People not giving address

#1

Hi I had a really weird problem recent;y
I offer a physical reward for one of my tiers and obv put in shipping address required. But someone subscribed, gave what I believe to be a fake address (it was 1 Street Name, and the postcode was 1111 so… )

By the time the end of the month came around, naturally the payment didn’t come through, and turns out the account was deleted. I’m a bit confused and annoyed because he’s had access to everything for a month without payment (I’ve changed to payment upfront since) but its also thrown out my earnings for this month, saying I’m earning -$30.
Has anyone else had experience with ghost users?

#2

Yes, such abuse is sadly not rare, but switching to upfront payment is a really efficient remedy. You shouldn’t have that problem again! I don’t know why your earnings would show a negative though :frowning:
My first encounter with that behaviour was when someone signed up for my top tier of $99. I was so excited! It was utterly disappointing when the truth came out.

#3

We’ve had a similar problem with people giving phony email addresses, and then we can’t communicate with them if needed (like if their payments decline). I don’t know what can be done about this.

#4

@joumana its so annoying!! its not even a big deal because i never expected that money anyway but its like… augh
@greg.ross that sucks… i swear patreon should be able to step in or something

#5

One common thing I’ve seen people do besides charge upfront is sending rewards only after payments have been processed.

I update my Patreon normally with exclusive behind the scenes or thought pieces, but the rewards patrons pledged for (shipped items, tutorials) will only be sent later separately via the email they provided.

Some people use Dropbox and send a link via mass message for those that have paid, I went a step further and tried programs like sendowl/getdpd (you have to pay unfortunately) that send unique URLs for download, and stamp PDFs with buyer emails and name so at least it can be a small deterrence for irresponsible sharing.

Attrition is normal. I’m sure some people are scammy, but I also think that there are many situations where that’s not people’s intentions. For some their financial situation really changed, or some they value their privacy and choice. If someone thinks they may not find as much value in what we do, I think it’s fair to let them cancel. I do buy goods and return them myself if I’m not into the product. Sucks but try to see it as the cost of doing business (small as most patreons may be), and again, don’t give anything valuable until payment is cleared.

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