returning money to student

[MohamedAbde451]

hello ,

student recorded my course then he return his money .

its very bad policy that he can return money after learning the course .

plz protect our efforts we are loss 

[SanjitAcadmy · Accepted solution]

Exactly,  because they are earning from them, so they are important,  but To us they have To pay,  that's why they will now listen us. 

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@Gokul wrote:

One of my students openly said to me on my Facebook page that he enrolled in all of my courses and then downloaded them and then applied for a refund for the courses. That's how it works here. Udemy gives more importance to students rather than the instructors which I don't feel is good. 

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[jadaon · Accepted solution]

Samething happened to me today. This is my first course, so I treasure every student. That's why I feel really depressed when I saw it. He enrolled and finished the course really quickly, then returned his money.

Do we really have no way to prevent that?

[DanielEvans]

'I'm afraid of loosing my money, time and effort'

How are you 'loosing' money?

It's money you never had.

There's no doubt a chunk of money you wouldn't earn if students didn't have the re-assurance of a money back guarantee.

As much as it's frustrating for some to see people refund, that's the logic of it and exactly why the system is in place and why money back guarantees are commonplace in all manners of sales and marketing.

Regardless, I do agree that there should be a percentage point however which nulifies the option to claim a refund for courses which are over at least 3 hours or so, since 50% of half an hour (as an example) is very little...

[MostafaAta]

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@DanielEvans wrote:

'I'm afraid of loosing my money, time and effort'

How are you 'loosing' money?

It's money you never had.

You didn't get the point, even if it's the money I never had but loosing its value must considered as a risk!

But the general answer is that: Now I'm investing money in the equipments for creating those courses, instead of video conferencing the students which costs almost nothing

[DanielEvans]

I think you misunderstood my point, given that what you do not have, has no existance to have value placed upon it.

Again, without the money back guarantee instructors would garner less enrollments...

You are merely focusing upon a minor detriment of an advantage.

The money back guarantee has been tried and tested umpteen times over through decades of strategic experimentation in sales and marketing, hence it's near universal implementation.

[TapuTElia173]

Im wanting to create my first course but reading this post made me anxious.

Is there any protection for the instructors on Udemy re: copyright etc

Or certain students ripping off the 'refund policy'

[DanielEvans]

The thread is all about the fact that there's little to no protection and a small percentage of students, do rip off courses...

That's why people are contributing expressing their concerns and suggestions.

[SanjitAcadmy]

Don't worry,  it's just an open discussion on few facts because all system has it always. But pros are much compared to cons. So we suggest to create a wonderful course and help other from your knowledge,  if money is 2nd priority and helping the candidate is first,  you will easily get the both.

All the best 

[Myusufe]

Don't stop to create content in Udemy. There are some people just want to get advantage, but believe me not All people are like that. 
Create your content and share to others, if you get money say thanks, if not - it is still good to share your knowledge to others.

[jadaon · Accepted solution]

Samething happened to me today. This is my first course, so I treasure every student. That's why I feel really depressed when I saw it. He enrolled and finished the course really quickly, then returned his money.

Do we really have no way to prevent that?

[RandyMinder · Accepted solution]

I feel your pain and it has happened to me. I think the 30 day money back guarantee is necessary and ensures more sales. However, what I do not agree with is that students can go through the entire course and then ask for a refund. I cannot understand why Udemy allows this. You could never go to a restaurant, finish your entire meal and then ask for a refund because you didn't like it. 

What I wish Udemy would do is to offer the 30 day guarantee up until you complete 50% of the course. After that point, you're committed. I think this is totally reasonable, especially given what most students pay for each course (probably around $10). 

On the other hand, my refund rate is only about 4% and I have 10 courses for sale. Almost all of my refunds are from one course where I make it clear, in the introduction, the course may not be for everyone. Oddly enough, it's also my best selling course. 

[MostafaAta]

This point is Very disappointing because Udemy only pay attention and care about students, on the other side the tough Warning even threats to the instructor not to game the system or violate the policy which will cause account termination and loosing all courses !!

What about applying this rule to students also?

or even change the policy to be more efficient for the sake of all the eco-system (udemy - instructor - students)?

what about someone from udemy reply to this community post?

or even reply to my emails to support?

I've one last thing to say explaining how important this is:

instructors are the source who create courses which lead students to pay

instructors >> courses >> students >> money

without instructors there will never be money

[RandyMinder]

While I would tend to agree with you that Udemy instructors are pretty much at the bottom of the totum pole, it's important to keep one thing in mind. When Udemy refunds money, neither the instructor nor Udemy makes any money. So, it's in Udemy's best interest to minimize refunds as much as possible. 

[MostafaAta]

I'm not against the refund policy itself, but the abuse of weak policy points

I've said the details here

BTW I believe that the instructors are the backbone of a website like udemy, should be given the respectful rights through effective policy

[Leo10]

Hello,

I been feeling the same problem. At today i think Udemy dont make changes. So what everybody will do? i dont know, if maybe would be better put my courses in youtube. Lets talk about for what to do?

[RandyMinder]

I think you're overly concerned about refunds. Most instructors with quality courses experience a refund rate of under 5%. I don't doubt there are students who abuse refunds. That will always be the case. But, if Udemy thought refunds were getting out of hand, they would change their policy because when a course is refunded, they don't make any money. Therefore, they are highly motivated to make changes as they deem necessary. 

[GabrielHerr127]

Everyone here says they have only like 2-4% refund requests on courses.

I don;t know what is going on, but I have 4 courses that I put up 2 in May and 2 in June. They arrre good queality and very extensive. The few legitimate purchases I've had had great reviews. But overall I have about a 50% refund rate.

Some people even wait 7-10 days to request one. I am sure after they have screen recorded or extracted all the information.

Instructors are just getting screwed here.

[RandyMinder]

Hi @GabrielHerr127 

You've got to take refund rates with a grain of salt. Many of the top instructors have their courses on UFB as well as for sale. The courses offered via UFB are rarely, if ever, refunded. Therefore, their refund rate is going to be quite low overall. 

My refund rate is almost a constant 4% each month. It almost never fails. And the majority of my refunds are from Indian students. I have no courses offered on UFB. 

In my opinion, Udemy's refund policy is broken but Udemy seems uninterested in doing anything about it. This is a bit of a mystery to me because when a course is refunded, nobody makes any money. I agree Udemy should offer a refund policy. But, the fact that a student can complete 100% of the course and get a refund is just brain dead. 

[fatahgabrial]

I did see some script on GitHub written in python to download the entire course from udemy. I mean it's not even a month and I have already lost $200 to refund

[MariaPapape380]

Isn't there any way to protect your work? I've recently created a course and this has happened. In the very beginning, it's happened. Recently, it's happened again when a student enrolled in my course, watched it really fast and then withdrew. I saw the student's profile, saw that the student was enrolled in other courses too and gradually was leaving them too. That's disappointing. The refund policy is good and protective but the instructors are the least protected.