If you buy a physical product from a real store, you can return it to store undamaged and get refund. But in case of digital vehicle databases, returning is not possible. Since I started selling in 2012 I reached over 1000 sales in 2017 and had only 3 or 4 cases of people asking money back. This means 99% happiness ratio, the 1% who made disputes were mostly customers who purchased wrong database without prior communication with me.
In case you find missing cars or errors you should report them, making PayPal disputes won’t help anyone, I always choose to fix errors (if possible) to help not only you but also future customers, DO NOT ask refund and purchase from other provider, you risk getting a database with even more errors, then realize that mine was still best option. I am the only data provider who takes care of customer feedback and improve databases accordingly.
I created the BEST car databases, however best does not mean perfect. Since 2012 I posted free SAMPLES with few rows for each database, and since 2019 I also added videos scrolling through all rows, so you can see exactly what data you get once purchasing full database. Completion percentage of every field is also indicated. If you need a specific field for all cars and my car database contains just for a small percentage of cars, DO NOT purchase then ask refund claiming that data is incomplete. Other data providers may not offer that specific field at all. So my database is the BEST. If someone still ask for refund without proving that other provider’s database is better than mine, it is probably an abusive way to use my car database for free.
If you are from Asia, Africa or Latin America you will never find a suitable automobile database containing all cars sold in your country. If you buy my databases complete for cars sold in Europe, America, etc you may get 60-80% of cars sold in your country. Not perfect but is there any better option?
Moreover I am the only data provider with live chat customer support for 10-14 hours every day. You are advised to communicate with me BEFORE purchasing, test the sample files and make sure that everything is good.
When I can refund you
The ONLY legitimate cases in which I offer refund is when you upgrade to a bigger database, for example you need 1990-2023 package but bought accidentally 2020-2023 (new cars only) package at midnight, you cannot wait for me to come online to change price of the 2020-2023 package to pay difference, so you buy also 1990-2023 package, I will refund your initial purchase of 2020-2023 package.
Example of disputes solved friendly
Someone purchased Year-Make-Model and asked money back motivating that it contain only BMW 3-Series but not model 320i, 330i, etc, which is WRONG, reputable websites shows 3-Series as model and 320i as trim so I created my database accordingly. I offered him a partial Year-Make-Model-Trim for BMW for free, but he kept asking money back. I asked why he is STILL unhappy and he answered that no longer need my services because meantime purchased from other provider. Customer’s fault for purchasing in rush without checking sample file, which incidentally included BMW purposely to prevent anyone from confusing models with trims.
Someone from a former Soviet country in Central Asia bought Car Models Database for Europe without any communication for me, and after 40 days he made a PayPal dispute claiming that database is incomplete and listed about 20 “missing” cars, half of them were included, while other half are not sold in Europe. I replied at PayPal dispute and also emailed him saying that if he needs additional cars he shall nicely request me to add them, not making PayPal dispute after 40 days, and I can add the missing cars if he close dispute and reply at email. He did not replied, neither at email or dispute. PayPal kept money at me.
Someone hired me for web scraping service for a website about buildings, due to insufficient communication I understood that need to scrap certain buildings, I sent a sample file and the customer did not checked carefully and said “sample is OK, go forward and scrap the rest” and after I spent whole week to scrap whole website and sent him final database for $400, the customer realized that needs more buildings that I have not scraped and asked refund, I offered to scrap again whole website to include omitted data, at cost of my time with no extra charges for him, in the end he was so happy that paid me a bonus of $100.
Rude customer who wanted money back lost both money and database updates
In July 2023 a customer wanted to buy Tire Database but insisted me to update database before paying (database created in 2021, 8 sales, nobody requested update yet).
I activated “browser mode” so I can include tire images in database (not included before due to LazyLoad), took 20 seconds/page and once finished I emailed customer that I extracted 11000 tires in 3 days. He paid and on 5 August customer complained about empty columns and claimed that website have 3x more tires (he couldn’t say this before paying?), I replied but I couldn’t investigate immediately due to guests at home (this may have increased his anger). 1 hour later, when guests left, I confirmed that there are ~37000 tires and I will modify scraper accordingly to extract all. He closed chat.
What actually happened is that source website changed codes and running scraper unchanged from 2021 left 4 columns empty (if customer would have purchased before posting update, he would have got all columns filled up). And in 2021 I was not able to scrape LazyLoaded content and in Brands section, website display only ~11000 (most popular?) tires, my partner added “browser mode” in 2022 to load whole page including LazyLoad content before scraping (slowing down scraping speed).
I regret for not sending an email next day with a precise ETA, but customer should have assumed that if took 3 days to extract 11000 tires, he need to wait ~11 days for me to extract all 36000 tires.
On 12 august I got email from Stripe that customer chargeback the $200 payment. I emailed customer that I successfully extracted ~24000 of the 37064 tires available and in 4 days I finish and provide FREE update to all past customers while raising price for future customers… but YOU by attempting to get money back, you got download link disabled until you withdraw chargeback or bank decide in my favor. He didn’t replied anymore. Stripe/bank ended dispute in my favor 2 months later so I re-activated download link, and emailed him again, but he didn’t replied. I would like to know what solution he got if he refused my free fix.
Why do you have to mention where someone is from in providing examples of disputes?
What do you want me to mention? Customer names, emails and phone numbers like on websites where people submit spam emails for shaming spammers? I won’t do that! For privacy reasons I mention ONLY country.
I am curious what pages did you opened and if you realized how many databases I am selling and that they guarantee COMPLETION for certain countries, if you are from another country you may find some cars sold at you but missing from my database. Without indicating where customer is from, readers may misunderstood that I am selling an incomplete database for Europe (especially at 2nd dispute).
I edited page a bit today to explain it clearer.