Refunds

Why am I losing £22000 a year to Refunds? I can find no information on this mechanic as all the searches bring up people wanting to refund the game. It is in the finance tab.

What am I refunding? Why would a zoo ever offer them? Why do I not get to tell them to jump in the Lion enclosure and ask him. I am really confused by this.
 
I'm losing 40 grand a year on animal food after update 1.01. Wasnt like this before the update.
It seems a bit much but I did 5 star all their food. The refund thing is annoying me because it seems unrelated to anything. No feedback, information or guide. A Zoo would never give refunds. It better not be weather related. My best Zoo trips took place in poor weather.
 
I want to know also - I'm losing 128K on "Refunds" in less than 1 year and it's ruining me financially. My Franchise Zoo has been running quite smoothly, I built it up gradually to a comfortable situation where I have 13 habitats/exhibits with about 140 animals in total, 4,5 "Zoo reputation" score and all guest needs in the green. Money was never a problem as I had gradually increasing profits and up to about 300K in cash. But then it just went downhill fast and I noticed I'm losing money wayyyy too fast (down to 140K in a few months); to prevent me from going bankrupt I've now fired some staff, sold animals to save on food, closed staff buildings etc., but when I check the details on where this loss is coming from, I noticed that something called "Refunds" is costing me 128K this year alone (and the year isn't over yet); that's almost as much as what I spend on animal food (139K) in the same period!! What the hell are these "Refunds"?? It's gone from 63K to 128K in about a year? Does anyone know what's behind this? When I checked my entrance, there is only 1 missed sales and guests seem to be very happy so what are these "Refunds"? It's ruining my Zoo; hope I can still turn things around.

Is this the effect of Protesters, causing guests to demand a refund? I've only had a protest here and there and if 1 does happen, surely it shouldn't have THIS much of an impact? Or crime related? Or, possible theory by "Sheriff of Nothingham" :"Another rough theory is that it's a refund on adoption packs, if someone who adopted doesn't like how an animal is doing or if you've released the animal into the wild or something".

I'd just like to find out so I can figure out how to deal with this and hopefully save my Franchise before it goes under.
 
I want to know also - I'm losing 128K on "Refunds" in less than 1 year and it's ruining me financially. My Franchise Zoo has been running quite smoothly, I built it up gradually to a comfortable situation where I have 13 habitats/exhibits with about 140 animals in total, 4,5 "Zoo reputation" score and all guest needs in the green. Money was never a problem as I had gradually increasing profits and up to about 300K in cash. But then it just went downhill fast and I noticed I'm losing money wayyyy too fast (down to 140K in a few months); to prevent me from going bankrupt I've now fired some staff, sold animals to save on food, closed staff buildings etc., but when I check the details on where this loss is coming from, I noticed that something called "Refunds" is costing me 128K this year alone (and the year isn't over yet); that's almost as much as what I spend on animal food (139K) in the same period!! What the hell are these "Refunds"?? It's gone from 63K to 128K in about a year? Does anyone know what's behind this? When I checked my entrance, there is only 1 missed sales and guests seem to be very happy so what are these "Refunds"? It's ruining my Zoo; hope I can still turn things around.

Is this the effect of Protesters, causing guests to demand a refund? I've only had a protest here and there and if 1 does happen, surely it shouldn't have THIS much of an impact? Or crime related? Or, possible theory by "Sheriff of Nothingham" :"Another rough theory is that it's a refund on adoption packs, if someone who adopted doesn't like how an animal is doing or if you've released the animal into the wild or something".

I'd just like to find out so I can figure out how to deal with this and hopefully save my Franchise before it goes under.
I had no protestors for 10 years and its destroying my zoo.
 
Same problem here, everything was fine until today but now I'm in the negative. I've ramped ticket prices up but not sure it's helping.

I never checked the food prices before the update so I can't comment there. Something has changed.

I'm losing all money I make from ticket sales to refunds and I can't even find out what refunds are! It's ridiculous. I've never seen a protestor in my zoo, so can't be them.
It can't just be shop refunds either - I only made 19k from shops on a year where I lost 54k to refunds (I only made 50k from ticket sales!).

Probably to have to quit playing until this is fixed or I'll end up with no cash. Too bad as I was planning to breed more tigers.
 
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I also stopped playing my 2nd Franchise until I know how to save it. I went back to my first Franchise Zoo and it's still thriving, "refunds" there per month are very low or 0. I'm doing pretty much the same thing in both Zoos; same strategy; so I cannot understand what's gone wrong. 1 difference I can think of is that I had just launched a marketing campaign in my now floundering Zoo (the TV campaign which has been running for a while now), and I haven't done any marketing in my 1st (and thriving) Zoo. Not sure if that's related; just can't figure it out.

Actually, another difference is that I released A LOT more animals to the wild in the floundering Zoo; maybe it DOES have to do with the adoption packs? I tested this by releasing a bunch of animals in the "good" Zoo but that doesn't seem to drive the Refund mechanic - or at least not with immediate effect.

I have 3 information centres in the "good" zoo and none of them have any "unhappy" customers and all are making a profit.

I am seeing the "refund" post go up slightly here and there and I now think it's linked to 'low welfare' of animals. The numbers seem to go up when I get the pop-up "low welfare" (mainly due to Keepers not filling up the food bowls fast enough; or injuries due to fighting; overcrowding etc). If this situation lasts a while (particularly if you set game speed to very fast), I think that could be the issue. But still, if that's the cause then it shouldn't have such a huge impact...
 
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I have dealt with about 15 game breaking glitches and at least 20 crashes but this is really upsetting me.
 

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I also stopped playing my 2nd Franchise until I know how to save it. I went back to my first Franchise Zoo and it's still thriving, "refunds" there per month are very low or 0. I'm doing pretty much the same thing in both Zoos; same strategy; so I cannot understand what's gone wrong. 1 difference I can think of is that I had just launched a marketing campaign in my now floundering Zoo (the TV campaign which has been running for a while now), and I haven't done any marketing in my 1st (and thriving) Zoo. Not sure if that's related; just can't figure it out.

Actually, another difference is that I released A LOT more animals to the wild in the floundering Zoo; maybe it DOES have to do with the adoption packs?
Oh god I will lose my nut if that it what it is. I spent my time trying to do the community bengal challenge and have bred 30 Bengals so far or close to.
 
I also stopped playing my 2nd Franchise until I know how to save it. I went back to my first Franchise Zoo and it's still thriving, "refunds" there per month are very low or 0. I'm doing pretty much the same thing in both Zoos; same strategy; so I cannot understand what's gone wrong. 1 difference I can think of is that I had just launched a marketing campaign in my now floundering Zoo (the TV campaign which has been running for a while now), and I haven't done any marketing in my 1st (and thriving) Zoo. Not sure if that's related; just can't figure it out.

Actually, another difference is that I released A LOT more animals to the wild in the floundering Zoo; maybe it DOES have to do with the adoption packs? I tested this by releasing a bunch of animals in the "good" Zoo but that doesn't seem to drive the Refund mechanic - or at least not with immediate effect.

I have 3 information centres in the "good" zoo and none of them have any "unhappy" customers and all are making a profit.

I am seeing the "refund" post go up slightly here and there and I now think it's linked to 'low welfare' of animals. The numbers seem to go up when I get the pop-up "low welfare" (mainly due to Keepers not filling up the food bowls fast enough; or injuries due to fighting; overcrowding etc). If this situation lasts a while (particularly if you set game speed to very fast), I think that could be the issue. But still, if that's the cause then it shouldn't have such a huge impact...

I had the issue before I started any marketing campaigns. I have since tried adding marketing but still in the negative.

I do trade center/sell a lot of the mediocre tigers/gazelles when they hit adult (and wild release any bad ones). I've watched refunds go up when I'm not releasing any animals though.

I do have unhappy customers (because I don't care much about customers but want to trade animals in franchise). That said, I haven't really changed anything from when I wasn't making a loss each year - it seemed to happen after the last update. Honestly if it's set so that if a customer leaves the zoo unhappy can refund their tickets/shop purchases that is one of the most ridiculous and unrealistic things I've seen. If people are still getting huge refund amounts with happy customers, I suspect this isn't the issue.

I don't really get any welfare issues around the zoo (its only a smallish zoo with 3 tiger enclosures and 1 gazelle/zebra pen). Occasionally the tigers fight when the babies mature but that's about it (obviously no protestors either).

Edit: finances page (I'll give closing the zoo a try but I'm not hopeful)
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Are you playing the game on fast speed a lot? I was at one point where I thought I was doing well - I still think that when animals have low welfare (lack of food; injuries due to fighting; overcrowding; illness etc) guests start demanding refunds and if you play at full speed (or you're not aware of it, or not taking action right away or dealing with something else first like building a new habitat), it can quickly increase these "Refunds".
Also, do you have any exhibits? I have 2 and the insects I have breed like crazy so I have to sell off like 90% of the population regularly cause they go into 'low welfare' quickly. At full speed, this can go on for a while. Still, IF that's the cause then it must still indeed be a glitch cause nothing would justify this amount of refunds....
 
Are you playing the game on fast speed a lot? I was at one point where I thought I was doing well - I still think that when animals have low welfare (lack of food; injuries due to fighting; overcrowding; illness etc) guests start demanding refunds and if you play at full speed (or you're not aware of it, or not taking action right away or dealing with something else first like building a new habitat), it can quickly increase these "Refunds".
Also, do you have any exhibits? I have 2 and the insects I have breed like crazy so I have to sell off like 90% of the population regularly cause they go into 'low welfare' quickly. At full speed, this can go on for a while. Still, IF that's the cause then it must still indeed be a glitch cause nothing would justify this amount of refunds....
I do get overcrowding because I am breeding Bengals but with no way to trade baby animals it would be idiotic to punish us for a design flaw that we have no way to mitigate without a second enclosure.

Does not help half my cages have glitched and do not actually show the animals in them or show overcrowding with animals in the trade center.

I maxed the community challenge so might take a break from the game before I start hating it.
 
The numbers you guys are showing in your budgets just seems like this has to be a bug. I know in Planet Coaster (with gate tickets) they'd get a refund if they hated your park & weren't there for very long but these numbers you all have are pretty extreme to think that could be what's going on.
 
Are you playing the game on fast speed a lot? I was at one point where I thought I was doing well - I still think that when animals have low welfare (lack of food; injuries due to fighting; overcrowding; illness etc) guests start demanding refunds and if you play at full speed (or you're not aware of it, or not taking action right away or dealing with something else first like building a new habitat), it can quickly increase these "Refunds".
Also, do you have any exhibits? I have 2 and the insects I have breed like crazy so I have to sell off like 90% of the population regularly cause they go into 'low welfare' quickly. At full speed, this can go on for a while. Still, IF that's the cause then it must still indeed be a glitch cause nothing would justify this amount of refunds....

I don't play on anything but base speed. I'm mainly just idling around waiting on tigers to breed and selling off any gazelles I don't want to keep for breeding. Well that, and trying to work out whats causing refund issues and why education values are so hard to increase - I'll usually have the notification window open so everything that pops up gets dealt with quickly. At worst I might get a new male gazelle fighting with my alpha or the tigers fighting when the babies mature. I do get the inspector saying animals are starving/dehydrated but when I check on the animals they're all 100% welfare (another bug I guess), and she's still giving the habitats 5-stars.

I have 2 exhibits because I'm trying to breed/sell spiders/snails to offset the refund costs. I had the refund problem before I added them though.

I'm starting to suspect guests can refund tickets/shop purchases/donations if they leave unhappy. Almost makes me want to play sandbox, but I do enjoy the trading aspect of franchise. :(
 
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Refunds were a pain in Planet Coaster at times. It does seemed to linked with low welfare or you are Zoo version of a puppy farmer. I like the idea of Community Challenges/Franchise , but it needs a rethink in it's current form especially with breeding and game speeds.
 
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