The refund email you should send before the customer asks

A refund that arrives after two reminders costs more than the money: it costs the belief that anyone is paying attention. The fix is a message sent before the question.

What that message contains

  • What happened in one sentence, without legal hedging.
  • What you are doing — refund, credit, replacement — and the amount.
  • When it lands, as a date, not "shortly".
  • What they need to do, if anything. Usually nothing, and saying so matters.

Why sending first works

It converts a complaint into a confirmation. The customer's next message becomes "thanks" instead of "where is it?", and the thread closes instead of escalating.

The one rule

Never send it with a number you have not checked. A wrong amount restarts the entire conversation, and the second apology is worth nothing.

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