Returned article - 3 months after purchase

[UndercoverAngel]

One of my articles sold on March 31, 2014. Today, June 26, 2014 I received an email stating that the article had been returned and the client had been refunded. How is this even allowed three months after the article sold? I can see it if it was within a couple of weeks or even within a month - and a month would be stretching it. But after three months have passed, I think it's a bit ridiculous to be returning articles, let alone giving refunds. Especially considering that I have my settings to allow customers to see the entire article before purchasing. Is this typical?

Note: Edited title to reflect the time period return was allowed after and then edited post to add this note.

[ReneeF]

I'd be very worried that the work has been used online and elsewhere too. Even IF the article did not perform as expected by the client, after 3 months there is no way it should be returned. This is troubling to all of us.

[UndercoverAngel]

Immediately before emailing support, I ran the article through Copyscape to see if it was in use on the clients website - it doesn't seem to be, but if it was I wanted to put that in the email too. However, that doesn't mean they haven't spun it or something. I mentioned that in my email to support as well. Returning an article after three months is highly suspicious, and I posed the question to support as to whether a high number of articles were bought that day by that client and returned recently - could they be buying, spinning, and returning to recoup their investment? I don't know. But I think it's ridiculous that a return and refund were allowed to go through after 1/4 of a year.

[ReneeF]

Even if the client didnt use it online, what is preventing the client from printing it somewhere els,e a magazine or flyer perhaps. I dont see the benefit of allowing a return policy, especially if you allow a 100% preview, then no, no returns. How did they even get their money back, is it being subtracted form your balance?

[UndercoverAngel]

I've been so upset, I never even thought about them using it in print or other places besides online. Yes, under my account status, I have a negative balance. They haven't tried to take the money out of my PayPal yet though. I'm assuming they'll do that on pay day. Is there any way I can stop them from doing that? I don't agree with this at all. Not three months after the purchase, and not when I allow full viewing prior to purchase. This is just wrong. I don't know what to do. I haven't heard anything back from support yet, but given that the email I received said that they've already refunded the customer and the article is already back in my catalog, I'm assuming that on their end, this is a done deal.

[Lysis]

They run it through copyscape before giving a refund, so I think maybe the customer bought a bunch and decided he didn't need it. It's happened to me before. I got a $117 chargeback one time and it hurt. But, they check to make sure it hasn't been used.

I guess it's just like anything else. Buy a bunch of content and you later figure out you don't need it. Sucks, but it's part of the game.

Also, CC can't remove money from your Paypal. They can only send money. You haven't authorized them to take money from your Paypal, so they can't.

Spun content can be found. Just use Google. I was an editor for 3 months for a particular site and found plagiarism twice. Both times these "writers" (I use the term loosely) copy/pasted articles and then just rearranged sentences. Basically, manual spinning. It's definitely searchable on Google. Usually, Google picks up on a sentence with similar phrases and if you compare both articles, you can see that the sentences are the same just key phrases kept with words flipped out. A lot of "writers" do this.

[ReneeF]

They run it through copyscape before giving a refund, so I think maybe the customer bought a bunch and decided he didn't need it. It's happened to me before. I got a $117 chargeback one time and it hurt. But, they check to make sure it hasn't been used.

I guess it's just like anything else. Buy a bunch of content and you later figure out you don't need it. Sucks, but it's part of the game.

Also, CC can't remove money from your Paypal. They can only send money. You haven't authorized them to take money from your Paypal, so they can't.

Spun content can be found. Just use Google. I was an editor for 3 months for a particular site and found plagiarism twice. Both times these "writers" (I use the term loosely) copy/pasted articles and then just rearranged sentences. Basically, manual spinning. It's definitely searchable on Google. Usually, Google picks up on a sentence with similar phrases and if you compare both articles, you can see that the sentences are the same just key phrases kept with words flipped out. A lot of "writers" do this.

"writers" indeed.. more like plagiarism artists... ick

[Lysis]

Yeah, one was pretty appalled that I accused her of plagiarism, but line by line the article was the same sentences. Important phrases were kept and just words were flipped out. Didn't even bother to rewrite sentences at least or restructure the paragraph. It was pretty amazing, and then I found another one doing the same thing who went on and on about how she went to college ... and that doesn't count the people who applied with spun content. Pretty amazing.

[UndercoverAngel]

Thanks so much for the info on spinning Lysis. So, it's likely they didn't do that then. I'm also very relieved to find out they can't remove money from my PayPal account because I would have disputed that big time.

I'm sorry to hear that you had a similar thing happen to you. But is returning an article after three months really allowed?

I checked their customer FAQ's and it states very clearly that customers only have five days to return an article for a refund after purchase. I guess given the circumstances they should update that to reflect that apparently they can return anything in an indefinite timeframe. This is truly disheartening.

I haven't heard anything back from support yet. My thoughts at this point are that a writer shouldn't have to deal with selling an article today and having it returned 3 months from now, 6 months from now, or a year or more from now. That's concerning to say the least. If it's true that the limitations in the FAQ's aren't enforced, and it's perfectly okay for them to ask for a refund after 1/4 of year, then it's also clear that there are no protections in place for the writers. I really hope that the limitations are enforced and that support overturns the refund. I figure they have to draw the line somewhere - if a customer can get away with this after three months, who's to say they can't get away with it after a year?

[Lysis]

I was pretty upset too, so I empathize with you. Mine was about 2-3 months after the purchase too, so I had the same thoughts. But, I don't think you'll win this one. But I admit I didn't argue with them about it.

I didn't realize there was a 5 day refund policy either. I assume if there is one, maybe this is one of their big customers, so they are bending a bit for him? That would be my guess anyway.

I guess I should say that CC could technically dispute the charge with Paypal on your account, but they won't so don't worry about that. I think Paypal has a limit for that too and it could be 90 days? But really, they aren't going to go that route. It will just be deducted with your next sales.

[UndercoverAngel]

Again, I'm so sorry to hear it happened to you too. It sounds like the exact same thing happened to both of us. I'm almost wondering if someone returns a lot of articles at once, if they even bother checking the purchase dates.

The return policy is the second to the last entry on this page: https://www.constant-content.com/about/ ... stions.htm

It is a huge relief to know they won't be deducting the money from my PayPal account.

Even if I don't win, and I doubt I will, it would be nice if they set some sort of policy, or at least told their writers what their policy is, going forward. It's better to know what to expect or what could happen than to get surprises like this.

[Isabelnewth]

I agree that it is wrong for CC to do this after so long. If it's a big customer who they don't want to alienate, then they should take the loss themselves, considering that they have stated their terms concerning returns. Writers should be entitled to rely on those terms.
Please could you let us know what the outcome is? Cheers.

[UndercoverAngel]

I will definitely let you know how it all turns out. I still haven't received a response from support.

[UndercoverAngel]

I said I'd keep you all updated, and I will, but as of yet there are no updates. It's one week and five messages to support later, and I have not received one single response from Support. I would have thought they would have said something by now, even, "We're checking into it," but so far all I'm getting is silence.

[Lysis]

If it helps at all, when it happened to me, they apologized and offered to put the content in front of some other buyers. You won't get the money back, but they do make an attempt to resell it. I don't keep track that much, but usually, chargeback articles seem to resell quickly, so there is a chance it will be repurchased. I think I've had a little more than half of my chargebacks resold, but don't quote me on that cuz my organizational skills suck hardcore.