Purchase Terms & Conditions

December 18, 2014

Introduction

The Core Awesome Support Plugin is free software distributed under the GNU-GPL license, which means that you are free to use, modify and redistribute it.  In fact, not only you are allowed to modify the software, but we strongly encourage you to contribute to it through the GitHub repository.

Free Support For The Core Plugin

Because the Core Awesome Support WordPress Plugin is free software, there is no guarantee that you will receive support for it. However, after downloading the plugin you will have access to a free support forum where you can ask your questions, report bugs, ask for assistance and share your ideas. We will do our best to satisfy your requests but keep in mind that we might ask you to purchase priority support if we believe that your request requires extra attention.

Premium Support via our Ticketing System

When you make a purchase  from our catalog, you will be entitled to 12 (twelve) months of priority support for the add-on or product you purchased.  If your purchase of one or more add-ons is greater than $39.00 USD you will also be entitled to 12 (twelve) months  of priority support for any issue related to the free Core Awesome Support plugin.

Access to priority support is subject to the condition that you own a license that is valid and active (see hereafter the "Licensing" paragraph). If your license is expired, you must renew your license key, purchase priority support access, or purchase a new license for the extension you wish to get support for.

Limitations Of Premium Support

Premium support is offered on a best-efforts basis and there is no guarantee that you will receive a response to your query within a particular period of time.  We strive to provide an initial answer to new tickets within 24 business hours.

Additionally, it is expected that your use of our support services is not abusive.  Opening 25 or more tickets over a period of 2 years is considered abuse of our support services.  If you abuse our free support we may no longer respond to your support tickets and you will not be entitled to a refund of any license or services fees.

Special Cases

Core E-Mail Notifications, The Notifications Add-on and Automatic Ticket Close Add-on

If you are encountering issues with the e-mail notification feature, we will only be able to assist you, be it through free or premium support, if and only if you are using a transactional e-mail service provider (ESP) that provides details on outbound e-mails.

If you are using the default mail() function of PHP (through the WordPress wrapper function or not) or a WordPress SMTP plugin, we will not be able to assist you with this particular matter.

The reason for this additional requirement is very simple - a transactional ESP allows us to trace the entire history of any email transaction that has left your WordPress system.  Without it we are blind to any email actions that are occurring on your system.

Some examples of reputable ESP providers are: Mailgun, SendGrid, Mandrill (via Mailchimp) and SparkPost.  In a pinch you can use an SMTP plugin if your hosting provider allows you to send email via SMTP ports but we highly recommend the use of a TESP.

Email Support (Email Piping)

If you are encountering issues with the e-mail support add-on we will only be able to assist you if you confirm with your hosting provider that incoming IMAP or POP3 ports are open and available to you.  A refund will NOT be issued if you purchase this add-on without confirming that you are able to use these ports (generally 995 or 993) with your host.

Hosts that we already know block port 995 and 993 are:

  • Host Monster

Hosts that we know require special configuration in order to use them:

  • WPEngine:  The TEST Button will NOT work but usually the connection to the email server goes through just fine when actually retrieving emails.

Please let us know if your host blocks these ports or have special requirements so we can update our list.

Gravity Forms

The Gravity Forms add-on is a DEVELOPER tool which means that the number of things that could affect the add-on are orders of magnitude greater than a standard user add-on.  Thus, we will not be able to provide support for any mapping that includes custom code or hooks into the gravity form data feed.  If you cannot export a Gravity Form that reproduces your bug/issue in a clean WordPress environment we will not be able to provide support for your issue.  However, we would be happy to provide consulting on an hourly basis to help you track down any custom-code related issues.  Please use our Contact form for more information.

Remote Tickets

The Remote Tickets add-on requires that you be able to install Javascript Snippets on your remote websites.  Each website is different and will have different mechanisms for installing the snippet. You should be sure that you have the technical expertise available to do this installation before purchasing this product. We will be unable to help you with that portion of the process so please make sure you have the requisite skill set before purchasing.  There is no refund offer if you have trouble installing the remote script - instead we direct you to our custom services offer where we will assist you for an hourly fee.

Regex

Some of our add-ons allow the use of regular expressions as configuration parameters. We do not provide support for regular expressions you send to us.  Regular expressions can be every complicated, tricky and hard to verify.  Therefore it is up to you to determine whether your regular expression is accurate.

Facebook Chat Bot / AS Chat Bot / Smart Replies / API.ai / Dialog Flow / Google Natural Language integrations

These add-ons / features require configuration of FACEBOOK API credentials and Facebook developer accounts.  We do not provide free technical support to help you with configuring your accounts properly.

If the API.ai (Dialog Flow) integration is enabled, we do not provide free technical support for the API.ai (Dialog Flow)  configuration process.

If the Google Natural Language API integration is enabled, we do not provide free technical support for the configuration process.

While these are usually relatively simple operations, they can quickly become complex configuration processes under certain circumstances and we expect that you have the relevant expertise to handle this or that you will hire qualified personnel to assist you with these processes.

We do provide consulting services on a paid hourly basis to assist with your needs in these areas.

Multiple Site Licenses

When you purchase a license for multiple sites, we will provide support for up to two named sites (generally your primary site and a development site).  You are responsible for supporting your client sites.  If you would like us to support your clients directly (for example having us log into their sites for hands-on troubleshooting) please make sure that they purchase a license in their name.

Bundles Without Technical Support

We offer certain bundles with the option to DECLINE technical support but with the option to obtain upgrades.  To obtain technical support for these bundles you must purchase a technical support token or ticket.  You will receive a standard order number and license key that must be entered into the BODY of support form - you must still use your software license  and software license order number when asked elsewhere.

Licensing

Licenses are valid for one year from the date of purchase. A valid and active license key is required in order to get updates and support for purchased extensions and themes. After one year, license keys may be renewed at a 10% discount from the purchase price of a new license.

Automatic License Cancellations

Licenses will be automatically cancelled if you resell our products directly or if you use the Awesome Support brand name without authorization.  You can include our products in your client sites (subjected to the limit of the number of licenses you have purchased) but you cannot resell them as-is or with substantially the same functionality while claiming it as a new product, add-on or service.  If licenses are cancelled for the reasons stated in this section you will NOT be entitled to a refund.

All licenses will automatically be cancelled and support services terminated if you initiate a billing dispute or charge-back with your credit card provider.  In the event that you own multiple add-ons but a charge-back is initiated by you for a subset of those add-ons then the following applies:

  • Support services will be terminated immediately for all products and add-ons.
  • Automatic updates for non-disputed charges may or may not remain in force for the remainder of the valid licenses periods at our discretion.

Software Updates

Updates are included for free for one year from the date of your purchase or last renewal. If you have a valid and active license key, and your extension(s) supports it, updates will be delivered automatically from the WordPress dashboard. If your extension(s) does not support automatic upgrades, then updates can be downloaded from your account page.

Versions

You must ensure that your environment meets the following minimum conditions:

  • PHP 5.6 or later
  • WordPress 4.0 or later
  • The latest version of Awesome Support Core available on WordPress.org at the time of your purchase.

Refunds

When you purchase our products you are granted immediate access to them INCLUDING THE FULL SOURCE CODE.  This means that it is impossible for us to process a true return the way you can with a physical product.  When we issue a refund it means that you have effectively obtained our products for free.  Thus, to prevent abuse we have adopted a strict refund policy.

If you have problems getting our products to work as documented on our website, we will be happy to provide a full refund within 30 days of the original purchase. After 30 days, no refunds will be given.

However, before a refund will be granted, you must allow us to try and help solve any problem you have by opening a support ticket. This means that you must work with us in good faith to allow us to resolve the issue for you.  It also means that you must cooperate with us when we ask you to activate and deactivate plugins and themes, turn on debugging to generate log files, retrieve and send us log files, communicate with your hosting provider when we request you to do so and allow us to access your system (both the WordPress dashboard and your back-end via FTP) if we feel we need to be more hands-on to trouble-shoot the issue.

If it is determined that you are using another plugin that conflicts with our plugin we will offer a refund at our discretion.  It is not an automatic entitlement (though we generally do issue refunds for this situation.)

If we are unsuccessful in resolving any other issues not related to 3rd party plugin conflicts then we will grant you a refund within 30 days of your purchase.

Refund Policy Exceptions

Refunds will not be granted if you simply decide not to use the purchased products or you feel a feature is missing. We stand behind our products and will assist you in solving any problem you have, but we also expect you to adequately understand what you are purchasing and why.  Before finalizing your purchase make sure you read the entire product description and any documentation available in the documentation area on our website - this will allow you to better understand the product you are purchasing.

Refunds will not be offered if your environment is not running the minimum versions of PHP, WordPress and Awesome Support Core listed above.

Refunds will not be offered if you are running a plugin in our known incompatibility list located here.  Please check this list before purchasing to ensure that you are not using these plugins!

Refunds will not be offered if you have obtained at least one refund from us and then proceed to purchase additional software from us later. (This ensures that customers do not get our latest software for free on a regular basis by continually claiming refunds.)

Refunds will not be offered if you have purchased 1/3 or more of our entire plugin or add-ons library and you are requesting a refund for all items.  The rationale here is simple - you have obtained electronic copies of a lot of our products where a true return isn't feasible. We will, however, consider a refund for one or two items on a case-by-case basis.

Refunds will not be offered for automatic renewals.  If you do not wish to renew your subscription please make sure you cancel the subscription in your My Account screen and/or your Paypal account.  We send out reminder notices before a renewal is processed - please make sure you white-list our domain so that you can receive these notices directly in your inbox.

Refunds Of Certain Bundles And Add-ons

There are NO REFUNDS with the Enterprise and Agency bundles.  The rationale is simple - these bundles give you almost all our products at a significant discount.  If we issue a refund, it means that you have acquired most of our products for free.

We also do not offer refunds for our PAID SUPPORT add-on.

Refunds With Custom Discount Codes

If we provide you with a custom discount code and you use that code to make your purchase then there will be NO REFUNDS provided under any circumstances.  Custom discount codes generally offer deep discounts on a custom bundle of products and is negotiated with the understanding that no refunds will be issued.

Refunds For Services and Service Packages

There are no refunds for services including custom development hours and service hours that are pre-puchased in blocks.


This document was last updated on October 6th, 2018

10-06-2018: Updated to explicitly clarify that there are no refunds for our PAID SUPPORT add-on.

04-22-2018: Updated to explicitly clarify that there are no refunds for automatic renewals.

03-04-2018: Updated to clarify refund policy of a large group of products purchased simultaneously or over a short period of time; Updated to add conditions for Google Natural Language API and to add the new name for API.ai (Dialog Flow).

02-18-2018: Updated wp-engine warning

02-17-2018: Added new section for refunds on services

02-14-2018:  Added section for Multiple Site Licenses

01-06-2018: Added HOSTMONSTER as a host that is known to block certain ports making it incompatible with the EMAIL ADDON plugin

11-11-2017:  Minor grammar / spelling edits.

10-7-2017:  Removed references to the POSTMAN plugin since an unfixed security vulnerability exists.  Also, minor edits to remove unnecessary capitalization of some words.

09-12-2017: Clarified that customers who have obtained at least one refund cannot claim another if they choose to purchase again from us in the future.  This ensures that customers do not get our latest software for free on a regular basis by continually claiming refunds.

09-07-2017: Added section pertaining to special conditions for FB Chat Bot, AS Chat Bot, Smart Replies and API.ai

07-16-2017: Added section pertaining to special conditions for the Remote Tickets add-on

06-14-2017:  Added statements related to cancellation of licenses in the event of a charge-back or disputed initiated by the purchaser

06-04-2017: Added a distinct section for REFUND POLICY EXCEPTIONS to make it clearer when refunds will not be issued.  Cleaned up other areas to make it clearer when refunds will not be issued.

05-03-2017: Added REGEX section

04-24-2017: Added LIMITATIONS OF FREE SUPPORT section.

04-21-2017: Added in section for refunds of bundles.  Also added a section for automatic license cancellation.

03-02-2017: Updated to clarify that minimum versions of PHP, WordPress and AS core are required.  Failure to meet these standards is not a reason for us to provide a refund.

02-07-2017:  Clarified that purchases with custom discount codes are not entitled to a refund under any circumstances.  Started a list of providers we know block imap and pop3 ports. Minor grammar related updates.

01-14-2017: Included the Notifications add-on as needing special requirements to obtain support since it now supports outgoing emails.  Added new headings and revised existing headings. Added additional text to some sections to clarify the reasons for our policy.

10-14-2016: Included the Automatic Ticket Close add-on as needing special requirements to obtain support.

10-7-2016:  Clarified that refunds for the email support add-on will not be issued if imap or pop3 ports ports are blocked by the customers hosting provider. Customer must check that these ports are available before purchase.

 

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