please stop PROTONVPN ( https://protonvpn.com/) advertisement. I have been tricked by them and they refuse to refund me back through their terms and conditions clauses.
I have come to ProtonVPN through BRAVE advertisement. They claim to offer FREE account, but end up they ask you walk through a payment registration process. You will be caught and paid EUR 96. They refuse to refund, even with their “money back guarantee”, you are unable to get any refund at all.
“As per our Terms and Conditions, if you rely on dispute or chargeback mechanisms of third-party payment processors, you waive your right to the above-mentioned refund from the Company.”
The whole payment process was a trick, I hope none of Brave community will fall into this trap.
Please stop allow this type of MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENT. Kindly protect our community and stop them from taking advantage on us. Worst till this will harm the reputation of BRAVE browser.
I can only say I signed up and they didn’t ask me to pay. They automatically offer a free week, then you will be downgraded to a basic account if you don’t pay (three slow servers in total), but they don’t force you to pay. You probably clicked the wrong button and/or paid by mistake.
But they still refuse to refund. How could they do this? In their terms and conditions, they offer 100% money back guarantee but they waive my refund right because i open a dispute with third payment party - paypal. Now, The paypal dispute has closed but they still refuse to refund me. This is truly unethical.
As per our Terms and Conditions, if you rely on dispute or chargeback mechanisms of third-party payment processors, you waive your right to the above-mentioned refund from the Company. Furthermore, if the result of the dispute or chargeback mechanisms causes the Company to be liable for an amount exceeding the price paid for the service (e.g. dispute fee), you authorize the Company to charge that amount on your account. https://protonvpn.com/terms-and-conditions
You can find this section clearly displayed in the Money Back Guarantee clause.
Activating a Dispute is not the proper way to ask for a refund. Simply contacting us and requesting one is.
Since you’ve activated a Dispute for the payment, and the Dispute was dismissed by PayPal, unfortunately, we are in no position to issue a refund for the payment.
I hope this clarifies the situation.
We have already added 15 credits to your account and you can use them to clear the unpaid invoice and continue using it in the future.
Next to the invoice under the “ACTION” tab, click the drop-down arrow
Select “Pay”
Proceed
Once you submit, the credits that we have added will be automatically applied and you’ll be able to continue using your account and connect without issues.
If you need any additional assistance, please let us know.
Protonvpn has several packages. One of them is free. In my opinion protonvpn is the only reliable VPN (they are from the same creators of Protonmail, one of the most used emails after Gmail and well known on the deep web).
Also on the review site, they deigned to respond to some criticism. And apparently, these are few cases compared to the clients they have.
Can you explain your story to me, to try to help you out?
I’d tend to agree with @Daxioasia that they’ve run sketchy behaivour with just Protonmail in the past.
Not like all corps don’t. @Daxioasia try and contact paypal and explain what happened to a rep on the phone.
In this situation, if your refund has been denied, the only option will be to contact Paypal as @AsAboveSoBelow said
I do not share the opinions of both since I have used the protonmail service and for now, i have no problem (even if we are talking about something different, Protonvpn). Although it may not be the best email if you are looking for complete anonymity
Psiphon3. I never heard about that VPN but maybe they use advertisement to get money. Thats better than selling user’s data
Similarly, many people think that advertising needs to sell data, but isnt true. You only need sponsored advertisers who are willing to advertise their products in your software
Hi @Markook@AsAboveSoBelow Thank you for the messages. Sorry for my late reply, as i am from Asia, now it is morning at my side.
Lets me explain what is happening. I saw lots of advertisement from ProtonVPN through BRAVE browser, so i thought it is a trustable service provider. I visited their website and sign up for FREE package. And it walked me through the payment registration process. For me, it is normal as that is companies who lets their client registered the payment on paypal, but they will not charge you till you are willing to make the purchase. But for this ProtonVPN, they tricked me and end up i have made EUR 96 payment, without my knowledge and they refuse to refund me. This is terrible.
Because of this EUR 96 payment made without my knowledge, i have launced a dispute report on paypal. Paypal rejected this dispute because that is no fraud in the whole payment registration. Honestly, ProtonVPN are smart in designing their payment registration process and covered themselve with terms and conditions offered. I am not the only one who having the refund issue, Others do launced their complaint at trustpilot.
ProtonVPN refused to refund me because they claimed that i have launced a dispute on Paypal before. So i no longer qualify for the Money back guarantee offer by their company. But this dispute already closed by paypal, it mean it is no longer active. ProtonVPN still refuse to refund. This made me felt, ProtonVPN is a company without business ethical. They do anything just for MONEY. They do not respect consumer right and force you to use their service. Their money back guarantee policy is worthless.
I truly appreciate, If @Markook or any of you able to advice me where can i get my money back. EUR 96 is a big amount for us in Asia especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Hello, I have to thank you for telling your story.
I am very sorry that you had to go through it, and I know how hard the situation is in Asia, with regard to Covid.
My only recommendation is that you talk to the Protonvpn team, explain your story and tell them that the dispute in Paypal had been closed (not active), so therefore you should continue to be qualified for a refund.
I’m sorry I can’t help you with anything else, unfortunately this dispute has to be settled between paypal or protonvpn. I wish you the best of luck
Hi, Thank you for your reply and blessing, no problem. Understood. I already emailed both Paypal and ProtonVPN, hopefully i will receive their reply soon. I will post the reply and update about this issue time by time, so everyone aware of the dirty tricks play by ProtonVPN.
Hi @Markook and everyone, finally I have received Eur 96 refund from ProtonVPN. Here is the paypal refund printscreen. EUR 96 refund. Thank you so much for assisting me. Have a great day ahead.
I also use ProtonVPN. I never had to enter payment information and use ProtonVPN free. Like gmacar stated, there is a downgrade after one week from ProtonVPN Plus to ProtonVPN.
