Merchant Responsibility Question?

Hi all,

While trying to run an online store, I've run across a couple of things that I'm not sure the best way to handle. They are:

1. Dealing with refund requests (I've changed my mind, give me a refund type of requests from customers after you've shipped the product). How long should you accept refunds and under what terms?

2. Dealing with claims of items damaged during shipment. Is it the merchant's responsibility if items are damaged? Do you give a refund or re-send the item? Any best practices that won't put you out of business?

3. Payment processing. Is there a solution that doesn't cost you upwards of 5% per transaction?

Thanks for any help! Running an online business is not as easy as it seems sometimes.

1. If all your costs are reimbursed (e.g. you deduct your shipping cost from the refund) and the goods are still in the original condition when returned to you and saleable to someone else (i.e. not superceded models etc.), then I would refund the money up to 45 days or so (but say in your store "30 days" moneyback). OK, it's a pain that you have to restock the product but goodwill is important.

2. IMO, practically speaking, it is the merchant's responsibility if items are damaged. An option to try could be to offer insurance at the time of checkout and in no uncertain terms notify the customer if they choose not to insure their goods then they are responsible for damage. howver, this is rather unfriendly and IMO is likely to lead to a substantial reduction in sales so this leads to my comment that "practically speaking, it is the merchant's responsibility if items are damaged".

3. Have you checked out PayPal?