Got Fu**ed by FabFilter (Got fixed by FabFilter, cause after all we're only human)

[Proteinshake]

EDIT: This was resolved by FabFilter, but I'll leave it as is - as a lesson learnt.

Hey guys, I wanted to ask if any of you have ever experienced something like this with FabFilter. I seriously got f**ked by them and for the first time I am feeling kicked in the balls for doing the "right thing", if you know what I mean.

I've been a customer for a long time now, buying "new" licenses, selling them again, getting some second hand licenses - the usual thing, just like we all do. Today I just wanted to do my regular check if maybe some plugins got an update, but was unable to log in. At first I was thinking they got some technical issues, so I sent an eMail to support. What I got back was the following:

Thanks for getting in touch.

Your account is deactivated. We received multiple email from customers whose licenses were transferred to your account without their knowledge. The transfer licenses were all purchased by somebody else. It seems your account is used to transfer license before they are sold again, so we deactivated your account.

If you have any more questions, just let us know!

That's all. So basically everything I've purchased .. via their own store or second hand - they've locked me out from it.

I'm considering legal action, anybody got any advice on that (I'm within the EU, as are they) - different country though.

[Jac459]

I guess you need to reach out to them and detail every cases. You must have some digital traces of the purchase..

[rasmusklump]

Since when is constantly buying and selling the licenses again usual thing ?

[FakeNatty]

Im guessing, it's the old scam trick where seller uses a vpn, another credit card, requests license transfer, transfers license, and then claim that the transfer wasn't done by them?

If you have chat history on KVR with sellers or any paypal emails, show it to them. I haven't encountered this myself, but I thought maybe showing them proof that you purchased the items and from who will help you out.

[Proteinshake]

I guess you need to reach out to them and detail every cases. You must have some digital traces of the purchase..

I do, but so do they .. after all done via Cleverbridge. If they would at least go into the details and tell me which of the second transfers to me were problematic, I would have given them all the information about it. But this is the worse kind of support .. there's a problem, we're locking you out.

[diroxe7660]

Oof. Sounds like they're trying to say "You bought stolen licenses" without spelling it out. Not sure what you could do, since this would boil down to a four way "That's not what happened!" between you, the person who sold you the license, the person saying they were stolen from and FF.

[Proteinshake]

Since when is constantly buying and selling the licenses again usual thing ?

You're right, I made it sound quite dramatic. But over the past 5-6 years, I did have a couple of licenses that I have had more than one time. I had the Mastering brundle, but decided I am better off having individual licenses, course I never used Pro-MB. That kind of thing.

[billcarroll]

I don't see that FabFilter did anything wrong here. Sorry you were scammed, that truly sucks.

[Proteinshake]

I don't see that FabFilter did anything wrong here. Sorry you were scammed, that truly sucks.

How is it legal for them to take away licenses for software I purchased from them?

They did that by disabling the entire account .. does this mean second hand FabFilter licenses are no longer an optinion?

[jens]

But this is the worse kind of support .. there's a problem, we're locking you out.

Yes, it is the worst thing. It's the way Meta etc. handle stuff like this - cheap support staff treating senstive data/situations without a second thought with a single push of a button to get rid of the issue. I can kind of understand it in the case of Meta due to the sheer number of cases while offering free services (i.e. anyone can join Facebook - multiple times - for free).

But Fabfilter are offering professional products for premium prices, so handling a situation like this is an absolute no-go, I think. So thanks for the heads up!

[jens]

I don't see that FabFilter did anything wrong here.

No? Interesting.

[whyterabbyt]

I don't see that FabFilter did anything wrong here. Sorry you were scammed, that truly sucks.

If Fabfilter's license transfer system allows the transfer of a license by someone who doesnt own that license, which the OP is saying FF have basically told him, then there's something intrinsically wrong with that system.
If FF are saying that they're aware that their system is allowing people to manipulate transfers of other people's licenses, then what they'd be 'doing wrong' by deactivating an account with legitimate licenses merely because that account was used in the process of manipulation, then that sounds like penalising a potentially unwitting victim of that process.

[gaggle of hermits]

a) sounds like you haven't even provided information to fabfilter to try to sort this out.

b) since when did you need to log in to download updates? the copy protection is a text block. the downloads are on the open site. other than them thinking your account has been hacked, been hacking or otherwise compromised, nothing has changed.

[Andreya_Autumn]

How is it legal for them to take away licenses for software I purchased from them?
They did that by disabling the entire account .. does this mean second hand FabFilter licenses are no longer an optinion?

2nd hand licences are an option! They say so clearly, but there are conditions. Seemingly, FF believe there's EULA-violating business going on at your account. If that belief were true, they actually *would* be in their right to do this.

But if not, this obviously sucks, and you're unfortunately gonna have to do some work to un-suck it. You've been given good advice: Gather up every piece of documentation you can find about these purchases, both your buying and your selling, KVR-messages, transfer details, the works. Show FF all of that, and insist that you've consistently acted in good faith. Hopefully they'll see that and relent.

Now, it may be that you (or a seller!) somehow actually *did* violate the EULA somewhere, and probably not on purpose. If FF looks at your evidence and says: "look, on that occassion there, our terms were violated", just make clear to them that you didn't mean to. Say you made a mistake and show yourself willing to right your part in it. That should help.

TL;DR: People (especially people working customer support) tend to appreciate being shown good intentions. They do not tend to appreciate harsh language threats of legal action etc. Be clear but friendly to them, and there's a much better chance you'll get your stuff back.

[jens]

a) sounds like you haven't even provided information to fabfilter to try to sort this out.

They see a problem/make an accusation, so it should be them to provide respective information/proof, not the other way around. As the OP said: as soon as they actually give him concrete information he can directly counter the accusation. Everything else is just wrong and reason enough to never want to have to deal with them. As it is it's clearly far too Kafkaesque.