I saw AnClouds’ National Day and Mid‑Autumn Festival promotion on the forum, and the price was indeed very attractive. Some forum members said it was good, others said it was bad. As a newcomer, I recently followed the advice of other members and kept buying things, thinking that if I’m going to spend money, I might as well try one out.
Following the steps provided by the veterans, I immediately took advantage of two discounts: a top‑up discount and a server from the promotion. Of course, before proceeding I even joined the group to ask the site owner if refunds were possible. The owner replied, “Regular products can be refunded within 24 hours.” (That sentence became the focal point of my later hassle.)
After the purchase, I applied the knowledge I had learned from the forum right away. I ran a speed test: the claim was 200 Mbps, but the actual result was around 100 Mbps, and during the afternoon it was generally below 100 Mbps. I thought about it and, although it didn’t meet my expectations, it was still usable.
Then the most intolerable problem appeared. As a foreign VPS, after installing Docker I couldn’t pull any images. I tried reinstalling multiple times, but it still didn’t work; using BT Panel or 1Panel didn’t help either (I even tested other small servers in the meantime, and pulling images worked fine on them). After a long struggle I contacted the site owner and reported two issues: 1) unable to pull images, and 2) speed not meeting expectations, and I expressed a desire for a refund. The owner refused the refund, stating that the discounts and server models involved in the National Day/Mid‑Autumn promotion are non‑refundable (it was written in the promotion details, but I didn’t see it when I made the purchase, and the tutorials from the veterans didn’t mention the non‑refund policy, so haha). He then tried to help solve the problems, but after a lot of back‑and‑forth he didn’t resolve anything. At that point I said I was exhausted and wanted a refund, since even such a basic thing as Docker wasn’t working and the server was unplayable. The owner still said a refund was not possible, continued to try to fix the issues, and ultimately solved nothing.
I was fed up and really didn’t want to keep struggling, so I told the owner I wanted a refund. This refund request wasn’t because I deliberately wanted to return the product; it was because the product actually had problems, not a willful breach of the terms. The owner still refused and offered three alternatives: 1) give me another low‑bandwidth machine on a different line; 2) refund half of the money to Alipay (my payment method); 3) refund the amount proportionally to the usage time into the site balance.
Based on those three options, I proposed two alternatives: 1) I need another machine on a different line with high bandwidth (my requirement is high bandwidth, not just a random low‑spec server); 2) a full refund to Alipay (the premise of the transaction is mutual benefit—each party gets what they need, and since the product is unqualified, it should be refunded within the 24‑hour window). Of course, neither side accepted the other’s proposal.
Principles are important to me, and I’m not trying to “just get out” of the purchase. When the speed first fell short of expectations, I thought I could make do and didn’t want to bother anyone. This turned out to be a lesson learned at a cost. I’m posting this mainly to vent, but also to explain the situation. Fellow forum members can have their own opinions; just remember to manage expectations when you buy, haha.
