I dont see a support ticket system so I feel that I have no choice but to post this here.
I purchased a ultimate privileges package less then 2 weeks ago. A month hasnt passed and already i am being demanded to pay again. I want a refund or a rr instatment of my privilege package or i WILL be seeking legal action.
My guess is that your privileges were revoked when the month of August started. It’s in the warning section when you purchase privileges or at least it is now. It’s based on the actual calendar month not a timer. So if you paid for privileges on July 31 they would be revoked on August 1. It’s not a great system or even fair to those who purchase mid/late month but it is in the fine print.
I feel your pain as I unlocked 10 chapters worth of privileges for about $30 and had those privileges for about 4 days. I didn’t read the fine print at first and then didn’t care because of a narrative cliff hanger the second purchase.
Not defending the policy just trying to shed some light on what might have happened. I definitely feel your pain!
BigMike72 thanks. It certainly wasnt there when i first purchased it and even their original print contradicts the fine print. On these grounds alone I have the right in my country to sue them. Because they dont seem to have an actual support system I'm going to the fair trade department instead. They will persue this on my behalf.
Rosie32 Wow, more power to you girl. Are you residing in the EU? Maybe this will help them learn their lesson to take their international customers more seriously. Just because this Privilege practice is common in China, doesn't mean they could apply it as is to their international target group.
I just talked to my lawyer and I was told to say this, if it is a per month service that I am paying for then it is for access to 50 new advances chapters per month. Since if that is not the case you have broken both EES and Icelandic law, and I am able to sue.
It is illegal in the EES trading area and iceland to sell the same product twice to a consumer.
KingDerp I checked the fine print on the terms of service that we all agreed to in order to use the app. Part of that terms of service agreement has a clause where you sign away your right to sue them in court if you agree. You have to take anything to arbitration unless it can be handled in small claims court.
My guess is that you would have to track down whoever the CEO is of the group who runs web novel and serve them a summons for small claims court in their own jurisdiction which is in China I am assuming.
I could be wrong, not an international litigation lawyer. I read that several people went the route of contacting iTunes, google pay, or whichever service that they used to pay for the privileges. This seems to me to be the easiest and most prudent route.
I certainly wasn’t thrilled with the privilege program myself but I also read the fine print before I purchased so I knew what I was getting into. It was my decision and I enjoyed reading ahead even for the brief time I got to do it. I hope that helps, just saw your post and thought I would check out the terms of service for you. May want to take a look yourself.
Agreement clauses have nothing to do with international trading laws.
You
KingDerp Even if that is correct you would still have to take legal action in their country of origin since Icelandic or EU laws don’t apply to someone based outside of those countries. As far as I can tell.
Second, they clearly stated in the fine print that your purchasing the right to read the chapters stored before public release. They say there are “20” or “30” or “50” chapters total available. They don’t claim to have “100” or “200” available. You paying to read ahead and once that is done you paying to read the latest release that maintains that “20” or “30” back log. They never claimed to sell you an additional “20” chapters. So they haven’t tried to sell you the same product twice. They sold you the right to read the latest releases as they became available. You can disagree with that but it is clearly written in the warning section that pops up when you purchase privileges.
KingDerp Terms of service for the privilege are there for you to read. You pay for access to read earlier and its nowhere said you pay for a month of service. Its the same on Patron. It resets every 1st of the month and if you dont continue paying, you lose access to the chapters. If you continue paying, you dont automatically get more chapters but you still have the same until author upload new chapter.
Piokilek Since you are either unable or unwilling to actually look this up yourself.
Here is an extract from article 102 of TFEU.....
Exploitative abuse:
This type occurs whereby a dominant firm using dominant position to exploit consumers without losing them through conduct like price increase and production limitation. There is no legal definition of ‘exploitative abuse’ under Article 102 but it can be taken as ‘any conduct that directly causes harm to the customers of the dominant undertaking’. Without barriers to entry, the market is likely to be self-corrected by competition because monopoly profits will attract new competitors to enter the market. However, the Guidance does suggest that the Commission will intervene where the conduct is directly exploitative of consumers (for example, charging excessively high prices).
Excessive price:
Price set significantly above the competitive level. Article 102 explicitly bans unfair pricing which has been understood as to cover the excessive pricing. The charged price must be excessive and unfair to be abusive. The test used was stated in the United Brands case that whether the charged price has no reasonable relation to the economic value of the product supplied and exceeds what the dominant undertaking would have obtained in a normal and sufficiently competitive market
Agreement clause loophole they say you can't sue, they never said you can't get someone to sue on your behalf
Privilege is a trap anyway.
I'm not making a comment on the actual circumstances in this thread, so just drop that part if you dislike what I'm writing.
Any organisation selling anything to the EU market is subject to said market if the sale was done locally (ie you made an in-app purchase in the local currency).
Several EU countries invalidates the individual's right to sign away some purchase rights. That means I (since I'm Sweden) can't legally sign away any of my stipulated rights as per written in Swedish law. Doesn't matter if my signature is all over the place.
