for a refund as soon as I notice the error. It is acceptable to receive a refund, give or take.


1. I cannot honestly ask for a refund for every cup of coffee I ever bought at the store, only for the times I had made a complaint where my order wasn't completed properly. The time you can complain varies on what the money was spent on. If it's coffee, you can't come back a month later to complain - that would be B.S...... For lawn maintenance, you could give them 24hrs.

2. The coffee was cold on Tuesday, but I didn't complain. Instead, I continued to buy this stores coffee every morning for the rest of the week.
I DO NOT deserve a refund for this particular cup of coffee.
(not unless I'm trying to prove how stupid I can be)



Once a purchase has been made, and a complaint hasn't been received for the entire duration of what your customers money grants him - it's over and done with. He had time from the first cut, to the last cut to make a complaint.


IF this customer persists on trying to get refunds, he's obviously a cheap P.O.S and should be avoided at all costs. These people get upset very easily, and will go the distance to get their money back.

People can be so cheap they will spend the majority of their waking hours finding loopholes on how to screw people over to benefit themselves.

[element009]

Unless you or your workers have done substandard work, I'd say charge them for services rendered (prorated if the full month wasn't completed).

Then two words: "I'm gone"

[CheapNEasy]

You can either refund what hasnt been worked for yet, or tell them to either let you make the final cuts they paid for.... or they can leave the remaining as a tip for you.

Just my thoughts, totally up too you.

[The Cleaning Doctor]

What does not seem to be taken into account is the reason why.

You may know it and it is probably personal for this customer so you don't need to say it here. If the reason is sound, refund the money for work not performed.

Other things to consider.....

Will this person refer you to others? Think of it as a good will gesture, you may just get more work out of it later on.

[Tom53]

Due to circumstances beyond lawn care indicates the client was satisfied with your services up to this point.

The reason may be personal and cannot be shared, or maybe he did tell you. If so was he able to articulate in such a manner that it sounded reasonable? Did it sound like he was hesitating or ho-humming around about the situation? How far in advance has he paid you? Just this month, or for the whole season?

You see there are a lot of details that need to be considered, and I have only mentioned a few.

If you believe this is a reasonable request for whatever he told you and he has been a good client in the past I think a refund would be appropriate. BUT not for services you have already performed. One other point, and an example is, if he paid you $60 a month for service that you would normally charge $80 for, but gave him a monthly discount rate, then what you have done for this month should not be discounted, but it should be pro rated at the higher rate, then refund the rest. If you explain this to him there should not be much problem. But you never know how someone will act in this situation.

If you believe he is giving you a line of BS for what ever reason, (maybe he found some low baller who will do it cheaper), then you might approach it a different way. Break the payment for this month down to how many weeks of service have been performed and how many are left, then keep one or two weeks worth of payments and refund the rest, and again explain this is your "normal" cancellation process. He may not like that, especially if he is getting cheap service from someone else, but this was his choice.

If he hasnt told you the reason, maybe you should ask and then make your determination of how to handle it. Give him the benefit of the doubt if he sounds real, because he will be more likely to recommend you later, and if you part on a bad note he will bad mouth you for sure, which will not help your business.

Interesting situation so let us know how you decide to handle it, and what happened afterwards.

[Steve]

we need more info such as what was paid for,what was done,what wasnt done ,why it wasnt done ,and some info about the payment and why buddy wants his cash back .

I agree, can you tell us a little more?

[TouchtonsCLC]

He was paying a flat, monthly rate for x number of cuts to be received throughout the season. He only received y number of cuts thus far, so we refunded him x-y.

He lost his job and needed to cut corners. He purchased a lawn mower.

We refunded him what he had prepaid, and he agreed to take a discount on that amount because he was backing-out on us, even though we didn't have a written contract (but a good business law class would stress to you that a verbal contract is a contract, no matter what).

We left on good terms, and I asked him to refer us to his neighbors, friends, family, etc. Perhaps he'll get us some more business.

For future reference to us, we will put a disclaimer on the proposal for level billing that if it is not finished-out, there will be some sort of penalty or fee. It hurts to lose customers, but happily we've been able to replace him 2x over already.

[bruces]

sounds like you handled it perfectly .