if you get official copy at thunderbird.net, it is FREE and is FOREVER FREE. Donations are our life's blood, but are totally voluntary. The startup screen may show a 'please donate' button, but that's it. If you paid for a copy, you got thunderbird from an unofficial site. Would you mind sharing from where you had to purchase a copy? Thank you.

i downloaded from the web. just like last time i had to reinstall. this time, couldn't get past the donation screen without a min $5 donation. $0 didn't work. no getting past that screen without money.

so if it is free you have successfully hidden that button. i will be using google for my mail service and would like you to refund my credit card.

please reply by email. don't want to log back into your system again.

many thanks

This is a Support Forum and not some form of one on one email, chat or ticket system.

From https://www.thunderbird.net/donate/

Can I request a refund? Your donation may be eligible for a refund. You must contact us within 15 days after the date of the donation. If you believe this donation was made without your authorization, please contact us immediately. Donations made via ACH or SEPA direct debit are ineligible for refunds. Due to the nature of these transactions our policy prioritizes minimizing refund fraud. We sincerely appreciate your understanding. If you have any further questions, please contact us.

Also see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-disable-or-change-thunderbird-start-page

@James is right. If you want a donation pursue it. But it seems obvious you were scammed. I regret that, but you should tell from where you downloaded Thunderbird so it can be pursued, because no one will believe you in stating you downloaded for the official site and had a minimum donation. None of this makes sense.

the support guy will ask if he needs more info

If you were 'forced' to pay in order to simply download then you did not download from the official website.

After a download and installation from an official webpage you may get some prompt/info about offering a donation because Thunderbird rely on people making donations to help maintain the product.

I very much doubt that your forced payment actually was paid to the Thunderbird donation location.

It would be helpful if you could post a series of images showing the website address where you got the download and the process of not being able to freely download because clearly it's a scam and it's important to make people aware of it.

You should ONLY download from https://thunderbird.net/