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About the refund policy
Many providers offer refunds for one day, three days, or a week or more.
Users are generally able to deploy their application and test its suitability within a few days, but if a refund is delayed because of a ticket, such as a feature that the user wanted but the actual product could not provide, or if the ticket was so slow that the user missed the opportunity, then should the user receive a refund.
There are also abusers who can disrupt the supplier's service in a short period of time and apply for an unconditional refund after the abuse, which is another very unfriendly operation for the supplier.
So I personally think that the refund policy should be defined more specifically, such as no violations, less than a percentage of traffic usage, no ticket processing time, etc.?
What do you think?
Comments
I was under the impression that on almost any provider, any kind of service abuse immediately voids your right to a refund.
How about 45 days refund policy?
Here in Russia, in "mordor" as some people say, we have "Consumer Protection Law". According to it, it is impossible to completely refuse refund request from customer except some special case (complex goods: TV, home cinema theater and similar).
But the provider has the right to make certain requirements to the request for a refund. I cannot represent all the Russian companies but our (RoboVPS) policy near to usual market policy:
1) We do not offer refund when service used less that within one month (one month is our minimal period).
2) We do not refund to abusers without a written and signed statement and attached ID where photo and sign shown.
3) When we do refund we charge sum of refunds for processing company commission.
That is common sense and is sometimes on ToS.
But there have been people whose definition of "abuse" is on an entirely different plane of existence.
I agree
I think refund policy is overrated though. Something like this is fine
"All of our services do not include any money back guarantee and all purchases are final. You can cancel your subscription at anytime, that will result in you no longer being billed in the future."
But just make something like this:
If you break the terms of service any obligations that we offer you, such as money back guarantee is voided.
EU has a 14-day refund for anything you buy online/over phone. It's a law. This is one reason I usually buy from EU-based providers.
That means that spammers, any abusers can get a refund anyway?
Yeah.
The end is dickly nigh in EU.
No. That means customers acting in good faith can get governmental support when sellers unjustly refuse their refund request.
I think this is too long a definition, unless the service itself is very complex.
I think we should add one, if there is a ticket, it can be extended, which is I recently looked through some reviews to see that there are several said provider spent long time and didn't solve the issue, but missed the refund deadline.
Some people may think that mining is not abuse, especially for the dedi core of the service.
EU has many laws, officially, we have no refund policy, however, we do refund in any justified case, such as a malfunction, mistake in provisioning, more than 24 hours delay in setup, any issue with the VM network, etc. In some situations we do refund in full, even if there is not a fault of ours we are just very careful not to encourage abusers.
In that case is a full refund, we take the costs.
Other than that, if people cancel early for a reason on their side, we fully refund to credit if they have another service or extend it so we are not taxed twice. If they do not have another service, we can't help, the accounting cost to handle that case is too high.
Of course, no refund in case of abuse.
Refund request should be opened before the refund deadline.
Other kind of tickets should not matter.
Making the refund policy more complicated is not a good idea, I think it is more important to keep it simple and understandable at first glance.
On the other hand, a more complex refund policy would introduce more disputes and increase costs for suppliers.
Sorry, but this is bullshit. Yes, indeed EU has such law, but it doesn't work within "virtual" goods as also this "law" get's rewritten by ToS of the provider.
You can ask the lawyer about that. I had a couple of these kinds of situations where i was from a provider side, so i know what I'm talking about
P.S From your world even if you buy smth from g2a, you have used it and you didn't like it(Like FIFA points), you can get a refund. Sorry man, no way. You need to look a little bit deeper.
@ceter Gov won't help you in this case, the court if only
@CalmDown, srsly, calm down.
It Suits me fine, as long as it works fine for me and as long as I was always able to get my refund, Why should I be affected by whatever story/experience you had
?.
Also, it actually does work for virtual products check europa.eu. If you deal with a provider who rewrites laws, that's what I call bs. You don't just re-write laws, wtf? if you are ok dealing with such provider, then you have bad taste.
Some see it as a law for abusers, ok, sure won't argue with that. But I see it as a protection from abusive sellers, who don't honor their agreements. It happened to me several times, for example buying a virtual service, without being told it has a yearly contract, or other limitations. Or buying a product( electronics/equipment) that does A+B, but it turns out it only does A and does not do B as advertised. It's a double edged sword.
Meanwhile, if this laws bother you as a provider, remember you are a human, and a consumer in a different scenario. Would you
I hate those human beings, I don't ask them, and I don't want, also they don't always tell the true laws (or even know it), lawyers are usually trash, so "go ask a lawyer" isn't really an argument, a real argument is "go read the law".
In my experience most providers will offer 30 day refund, but if you are cancelling/requesting refund after abusing the service ie mail spam or hosting illegal content then that voids your refund.
in EU you have the distance selling law, which means that any consumer (no businesses!) are allowed to cancel any contract within 14 days period without any reason, if the contract got closed electronically.
I hate abusers... but thats EU-law.
with VPS, the provider is able to invoice on a minute or second-basis aster those 14 days of EU-law.
There is an exception for computer software, games, music, etc. If the customer is to "unseal" something like this (activate/download digitally if it is not physical media) - then it is not subject to the cooling off period (business must notify the consumer of this otherwise they still maintain their rights).
As for other virtual services, and in question - hosting services, the cooling off period is legally binding.
For clarification, don't blindly trust a lawyer, the directive is actually very short and easy to read (97/7/EC with amendments)
What if the provider introduces an activate button in WHMCS?
When the customer presses this button, they unseal the VPS and it boots.
in this case, the cooling off period is void - as of my unterstanding.
as a provider I wouldn´t take this to court and simply refund. If the user was abusive... I´d block the users account and continue working.
The risk of loosing money to lawyers and courts isn´t worth those 10€ refund. it´s even not worth a 500€ refund...
This is not correct.
Consumers (not companies) can return and get a refund on physical goods within 14 days. Counting from the day they got the goods delivered.
Food, customized physical goods, physical goods made especially for the consumer, and digital products (that are delivered) are not covered by this law.
But there are providers within the EU that offer a 14-day refund on digital products.
Well, some people remembers that they can't reinstall their VPS themselves so they wants their $1 back after using the VPS for 2 weeks.
Refund policy is better than dispute. Loosing some cents on gateway fees is better than $15 dispute fees.
My understanding of the directive means that this isn't a permitted exclusion... if all of your VPS were customised however (sliders, pick your ram, etc.) then you would probably be in the clear.
(Or, sold a software license with an accompanying VPS, not the other way round)
Let's make a software called "splash screen".
It displays the provider's logo on VNC when the server starts, before invoking the PXE bootloader.
Servers are free during the first month, but license cost depends on CPU and RAM and disk, just like Windows.
The license is activated as soon as the customer boots the server for the first time over VNC.
There's no template install, so that VNC usage is mandatory.
Second month, EU customer pays for the server just like everyone else.
So far as I know the law that won't be possible. You need the users agreement to void the 14 day refund policy. Hosting is not a product but a service.
So a check box with "Your server will be activated now and you will loose the 14 day refund period" would be okay.