When a client asks for a refund: sort the request before you answer it

Google autocomplete, checked on 24 October 2026, finishes "client asking for refund" with "upwork".

It finishes "customer asking for refund" with "script".

So people want the words.

But a refund request at an agency is rarely one thing. It is the same sentence covering four different problems, and the reply that fixes one of them makes another worse.

Here is the complication. The instinct is to answer fast, either by giving the money back to make it go away or by quoting the contract to shut it down. Both feel decisive. Both are guesses, because you have not yet worked out which of the four you are holding.

So the first step is not the reply.

Step 1: Acknowledge it the same day, and ask one question

Silence is the worst answer. It turns a request into a grievance.

Reply the same day, short, before you decide anything.

Thanks for telling me directly. Before I come back with options, can you tell me what is behind this? I want to make sure I fix the right thing.

That one question does most of the work.

It does not concede the money. It does not refuse it. It gets the reason on the page, in their words, and the reason decides everything after it.

Step 2: Sort it into one of four

The way I sort them, most refund requests at a small agency fall into one of these.

One: you missed what was agreed. Late, wrong, short, off-brief. The client is right, and the question is only how you make it whole.

Two: the work was delivered, and they do not like it. It matched the brief, it went through the agreed rounds, and the result still is not what they pictured.

Three: their plans changed. A launch moved, a budget got cut, a new boss arrived. Nothing is wrong with the work. They no longer need it.

Four: it is leverage. The request arrives with the next invoice, or right before a renewal, and the complaints are vague. They want a lower price, and a refund is the opening bid.

Write down which one it is before you write the reply. If you cannot tell, ask a second question.

Step 3: If you missed it, fix it first

This is the case where the client deserves the most and usually asks for the least.

Offer to redo before you offer money. Name what went wrong in one sentence, say what you are already doing about it, and give a date.

That is the same order I use in how to apologize to a client for a mistake: name it, fix it, then say what changes.

Money is the right answer in two cases. The mistake cost them money you cannot recover for them, or the work cannot be redone in time to matter. Then give back the share that matches the damage, and say why that share.

Not the full amount by reflex. A specific number with a reason reads as fair. A full refund thrown at the problem reads as panic.

Step 4: If they dislike delivered work, offer the rounds, not the money

This is the hardest one to hold, because the client is unhappy and you want them happy.

But a refund for taste is a bad trade.

It tells the client that delivered, approved work is optional. It tells your team their work can be unpaid after the fact. And it sets the price of the next disagreement.

So offer what the agreement already includes. The remaining revision rounds, used properly. A new direction on the next piece, with a fresh brief.

If the agreement does not say how many rounds were included, that is the real problem, and it is yours. Fix it in the next contract. For this client, be generous once, say it is a one-off, and mean it.

The line can be short. VALORAE Arc, the group's short-form clipping agency, draws it in one sentence: a revision changes a delivered clip inside the chosen moment, and anything that changes the moment is a new clip.

Step 5: If their plans changed, pause before you refund

Nothing went wrong. They just do not need the work now.

Separate two things.

Work that is done is done. It was delivered and it is theirs. That money stays.

Work that has not started is different. Keeping payment for nothing done is legal under plenty of contracts and still a bad idea. It costs more in what the client tells people than it is worth.

So offer a pause first. Hold the unstarted work as a credit for when they come back, with a date it expires. A client who expects to need you again has a reason to take it.

If they will not, refund the unstarted part and keep the rest. Say exactly which is which.

Step 6: If it is leverage, trade nothing

You can usually tell. The complaint arrived on renewal day. The specifics are thin. Each answer you give gets a new objection.

The contrarian line: do not negotiate the past.

Delivered work at the agreed price is closed. If they want to change the price going forward, that is a conversation about scope, and it is the same one I wrote up in how to respond when a client asks for a discount: trade scope, never the rate.

Reply once, calmly, with the agreement and what was delivered against it. Then offer to talk about what the next month looks like.

Some of these clients leave. That is fine. I am not saying it feels fine. A client who uses refunds as bargaining will do it again next quarter, and losing them now is cheaper than keeping them.

Step 7: Keep it all in writing

Whatever the case, move the conversation to email if it started on a call, and keep it there.

Summarise each call in a short email the same day. "As discussed, we will redo the two posts by Thursday and the rest of the month stands."

If a client ever threatens a chargeback, those records are what the payment provider will ask for. The contract, the deliveries, the approvals, the summaries. Put them in one folder now, before anyone mentions one.

I cannot tell you how a given payment provider will rule on a given dispute. I can tell you that the side with the paper usually has the easier time.

Step 8: Write the line that makes the next one shorter

Every refund request is a gap in the contract showing itself.

After this one closes, add the missing line. Plain words, four parts:

• What is paid up front, and when.
• What happens to unstarted work if the client cancels, and how much notice they give.
• How many revision rounds are included, and what one round is.
• That delivered and approved work is not refundable.

Most disputes get shorter once both sides can point at the same sentence. The argument stops being about feelings and starts being about a line you both signed.

The short version

• Reply the same day and ask one question before deciding anything.
• Sort it: you missed it, they dislike it, their plans changed, or it is leverage.
• Missed it: fix first, then refund the share that matches the damage.
• Dislike delivered work: offer the agreed rounds, not the money.
• Plans changed: pause and credit unstarted work, refund it only if they refuse.
• Leverage: do not negotiate the past.
• Put everything in writing, then add the missing line to the contract.

If you are the client on the other side of this, VALORAE Media wrote up why a last social media agency usually failed, which is the list to read before you ask for money back.

More notes like this live at tgsidd.com.