I know people who do this on $1000+ training courses. It's priced into their business. The refund rates aren't as high as you'd think :-)
I do it too but only on small things. I haven't done a single refund yet over several hundred sales.
Other than increasing the likelihood of a sale, the benefit of offering a guarantee like this is you get less flack from your payment provider (since they can see you'll refund if anyone's dissatisfied) and you can avoid nearly all chargebacks. If someone doesn't want to pay, they'll find a way to get around it anyway, so you might as well make it frictionless.
Yeah, those things are all true --- I know that the satisfaction guarantee can increase conversions, so that's something I consider from a marketing perspective.
But I really do want people to tell me if the book doesn't meet their expectations and to know that they can get their money back. It just seems wrong to offer no recourse. (Hopefully the ebook samples will help people before they buy, though, so fewer people return products.)
And, yes, there's no way to return a digital copy. It's just a trust/honor thing, I guess. :) You tell me you're not satisfied, and I give you your money back. Done.
I do it too but only on small things. I haven't done a single refund yet over several hundred sales.
Other than increasing the likelihood of a sale, the benefit of offering a guarantee like this is you get less flack from your payment provider (since they can see you'll refund if anyone's dissatisfied) and you can avoid nearly all chargebacks. If someone doesn't want to pay, they'll find a way to get around it anyway, so you might as well make it frictionless.