Feedback : e-GMAT does NOT offer returns

Question

Hi All I'm writing this as a feedback for the e-gmat team and for it's current and prospective customers. Timeline 30/Nov/2012 -- Payment 01/Dec/2012 to 15/Feb/2013 -- 5 to 10% consumption 17/Feb/2013 -- 1st email requesting refund - No Response 21/Feb/2013 -- 2nd email requesting refund - No Response 01/Mar/2013 -- 3rd email, expressing high disappointment 02/Mar/2013 -- Rajat replies saying - "I will send a response in the next 6 hours." 08/Mar/2013 -- 4th email still waiting for his revert

I purchased their 'Verbal Live Prep' course assuming they'll offer me a refund if I don't get time to prepare for GMAT and use their product. They categorically mention this on their product page here on Gmat Club. - https://gmatclub.com/blog/courses/e-gmat ... upon-code/ They don't even respond to refund requests let alone actually give a refund. During December and mid February, I only use Level 1 SC content on the website and attend one out of the 13-14 live sessions. This will not account for more than 5 to 10% of their content. I'm unable to prepare for gmat and use their product because of high work load at the office and because of family engagements. They clearly set an expectation, on which they failed to deliver. Maybe their content is brilliant, I don't know, I didn't use much of it. They shouldn't be advertising things which are untrue and on which they cannot deliver. -Mohit P.S. I sent emails to all of them - Rajat, Payal, Archana, and their admin account

souvik101990 · Answer

I would just like to inappropriately chime in.
I referred one of my friends to take on the e-GMAT verbal live prep. He bought it in December as far as I remember. Now this guy works as a site engineer in Coal India Pvt. Ltd. and has very limited internet resource. As most of the e-GMAT customers he was pretty satisfied with the course but he was not being able to continue with the course or his GMAT prep with frequent internet issues. 
He mailed e-GMAT asking for the temporary suspension of his account and he would ask them to activate it when he is in the city.
 Please note that its extremely rare for a company to agree with such a request.  
I was glad e-GMAT did and did so within 3-4 days.

sdas · Answer

I am a current egmat user. I enrolled long back, but due to some exigencies I could not take the course and validity expired. On being reported to egmat, they considerately extended my course validity without any additional charges. This is definitely not a norm or policy mentioned in their disclaimer, I understand and respect the fact that egmat administrators did me this favor on humanitarian grounds. I am extremely content with their services, responses and above all course content.

egmat · Answer

Dear Mohit,

First of all, I would like to apologize. For the record, you did write to me and I was unable to respond to. Your’s is a unique case, something that does not happen very frequently. Nevertheless, the lack of response is my mistake and I would like to owe the same. You have been courteous and cordial in your communications with us and I should have been more responsive.

Refund policy

Now let’s come to the issue of the refund policy. We do have a hassle free refund policy and we do stand by our word. Let me re-iterate the policy for you:

The purpose of the policy is clearly underlined – We will be happy to refund your money provided you don’t like our course. The same purpose is re-iterated in the last line “We don’t want your money if you don’t like our product”. Like most product companies who put in considerable effort in their products, we stand by the quality of our products. We only want those customers who love our products.

Note, this is different from saying – if three months after purchasing the course, you decide that you don’t want to do MBA, we will refund your money. Note, the reason to refund in this case would not be the quality of the course but your decision to not pursue an MBA.

No product company can offer a refund "3 months" after the purchase because the customer decided not to use the product

Every company in the world, whether product based or service based, is governed by financial laws. By virtue of these laws, we have to recognize revenue, record profits, and pay taxes on the same. We do this thirty days after the purchase. Now we do have a category for product defects; i.e. for cases in which our customers don’t achieve the guaranteed score improvement and we account for these upfront. However, we cannot account for customers who want to return the product because they decided to not pursue the MBA. Why – because I have no way to knowing whether you are still pursuing an MBA or not.

If product companies start providing refunds because people decided that they did not want to use their products because of personal reasons then they will never be able to recognize revenue. If they do recognize revenue, they will be in a process of adjusting their books, constantly. Imagine, Canon going to IRS (Income tax department in US) and saying we want our taxes back on the 3 million of the 40 million cameras that we sold last month because 6 months after the purchase, our customers have decided they no longer want to shoot pictures. Similarly, imagine the scenario in which Canon goes to its employees and says that sorry your bonus is no longer valid because guess what – folks who purchased the product 6 months back do not want it now. You work for a company. Imagine this happening to you as an employee.

Let other companies chime in

There are many companies present on this forum. I am sure that others will agree to the same. GMAT Club itself is a company that sells GMAT Club tests. I am certain that if you try and return GMAT Club tests 3 months after the purchase, they would say something similar.

Does it mean we do not honor returns?

Absolutely not!! We do honor returns but for the right reasons. If you don’t like our course, let us know within a couple of weeks and we will provide a refund. If you buy the course and change your mind within a week of your purchase, we will be happy to refund your money – why because we and most of the world that sells direct to consumers takes 30 days to recognize revenue. If you are eligible for the 4 point score improvement guarantee and you don’t achieve a score improvement, we refund your money. However, your case does not apply to any of the above. The matter here is not of the INR 17K that you paid us but of subsequent potential financial implications in terms of revenue and profit recognition that it would have on us.

Just last week, one of our customers purchased Verbal online and later wrote that he only intended to purchase Sentence Correction course. Within the hour, we notified him that we will process the refund ASAP. Similarly, there were cases in which a handful of our customers (3/600 customers) put in the effort but did not achieve the guaranteed score improvement and we did issue them a refund - no questions asked.

Summing it up

Overall, I hope the above helps you understand that
1. Your request does not fall under the purview of the refund policy. The refund policy is designed for and clearly states “if you don’t like the course”. This does not apply in your case.
2. 99% of product companies cannot issue refunds 3 months after the purchase if the customer decides that he/she does not want to use the product because he/she wants to do something else.
3. We do provide refunds if a) you don’t like our product b) if you don’t achieve the guaranteed score improvement.

Let me know if I can answer any other question.

Regards,
Rajat Sadana

Vips0000 · Answer

I feel for u mohit; paying the price for a product that you dint use. However, e-gmat is right in what they did. E-gmat return policy shows nothing but the confidence in the product quality. Probably you could request e-gmat for an extension of the course and manage your personal engagements to come out as a winner in the situation. Negotiation would work for you as E-gmat would also get a chance to showcase their customer friendly stance.
Good luck!

imhimanshu · Answer

Let me pitch in here. I am probably one of the oldest customer of e-gmat, and would love to share my experience.

Long time back, I booked my exam and was about to give my exam but because of some urgency, I need to take up some other assignments and have to schedule my GMAT again and I scheduled it to 1.5 months later. My e-gmat subscriptions were about to end, and on discussing my case with them, e-gmat extended my subscription without any additional cost. I have a few other good experiences as well with this company.

Per my experience and looking at the content, I can confidently say that these are real genuine guys, and I cannot buy the fact that e-gmat refused to refund the money.

AsifBD · Answer

No doubt that E-gmat is empathetic to its customers. And i believe they will continue to be so

AsifBD · Answer

Just to add, E-gmat has also accepted my temporary suspension request. after using 3 months, i found that i am not free enough to use it now, so requested them to suspend it permanently and they replied me immediately positively..

THANK YOU E-GMAT

thevenus · Answer

Thanks E-gmat for extending my SC+OG course for a month.

-Manish

furqan123 · Answer

Just to add, E-gmat has also accepted my temporary suspension request. after using 3 months, i found that i am not free enough to use it now, so requested them to suspend it permanently and they replied me immediately positively..

THANK YOU E-G

THANK YOU E-G

suyashtcs · Answer

Hi!! Due to hell lot personal issues,I was not able to complete course on time so thus requested E-Gmat to extend for 1 month to complete all my remaining course.Thanks to E-Gmat that they gave me 1 month to complete the course.But see how unfortunate i am .During this one month i fell sick with DENGUE Fever and again facing the same issue :-(

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Feedback : e-GMAT does NOT offer returns

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