From 3 to 5 minutes

Save money by solving complaints with partial refunds

A partial refund can help you save on return costs while protecting your reputation. Learn how to use this tool to solve complaints.

When a buyer complains for a delivered product, you can offer a partial refund to solve the problem.

The partial refund is an effective solution: if the buyer accepts your offer, the complaint is closed, stops affecting your reputation, and that person cannot complain for that order again.

This solution has benefits for your business. When you give a partial refund you:

Protect your reputation, which stops being affected if you offer it in the first two days after the complaint is filed, regardless of whether the buyer accepts it within that period or not.
Avoid paying for the return shipping, since the buyer keeps the product.
Save the time it takes for you to inspect a return and put the product back for sale.
Make sure you do not have to deal with a return in bad shape or cover the cost of a product that, once returned, cannot be sold again.

Maintain a completed order and keep the customer happy, which increases your chances of selling more.

In addition, whenever you complete a partial refund, we will cancel the selling fees proportional to the money refunded. For example, if you refunded 50% of the product’s price, we will cancel 50% of the selling fees.

Please note that the Partial Refunds tool is available on all countries except for Argentina for the time being.

How to offer a partial refund

When you receive a complaint, follow these steps:

At the bottom of the Order messages, select the option “Select refund amount”.
Pull down the menu to select the percentage of the refund you will offer the buyer.
Find out what you have to consider before confirming the offer.
Confirm the offer, and you are done! If the buyer accepts it, the complaint will be closed.

When to offer it

The partial refund can be a good solution when you get complaints because the product sold:

Has missing items.
Has a minor flaw or defect.
Is slightly different from what the buyer chose.
Is custom and, if returned, unsuitable to be sold again.

How to send attractive offers

When you send a refund offer, the buyer may not accept it and choose to contact us instead. In those cases, the complaint goes to mediation and a person from our team defines how to solve it and whether it affects your reputation or not.

To avoid this, it is very important to send attractive offers by following these recommendations.

Offer a percentage that is appropriate for the problem

To solve the complaint effectively, analyze the case and make a fair offer that compensates the problem reported and satisfies the buyer.

Reach an agreement before sending it

When you choose to solve a complaint with a partial refund, you can only send one refund option. For that reason, analyze the case and try to reach an agreement before making the offer of a percentage of the money. This way, you can make sure your offer is accepted.

Along with your offer, provide another solution

If you deliver your order with Mercado Libre’s shipping, when you offer a partial refund, the buyer can choose to accept the money offered or to start the return of the product.

This way, you offer your buyer another way of solving the problem while protecting your reputation, since even if they return the product, if you sent the offer within the first two days after the complaint was filed, it no longer affects your reputation.

Please take these tips into consideration and make the most out of this solution to complaints from your buyers.

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