Why Refund Policies Discourage Merchants From Adopting BTC As Payments.

[Cryptomultiplier]

‎For one, I think that the fact that once a transaction is confirmed on the Blockchain making it final, is enough reason why merchants and business owners may be too lazy to adopt Bitcoin as payments, and even when these merchants or business owners do well to try to enact a refund policy to their customers, it will have to be handled manually by the merchants themselves, such that, a customer will be mandated to provide a new and valid address that may not be the original address the BTC was initially sent from.
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‎Also, I know that when dealing with such refund policies with BTC, the price volatility and trend movement will always be a concern because, the refund value will be affected by the price of Bitcoin rising or dropping in the crypto currency market at that time when such a refund is about to be made.

This is an edge that the traditional finance model system has over crypto currency because, it is easier to be used as payments with their refund and charge back policy being more simplistic as compared to BTC being used as payments because there is no chargebacks, there's risk of loss of funds if BTC is sent to the wrong address, and obviously , there's potential fund delays with gas fees that must be paid.
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‎* Do you still think a refund policy for businesses, is still a huge concern today leading to lesser adoption and use case of BTC as a currency of transaction or payments by merchants and business owners?
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‎* Do you think the refund value of BTC is a serious concern today, for merchants and businesses who have currently adopted and do accept BTC as a currency of transaction or payments?

[Jawhead999]

I don't think refund is the concern, in real life, refund only happen for few times. Try to think about ourselves, how many times we ask for refund after pay or purchase something, I think it probably just once in a month.

Volatility could make the seller confuse how much they should refund the coins, but they can create a rule like "seller will give exact same amount for refund, but if the rate in Bitcoin equivalent is higher than in fiat, seller will refund equivalent in fiat".

[Alvin_talk]

OP, I think your view is valid but it is two sided, I am a merchant so let me tell you from experience. A customer once came to my retail shop about 5 months ago to purchase some goods which was over a million Naira (approximately 662 dollars). He purchased these goods via transfer to my business account and left with many thanks, I was kinda busy with other customers, unkownly to me the customer requested for a refund through his app claiming it was a fraudulent transaction, although I received an email from my bank to dispute this but I didn't bother to read through the mail because I was thinking it was their usual spam emails. Long story cut short, the customer made away with the goods as well as the money because of this refund policy.

In essence, sometimes the refund policy is favourable for merchants and some other times it is not, as such I don't think this could be the reasons merchants are discouraged from adopting btc as payment.

I will advice we should pay less attention to merchants adoption of btc, if all government fully adopt and encourage btc payments and transactions others will follow accordingly including merchants.

[Ojima-ojo]

When we come to Bitcoin payment it will be very sensitive calculating the price based on USD but if you make the policy on bits it's certainly won't matter whatever price Bitcoin could be at that point.

Refund should be based on the amount that the merchant received from the customer as payment, this will definitely solve all the unnecessary hold back from regulations.

[Ambatman]

Most merchant haven't even thought passed volatility not to mention thinking of a refund policy.
If they want a refund, they can request for it to be sent
I see no reason how Bitcoin confirmation affects it's adoption.


Adoption is usually plagued by volatility not refund policy.

[Renampun]

‎* Do you still think a refund policy for businesses, is still a huge concern today leading to lesser adoption and use case of BTC as a currency of transaction or payments by merchants and business owners?

I don't think that's the main reason why merchants aren't so enthusiastic about accepting Bitcoin as payment, but rather the transaction confirmation waiting time, which is still considered too long for daily transaction needs, especially for those in the retail or fast service sectors, such waiting times are certainly inefficient for their business.

‎* Do you think the refund value of BTC is a serious concern today, for merchants and businesses who have currently adopted and do accept BTC as a currency of transaction or payments?

Merchants who already accept Bitcoin as payment for their businesses can set up refund policies that are not detrimental to them, for example they could specify that refunds are processed based on the product's price at the time of purchase, not the amount of Bitcoin transferred to them. this way, merchants can avoid losses due to Bitcoin price fluctuations.

[Obim34]

This can be answered in a simple sense, it only discourages if the business owner makes use of payment processor in which payments are confirmed and swapped instantly to a stable currency. If not, it is same as returning the actual amount that was sent/received.

We both involved in a trade worth 0.2 BTC, in regards to refund and amount paid for, it is expected that the business owner sends same 0.2 BTC back to the other party. Who asks for refund should be covering the fee for each transaction.

[uchegod-21]

...even some fiat business have "NO REFUND" policy. If I am a merchant, I will adopt the no-refund policy on bitcoin transactions. It wouldn't be strange to do so. If you want to buy, make sure you cross check your orders thoroughly and be sure you want to patronize me. I too on my part will make sure I deliver what i promised. In cases where it is VERY neccessary to refund, only the current market value will be refunded. Will it cause an issue? Ofcourse not because I am going to boldly spell out the terms and conditions for paying with BTC from the start, so we all understand ourselves.

[WhoYouCantKill]

Of course, the issue of refund is still one of the main reasons why many Marchants refuse using Bitcoin as means of payments. Finalizing transactions makes it risky for businesses, mostly for those that depends on easy reversals or the satisfaction policies of customer. The manual method of handling refunds takes time, creates confusion, and increases the rate of errors or even scams.
As for the value of the refunds, sure it is equally a concern. As long as the price of Bitcoin can swing significantly in just a short time, a refund made hours later may imply that the customer gets back maybe more or less of what was paid originally. This includes another layer of lack of assurance that most businesses would want to avoid.
In brief: both Bitcoin's volatility and the process of refund remains the major hindrance to why it is not used for everyday payments much wider.

[Findingnemo]

Businesses rarely do refunds, they will either provide coupons or vouchers that you can use to purchase a product of the same value as them.

And even if they have a refund as money, I feel BTC is much convenient because they can simply send back the funds to the address where they received it, as it can be verified with the TXid they provide and all these things can be done in less than 5 minutes but with traditional system you may need to request the statement from the banking side which may take hours or even a day and they you need to send back the money.

[PrivacyG]

I don't think refund is the concern, in real life, refund only happen for few times. Try to think about ourselves, how many times we ask for refund after pay or purchase something, I think it probably just once in a month.

If we are asking for a refund once a month then the number of refunds will be a concern to business owners for sure.  I believe refund volumes are actually pretty large and this may be a difficulty of adopting the Bitcoin base layer.  But then there are solutions like Lightning which they can adopt.  Or how about accepting Bitcoin base layer and Lightning but make the Refund policy to be Lightning only.

There are way bigger difficulties they are having other than Refund policies.  As Findingnemo says, a lot of stores do not even offer monetary refund but instead have policies such as coupons, vouchers or product replacement.

[Asuspawer09]

Personally, I just think that Bitcoin wasn't suitable for merchant transactions, that's all. I have a similar topic in the past about Bitcoin adoption, and most of the points are about fees, centralized platform, transaction speed, and volatility of the market.

I think this wasn't the main issue of Bitcoin adoption on merchants, since refunds are probably just a small percentage of people, most of the time, this wasn't really going to happen. Also, refunds can easily be fix, especially if you have a centralized platform that you use when it comes to accepting Bitcoin. Which brings us to another problems since not all of us is going to use a centralized platform just to pay  Bitcoin on a store or something, I mean if your a Bitcoin investor sure you want to probably pay on Bitcoin since its going to be convinient if possible, all of your money is on Bitcoin then when you need to pay its just gonna deduct directly on your wallet, but your not really going to put all of that Bitcoin on a centralized wallet, you probably put it on a ledger, electrum or something. I mean yes, it could work if your going to use same platform, like most of the merchants here in my country on popular spot sometimes promote a platform where they can pay Bitcoin, but it just wasnt worth it since, you want to directly pay from your own wallet, and doing that is gonna cost fee, the same centralized platform would have no fee but if your just gonna send it on address from a different wallet fees is going to charge, take note that the fees is depending on the network.

One more point is volatility, when it comes to business, the key is always cash flow you dont want your business to lose cash flow because it could easily shutdown your business, if your going to accept Bitcoin, it a volatile asset, meaning price might to down overtime, when someone pays on Bitcoin your gonna need to hold that money/Bitcoin since your not really going to sell that right away because what's going to be the point of accepting Bitcoin if your just gonna convert it right away. It just needs a stable currency like cash, which is obviously more suitable. Bitcoin just wasn't meant to be used in my opinion as a mode of payment, maybe in the future, when all of the Bitcoin is mined.

[Dogedegen]

‎* Do you think the refund value of BTC is a serious concern today, for merchants and businesses who have currently adopted and do accept BTC as a currency of transaction or payments?

This is absolutely not correct for any large platform that has a built in deposit system and balances. They can refund it directly into the platform. This can have some effect on smaller merchants and platforms, but to what amount? If you have customers that are refunding things a lot that either means that something is shady going on with your customers or something is wrong with your products. In my whole life I have only had to refund things a few times. Either way it is good to process refunds manually and thoroughly, so asking for a new address and waiting for a response is not that much extra time spent per refund.

Personally, I just think that Bitcoin wasn't suitable for merchant transactions, that's all. I have a similar topic in the past about Bitcoin adoption, and most of the points are about fees, centralized platform, transaction speed, and volatility of the market.

None of this is true either. Let's address them in points:

• Fees, merchants save on fees by accepting Bitcoin. Depending on their providers it can be anywhere between 1-5%. There is no fee to accept Bitcoin. If you use a third party service, that is not a Bitcoin-related fee. It is a service related fee.
• Centralized platform? Most merchants do not provide balances, they provide one time payment addresses.
• Transaction speed? What purchases need high speed confirmation time? Nothing does. If you really need instant transactions then you can use LN for smaller transactions. These days it is being used even for transactions in the $1000 to $10000 range.
• Volatility? The fiat that the merchant is accepting is also volatile, often even more volatile than Bitcoin. This is not a valid argument. Just because you don't understand that the USD is also a volatile thing and 1 dollar does not always have the same value, that does not mean it is different when it done with Bitcoin.

It just needs a stable currency like cash, which is obviously more suitable. Bitcoin just wasn't meant to be used in my opinion as a mode of payment, maybe in the future, when all of the Bitcoin is mined.

Currencies, or its physical form cash, do not have a stable value. Most currencies are more volatile than Bitcoin.

[kotajikikox]

I don't think refund is the concern, in real life, refund only happen for few times. Try to think about ourselves, how many times we ask for refund after pay or purchase something, I think it probably just once in a month.

When you are handling a hanfdul of customers, that once a month will result to more than that. This is one of the risks of accepting bitcoin however as the seller, it’s our responsibility to be ready either way. So, they should have a separate fund for refund. Bitcoin or not, refund are always usually a hassle for sellers.

[Alpha Marine]

I disagree. Refunds don't happen that often to be able to have an impact on why people don't accept it for payment. If they must, they can make a policy that they will only refund to the address they received from. Sending to a new address can lead to scams.

Volatility is not a problem here. If you received $60 worth of BTC, you refund $60 worth of BTC. All these can be stated in the TOS to make things easier.
I understand there can be complications, but in very few cases. This is not enough reason for merchants or vendors not to accept Bitcoin. I even think the non-refundable is favourable to merchants. I've seen cases where people make payments from their cards and then call their banks to say it was a fraudulent transaction, that they didn't make such a transaction, and the banks refund the money. That cant happen with Bitcoin.

[Asuspawer09]

• Fees, merchants save on fees by accepting Bitcoin. Depending on their providers it can be anywhere between 1-5%. There is no fee to accept Bitcoin. If you use a third party service, that is not a Bitcoin-related fee. It is a service related fee.
• Centralized platform? Most merchants do not provide balances, they provide one time payment addresses.
• Transaction speed? What purchases need high speed confirmation time? Nothing does. If you really need instant transactions then you can use LN for smaller transactions. These days it is being used even for transactions in the $1000 to $10000 range.
• Volatility? The fiat that the merchant is accepting is also volatile, often even more volatile than Bitcoin. This is not a valid argument. Just because you don't understand that the USD is also a volatile thing and 1 dollar does not always have the same value, that does not mean it is different when it done with Bitcoin.

• Fees still exist, yes, there was no fee on accepting Bitcoin, but fees still exist on the one sending it. If you're a customer, are you willing to pay the fees, take that extra charge?
• Same thing, yes its they are not using centralized platform yes, it is one time payment address and do not provide balance but there are still fees on the network.
• What do you mean what purchases need high speed confirmation? of couse everyone wants that? If you buy something on a store is it okey to wait 10-30minutes just to pay an item
• Fiat is also volatile is yes technically, but on value Bitcoin is obviously more volatile than most of this, crypto is one of the most volatile asset that you could own, whatevery your argument is USD is more stable currency than Bitcoin if you want to use it as mode of payment.

It just needs a stable currency like cash, which is obviously more suitable. Bitcoin just wasn't meant to be used in my opinion as a mode of payment, maybe in the future, when all of the Bitcoin is mined.

Currencies, or its physical form cash, do not have a stable value. Most currencies are more volatile than Bitcoin.

What are you saying? Most currencies are more volatile than Bitcoin? Like what currency? USD? or some currency that doesnt really matter?

Bitcoin's value moves its value probably 10% or more daily, compared to the USD value probably gonna moves 1% if you're lucky. Usually, inflation is gonna be around 8% annually, thats still a very small movement, obviously, Bitcoin is more volatile. You could argue USD is volatile, yes, but not more than Bitcoin. There are only a fee that is more volatile than Bitcoin, probably oil if there are some supply issues, or altcoins like meme tokens.

[Cekikafa]

Fees are the price of decentralization, freedom of uncensorable transactions

[Taskford]

‎For one, I think that the fact that once a transaction is confirmed on the Blockchain making it final, is enough reason why merchants and business owners may be too lazy to adopt Bitcoin as payments, and even when these merchants or business owners do well to try to enact a refund policy to their customers, it will have to be handled manually by the merchants themselves, such that, a customer will be mandated to provide a new and valid address that may not be the original address the BTC was initially sent from.
‎
‎Also, I know that when dealing with such refund policies with BTC, the price volatility and trend movement will always be a concern because, the refund value will be affected by the price of Bitcoin rising or dropping in the crypto currency market at that time when such a refund is about to be made.

This is an edge that the traditional finance model system has over crypto currency because, it is easier to be used as payments with their refund and charge back policy being more simplistic as compared to BTC being used as payments because there is no chargebacks, there's risk of loss of funds if BTC is sent to the wrong address, and obviously , there's potential fund delays with gas fees that must be paid.
‎
‎* Do you still think a refund policy for businesses, is still a huge concern today leading to lesser adoption and use case of BTC as a currency of transaction or payments by merchants and business owners?
‎
‎* Do you think the refund value of BTC is a serious concern today, for merchants and businesses who have currently adopted and do accept BTC as a currency of transaction or payments?

Does Bitcoin have refund feature? Also do you think this is major concern of merchant towards adopting Bitcoin to be accepted in their stores?

Because for what I see which is common issues raised by people or maybe the merchant itself is the price volatility of Bitcoin. Their second concern is the regulation done by government since if they are not really so sure if Bitcoin is legal in their country then provably that they won't think about accepting it for now. The third one is the costumers demand if they didn't see anyone paying using BTC then those merchants would forget about accepting BTC then they stick on traditional means of payments.

[GxSTxV]

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‎* Do you still think a refund policy for businesses, is still a huge concern today leading to lesser adoption and use case of BTC as a currency of transaction or payments by merchants and business owners?
‎
‎* Do you think the refund value of BTC is a serious concern today, for merchants and businesses who have currently adopted and do accept BTC as a currency of transaction or payments?

I think that refund policies when it comes to Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency it should be based on USD price at the time of the transaction not the BTC price itself. Since Bitcoin price can fluctuate anytime in a short period, it wouldn’t be fair to either the buyer or the merchant if refunds were handled in BTC. This is what any responsible person would think before agreeing on any other refund policy, otherwise many people can take advantage of that.

However, I don’t think it’s as big of a concern today as it used to be because most payment processors like BitPay or Coinbase Commerce used everywhere already convert BTC to stablecoins or fiat instantly so it minimizes the risk for everyone.

When it comes to merchants who accept BTC directly without intermediaries refund management can still be a problem but it’s more of a logistical issue than a reason to avoid the adoption of crypto…

So overall, I think the refund value isn’t a big concern using the tools or available platforms today, we dan always adjust it by using better policies.

[Odohu]

I don't think refund is the concern, in real life, refund only happen for few times. Try to think about ourselves, how many times we ask for refund after pay or purchase something, I think it probably just once in a month.

Volatility could make the seller confuse how much they should refund the coins, but they can create a rule like "seller will give exact same amount for refund, but if the rate in Bitcoin equivalent is higher than in fiat, seller will refund equivalent in fiat".

I wanted to respond exactly this because I don't agree thar refund policy is an issue with Bitcoin adoption. In addition to the volatility of Bitcoin, another thing that stand as a bottleneck to Bitcoin adoption high fees and security concerns. A lot of people are afraid that Bitcoin is prone to being stolen and to remain completely safe requires highly technical method. This hinders a lot of people from choosing Bitcoin over other payment systems.