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Suing a forum software company in a Small Claims Court

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jjrogers21

Junior Member
The company is from the USA, California and I will be filing a case against them in a small claims court (LA area). I got the software more than two years ago (May 2014) and after I moved the software to a new hosting plan I was not able to fix the issue with images not showing on the site (old already uploaded images and I am not able to upload new ones too). I checked their website and manual, made sure that are the hosting requirements are met and after I was not able to fix the problem by myself, I have contacted their support through the forum on their site (this is free and comes with the purchase of the script). I had one person from there who was trying to fix it for five weeks, and after he directly admitted that he was not able to fix it, I contacted the supervisor from there. The supervisor was working on this for over two months and was not able to fix it too. During the fixing process these people were asking me stupid and unnecessary questions (like "What is the first letter in the alphabet" lets say, it was obvious, they did not have to ask me and wait three or more days with a reply) and I was also getting wrong info from them more than once (the supervisor said, the problem is this and it does not work because of this, but I tested what he was talking about and it took me less than a minute to do it and this was wrong info, all this worked as it should). I was also told to move the program to PHP 5.xx or 7.0.11 and after I worked on setting this up for more than five hours I was told after three or more days that the 7.0.11 PHP is not good for this (I've picked the 7.0.11 one as this is a newer version, so I thought it would be better out of the two) and that he needs the 5.x.x for that. So this is basically blaming Linux, Red Hat, PHP, MySQL / MariaDB aspects of this (the software that runs the Internet all over the World) for the fact that the website does not work and this is not true. I have 5 other scripts (all different products) on this hosting plan and everything has been working as it should from the day one. So basically they are not able to fix it, they give me wrong info, waste my time, and this was to the level of being disrespectful to the person who got the software (me), and so on.

On the top of the software fee I ordered an expensive graphic design which was added to the site. This graphic design will not be good for any other scripts that I could be using so I would like to get a refund for this too. The total amount will be around $1050.00 and I want to recover the cost of the law suit as well (telephone fees, process server, and all costs related to this, not a lot). The company is from the USA and I am located in Europe and I will be filing the case over the Internet (along with the SC105 asking the court for the Court Call - I was told this over the phone by the related Small Claims Court representative).

I signed an agreement and I went over it now and it has something like this in there (the only part that needs to be taken into consideration I think):

"8. Limitation of liability.

Except for the exclusive remedy offered by vbulletin solutions in section 7 above and any remedies that cannot be excluded or limited under law, vbulletin solutions, its affiliates, resellers, and certificate authorities will not be liable to you for any loss, damages, claims, or costs whatsoever including any consequential, indirect, or incidental damages, any lost profits or lost savings, any damages resulting from business interruption, personal injury or failure to meet any duty of care, or claims by a third party, even if vbulletin solutions has been advised of the possibility of such losses, damages, claims, or costs. In any event, vbulletin solutions’ aggregate liability and that of its affiliates, resellers and certificate authorities under or in connectioin with this agreement will be limited to the amount paid for the software. This limitation will apply even in the event of a fundamental or material breach by vbulletin solutions of this agreement. Vbulletin solutions is acting on behalf of its affiliates, and resellers for the purpose of disclaiming, excluding and limiting obligations, warranties, and liability, but in no other respects and for no other purpose.

The foregoing limitations and exclusions apply to the extent permitted by applicable law in your jurisdiction. This limitation of liability may not be valid in some jurisdictions. You may have rights that cannot be waived under consumer protection and other laws. See section 19 for e.U.-specific statements. Vbulletin solutions does not seek to limit your warranty or remedies to any extent not permitted by law. This section 8 will survive the termination of this agreement."

I am not sure whether this just means that they wont pay for the graphic design part in any circumstances and there is nothing that I can do to get these money back.

In general I've been preparing for this for over two days, and I've seen some videos about the small claims process on the Internet. At this point I would like to find the laws that are applicable to this and laws that I could use against this company. The company has a legal department and lawyers working for them so they may be coming to the court to go over the case. So this is me, a person from Europe not even there - Small Claims Court in the LA area - and the lawyers from the forum company that I will sue. I know that it would be good to know the law, so I can base this case on this, and I could possibly get some other info too, if I could (from this forum, on what to do, how to approach it and so on).
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
The most you will get is the cost of the software. You'd be lucky to get that.
And I hope you're not talking about vBulletin. That company is extremely litigious and you'd be lucky to come out with your shirt.
 

quincy

Senior Member
... I got the software more than two years ago (May 2014) and after I moved the software to a new hosting plan I was not able to fix the issue ... I have contacted their support through the forum on their site (this is free and comes with the purchase of the script). I had one person from there who was trying to fix it for five weeks ... The supervisor was working on this for over two months and was not able to fix it too .. So basically they are not able to fix it, they give me wrong info, waste my time, and this was to the level of being disrespectful to the person who got the software (me), and so on.

On the top of the software fee I ordered an expensive graphic design which was added to the site. This graphic design will not be good for any other scripts that I could be using so I would like to get a refund for this too. The total amount will be around $1050.00 and I want to recover the cost of the law suit as well (telephone fees, process server, and all costs related to this, not a lot). The company is from the USA and I am located in Europe and I will be filing the case over the Internet (along with the SC105 asking the court for the Court Call - I was told this over the phone by the related Small Claims Court representative) ...

"8. Limitation of liability.

Except for the exclusive remedy offered by vbulletin solutions in section 7 above and any remedies that cannot be excluded or limited under law, vbulletin solutions, its affiliates, resellers, and certificate authorities will not be liable to you for any loss, damages, claims, or costs whatsoever including any consequential, indirect, or incidental damages, any lost profits or lost savings, any damages resulting from business interruption, personal injury or failure to meet any duty of care, or claims by a third party, even if vbulletin solutions has been advised of the possibility of such losses, damages, claims, or costs. In any event, vbulletin solutions’ aggregate liability and that of its affiliates, resellers and certificate authorities under or in connectioin with this agreement will be limited to the amount paid for the software. This limitation will apply even in the event of a fundamental or material breach by vbulletin solutions of this agreement. Vbulletin solutions is acting on behalf of its affiliates, and resellers for the purpose of disclaiming, excluding and limiting obligations, warranties, and liability, but in no other respects and for no other purpose.

The foregoing limitations and exclusions apply to the extent permitted by applicable law in your jurisdiction. This limitation of liability may not be valid in some jurisdictions. You may have rights that cannot be waived under consumer protection and other laws. See section 19 for e.U.-specific statements. Vbulletin solutions does not seek to limit your warranty or remedies to any extent not permitted by law. This section 8 will survive the termination of this agreement." ...
So, you purchased the software two years ago, moved it to a new hosting plan, and this is when you started experiencing problems?

The entire agreement needs to be reviewed - not just a portion of it.

A link to California small claims: http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/small_claims/small_claims.pdf

The cost of pursuing a legal action in California stands to be greater than what you are hoping to recover.
 

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