I've already had 3 people make a duplicate order today, and yesterday I actually had someone order the same item 5 times. I hate that, because then you end up with a big refund number later.
What's the problem? Just think that those sales never happened - that's all. Sometimes they don't get refunded - then it's a bonus
Ack - Karabas! When a customer is charged twice for a product that I sell, the I personally write to clickbank and ask for a refund of the duplicate sale. Then I send an apology email to the customer. I feel that letting a customer get charged twice is ripping them off. If I were a regular customer and it happened to me, I would be VERY upset, I would feel ripped off, and I would never trust digital download products again. I blame Clickbank for this. There is NO reason they can't put an easy block on duplicate charges. I can't really think of a reason why someone would need/want to pay twice for these sales. Clickbank's system should be able to recognize duplicate orders and block the second charge. This happens more in non-computer-related niches. Computer savvy people know better than to hit the reload button during a sale. But "regular" people who are buying non-computer-related products (example: lose weight products, etc.), don't know better. If the computer takes more than 5 seconds to load the next page, they hit reload-- and they get double charged. It find it ridiculous that Clickbank can't do something to prevent this. And, yes, I see duplicate charges about 3 times a week. And, no, I don't ignore it and hope the customer "doesn't notice." Seems like that would be bad business practice. *end of my rant* Thanks for reading.
But for us affiliates who cannot do anything about it then we should just sit back and see what happends
What about extra-honest customers who bought 2 copies of software or ebook: one for himself and one for his uncle?
It does happen quite often that I get multiple sales on the same product... sometimes as far apart as 30 minutes! I would say the resulting action is a 33/33/33 split: 33% end up refunding all sales (pissed I am sure) 33% refund just the extra sales (good honest people) 33% never notice and let it slide (I feel bad for these folk)
I think the reason why they do not want to block duplicate orders is because some products have upsells which people buy almost immediately after the first purchase and blocking duplicate orders might affect those sales.
Karabas -- Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm pleased when a customer buys one copy. I don't expect more than that. Jimmyblogs -- Affiliates CAN do something. They can email the publisher. I sell products as an affiliate as well. I *do* email the publisher in the event of a double charge. Sometimes they follow through with the return, sometimes not. But I would feel like an unethical rip-off artist if I noticed a double charge and did nothing about it. Rikat -- Your 33/33/33 split number is interesting. But I don't get the 33% that are pissed and return ALL copies. Why? Becuase I catch the double charge, get second charge refunded ASAP, and then I write to the customer to apologize for the problem. This turns them into appreciative customers. I ALSO don't get the 33% percent that are double charged and you say you "feel bad for." Why feel bad for them? Just get them their money back and you don't have to feel bad. See, maybe I'm different than other Internet marketers. I just want to make an honest buck by selling good products people really want. I feel that the profit margin is great, sales seem to be great for me lately... and I'm not going to try to make an extra couple of dollars here and there by ripping people off because they don't notice a double charge. I'd rather have a satisfied customer than the measly .5% increase in my income.
Your perspective is reasonable for a vendor (using the CB lexicon) and I applaud your business ethic. I however am speaking solely as an affiliate. I have no mandate nor authority to request refunds on behalf of a customer. Nor do I have any mechanism in place to catch these charges as they happen. This is really between the customer and CB (with or without intervention from the vendor). But I believe that any vendor who notices a problem should drop a note to the customer informing them of the multiple charges.
Rikat - Didn't realize you were speaking as affiliate. You are right. I agree that an affiliate should not be responsible for this. I would never expect my affiliates to do this as the responsibility of administering and supporting the product belongs to the vendor/publisher. And, truthfully- the publisher shouldn't have to chase down and refund double charges either- but since Clickbank won't do anything to take responsibility fort his, I feel the need to.
Are we over working this. Could you simply place a note above the button that says to not press refresh after you press this button, or give them an estimated time for the transaction to go through. Expecting CB to make changes however necessary is probably a waste of time, but a small note might eliminate the issue altogether for you.
By blocking "duplicate orders" it is meant to block people from buying the "same product" in a short period of time (Like 5 minutes for example). If someone buy productA, he can still buy productB whenever he wishes. These multiple order issues are most likely because in some instances the clickbank payment form (Or confirmation screen) takes too time to load or even time out. Given that the buyer is not shown the thank you page with the product , he go back and try again (Thinking that his credit card was not charged) - and thats it, multiple transactions.