Refunds, chargebacks and no-shows, handled fairly

Decide the policy before you sell anything and put it in the listing. Full refunds up to a stated cut-off and none after it works for most small events, because past that point you have committed costs. If you cancel, refund everyone in full automatically without anyone having to ask.

The policy has to exist beforehand

Almost every unpleasant conversation about an event comes from a refund policy invented after somebody asked for their money back.

At that point whatever you decide looks like a judgement about that person. Say yes and you have set a precedent you did not choose. Say no and you are refusing an individual rather than applying a rule.

A policy written in advance removes both problems. It is not about being strict, it is about the decision having been made when nobody was upset.

A policy that works for small events

The reasonable default is full refunds up to a stated cut-off, then none. The cut-off should be the point at which you commit money based on headcount.

Be more generous than you need to where costs do not scale with attendance. A refund for a gig two days out costs you almost nothing and buys real goodwill, and that person is far more likely to come to the next one.

Say it in one line

Full refunds until 14 October, none after that. If we cancel, everybody is refunded in full.

That is the whole policy for most events. Longer versions get skipped, and a policy nobody read is not much better than one that did not exist.

Put it where people see it before buying rather than in a separate page they will not open. A reader who was told is a reader who cannot be surprised.

When you cancel, refund automatically

If the event does not happen, everybody gets their money back in full, processed by you without anyone requesting it.

Making people ask for money they are owed converts a disappointment into an administrative chore, and the resentment attaches to the chore. It is also the single most common source of complaints about small events.

Say it in the cancellation message, in the first two lines, before the explanation. A reader who has paid is not processing your reasons until they know where their money is.

What a chargeback actually is

A chargeback is a buyer asking their bank to reverse a payment rather than asking you for a refund. It is not the same as a refund and it is worse for you in every respect.

• The money is taken back automatically and you usually pay a fee on top, whether or not you eventually win.
• You have to respond with evidence within a deadline, which means keeping records of what was sold and what was delivered.
• A pattern of them can affect your ability to take payments at all, which is a much bigger problem than the individual amounts.
• Most are avoidable. They happen when somebody could not reach you, or did not recognise the charge on their statement.

The prevention is unglamorous: a clear name on the listing, a working way to contact you, and a prompt reply. Somebody who can get an answer from you does not usually go to their bank.

No-shows are a pricing problem

People treat no-shows as a behaviour problem to be solved with rules. It is almost always a price problem instead.

Free tickets no-show heavily, sometimes approaching half. Cheap tickets less. Full-price tickets least, because the person has made a real commitment and turning up is how they avoid wasting it.

If your no-show rate is hurting you, raising the price will do more than any policy. A stricter rule mostly generates arguments with the people who did turn up.

Beyond price, a reminder the day before recovers a meaningful share of people who simply forgot, and it costs nothing.

The awkward requests

Somebody will ask for a refund outside your policy, with a genuinely difficult reason. Illness, a bereavement, something you would not want to say no to.

Have a private answer for those that is not your public policy. Most organizers refund quietly in genuine circumstances and do not advertise it, which is a reasonable position rather than an inconsistency.

Offering a transfer to the next event is often better than a refund for both parties. You keep the money, they keep the value, and they come to something else.

Transfers, name changes and reselling

Refunds are not the only way somebody stops being able to attend, and the alternatives are usually better for both of you. Decide your position on these at the same time as the refund policy.

1. 1

   Allow name changes freely

   Somebody sending a friend in their place costs you nothing and fills a seat that would otherwise be empty. Refusing this generates a refund request instead, which is worse for you.

2. 2

   Offer a transfer to the next event

   You keep the money, they keep the value, and they attend something else. This is frequently the answer somebody actually wanted when they asked for a refund.

3. 3

   Decide whether resale is permitted

   For a small event, letting people pass a ticket on informally is fine and saves you administration. Say so, so nobody assumes it is prohibited and asks you to intervene.

4. 4

   Keep a waiting list once you are close to capacity

   Then a cancellation is a sale rather than a loss, and you can be generous about refunds because the seat refills itself.

The waiting list is the one that changes your whole position. An organizer who can refill a returned ticket can afford a generous policy, and generosity is considerably cheaper than the reputation for being difficult.

What a policy cannot do

The version that avoids most of this

Selling against a minimum with a deadline removes the largest category of refund entirely. If the event does not reach its minimum, nobody was charged, so there is nothing to refund and no cancellation to process.

For the events that do go ahead, a one-line policy stated up front, a reminder the day before, and a reply within a day covers nearly everything else.