Wow. I have legitimately tried to help you with your self-inflicted issue. In return I get is borderline libel and threats.
Very well, let's stick to what the law says and only do exactly what the law says. As a result I rescind my offer to help you and will only provide support as stipulated by the Support Policy which is part of the legally binding Terms of Service.
I have already provided the applicable consumer protection law with links (not to mention the links are in our Terms of Service which you have UNRESERVEDLY agreed to in a legally binding manner). You are misleadingly only pasting very specific excerpts regarding the general right to withdrawal. Per the Terms of Service, we actually
DO offer that right to our clients per the EU consumer protection laws and we, in fact, elected to extend it to
30 days instead of the legally required
14 days.
However, the law also has explicit exceptions which you chose not to paste in your reply. These exceptions do apply to you and they say that you are not eligible for a refund as you've lost your right to withdrawal. Stating that we are in breach of the applicable "consumer law" is a false statement. If repeated outside this ticket system it is a civil wrong per the applicable common law.
As I have already told you
twice above, our refund policy is compliant to the letter of the European Union
Directive 2011/83/EU. Let's read Article Article 9 of the directive, paragraph 1 because that's what applies to on-line sales of services and software.
---
1.
Save where the exceptions provided for in Article 16
apply, the consumer shall have a period of 14 days to
withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract, without
giving any reason, and without incurring any costs other than
those provided for in Article 13(2) and Article 14.
---
As you read, the right to withdrawal (refund) is limited by the provisions of Article 16. This article has the title "
Exceptions from the right of withdrawal". As we explicitly state in our Terms of Service (for your convenience) paragraph m of Article 16 applies with regards to downloadable software. Let me quote the opening paragraph (unnumbered) and paragraph m of Article 16:
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Member States
shall not provide for the right of withdrawal set
out in Articles 9 to 15 in respect of distance and off-premises
contracts as regards the following:
...
m) the supply of digital content which is not supplied on a
tangible medium if the performance has begun with the
consumer’s prior express consent and his acknowledgment
that he thereby loses his right of withdrawal.
---
So, as long as the performance (download) has begun "with the consumer’s prior express consent and his acknowledgment" the right to withdrawal (refund) is lost. Before you were allowed to pay you had to EXPLICITLY check three boxes which, under EU legal precedent, have the same place as a signature. Remember that these boxes are never, ever checked unless you explicitly check them. Even if you fill in wrong information in the form and it has to reload the boxes do NOT stay checked because that would be illegal. We actually do pay attention to the EU legislation. We are maintaining our own sales software exactly because all other commercially available solutions were not 100% compliant with the EU consumer law legislation.
The two most important boxes you checked, as I told you above, are:
- You unreservedly agree to the Terms of Service
- You explicitly agree to the Refund Policy which is an integral part of the Terms of Service.
Inside the refund policy you are told in no uncertain terms that initiating the download constitutes express consent. I quote the entire Refund Policy you agreed to (even though I linked to it in my previous reply):
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"Cool-off" period and refunds policy
In compliance to EU directives, you are entitled to 30 calendar days of "cool-off" period. If within those 30 calendar days you have not used our services (explicitly: you have not downloaded our software and have not requested software support) you are eligible for a full refund of your purchase, no questions asked. This "cool-off" period is provided in accordance to Article 6, §1 of Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts and the Directive 2011/83/EU which replaces it.
However, if you have already downloaded our software and/or already made use of our support services you are not eligible for a refund, even in the first 14 calendar days according to Directive 2011/83/EU, Article 16, §m which states: "the supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium if the performance has begun with the consumer’s prior express consent and his acknowledgment that he thereby loses his right of withdrawal."
Explicitly: when you click on a software download link, or use any method provided by your web server / CMS to initiate such a download (including but not limited to installing updates via Live Update and Joomla! extensions update), or request software support from us through our ticket system you are giving us your express and unreserved consent to begin the provisioning of the software download and support service you have purchased from us, waiving your right of withdrawal from the subscription contract, making you ineligible for a refund. For more information you may also want to read: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-450_en.htm?locale=en
Clarification for renewals and their eligibility for a refund: renewals are considered new purchases, not a continuation of your previous subscription. As a result you can get a refund in 14 calendar days before the conclusion of the contract which means:
Any time before the activation of your renewed subscription.
Within 14 days from the activation of your renewed subscription, but only if you have neither downloaded the software nor made a software support request since the exact date & time your renewed subscription was activated.
Clarification for the software download service: Most of our software comes in two editions, a free of charge Core edition and a subscription-based Professional edition. For these software we consider our software download services to have been provisioned only when you download the subscription-based Professional edition. Downloading the free edition of our software or any other item which is made available to the general public without the need for an active subscription (e.g. documentation) does not constitute performance of our download service. In other words, if you download Akeeba Backup Core and its documentation your right to withdraw is not affected.
Clarification for the software support service: Performance of the software support service begins at the exact time you submit a support ticket or a reply to an existing support ticket. Pre-sales requests and communication through e-mail or the Contact Us page does not count towards the performance of the software support service. These are communications provided outside the scope of the software support service.
In any other case, no refunds will be given whatsoever. By using our software download and support services you explicitly declare that you accept our policy of no refunds beyond the provisions of aforementioned European Union Directive and the member state laws which enforce it.
Further clarification: if you bought the wrong subscription or you failed to use a valid coupon code you have in possession please contact us immediately. Even though we cannot issue a refund, we can always convert your subscription to the correct type and / or adjust the duration of your subscription to match what you paid.
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Therefore, you were fully informed about losing your right to withdrawal as soon as you start downloading anything from our site, you accepted that
unreservedly and you downloaded the software anyway. Therefore you have given your explicit consent to lose your right to withdrawal. And so you've lost it. You do not have the right to withdrawal per your downloads of:
Admin Tools 4.0.2 - 2016-10-29 - origin: https://www.akeebabackup.com/my-subscriptions/subscriptions.html - IP 82.69.132.78 - United Kingdom
Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 5.2.4 - 2016-10-30 - origin https://www.akeebabackup.com/download/akeeba-backup/5-2-4.html - IP 82.69.132.78 - United Kingdom
If you debate whether you initiated these downloads I have the full record of your downloads which proves that you're using the same IP address for all your downloads since January 1st, 2016. It is also consistent with the IP you used to purchase a subscription.
Before you attempt yet another switch of strategies let me remind you that the EU itself says that our interpretation of the directive is absolutely correct through
MEMO/11/450 of 23 June 2011. This is linked to by the Terms of Service for your convenience. Please read items 1,4
and 9 in that memo. Items 1 and 4 repeat Article 9 of the aforementioned Directive. Item 9 clarifies Article 9 and Article 16 with regards to digital content (downloads) and it reads:
---
9) Better consumer protection in relation to digital products
Information on digital content will also have to be clearer, including about its compatibility with hardware and software and the application of any technical protection measures, for example limiting the right for the consumers to make copies of the content.
Consumers will have a right to withdraw from purchases of digital content, such as music or video downloads, but only up until the moment the actual downloading process begins.
---
The
compatibility information for our software is correct. In fact, you do not have a problem with our software being incompatible with your environment. The only problem you have is that Joomla, a third party software, has a compatibility issue with the
configuration of your server environment. I told you how to fix it, you ignored me, that's ultimately your choice.
In any case, per the EU directive (the "applicable consumer law" you mentioned) -which is indeed signed into law in the Republic of Cyprus
as I explicitly told you myself- you are NOT eligible for a refund because you have lost your right to withdrawal. End of story.
This ticket is closed. Any further contact hereforth regarding this issue will be understood as an explicit and deliberate non-conformance to the legally binding Terms of Service which constitutes breach of contract.
Finally, regarding ticket 26430 where you ask for instructions to uninstall software I have to remind you that AkeebaStrapper has not been part of our published software since May 2016. Moreover, it is not and has never been a protected extension. If it's installed as a protected extension it must have been installed by some other component (it is a common library used by software other than our own). If you want to completely remove it you can simply delete the folder media/akeeba_strapper from your site. Joomla will still have a record of the extension but its files won't exist on your site. That's all the information you need.
