Refunding money??

I have a policy for email readings, if before the reading I am unable to connect to the person then I tell them right away. Now, I did this very long reading and I really felt connected to her and her question. She emailed me back and said I got it all wrong. I described her in a completely opposite way. Now, I decided I wasn't going to refund the money because I took my time to prepare for her reading and it took over an hour. I wanted to know what others think about refunding money for a reading??? Would you refund it after using your energies to preform the reading in the first place??

Well, I had the problem too.

Personally, I put as refund policy on my website that I'd like to work things out, because I did spend time in a Reading. When doing live Readings, you usually get more feedback so it's easier to step in and correct yourself. I have a set of Oracle Cards that show "dynamics" which means that sometimes people are on the left, and sometimes on the right of the dynamic. I only read with them now if the Question is very suited to the Oracle.

In working things out you can offer a free short Reading as recompense or a part of the money back. What did she herself ask?

Kahlie

Although I've never been asked for a refund, I wouldn't give one. I've given my time and done my best to give a good reading, which is what I agree to when I read for someone. If they don't like the reading, I've still given my time and my effort and that's what they've paid for. I don't guarantee they're going to like or agree with what the cards say.

If I were selling t-shirts and someone got the wrong size or found a flaw in the shirt, then I'd give a refund. Not on readings, though.

Kahlie said:

Well, I had the problem too.

Personally, I put as refund policy on my website that I'd like to work things out, because I did spend time in a Reading. When doing live Readings, you usually get more feedback so it's easier to step in and correct yourself. I have a set of Oracle Cards that show "dynamics" which means that sometimes people are on the left, and sometimes on the right of the dynamic. I only read with them now if the Question is very suited to the Oracle.

In working things out you can offer a free short Reading as recompense or a part of the money back. What did she herself ask?

Kahlie

Click to expand...

She asked about job opportunities and what she is best suited for, also if she will find a soulmate. When I preform readings, I use the whole deck so not only did she receive answers to her questions but I delved deeper into the root of why she was having these problems. I state this clearly on the website so they know what there receiving when they request a reading.

Lyric said:

Although I've never been asked for a refund, I wouldn't give one. I've given my time and done my best to give a good reading, which is what I agree to when I read for someone. If they don't like the reading, I've still given my time and my effort and that's what they've paid for. I don't guarantee they're going to like or agree with what the cards say.

If I were selling t-shirts and someone got the wrong size or found a flaw in the shirt, then I'd give a refund. Not on readings, though.

Click to expand...

Your absolutely right! Thank you for the advice!

I have had a part time business for a couple of years that specializes in selling handcrafted items. I have a no refund policy for these items because I feel it is important to protect the intellectual property of the artists. I have found frequently that many people who buy those things do so to reverse engineer or learn to make them for themselves...then they want to return the item they bought and make their own. The policy states that when an artisan item is purchased, the price represents payment for the artist's time not for the item itself (of course, exchanges are encouraged for the same item if the colors aren't right or the item arrives broken). I posted this policy and provided it to my merchant services to get approval to accept credit card transactions. All the merchant services provider required is that the customer clearly knows and understands the return policy prior to making the purchase.

The reason I bring this up is because I think maybe the same thing could work for readings. The person isn't really paying for the reading or the outcome of the reading ~ they are paying for your time and should consider getting a reading a form of entertainment. I am not a professional Tarot reader yet, but I have thought that maybe in the future it would be cool if I could do it, and have thought about how to handle it if someone wasn't pleased with the outcome. I think a person who works or owns a service-based business wants to please all customers but sometimes that isn't possible if the business is to remain viable (there will always be a small number of customers that want something for nothing regardless of what is done for them).

Just my humble opinion

valeria

1. Do you have a written guarantee? If not, then you are totally fine in saying, "sorry".
2. If there is a written guarantee and it is vague then there is a decision to make and with that a change in the guarantee for the future (chalk it up to experience -- painful ones often help us remember to be very thorough in the future -- talking from personal experience. *grin*)

Okay, now that that is out of the way. Saying no isn't always the best service oriented response though you may be in every right to do so.

" I described her in a completely opposite way."
This has happened to me. This is actually a correct read in a weird and twisted way. Most querants that I have, let me off the hook because they realize I got the details right but attributed them to the wrong person. This is "okay" in my world and in the world of many of the people I read for because ultimately they are just looking for insight and ideas for how to proceed.

Here's some ideas to bring across to her: 1. You were explaining the "shadow self" -- everything she fears and everything she doesn't want to be; 2. You connected but the lines got crossed because what you do isn't "linear" like it is in the "real" world.

I would also ask her if she got "anything" out of the reading? Depending on how gracious she is, I would suggest either a partial refund (if you have a guarantee but it's vague) or another read given to her (if you have no guarantee) and view this as a "learning experience". In that instance, ask her what she really wants to get out of the reading -- what's her "end goal"?

Hope this helps in some small way at some point in time.

There's one big problem I see here: Her questions are predictive in nature and thus open to way too much interpretation and chanes are she is not the type of client you would want given the type of readings you like to do.

I suspect given what you said about mentioning how you do your readings on your Web site, that you know this. But she probably didn't read it or disregarded it. I do not allow querants to give open ended predictive questions or vague questions under ANY circumstances unless I warn them ahead of time they are likely to receive a reading they "won't like" and therefore will not get ANY refund OR I have a special reading type that is predictive only but is twice as much as any other reading and is twice as short. It's untirely up to them but I explain that I need specific and direct questions which will give specific and direct responses.

pepperi said:

She asked about job opportunities and what she is best suited for, also if she will find a soulmate. When I preform readings, I use the whole deck so not only did she receive answers to her questions but I delved deeper into the root of why she was having these problems. I state this clearly on the website so they know what there receiving when they request a reading.

Click to expand...

Valeria,

Great business sense!!

"I have found frequently that many people who buy those things do so to reverse engineer or learn to make them for themselves."

I would agree. I have personally bought stuff to reverse engineer and get ideas from but I did NOT return it -- oh, how tacky!!

i.e. I bought stuff from the grocery store, got the ingredients, and then started making it at home and never bought the stuff again. Sometimes one can just eyeball something (which a lot of people will do and then go and make their own) but sometimes it's not enough and so the item will be bought for inspection and reverse engineering. But again, I think it's bad enough this is done (so artists should really plump up the prices of their work for that reason alone) let alone I believe it's really tacky and a disregard for another human being (that is returning it after getting what you needed). Now corporations might be a different ball of wax in my belief system. ;-)

Thanks abella!

I think I thought about it when I was in high school and the popular girls would brag to each other about getting expensive clothes, wear them, then take them back to the store. Apparently they left the tags on somehow. I always felt sorry for the stores. I guess it stayed with me all these years.

valeria