How to Ask for a Refund Politely (with Sample Email Requests)

How to ask for a refund politely is an important life skill, and it’s surprising how many people don’t know how to ask effectively. Getting your money back from a company is actually really easy. I’m going to share some word for word sample email scripts below, and a detailed breakdown so you can customize the emails for your own needs. You can copy these scripts for your own refund requests.

For your convenience, here are quick links to the example request for refund letters.

• Sample Request For Refund Letter #1
• Sample Request For Refund Letter #2
• Sample Request For Refund Letter #3

Sample Request For Refund Letter #1

The refund letter sample above is simple, but includes the four essential elements of an effective refund request. I’ve used this email script to request refunds from a variety of businesses. The rest of this article includes more information about how to ask for a refund politely, specific examples of how I’ve successfully received refunds, and how to customize the refund request letter for your own needs.

But first a little about WHY you should ask for a refund.

Why You Should Ask For a Refund

Businesses exist to earn profit for their owners, and corporations actually have a legal obligation to pursue that profit.

On the shareholder end, dividends and buyouts are dope. But as a consumer, it’s all your money going into their pockets. I believe you have a moral obligation to protect your money. That obligation doesn’t mean you need to horde your pennies, and it doesn’t mean you need to be stingy with others. The moral obligation means that if you can maximize your earnings and avoid wasting money then you should be in a great position to push humanity forward, which IMO is what we should all be working on.

In Canada and the US and many other countries a contract is basically “a meeting of the minds”, which is represented most clearly by offer and acceptance.

Every time you purchase a product or service you are making a contract like this. It doesn’t matter if you are a visionary billionaire trying to purchase second-hand rockets from Russia, or if you are me buying Rainbow Light Fish Oil Capsules on Amazon; a contract exists.

Your part of fulfilling the contract is easy, you give the business money or a promise to pay the money within a specified amount of time.

In return, the business gives you a product or service that meets the agreed specifications.

To the extent the product or service you receive falls short of those agreed specs, you deserve a refund. And many businesses are HAPPY to return your money; their reputation matters more than your $10.

For example, my company Museum Hack has a generous refund policy: LOVE your museum tour or get 100% of your money back. The reality is that most folks do love the experience, however if they didn’t we would rather give their money back than have them feel like it was a waste or not really worth it.

So, how do you get a refund? Here are three specific examples…

Example #1: Chipotle Refund

I love Chipotle. I wish Chipotle would open more locations in Canada and China so that I could eat Chipotle every day, instead of just every day that I’m in the US.

Chipotle is awesome because you can get big portions of reasonably good quality food, fast and pretty affordable. Even with the limited options, your meal feels very customized. “I’ll take a bowl for here, with brown rice, both beans, sustainable pork, veggies, mild, medium, cheese, guac, and any lettuce you can fit on top.”

But Chipotle’s fast, customized service, combined with how busy they usually were pre-e coli scare, means that sometimes they blow it. I’ve had burnt Chipotle, undercooked Chipotle and unfriendly Chipotle. I ask for a refund every time.

TBH, the first time I asked for a refund from Chipotle it was kind of a douchey email, and if I received it I would be like, this guy is a Rule #1. But mechanically it worked; Chipotle sent me a gift card for a free burrito.

The second time, they sent me two free burritos.

The third time? Four free burritos.

I call this Exponential Burrito Growth Theory. Though full disclosure: the second time I requested a refund, Chipotle actually denied it. So of four requests, three were granted, with a total of seven burritos.

Here is an actual request for refund letter I sent to Chipotle:

Sample Request for Refund Letter #2

And here is Chipotle’s reply…

FYI, when Chipotle sends you a gift card it’s actually for a full meal, so you can load it up with guac, nachos, etc. and it’s still covered. That means the 4x meal card was worth like $64.27. That was enough to feed me, two friends, and the lady in front of us in line.

Why do you get your refund? Because it’s an easy tool for customer service to keep people happy and because the four step ask format works. Notice the email has a logical flow, which is basically this:

• I establish credibility, “I’m an existing customer”;
• I explain the problem, “the food today was level 0 burrito”;
• I explain why it matters, “my friends were trying Chipotle for the first time”; and
• Make a clear ask, “please send all the free burritos to this address.”

Note: Do you want to ask for a Chipotle refund? Submit your request on this page.

Alright, onward to a popcorny example: movie theatres.

Example #2: How to Get a Refund From a Movie Theatre

Going to a movie should be a very standardized experience: there is no rice to undercook and no sustainable pork to under-serve. In fact, movies theatres really just have to get two things right:

• Show the movie that you bought a ticket for, even if it’s terrible; and
• Provide a reasonably acceptable environment for you to watch it in (clean, quiet, etc.).

The last time I asked a movie theatre for a refund, it was because even though Godzilla was good, the guys in front of me talked through the entire thing. I don’t have the original refund request, but it was something like this.

Sample Request for Refund Letter #3

And here is the movie theatre’s reply:

Chris is right, I should be less of a passive bystander in my own life.

This email followed a similar format as the Chipotle one, so I’ve included it here for two reasons. First, because having a few specific examples to draw from may help you craft your own messaging; and two, because you may not believe companies are willing to provide refunds.

One more example.

Example #3: How to Get a Refund From Your Phone Company [Advanced Mode]

This section could also be called, “how to get a refund from your bank or credit card company.” Both of these institutions are notorious for adding fees that make you sad, and a great way to get happy again is to have them reverse the $4 charge on your account.

Unfortunately, here is how most of these conversations go:

And then you grumble about terrible customer service at big phone monopolies. The truth is, the company couldn’t give you a refund because you didn’t ask. The next time you call your phone company, bank, credit card company or really any scenario where you didn’t read your service agreement and still want a refund; all you have to do is replace “is there anything you can do?” with “can I have a refund”? And watch what happens. Those five magic words can melt fees away.

Now for a few more rules…

The Rules of Asking For a Refund

Just because you know how to ask for a refund, doesn’t mean you should. And even if you should ask, you still have to play within reasonable parameters.

Here is what I recommend…

1. You need to have a legit reason to ask for a refund. You’ve just learned advanced persuasion tactics for asking for a refund and this power should never be abused. Follow the Spider-Man Rule (with great refund power comes great refund responsibility).
2. You need to ask clearly. If you send a 37 page request for refund letter, customer service won’t know exactly what you want. Instead, ask for exactly what you want and do it in a concise way.
3. You need to ask for a refund politely. Customer service reps deal with cranky people all day long. Ask politely and they will want to help you.
4. You need to ask for your money back in a reasonable amount of time. A nightmare in customer service is, “I bought this six months ago and now it doesn’t work.” It’s your own fault for buying into planned obsolescence.

Bonus Tip: If a company will not refund your money after the first ask, then it’s okay, and sometimes necessary, to ask for a refund more than once.

Example #4: The “Company Will Not Refund My Money” Request

Themeforest.net has bad customer service, or at least the two times I have engaged with them. The first time was because I bought a blog theme and the blog titles didn’t display at all; at the time I didn’t know how to fix this code on my own. Themeforest refused to refund my money. The second time, the code I bought was for the payment processor on my anti-child slavery fundraiser. I wanted a popup subscription form, which the plugin appeared to have but actually didn’t. On the first request for refund, Themeforest gave me credit but refused to give cash. On the second request for a cash refund, they refused to give it. On the third request, they gave the cash refund. Note that I think Themeforest’s product is good and acknowledge they have a unique challenge; their product is code which means people could easily take advantage by asking for a refund and then just using the code anyway; but still, IMO better to have great customer service than to maximize your margins.

And if all else fails, complain on Twitter.

Important: Confirm Your Refunds

Earlier this year I bought a mattress online for ~$700. I returned the mattress, and the merchant sent me an email saying the funds would be returned to my account in 7 to 10 business days. Great! Two months later, I realized I didn’t recall the funds coming through, and I couldn’t find any record of the transaction in my bank account. I emailed the company and they said they were waiting for me to send in photos of the mattress tags, which was a requirement of another refund method but not the one I did. The mistake was on the company’s end, and they corrected it immediately. However, in the two months waiting period, the company sent zero notifications of the hold up. The mattress scenario is just one of many potential mixups, so my recommendation is that if you are waiting on a refund for a significant amount, to check and make sure it comes through.

The Top Google Answers for “How to Ask For a Refund”

If you Google “how to ask for a refund” the results are pretty terrible (and similar for “how to get a refund” or “how to ask for a refund politely”).

These are some of the top results:

1. wikiHow has a 15 step guide, plus pictures of a lady writing her new novel, “Give Me a Refund or Face the Legal Consequences.” You don’t need to write a letter that long, and you don’t have to get legal.
2. reddit being reddit. The advice isn’t bad, it’s just super vague, “don’t be a dick because then customer service won’t want to help you.”
3. This SEO site that cares more about appearing on the first page of Google than it does about helping you. The examples are okay, but we can do better.
4. Steam’s refund page, which is specifically for requesting refunds for computer games on Steam. Interesting fact: There are ~720 monthly Google searches for “how to get a refund”, and 12,000+ for “how to get a refund on steam.”
5. Paypal’s cancel payment feature, which is useful but not super relevant.
6. This FeeX thing, which appears to be a useful service but the post itself is all fluff.
7. This token Quora answer, which has reasonably good tips but no full script you can use.
8. A language learning page, where they translate “I want a refund” to Japanese.
9. This guy, who is pondering how to REPLY to a refund question.
10. And this 30 minute podcast, which is seriously a 30 minute podcast about how to ask for a refund.