Is it me or is BD slipping?

Every year for 15+ years the worst thing about BD has been that automatic renewal they spring on you that charges at least double the previous year.. it's ludicrous having to jump through tons of hoops to correct a matter that shouldn't have happened! Additionally BD has a bad habit of renewing before the actual renewal date, and that can cause issues with customers' bank accounts.

Been w BD for 15+ years and they just sent me anniversary congratulations for 2 year anniversary.

To community: Sorry to be raggy, I can't find a %@$ actual contact number to send this directly to BD. Everything is AI driven now. Grrr and sigh

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Gjoksi

Hello.

You should contact Bitdefender Consumer Support by chat, telephone or e-mail:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

Chat is the fastest way to get in touch with Bitdefender Consumer Support.

For chat support, select: Purchase & Manage Subscription -> My Bitdefender Central Account, click on Contact Support in the black box and then click on Chat 24/7.

When chating with Bitdefender Helper AI, write "I want to talk to a real person, transfer me to a real agent" and you'll be transffered to a real Bitdefender support agent.

For telephone support:

NOTE: Bitdefender telephone support is not toll-free!

Maybe @Alexandru_BD, who works for Bitdefender, can help you with the issue.

Regards.

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

Wow, 15 years.. that's a long time and first I would like to say thank you for your loyalty! 🤝 Then if I may, I would like to provide a more detailed explanation on how the automatic renewal feature actually works, and why it works this way. Because this has been often misunderstood..

The automatic renewal feature has become the norm for many service providers these days, streaming services, etc., and the subscription model has been adopted by security vendors throughout the industry. But what can be perceived as a price increase for the next term is in fact the full list price of the respective suite. Because usually, the products come discounted for the 1st year of subscription, as stated on the product pages:

So, technically speaking, you are not paying double. You are paying what you would have paid anyway if there was no discount available at the time of your purchase. Or if there were no discounts at all. Some companies practice this, they don't offer discounts. But I've noticed that some customers may not view it this way, they forget they got a deal when they first purchased Bitdefender and become disgruntled when they have to pay what the actual product costs when the renewal date comes..
And for those who consider the prices to be high, let me put it this way: this software is the result of years of development and Bitdefender is currently one of the most trusted cybersecurity brands out there. The most skilled engineers and technicians work here and are continuously researching, developing and implementing cutting-edge technology as the threat landscape evolves. And this is naturally reflected in the price.

Upgrades are of course applied with each version of the product in order to stay ahead of the most sophisticated threats, investments in security features and technology are on the rise, and for such reasons, a fixed price cannot be guaranteed over the years. Security research done by professionals is not cheap.

Now back to the license, subsequent renewals of the subscription are always applied at the full list price of the respective product and you are right, it has been this way for a long time now. However, during the course of the subscription, especially as the subscription approaches its renewal date, you may receive offers to renew early at more favorable rates.

This usually happens for two reasons: first, it's a widespread business model in the antivirus industry. If you go online right now and check other competitor solutions, you will find that they are using a very similar subscription model. Secondly, Bitdefender products are not sold directly, but through trusted vendors and partners. For products purchased online from the official Bitdefender website, the vendor is now called Verifone (formerly known as 2Checkout) and the shopping cart, subscription renewal flows and payments are managed by them, under the supervision of the manufacturer, of course. As an existing customer, you can also manage your Bitdefender purchases through the 2Checkout account, but I assume that you already know this by now.

The automatic renewal pricing (we'll call it full price) is not linked to any ongoing offers, discounts and promotions available at the official Bitdefender website or at different points of sale throughout their Partner Network. For this reason, they are trying to offer customers the opportunity to manually renew at favorable prices during the subscription period, hence the in-product and email offers I was talking about earlier.
Note: such commercial communication is subject to user preferences, so if you have previously opted out from receiving messages from Bitdefender, the available discounts may not be sent to you. The vendor operates within specific pricing values set beforehand (again, the full list prices), and this means the subscription renewal is applied at the prices established previously, since the platform does not adjust pricing according to any discounts or campaigns that may run in various localizations, as this is technically impossible and it would be a colossal effort anyway. For this reason, you may find discrepancies in pricing depending on the point of sale. Perhaps even a more advantageous price on the website during a specific campaign period, or maybe on Amazon or other marketplaces. But again, these are not linked with the actual subscription renewal flows and the vendor's platform which renews the subscription automatically at the full list price, because in most cases, a discount was already offered for the 1st year of subscription.

The price at which the auto-renewal is applied can be seen in automatic notifications so that any customer can request either the deactivation of the option, or a more advantageous offer. The automatic renewal feature can of course be disabled anytime following the initial purchase.

I hope the information and transparency are helpful and I appreciate your interest in renewing your cybersecurity solution with Bitdefender for the 15th year. Here's to many more years together with Bitdefender! 🥂

NOTE: The anniversary badge has to do with the forum membership, and not the actual tenure as a customer of Bitdefender. 😉

Regards,

Alex