Playbook, SaaS company
We did not mean to renew for another year
This message arrives a few days after a charge that was in the terms and unwelcome anyway. Somebody stopped using the product in month four, the annual term renewed exactly as agreed, and the person writing is frequently not the person who agreed to it. The policy answers what happens by default. Whether it is relaxed for this account is a commercial decision the assistant must not make.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for refund requests holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The charge is usually correct, which is what makes this uncomfortable: the request is not that a mistake be corrected but that a published term be set aside, and the person asking generally knows it.
- A trial that converted and an annual term that renewed produce almost the same message and have different answers, because one turns on the notice given before conversion and the other on the refund window.
- A refund and a credit against the next term are different outcomes, and a subscription business often prefers the second, which is an offer only a person is in a position to make.
- The money left on a company card, so the person chasing it is often in finance with a reconciliation deadline rather than an opinion about whether the product was any good.
How it arrives
- we were charged for another year can we have it back
- the trial converted and we never used it
- what is your refund window
- can we get a partial refund for the months we have left
- we cancelled and the annual renewal still went through
- can you refund it to a different card
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The refund window, with the event it runs from | How long after a charge a refund can be requested, and whether the clock starts at the charge, at the renewal date or at the start of the term. A window with no starting event is not a rule, it is an argument waiting to happen. |
|---|---|
| Your position on partial refunds and credits | Whether unused months are refunded, credited or neither, and whether that differs between monthly and annual terms. Write down the version you enforce, because it will be quoted verbatim to somebody who then holds you to it. |
| What notice goes out before a renewal, and to whom | Whether a reminder is sent, how far ahead, and which contact receives it. Half of these requests are really an argument about whether anybody was told, and a published practice settles it without anybody's memory being involved. |
| Who decides, and how long it takes | The role that reviews a refund request and the response time you commit to. Naming it makes the handover read as an escalation rather than as a brush off, which is the difference between waiting and complaining. |
The reply
Annual terms renew automatically and the refund window runs from the date of the charge, which is set out with the exact period in our terms [1]. Where a refund is not available, some situations are handled as a credit against the next term instead, and that is decided by the team rather than by a rule I can apply [2]. I cannot see the charge, approve anything, or tell you what will happen with this one. Leave your name, the email the subscription is under, the workspace name and the date of the charge, and it will go to the person who reviews these.
It states the rule and the window without apology, because the person usually knows the charge was legitimate and a hedge reads as an opening. Mentioning the credit route once is honest and keeps the conversation somewhere useful, while being explicit that a person decides it. The four things it collects are exactly what a reviewer needs to open the account.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any request for money back, any claim that a renewal happened after a cancellation, and any request to send a refund to a different card or entity.
A refund is decided by the team after somebody has looked at the account, not here. Leave your name, the email on the subscription, the workspace name and the date of the charge, and they will come back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a refund will be given, is likely, or that the company usually agrees in cases like this.
- Never say a charge was taken in error, since nothing here can see whether it was.
- Never quote a refund window, a proration or a credit that is not in your published terms.
- Never offer a credit, an extension or a discount as an alternative, because that is somebody's decision to make.
Questions
- Should it explain the renewal terms to somebody who is already angry?
- Once, briefly, and then hand over. The terms answer why the charge happened, which is worth saying, but repeating them in place of routing the request is how a refund question becomes a public complaint about being lectured by a widget.
- Can it check whether we sent a renewal reminder?
- No. It cannot see what was sent to anybody. It can state what your published practice is, which is often enough to defuse the argument, and the specific account has to reach a person.
- Is it safe to publish the refund window at all?
- It is safer than leaving it to the conversation. An unpublished window is negotiated every time, at whatever hour the request arrives, and the outcome varies by who answers. A published one is applied consistently and argued about far less.
Keep reading
- Everything for a SaaS companyOne widget serves prospects, trialists and paying customers. What it can answer about plans and limits, and what has to reach a person.
- Handling refund requests in generalA refund question is really about eligibility and timing. What to index, what the reply may promise, and where it has to reach a person.
- A conformance statement, and somebody who cannot finish the formA conformance statement is a document; a blocked user is a defect report. Neither is answered by claiming the product is accessible.
- The angry message is from an administrator with a renewal comingReliability, a capability moved to a higher tier and a bill in dispute. Where a paying team's complaint goes, and what is never conceded.
- Somebody wants into the beta, and the answer is not a dateAn invite queue for an unfinished capability is not a line. What may be said about early access, and why no date may be given.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.