Hi, Susan. Thanks for getting in touch about your issue.
First, let me say that I’m sorry you’re having trouble with the event calendar free version. The behavior you’re seeing is definitely unusual.
We absolutely understand that you want to be sure we will help you get your installation working before you spend your money. Premium support is included with the PRO subscription. We’re very happy to work with you to get to the bottom of your issue. If for some reason, we can’t resolve it, we will issue a full refund.
As far as troubleshooting your specific issue, this might be a theme or plugin conflict. Have you already tested on a clean installation of The Events Calendar, with no other plugins and with the default Twenty Twelve theme in place? If so, was the behavior any different? That would be the first step we would recommend in working with you towards a resolution.
Please let us know if you have any other questions before you upgrade.