Getting refund for Debutify theme within 30-day time frame

[alexisbarkhouse]

I recently purchased an annual subscription for the debutify theme. However, by accident I bought the starter plan so I emailed their support 20 minutes later and had them facilitate the change over to the pro plan on November 16. Now after using the service for a bit I have found that the starter plan would work for my storefront so I emailed their support to get a refund as it is within the 30-day refund period.

Their support team is now saying that since I initially purchased the starter plan and "upgraded" it to the pro plan, despite emailing their support about the issue right away, I am not entitled to a refund as per their refund policy:

"The refund is only applicable to the initial purchase of the service by you and does not apply to any additional purchases, upgrades, modification, or renewals of such service."

Their only response is that their hands are tied and will not give a refund in this case. The policy itself seems predatory to me but even then, the initial purchase should have been the pro plan which is why I emailed support about it in the first place back on November 16th.

I'm not sure where to go from here so any suggestions would be helpful. I'm thinking since I've already tried to discuss this with their support and they have not been of much help maybe just issue a chargeback with my bank as I'm no longer interested in using the debutify theme, but I do not have a lot of experience with that.

[Ivy]

Hello @alexisbarkhouse.

I am sorry to hear about your trouble with this theme. My advice would be to reach out to theme developer directly and if that is unsatisfactory, your bank and it appears as though this is exactly what you have done. I do wish you luck in getting the redress you need.

I just wanted to add that going forward, I would advise only dealing with themes from the Official Shopify Theme Store. These themes come with excellent support built in, and have clear cut refund policies that we at Shopify Support can help to enforce. Unfortunately any third party themes operating outside of our official theme store do not come with any guarantees, and I want to make sure you have as much protection as possible. 

Would you mind outlining for me what exactly you are looking for in a theme? I may be able to help find the right one for you!