The refund request that killed my 'always say yes' policy

Had a customer last spring demand a full refund on a $1,400 website build because she 'didn't like the font'. I caved fast, just to avoid bad review. Then I checked her email and saw she'd copied my entire homepage for her other site. That moment made me rewrite my contract. Now every project has a clause about scope, revisions, and no refunds for copied work. It scared off two cheap prospects but saved me three headaches since. Anyone else get burned by being too agreeable with unreasonable clients?

3 comments

3 Comments

kellyg144d ago

Ugh, that is so frustrating! The font thing is wild but the copying part is just... wow. Honestly, people like that are the reason I started doing a final walkthrough call before anything gets handed over. It is amazing what they suddenly remember they "never agreed to" when you put them on speaker with a timestamped checklist. My biggest burn was a client who tried to claim a whole page was broken just to get a discount, but it turned out they were just viewing it on an old browser they refused to update. I ended up sending them screenshots from three different devices and they went quiet real fast. Contracts are great but honestly, some folks just want to argue no matter what you write down.

lisa_bennett4d ago

Heard a podcast about this exact thing last week, some freelancer said the WORST clients are the ones who pay fast and say nothing. Because you think everything is fine, then they hit you with a complaint out of nowhere. That font thing is such a red flag, nobody REfunds over a font unless theyre fishing for free work. The copying part though, thats just straight theft. Good on you for tightening the contract, and honestly the two cheap prospects that left probably wouldve been the same kind of headache later. Keep the policy strict, it weeds out the time wasters.

jake_chen4d ago

...and honestly the walkthrough call kellyg14 mentioned is GENIUS. I learned the hard way that a quick "looks good right?" email is not the same as saying "So you AGREE this is done, correct?" out loud. My last project went silent for two weeks after I sent files, and I was like "cool, they love it, easy check." Then out of nowhere I get a message about a color being "too purple" when they SPECIFICALLY asked for purple. I spent a whole afternoon double checking my own sanity only to realize they had looked at it on their phone with night mode on. So yeah, maybe the real red flag is me assuming clients actually look at things in normal settings. Anyway, strict contracts are the only thing keeping us freelancers from being free therapists.