How often do students sign up and then refund themselves..

[PatrickWald713]

a few days later without even saying hello?

I had a stranger sign up for my class, now they are gone, and then they must have gotten a refund. How often does that happen?

Painful.

[ElianaC]

Hi @PatrickWald713 Udemy has a no-questions-asked, 30-day guarantee refund policy for all students. This eliminates a barrier for students unfamiliar with online learning or unsure of its value to them. We ultimately see that the benefit -- bringing on new students who might not otherwise feel comfortable purchasing -- outweighs the risk that some students might take advantage of the policy. We are taking additional steps to identify bad actors and limit their ability to request a refund. You can information here to get more details about the refund system.

All that said, I know that it can be frustrating when you see a student who has purchased the course and then asks for a refund, and we're sorry you had that experience.

Eliana Cerna

Udemy Community Moderator 

[LawrenceMMiller]

@PatrickWald713 Ignore it. My refund rate runs about one percent per month. I pay no attention to it. The calculation is that more people are attracted by the refund policy then abuse it. 

[GabrielHerr127]

Unfortunately Patrick this is the typical experience on Udemy for me. I have asked about the abuses to their refund policies for a long time. And they always say the same thing that they enforce rules. But in the end it makes no difference. I used to sell high end trading courses and would loser about 20-30% of my monthly revenue to refunds. Other users tell me that their average refunds are like 102% but I have never seen that happen. I am guessing they probably sell very popular cheap courses. But if you are selling high end courses refunds will screw you.

I ended up closing all my courses here and am now selling them myself through Thinkific where I can dictate my own refund policies. I've already sold the same number I sold on Udemy the first half of the month, but I know they can;t just try to steal the content and then get a refund.