VPN does not work - very bad customer service

doscon

Mail to Bitdefender (BD) 06.08.2023, my request: I am connected to Bitdefender with the account of my son in germany, but I live in Egypt. I cannot open VPN Germany, but others (Danmark, Austria, France, Emirates....)

Reply BD  07.08.2023:  Hello Dr. Hartmut, Thank you for your patience and please accept my apologies for the frustration that we might have caused. I have looked into the case and it seems that the situation is caused by an issue that has already been acknowledged by our development team. We are currently working on a fix that will be done by means of an automatic update and won't require any additional action on your end. I will get back to you with an update regarding the fix as soon as we have one.

Reply BD  22.08.2023:  Hello, Thank you for your follow-up e-mail. As mentioned previously on the ticket, a fix for this Bitdefender behavior is still undergoing development. We do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but we will contact you as soon as it's implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender. Please keep in mind that all reported bugs require investigation time. Since product updates are usually released once a month it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product - this does not include the debugging period. Also, once the fix is up we will extend the validity of your subscription by the amount of time it took to resolve the issue and to compensate for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Rest assured that we will contact you again as soon as the fix is released.

Mail to BD 11.09.2023:

Reply BD  12.09.2023:  Hello, Thank you for your response. I've forwarded the details to our development team and I will return to you with further updates as soon as we have one. Thank you for understanding. Kind Regards, Andrei M. Senior Technical Support Engineer

Reply BD 12.10.2023:  Hello, Thank you for your patience while waiting for my reply. This is a follow-up email regarding the bug report that you have sent us. I'd like to inform you that our development team is still working a fix and it’s taking a bit more than usual. As previously mentioned, the fix will be automatically released through Bitdefender product updates, with no other actions requested from your side. Please let me know if you would still like to receive updates about this case in the future. In the meantime, I am here to help if you have other cyber-security questions. Stay safe and have a great day! Kind Regards, Andrei M. Senior Technical Support Engineer

Mail to BD 12.10.2023:  Thanks for your information, try to fix it soon, I cannot open VPN of any country. Please keep me informed, I really need VPN Germany here at my place in Egypt. Best regards, Hartmut Schulz

Mail to BD 15.10.2023: A big thank you to the team, as of today I can open VPN Germany, I hope it will remain stable. Best regards, Hartmut Schulz

Mail to BD 16.10.2023: Hello, after my praise yesterday I have to inform you that the VPN connection with germany can be opened, although sometimes only after a few attempts, but it is then very unstable and shuts down on its own at irregular intervals, which was not the case yesterday. I would ask you to check this again carefully, thank you, Hartmut Schulz.

Mail to BD 18.10.2023:  Hello, after my praise yesterday I have to inform you that the VPN connection with Germany can be opened, although sometimes only after a few attempts, but it is then very unstable and shuts down on its own at irregular intervals, which was not the case yesterday. I would ask you to check this again carefully, thank you, Hartmut Schulz.

Mail to BD 23.10.2023: To Andrei M. Senior Technical Support Engineer. Dear Sir, why did VPN work for a few days and stop immediately after updating Bitdefender Security? In the meantime I have been waiting for months for you to fix the problem and especially your remark that the problem existed before I complained shows your attitude to the quality of your work ethic - not only do you take your time but also the money I pay for a non-functioning feature, is that your idea of responsibility and trust towards the customers? Congratulations, Dr. Hartmut Schulz

Reply BD 24.10.2023: Hello, Thank you for your follow-up e-mail. As mentioned previously on the ticket, a fix for this Bitdefender behavior is still undergoing development. We do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but we will contact you as soon as it's implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender. Please keep in mind that all reported bugs require investigation time. Since product updates are usually released once a month it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product - this does not include the debugging period. Also, once the fix is up we will extend the validity of your subscription by the amount of time it took to resolve the issue and to compensate for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Rest assured that we will contact you again as soon as the fix is released. Kind Regards, Andrei M. Senior Technical Support Engineer

Own remark today: This was the first direct reply to a complaint. II should mention here that the above correspondence was shortened by me, I had complained several times. I still don't understand the problem, because in the beginning (about two years ago) VPN worked without problems, but then (after an update?) it stopped. And why did VPN work for a few days recently - and now not again? A little more explanation would be more helpful than the eternal put-offs - after all, Bitdefender encourages you to switch on VPN. What's more, I'm paying for a function that is not delivered.

Is there anybody who has similar experience with Bitdefender or an idea how to fix the obviously known bug?

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/de/discussion/97593/vpn-does-not-work-very-bad-customer-service

@Alexandru_BD, @Mike_BD can you have a look at this.

Regards

Alexandru_BD

Hello @doscon and thanks for joining us here.

As stated by the Support representatives, currently there is an ongoing investigation concerning the connectivity issues reported by VPN users for Egypt. There are multiple devices affected and users from Egypt report error 182 or no error message at all (the VPN tries to connect, goes back to 'not connected'). During troubleshooting, the engineers tried all the relevant network troubleshooting steps, tried the newest and older versions of Bitdefender VPN, but got the same result. This behavior was previously reported in the community as well and the available records indicate an intermittent connectivity issue. The situation is now being addressed by the VPN development unit and the Support teams can only collect and forward reports to the service developers at this stage. For some users, it has been noticed that the VPN connects for a while, but gets disconnected shortly afterwards. It has been determined that the behavior persists with the lastest build as well, and a fix will be deployed via an automated update, as soon as the resolution is found. The developers don't have a specific ETA for when the issue will be fixed, at this moment the engineers are still investigating the behavior, gathering more insights from the affected users.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/95854/running-vpn-in-egypt

The Support teams cannot provide a workaround at this point, but this doesn't mean that their service is bad, it's just that the outage is out of their control and we rely on the VPN teams to fix this, since the situation has already been brought to their attention.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Regards,

Alex

doscon

This answer is still no explanation, and what does it mean "beyond their control"? Why did VPN work and then stop. And why do you frequently remind people to open VPN when it doesn't work, you get money for a service but you don't deliver it, Regards Hartmut

Alexandru_BD

Hello Hartmut,

I understand your frustration and I'm very sorry for this inconvenience. By "beyond their control" I'm referring to the Customer Support Teams, who cannot provide a workaround at this moment. As previously mentioned on the ticket and on this thread, a fix for this Bitdefender VPN behavior is still undergoing development and the Support teams are not the ones in charge to fix this, the task has been escalated to the product and infrastructure teams. The Support teams do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but they will contact you as soon as it's implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender.

Regarding this: you get money for a service but you don't deliver it - Bitdefender does not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted or error free or that the errors will be corrected immediately, since all reported bugs require investigation time. If you cannot use the service in a certain timeframe, you may contact the Support teams and ask for a compensation in the form of a validity extension for the interval when the service was unavailable to you.

Should you wish to request a validity extension as compensation for the inconvenience you have encountered, you can reply on the open ticket anytime.

Regards,

Alex

doscon

Hi Alex,

thanks for the information, but I don't know your internal structure, so I can't know who is responsible for what. My lack of understanding is mainly based on the fact that VPN worked, what is the problem to restore this state and why it takes so long - and you probably also see that this is not exactly a recommendation for the quality of the product.

Regards, Hartmut

Alexandru_BD

Hello @doscon,

I don't know your internal structure, so I can't know who is responsible for what - Naturally, for this reason I wanted to provide a bit more context and transparency regarding how such situations are handled internally, as to not leave you with the wrong impression. I can assure you that the Support teams are always working round the clock to address the customers' inquiries in a timely manner, but it's not always up to them to provide an instant resolution and in some cases we need to wait for investigations to be concluded so a fix can be provided. And these may take some time. All reported bugs require investigation time and some may get resolved faster than others. Again, this doesn't mean that the Support teams are bad, since they are doing considerable efforts to make sure all users get the help they need, all of the time.

I appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this process.

doscon

Hallo Alex,

Do you really believe in the efficiency of your colleagues yourself? I've been waiting for weeks for the bug that prevents me from opening VPN from Egypt to be fixed. It can't be that hard, because everything worked fine in the beginning. Now I doubt the competence of your staff and have to consider whether I can extend my contract with Bitdefender or even recommend your product to others.

With, sorry, very angry regards, Hartmut

Alexandru_BD

Hi @doscon,

We should be able to get more insight on the status of the investigation in the upcoming days. So far, I can tell you that you are not the only user affected by this issue and the VPN teams are doing their very best to find a solution asap.

To answer your question, yes, I do believe in their efficiency but there's more to that. The support engineers tried all the network troubleshooting steps, but it seems that nothing worked. This is one of those situations where more investigation time is required and for what is worth, there are a few dependencies for the VPN infrastructure, and this has become a joint effort between the developers and our partners. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience caused to you and I hope the fix will become available soon. I understand you are upset and I want you to know that from my side, I'm doing everything I can to speed things up, but certain things are not under my control.

Regards,

Alex

doscon

Mail to Bitdefender (BD) 06.08.2023, my request: I am connected to Bitdefender with the account of my son in germany, but I live in Egypt. I cannot open VPN Germany, but others (Danmark, Austria, France, Emirates....)

Reply BD 07.08.2023: Hello Dr. Hartmut, Thank you for your patience and please accept my apologies for the frustration that we might have caused. I have looked into the case and it seems that the situation is caused by an issue that has already been acknowledged by our development team. We are currently working on a fix that will be done by means of an automatic update and won't require any additional action on your end.

Reply BD 24.10.2023: Hello, Thank you for your follow-up e-mail. As mentioned previously on the ticket, a fix for this Bitdefender behavior is still undergoing development......... Since product updates are usually released once a month it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product - this does not include the debugging period. Also, once the fix is up we will extend the validity of your subscription by the amount of time it took to resolve the issue and to compensate for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Rest assured that we will contact you again as soon as the fix is released. Kind Regards, Andrei M. Senior Technical Support Engineer

14.12.2023: Hello to everyone responsible for this mess,

My first complaint dates back to August this year, so it's already over 4 months old - and what have you achieved so far? NOTHING! Congratulations on such competence and effectiveness