I agree with the opinion that the person is paying for the listing, not the review. I think I would just refund it and move on. You are not really losing money anyway if you are rejecting submissions. Your overall price-model for submissions should be accurate enough to compensate for rejections and refunds. Holding on to money from rejected sites is bad for PR, and will introduce the 'reluctance factor'. IMHO
It seems a lot of you guys have a similiar opinion on refunding the money because it is bad for Public views on the directory. Yahoo! Directory is $299 and they have a non-refundable policy. Do you think they get bad reviews? No, because people are using their money wisely and making sure their site(s) adhere to the guidelines and rules. Refunding money because the sites is unacceptable is a waste of time for the Directory Owner and Site Owner.By supporting the refund option, Guidelines and Terms and Conditions for directories are ultimately worthless if the underlying principles are not followed.
100% refund the money. Ask yourself, would you be happy paying a fee and getting nothing? I wouldn't, so I won't do it to anyone else.
I was thinking something along the line of when I reject a site based on the lack of quality, without their site being really bad. Sometimes there are fine lines, grey areas where I'm not quite sure whether a site should get listed or not.
No, it's either all or nothing. Frankly, if the person submitting the site blatantly disregards my policies, I find that disrespectful to me and my directory. I'm here to provide you a service and promote quality sites, not just accept any site because you paid me to do it. Don't try to use leverage because you paid for the listing. Read the guidelines and follow the rules, then there will be no need for refunds.
BTW, I wasn't talking about "you" as in blogmaster. I was just stating how I look at submitters. Some suggestions I have to help this out is: 1. If you submit a site that doesn't meet the guidelines, you should get an email as of why you didn't get listed. If you correct the problem, you get the listing. I believe PHPLD has this option and it should be used. 2. Clearly state the guidelines on the submit page or force a box checking that the submitter agrees to the Terms and Conditions, Just like any other service provider. 3. Read. Read. Read. Trust me, taking 30 seconds out of your time can benefit both of us.
I think 10% or 20% is good that would actually deter the bad site owner from submitting as well and will save some admin time. If there is no risk they will keep submitting so, they have some one going through their site. That is my $ Thanks
I think money should be refunded unless it is clearly stated on submit page that the fees are non-refundable Saad
Thanks so much for all of your opinions. It's interesting to see the divergent views. I've decided to continue to give a complete refund if I don't accept a listing. The main reason is: I absolutely disagree with this statement 100%; yet it does seem to be the majority view of submitters. Even if they're wrong, most people are going to feel ripped off if their money is not refunded when their website gets rejected. In the most egregious cases, I'm not going to refund the money. For instance if a non-English website gets submitted or a porn site. Then, I think it's pretty fair not to give a refund and the submitter knew they were taking a big risk in submitting the site. Some other comments: True, but who actually reads the submission guidelines? Heh. There's something to this. Even people who get a 100% refund often aren't happy campers. Still, like CReed said, I don't want people to be fearful of submitting their websites.
Well the main difference is the amount of customers you will get, if you dont refund, many people will be afraid to try and get into your directory if they for some reason feel you might dissaprove their site... and who knows, maybe you would actually approve it =]
At Linkspub, we refund the money if we cannot accept the site to our directory. I feel the submitter did actually pay, but if we can't submit his site, then he should get his money back. Thats the policy for Linkspub.
I refund all money on all my directories if the site is not accepted. Just good business! I stay away from directories that have a statement in their submission guidelines that state that the fee for a purchased link is not refunded if the site is not accepted. I always thought that was a scam to get people to pay for something, then you do not give them what they pay for.
Remember you lose time reviewing a site, who pays for you time?, or your work for free. I also give full refunds, but I am losing it because I lose my time, that could be spend on better things.
After reading this thread I know which paid directories never to submit to - why risk it if they are going to keep the fee?
Been thinking about the time spent reviewing sites. Honestly, how many directory owners really review a site? I am sure most just look at the main page at most. Now if there was a statement saying to the effect "there is a xxx fee for reviewing your site and that will be deducted from the fee you paid if your site is not accepted". Yes, my time is worth something, but so is the time of my submitters. A trade off, and a cost of doing business. If a directory owner feels that his time is more important than the time of the submitters, that directory owner should think hard about even having a directory.