Nov 01 09:49 (CDT)
Hi Jared,
I think I can clarify this one, as I know it's a little confusing because of the two different types of deadlines. The definition of the Season Payment Deadline and the League Payment Deadline has not changed in the last 6 months. The idea of the League Payment Deadline being treated identically to the Season Payment Deadline is in reference to the previous paragraph - specifically, that league members can no longer make payments after that League Deadline passes. The more specific Refund Policy is defined later in the document.
I've provided a link to what the terms were as of August 5, 2013, shortly after Josh requested his refund. You should be able to see that the Payment Deadline text was the same, and that our previous Refund Policy - the policy that allowed Josh to get his refund on July 30, without commissioner approval - was in place at that time as well.
Here's the link:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130805120924/http://leaguesafe.com/terms
Additionally, we've changed our FAQ in several spots since the refund policy was updated in August, but I've provided screenshots from the previous FAQ that were in place at the time of Josh's request that attempted to explain the difference between the Season and League Deadlines, and what that distinction meant in relation to the refund policy. The FAQ is obviously not a legally binding document of any kind, and the time stamp on these screenshots is the same April 1 date that you'd see if you went to these individual FAQ posts today, so you can take from this what you will - this is just an effort to show you that we've always made a concerted effort to explain the distinction between Season and League Deadlines in relation to the refund policy in several different spots within our FAQ.
I will also tell you this; we take customer feedback very seriously at LeagueSafe, and we are already discussing ways to improve the way we disclose both changes in our Terms of Service and alerts/emails/notifications surrounding refund transactions. We haven't determined what course of action we're going to take, but I wanted you to know that we're not treating this lightly, and that we're internally discussing ways to make the refund process more clear to our users, and more transparent for commissioners.
It's feedback like this from previous commissioners that led us to change our refund policy in the first place. We have a complex service that is constantly evolving, and I'm confident that we're in a better spot today than we were back in July. Again, it's unfortunate that an apparently dishonest owner took advantage of our previous policy to remove funds from your league, but our new policy will go a long ways towards protecting commissioners like you in the future. I'm sorry that you got mixed up with an allegedly dishonest owner, and I wish I could go back and undo his actions, but unfortunately he was entitled to his refund under the Terms that were in place at the time he made his request.
Thanks,
Laura Drew
Manager
LeagueSafe Customer Support