Unethical vendors

Up until now I assumed Paypal is kind of like a credit card company (in some ways). That is, if the seller doesn’t give you what you’ve purchased, they will refund you. Well, it turns out this only applies to physical products and not downloadable software. I’ve bought software using Paypal numerous times and never had any issues.

 
That is, until now: this week I purchased a product I saw advertised under the ’30 day money back guarantee’ (which is practically the standard these days). In my second day of usage I realized it’s an inferior product, so politely asked for a refund based on that statement. The manufacturer refused. I disputed the transaction with Paypal based on the above premise, and in response, the software company revoked my license to use their product (which, again, I already paid for). Based on this claim, I escalated things with Paypal and now demanded a refund (in their lingo: turned it from a dispute to a claim). Paypal refused on the grounds of “not offering this protection for downloadable software”. When I asked ‘then what are you good for?’ they answered ‘well, we do not give your bank details to the vendor’. True, but that’s not my problem at the moment. And I was always under the impression they do this, probably because they do extend this protection for everything else.

 
So you may have been aware of this, but I was not. Considering that a large portion of affiliate marketing software is purchased through Paypal, we all need to know this.

 
I’m still giving the software manufacturer some time to comply (hint: it’s a maker of one of the popular twitter applications), and that’s why I’m not saying who it is.

 
My conclusions:

  1. From now on I will make considerable effort to use a credit card instead of Paypal whenever I can, simply because when you need them – they are not there for you and 99% of all internet marketing products are software based (I’ve never bought one which wasn’t). This way, if a vendor cheats you, you have someone protecting your interests.

     

  2. If the software manufacturer does not comply (I won’t get a refund, but at least I want my license to use their inferior tool), I’ll start by advertising precisely who they are, and every single time I see a tweet on Twitter (which I see quite often), I’ll convince them to stay away from that piece of code. Hey, even if I convince one person not to buy it, I’m already successful – but I will be much more successful than that. Maybe I’ll use some of the other Twitter tools to automate that 😉

     

  3. I may sue them in a small court or something. It’s only $97 but it’s a matter of principle. And clearly the law is on my side.

This is one of the times I am happy I have a blog. Even if I don’t win this battle, I’ll definitely win the war.