Software Return Policy

I am looking for some ideas and advice for a software return policy. When you reply please reply from a retailer perspective - which might be different from what you would respond if you were a customer.

Also, any ideas or experiences that you care to share would be much appreciated.

Once opened, all the customer has to do is burn a copy, return the original and he's gotten the product for free. Same applies to electronically-delivered goods. I don't refund those, except in severe circumstances (if customer proves a major bug or something like that). You open it (hard goods) or receive it (electronic goods) - its yours.

There are a lot of variables involved. If you are referring to a box package that sits on a shelf at a retail outlet like Best Buy or whatever, the physical media can be enclosed in an envelope containing the licensing agreement. Opening the envelope is agreeing to the license and customers would not be entitled to a refund unless you decide to be generous.

There are also methods to require software registration to activate software installations, so the act of opening a box or envelope would not raise concerns about piracy per se. Repackaing/restocking fees would seem reasonable in these cases, IMO.

As Donna was saying, if there is actually a tangible product that gets sent to the consumer and they open it, typically we do not accept those for return. We try to make every effort to make sure our customers know that in advance. We send a confirmation email with our return poilicy in it. We also include a return policy flyer in each package that is situated so that they have to see it when they open the package (it is the last thing to go in the box and facing up). We also have our return policy easily accessible on our webistes so that we have made every effort possible to make sure our customers can find our sales and return policies.

The way we explain an opened box to our customers is that we can no longer sell it as new...as it was delivered to them. Ultimately there is nothing we could do with the product, except perhaps sell it on ebay. My favorite is when we receive an email or phone call from someone who has not even bought the product from us, yet has opened it, and wants to return it to us.