Auto Renewal Problem
Today i received mail from Paypal that a payment had been done via Avangate BV as the authorized vendor of Bitdefender. As far as i know i didn't get any warning mails about renewing my BIS licence. In fact i didn't knew that i had authorized Bitdefender for an autorenewal. So imagine my surprise when i received the payment receipt from Bitdefender.
It really bothers me to pay for something that you don't need and without any warning what so ever.
How do i solve this problem...?
Comments
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Today i received mail from Paypal that a payment had been done via Avangate BV as the authorized vendor of Bitdefender. As far as i know i didn't get any warning mails about renewing my BIS licence. In fact i didn't knew that i had authorized Bitdefender for an autorenewal. So imagine my surprise when i received the payment receipt from Bitdefender.
It really bothers me to pay for something that you don't need and without any warning what so ever.
How do i solve this problem...?
Hate to see anybody else have to deal with this chea.p practice. It's not what I would have expected from Bitdefender! Whatever you do, do NOT accept an online offer to extend your service. If you do, they will likely charge you again and you may end up paying double/simultaneously, for TWO separate licenses. That's what happened to me. When I saw the double-charge, I started the process of trying to get it corrected right away. It's been over two weeks, and only in the last couple of days did anybody start to respond, and that was because I went to one of their biggest promoters: PC-Magazine, and complained to them. PCMag jumped on it and I got emails right way from BD, referencing my complaints to PCMag.
You will likely have to go to the Avangate website, create an account (you will need to have your original Order #), and turn off the Auto-Renew feature. If you want a refund (WHICH YOU DESERVE IN MY OPINION), you will need to call them overseas, and (hope you have a lot of patience) try your best to communicate with them that you want a refund. In my case, they instructed me to then call BD's overseas people to ask for a refund approval. They will get all confused, and you will have to explain again and again that you do NOT want the service extended! If you are lucky you will eventually receive an email from BD (in about two week) telling you that a refund will be made within "7 working days".
If all that does not work, send emails to the staff at PCMagazine - they are huge promoters of BD, so they should share in the annoyance as well! Btw - here are some links I copied from the emails I eventually got - Good Luck:
http://www.avangate.com/online-payment-solutions/
BitDefender Customer Care <[email protected]>0 -
Hello rwilsond,
Thank you so much for your quick reply and solution for this problem.
Yesterday i did exactly what you suggested: i created an account on Avangate and turned off the Auto-Renew feature
I also sent a refund ticket to Bitdefender Costumer Service.
They responded immediately and today i received a second response. The refund will be made in about 7 business days. All i have to do now is wait and see.
I guess that the steps you took with PC-Magazine made a big difference in how quickly they respond to others with the same problem. So thank you again.
Have a great day....
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+1 here too, rwilsond, for your persistence, and for posting back here with your solution.
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Today i received mail from Paypal that a payment had been done via Avangate BV as the authorized vendor of Bitdefender. As far as i know i didn't get any warning mails about renewing my BIS licence. In fact i didn't knew that i had authorized Bitdefender for an autorenewal. So imagine my surprise when i received the payment receipt from Bitdefender.
It really bothers me to pay for something that you don't need and without any warning what so ever.
How do i solve this problem...?
I too got scammed today with an auto renewal. I purchased their early renewal offer online and got my license key and I thought all was well. I started seeing renewal email notices and thought they couldn't possibly apply to me as I had renewed...right? Nope! Today my credit card got hit for another $69.95 and I called and talked to the lame foreign customer service agent "Bill". He tried to push me into combining the keys and extending out my license which I refused. I demanded a credit and he said all he could do was submit a request to somebody and they would contact my via email within 4 days. Unacceptable! I called my bank and have filed a dispute and am claiming the charge is fraud as I was double charged. I think this will be the last time I use Bitdefender. Business practices like these are terrible and misleading.
Jeff0 -
Hello all,
Thank you for posting about your doubts regarding the auto-renewal process.
I will check your ticket ID-s in the system and contact you asap. For those of you who do not have a ticket in the system I will contact you via PM.
The auto-renewal process is not a scam. It's a legal and optional feature designed to help you by offering a continuous protection, without interruption. It also saves you the time of physically renewing every year.
The auto-renewal policy is communicated to the customers in the Billing & Payment section from the shopping cart, that the customers agree to when they purchase the software. For your convenience, I attached a copy of the auto-renewal notice displayed in the shopping cart. As you can see, it's not a hidden option and you can disable it by unchecking the box "Store my billing information and automatically renew my subscription" before completing the payment.
For customers who already subscribed, a notification regarding the automatic renewal is sent to the e-mail used for the initial order, 7 days before the renewal date. In that e-mail there's also an option which allows you to disable the auto-renewal.
You can also stop / start automatic renewal by accessing your Avangate or Digital River account (Avangate and Digital River are the online shops for Bitdefender products purchased from our official website www.bitdefender.com):
Avangate
https://secure.avangate.com/myaccount/
Digital River
The email address and password are the ones supplied in the purchase confirmation emails received upon completing the order.
Please feel free to post back if you have other questions or concerns about the auto-renewal process.
Thank you and have a great day!
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I was also (SC&%*&Med) by this. I never received the beloved 7 day notice prior to the renewal. I made sure I clicked off the renewal process and yet was charged $69.95 I called Avangate and they said they would cancel auto renewal but I doubt they did. How can you trust someone who does this? I already paid for 2 more years of Bitfender but not through Avangate. (AKA Watergate) Now I am charged?
" />0 -
Terrible just terrible, unethical, shameless and dirty business on the part of Avangate and Bitdefender. Can't believe we trust such a company to keep our computers safe!
I was charged 50$ yesterday without any notice and it appears that I was charged last year as well. Even if I had auto-renewal on, they could have at least requested some authorization permission prior to making any purchase. Nothing!
I think they take advantage of the fact that people do not read everything in agreements.
If Bitdefender or avangate do not refund me back my money for the last two purchases in the next one week, I will have to contact PC Magazine and expose their business malpractice in every forum I can come across.
Terribly disappointed.0 -
Hello,
@ Unauthorized: I see my colleagues from Customer Service already handled your request via ticket ID: 201303081042539. Please don't hesitate to contact us if there's anything else. Thank you!
@ jivatma: Please see this: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...st&p=182142
Have a lovely week!0 -
Ticket ID:201305121005203
that is my ticket ID - I want my credit card refunded immediately and I'm reporting this SCAM, yes, it's a SCAM0 -
The same exact thing happened to me. This company is a scam. Shame on every single one of them. WARNING TO ALL NEW SUBSCRIBERS, GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN! AUTO-RENEW SCAM WILL GET YOU!!!
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Thanks for the heads up on this!
I had to go back to my purchase confirmation email I received when I purchased the product to find out how to check the auto renewal setting. Glad I keep my emails for a while, otherwise I would not have known how to check this. It was a very long email which I never read other than to get my activation code. At the bottom it gave instructions on how to see payment related issues, and you have to create an account with Avangate to see the stuff. I would have expected it to be part of bitdefender.com. I would guess that most people never read this info at the bottom of the email.
Sure enough, auto-renewal was enabled, which was quite a surprise to me. I never have and never do sign up for auto renewal on anything, so the auto renewal check box must have been already checked on the purchase order form. If I had seen it I would have un-checked it. They were going to auto-renew at TWICE the price I paid for it! Maybe not illegal, but definitely sneaky! I would have been REALLY angry when this auto renewal showed up on my bank statement! Thanks to you I have disabled it.0 -
You guys are NOT alone. We have a similar thread going on in the 2013 forum with a bunch of upset victims of what we have been calling the Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud or the Customer Theft Program.
Here's a link to our thread... feel free to share over there, too.
2013 Thread: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=45111
We've been recommending people file complains with the BBB and leave reviews on cNet to warn others about this fraudulent and dishonest procedure to try and help others not fall victim to the Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud Customer Theft Program.
I'll get back to you with BBB and cNet review links.0 -
Again... please check out our growing thread in the 2013 Forums at: 2013 Thread: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=45111 and feel free to comment over there as well.
The more we speak up, the more people we can help and hopefully get Bitdefender to change their dishonest and fraudulent ways, or even better, go out of business. Here's the BBB and cNet information.....
Hey, everyone. After thumbing through the forums, I've noticed many of you have fallen victim to BitDefender's Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud problem, as I almost did, and many of you have, unfortunately. Some of you have gotten your money refunded, while others have not. I think we all agree that these people are pathetic and that this company is a horrible business, so let's warn others.
1) BBB. I wish I had read their BBB rating before I ever gave these sleazeballs my credit card! They have an F rating and many complains. I urge you all to add your own complaints and reviews at BBB, so that hopefully we can prevent other people from falling victim to BitDefender's Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud and their overall horrible customer service in general.
You can file a complaint against these sleazeballs here:
http://www.bbb.org/south-east-florida/busi...ile-a-complaint
Here's some of their file from the BBB website, proving how pathetic the company is, but please see for yourself here:
http://www.bbb.org/south-east-florida/busi...ale-fl-11010404
THIS BUSINESS IS NOT BBB ACCREDITED
Bitdefender, LLC
Phone: (954) 776-6262
Fax: (954) 776-6462
View Additional Phone Numbers
6301 NW 5 Way, #4300, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
! There is an alert for this business !
On a scale of A+ to F... F
BBB Ratings System Overview
2) cnet.com is a great site to read and leave reviews on software and download software, too! BitDefender has a 2.5 star rating on cnet and is obviously not reflective of how we all really feel. I urge you all to leave a review on cnet so that maybe we can help other people not fall victim to BitDefender's Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud and having to deal with their pathetic customer service... I bet the ones that did leave a positive review on cnet would go back and change that review after being sucker punched by the Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud.
Leave a review here:
http://download.cnet.com/Bitdefender-Inter...4-10540275.html
Thanks, guys! Let's do our part and make the public aware of this terrible company before the Scam more people out of money with the Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud, and make it impossible to get their money back thanks to their horrible customer service. Thanks again, everyone! Let's do our part!0 -
Check this out: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=29755
People in the 2011 forum are having the same problem! It's real great to know that we are NOT alone as victims of Bitdefender's theft, and more people seem to be speaking out AGAINST them than FOR them... this is a totally unjust and fraudulent process and I hope they get what is coming to them! Let's keep doing our part, guys!0 -
Hey, guys, just wanted to check for any updates and make sure this Thread stays fresh so we can continue the warn subscribers about the Auto-Renewal Scam/Fraud aka Customer Theft Program... and ideally turn off any new subscribers at all. Hopefully people looking for anti-virus software will do their due diligence research and hopefully find this page if and when considering Bitdefender so they can read all about their horrible service and customer theft behavior.
Keep the cNet and BBB reviews coming in and hopefully we can put these crooks out of business and behind bars where they belong!
I'll keep checking up on everyone.0 -
on 15th june , avengate charged $79.95 from my paypal. i contacted bitdefender and opened a ticket immediately after i saw the email. now it's been 3 days and they are not refunding me yet. my ticket ID is 201306141003706 .
i also agree this is the bad business practice. i did not receive any warning that i am about to be charged. the only email they sent is "early special renewal offer" or something but they did not say anything about auto charging. i thought that email is just an ad to make people.
this thing is making me annoyed for the past 3 days. they still have not refund me.
p.s. can anyone guide me how to dispute the charge in paypal?0 -
I just got a receipt of payment in my email for $79.95 for the same thing. Just two days ago my BitDefender expired and I moved on to another company because I thought it was too expensive, and just today they happen to charge me for another year. I had NO idea that I was going to be charged. I understand that the fine print (isn't that convenient?) states that everyone is enrolled in auto-renewal, but I never got any email from them telling me I was going to be charged. I also think it's shady practice to make it so you have to sign up through a different website besides BitDefender to disable auto-renewal. They are preying on people who don't read the fine print... and let's face it, who really does read that anyway?
I have emailed them, called them, and live chatted with them and they all told me my ticket was "escalated" and I should hear back within 24-48 hours. It just makes me so mad because I'm broke and I needed that money for bills and groceries. It's just pathetic that they think it's okay to do that and not refund your money immediately. I hope I get a refund. I'm trying to dispute it with my bank regardless. Good luck to everyone!0 -
Hello all,
Thank you for posting about your doubts regarding the auto-renewal process.
I will check your ticket ID-s in the system and contact you asap. For those of you who do not have a ticket in the system I will contact you via PM.
The auto-renewal process is not a scam. It's a legal and optional feature designed to help you by offering a continuous protection, without interruption. It also saves you the time of physically renewing every year.
The auto-renewal policy is communicated to the customers in the Billing & Payment section from the shopping cart, that the customers agree to when they purchase the software. For your convenience, I attached a copy of the auto-renewal notice displayed in the shopping cart. As you can see, it's not a hidden option and you can disable it by unchecking the box "Store my billing information and automatically renew my subscription" before completing the payment.
For customers who already subscribed, a notification regarding the automatic renewal is sent to the e-mail used for the initial order, 7 days before the renewal date. In that e-mail there's also an option which allows you to disable the auto-renewal.
You can also stop / start automatic renewal by accessing your Avangate or Digital River account (Avangate and Digital River are the online shops for Bitdefender products purchased from our official website www.bitdefender.com):
Avangate
https://secure.avangate.com/myaccount/
Digital River
The email address and password are the ones supplied in the purchase confirmation emails received upon completing the order.
Please feel free to post back if you have other questions or concerns about the auto-renewal process.
Thank you and have a great day!0 -
As an owner of two (3 user) BD Internet Security & BD Total Security software disks 2011 & 2013 I would like to know if the problems with auto-renewal are specifically for those who download from the internet. I do not download mine.
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As an owner of two (3 user) BD Internet Security & BD Total Security software disks 2011 & 2013 I would like to know if the problems with auto-renewal are specifically for those who download from the internet. I do not download mine.0
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As an owner of two (3 user) BD Internet Security & BD Total Security software disks 2011 & 2013 I would like to know if the problems with auto-renewal are specifically for those who download from the internet. I do not download mine.
Hi...You should be fine. The problem occurs when you make a purchase online thru a third party vendor who then has your credit card info. This is a common practice and is certainly not restricted to BD as has been insinuated on the forums. Best advice...Read the fine print when purchasing online.0 -
I can't help but chime in here.
According to Bitdefender Support:
http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=188533
the official answer to automatic renewal is posted here:
http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...mp;#entry185728
The official answer reads:
"You can also stop / start automatic renewal by accessing your Avangate or Digital River account (Avangate and Digital River are the online shops for Bitdefender products purchased from our official website www.bitdefender.com):"
Clear as day: If you want to cancel your auto renewal, go to DigitalRiver or Avangate and not just your account at Bitdefenders own website, where you can only see and renew your license.
However, if you visit the Support part here:
http://www.bitdefender.com/support/i-do-no...enewal-542.html
it states regarding automatic renewal that "To cancel the service now, [click here]."
[Click here] is a link bringing you to: http://www.bitdefender.com/support/contact-us.html
No mention of either Digital River or Avangate anywhere and there is no link to either of their sites anywhere.
Bitdefenders official answer to canceling auto renewal is to visit Digital River or Avangate, yet their Support site telling you how to cancel auto renew doesn't inform you about this and sends you to another site.
Now, apart from the very notion that doing anything "now" by using their contact form and awaiting a response, is completely absurd; the support site and Bitdefenders official answer gives you two completely contradictory pieces of information.
Fortunately, I discovered how to cancel autorenewal a day after a mistaken purchase, and I have luckily only spent €30. Here, almost two days after my refund request, I have heard nothing back from BD, but I understand from other users that two days are mere seconds on the BD timescale, so I'll obtain some more patience.
By the way - was anybody but me shown this gem of a "Thank you for your purchase"?
http://i.imgur.com/pF4znEj.jpg
It basically thanks you for giving them money and then asks you in giant font and pictures to give them even more money, because they hope you feel insecure about installing this product due to them listing the many ways this extra payment will relieve you of stress, as if installing a program is a challenging task nowadays.
The real kicker?
The information about how on Earth you can just install and use the product you just paid for is tucked neatly away in tiny letters at the bottom of the page... under "Additional Information". Seriously. To Bitdefender, your ability to install and use the product you pay for is secondary to giving them more money. I have never seen anything quite a shady and unethical.
Thank god I only gave them €30, so I can live with it if they don't answer any of my refund requests, of which I plan to send one every 48 hours.0 -
@ kimozabi:
Please read our response in your original thread, here:0 -
I've been a loyal user of Bitdefender for almost 5 years, and felt that I've been cheated for all this years... Used to buy the anti virus through a retailer which is a good thing compare buying through online. Here my story, start using Bitdefender in the year 2009 or 2008 (can't remember it) bought a 3 year license for 1 pc and what I can say is that the Anti-Virus at that time is superb.
When the year 2012, received an offer from Bitdefender for a wonderful price tag for the Anti-Virus (Half Price!!!) for 3 pc - 1 year license due to expiry of the previous license. So without hesitate I purchase it through the so called "Authorized Vendor of Bitdefender" and start using the Bitdefender Internet Security.
For the info, I never seen the Auto-renewal features to be turn on at that moment I make the purchased nor did I received any head up of this features.
AND this happen to me at 11.06 a.m. this morning (+GMT 8.00). They charged me for a renewal of the license without asking my permission. This is outrageous, I've already make a complain to customer service through Live Chat and "Albert" the person I chat with mention that there will be a ticket issue to me for my problem.
Funny thing is, the price for the Bitdefender Internet Security for 3 pc - 1 year will cost me RM109.00 = USD 33.96 at any retailer in my country. Why the ###### on earth I want to pay an extra of RM115.53 = USD 35.99??????0 -
After receiving confirmation both from Bitdefender and Avangate that the auto-renewal was deactivated last month, today I was automatically billed.
Explain this Bitdefender (and please no ###### as Avangate that says that is not possible to delete my account and my information for technical reasons).0 -
Hello,
@ Unauthorized: I see my colleagues from Customer Service already handled your request via ticket ID: 201303081042539. Please don't hesitate to contact us if there's anything else. Thank you!
@ jivatma: Please see this: http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...st&p=182142
Have a lovely week!
Are you seeing this Georgia?
http://www.bbb.org/south-east-florida/busi...ale-fl-11010404
There is an official BBB alert on your business. How does Bitdefender respond?0 -
I am writing in reference to an open ticket I have with Bitdefender support (#2014072602230001). I purchased Total Security 2013 from bitdefender.com on 2013-07-27 05:06:05 (order reference number: 18709241) for a total of $19.95. I received two emails from Avangate in confirmation of this purchase (attached). Neither of them included any information in regarding an auto-renewal policy let alone the fact it was enabled by default. In March of 2014 I discontinued use of Total Security after a round of discussions with tech support concerning the opening/closing of individual ports. At this time I moved to another product despite the fact that I still had time on my current subscription. On Friday 7/25/2014 I received emails indicating I had been charged $89.95 as a renewal to Bitdefender 2015. I contacted Support by opening a ticket explaining the circumstances and asking for a refund. I contacted support by phone as well and once again explained and requested a refund. I received an offer for a 40% discount. Yesterday I responded to the discount offer, again requesting a full refund but have not received a response.
I am disabled, on a fixed income and the end of any month is particularly tight for me. The surprise deduction from my account has resulted in overdraft with an additional $70.00 fee. I did not knowingly authorize nor would I have enabled auto renewal in any form even if I was still using Bitdefender. Had I decided to renew my subscription I certainly would have taken advantage of one of the many deep discounts available at retailers of Bitdefender, which can typically be purchased for $19.95 and sometimes even for free. I am shocked and appalled at the ongoing policies and am increasingly frustrated with the support team that seems to be focused more on wearing down customer resistance than resolving issues. I see this is not an isolated issue and goes back some time. Can any good come of a policy that seems designed to take unfair advantage of customers acting in good faith?
I am hoping to receive a response from you escalating my support ticket and request for a full refund. Thank you for your help.
D Bruce Saurer0 -
Apparently they have decided to make a habit out of this issue, on top of making it more difficult to fix. I have recently had this problem as well, on top of being charged for a completely different product (2015 version instead of the 2014 version I have) my product is not expired, I received no 7 day renewal warning, and I was rejected during my request for a refund. Apparently, asking for a refund for a product you did not buy, or even know was available, is not okay within the 30 day period they advertise. I applied for the refund within 24 hours of receiving the email purchase receipt. The response I got in return was:
Thank you for contacting us in regards to this matter.
Please be kindly informed that you were charged for an auto renewal order. When you first purchased Bitdefender on 2013/06/27 you agreed with the automatic license renewal option and consequently your license was now renewed automatically.
Several email notifications have been sent to you, informing you about the license expiry date and the fact that the automatic license renewal is enabled for your account. You received also further instructions on how to deactivate
this option if you prefer to renew your license manually. Since this option was still enabled, the automatic renewal has been processed by our system.
For any other inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us.
Have a nice day
Now, there's more than one issue with this. It states I have recieved "Several email notifications" I did not get one single email. Also on their website it says they will send ONE email 7 days before it happens. Not SEVERAL. On top of that, they charged me and gave me a receipt for Bitdefender 2015 which I'm pretty sure wasn't out in 2013. I have Bitdefender 2014 and it does not expire for another 100 or so days. Again, on their support page for this issue they say to fill out a customer service form for a refund. I did this, and not only did I not receive a refund, but they excused it away and told me to have a nice day. This is not what I call customer service.0 -
The official policy seems to be one of "stonewall" as I went several rounds with their "support":
Your refund request has been acknowledged, however please note that the Auto-Renewal option is designed to help you by offering a continuous protection, without interruption. It also saves you the time of physically renewing every year. Please note that this order was placed as an automatic renewal because this option was enabled during your first purchase from http://www.bitdefender.com website.
Also, your email address has been sent a notification regarding the automatic renewal, with 7 days before the date of the renewal, where you had the option to disable this feature.
As well, you had the possibility of canceling the automatic renewal option by accessing your Avangate account through the link below:
https://secure.avangate.com/myaccount/
We now offer you the opportunity to keep your auto-renewal benefits along with a special 40% discount from Bitdefender! The discount will be applied directly to the 89.95 USD you paid for the renewal of your license key. Should you accept our offer, you will save 36 USD for a 1 year subscription.
The discount will be refunded back to your account in a few working days if you accept the offer.
Also, please note that you will be able to use this subscription in the future, should you need it later, as we will be able to put a stop on the license key countdown, by generating a new license key that will be valid for the same type of product, and number of users as this old subscription and that will also have the initial validity period. The new key will not be active and you will be able to use it whenever you wish, as the validity countdown will start from the moment you will decide to register the new key on a computer.
I finally cited the threads on this forum, complaints to the BBB, as well as PC Mag, CNet, and Tom’s Guide, filed a dispute with Paypal and my local bank. I finally received an offer for refund after my bank issued a stop payment order.
A deftly placed auto opt-in renewal policy at grossly inflated over market prices is NOT a "customer service". It is a predatory and unscrupulous marketing ploy designed to catch out the trusting and unwary coupled with a support strategy of attrition.
These forums employ a double opt-in sign up procedure. There's no automatic membership granted as a customer of Bitdefender. You must first apply then respond to an email notice confirming your request. Hmmmm...0 -
Same issue as the rest of you on this forum; auto renewal and purchase without my approval or consent. I sent three emails and spoke with five customer service representatives, two from Avangate who were explicitly rude and three from Bitdefender. Finally. 48 hours later I received the email below. Note that I was VERY explicit in my emails that I wanted a full refund of a product I did not purchase.
Irregardless of whether I "agreed" to the autorenewal unknowingly, Avangate somehow managed to obtain my new billing address AND my new credit card number without me ever supplying this information.
Call me ignorant, but without my checking account number (which I never supplied) and with an expired credit card and incorrect billing address, how could they possibly have obtained the information to charge my new card?
Below is an email that I received back from Bitdefender Support 48 hours after my telephonic refund request.
Dear Ashleigh,
Thank you for contacting us in regards to this matter and please accept our apologies for the delay in our answer.
We are aware there are many security solution vendors on the market, however latest tests and reviews reconfirmed Bitdefender as the #1 security technology. Your private information, your credit card credentials or family pictures deserve being protected by nothing less than the best security protection!
Your refund request has been acknowledged, however please note that the Auto-Renewal option is designed to help you by offering a continuous protection, without interruption. It also saves you the time of physically renewing every year. Please note that this order was placed as an automatic renewal because this option was enabled during your first purchase from http://www.bitdefender.com website.
***My request has been acknowledged? Not accepted? This is outrageously and borderline fraudulent customer service.***
Also, your email address has been sent a notification regarding the automatic renewal, with 7 days before the date of the renewal, where you had the option to disable this feature.
***As with most others, I received no such email - only a purchase receipt.***
As well, you had the possibility of canceling the automatic renewal option by accessing your Avangate account through the link below:
https://secure.avangate.com/myaccount/
***Avangate as a vendor of Bitdefender is also not clearly mentioned during the purchase process and it is certainly not stressed that in order to avoid sneakily withdrawn funds in a year's time, you must create an account with this separate vendor and then search through their site to try and figure out how to cancel auto renewal.***
We now offer you the opportunity to keep your auto-renewal benefits and deactivate the Auto-Renewal option on your account along with a special 40% discount from Bitdefender and a free 4 months extension of the subscription!
The discount will be applied directly to the 59.95 USD you paid for the renewal of your license key. Should you accept our offer, you will save 24 USD for a 1 year and 4 months subscription.
The discount will be refunded back to your account in a few working days if you accept the offer.
***Here, despite my very clear and almost angry request that my money be returned, it is suggested that some of my money will be returned conditionally dependent upon my acceptance of an offer. Not once am I told that ALL of my money will be refunded.***
Ashleigh, please let us know if you would like to proceed with the offer or if you just need some further details.
***Here, I am told to email back if I WANT the offer OR if I need FURTHER details. Where is the extra OR saying, "OR if you just want a full refund? There isn't one. In this email, words and phrases such as "acknowledged, a few working days (unclear and NOT justified in regards to a customer's money), will be refunded to your account IF you accept the offer" are used instead of clear words such as "Your refund WILL be processed within X amount of days."***
Best Regards,
Dragos Barbu
Bitdefender Support Team
This is fair warning to those who have been lassoed into the shady ways of this product. What is my case in point? A pretty strong one:
1.) Bitdefender auto-enables auto-renewal. Even though these forums indicate it's a problem and people do NOT want to auto renew, this policy has not been altered.
2.) Bitdefender almost flat out refuses to refund the money of customers who unknowingly were almost tricked into auto renewal by requiring a phone call and a subsequent email two or more days later which, as evidenced above, STILL does not apologize and confirm the refund
Instead, Bitdefender will claim to refund part of your money in exchange for more of the product that you did not wish to buy in the first place.
Angry consumers is an understatement. This company partially tricks customers into auto-renewal and then BLAMES the customer for their carelessness and THEN either denies a refund or claims they'll only refund part of YOUR money that they took from your account without YOUR permission??
Fraud:
A false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury.
-Sarbanes-Oxley
Seems pretty spot on to me.
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Same issue as the rest of you on this forum; auto renewal and purchase without my approval or consent. I sent three emails and spoke with five customer service representatives, two from Avangate who were explicitly rude and three from Bitdefender. Finally. 48 hours later I received the email below. Note that I was VERY explicit in my emails that I wanted a full refund of a product I did not purchase.
Irregardless of whether I "agreed" to the autorenewal unknowingly, Avangate somehow managed to obtain my new billing address AND my new credit card number without me ever supplying this information..... -Sarbanes-Oxley
Seems pretty spot on to me.
The product itself isn't a scam. It does just what it does. It scans for viruses and spyware. Bitdefender isn't directly in charge of billing either. They use a company called Avangate.
More info on Avangate:
http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/b...-city-ca-380104
Now with that being said, why are you blaming Bitdefender for Avangate's shady business practices?0 -
I had the same problem today. I made sure I didn't check the option for automatic renewal. I wont refund, but I'll never buy anything again with Bitdefender or any product that uses Avangate, also I'll never recommened this product again, and will recommened against it and being carefull and wary of buying it if they don't like something like "automatic renewal option" that isn't easy to find while purchasing.
I already cancelled the automatic renewal.
"Please note that the automatic-renewal option for your Bitdefender Antivirus Plus license has been successfully canceled. Your request was processed by Avangate as the authorized vendor of BitDefender SRL."
I hope I don't get anymore problems from them.0 -
I don't see the problem, the automatic renewal box is plain to find when ordering, and as always you should check each window as you go through rather than clicking "next". However, if it is missed it can easily be cancelled by visiting your Avangate account.
I have done it both ways, first order I left auto-renewal and later decided to cancel it, second order I unchecked the auto-renewal box. Both times with complete success.0 -
I don't see the problem, the automatic renewal box is plain to find when ordering, and as always you should check each window as you go through rather than clicking "next". However, if it is missed it can easily be cancelled by visiting your Avangate account.
I have done it both ways, first order I left auto-renewal and later decided to cancel it, second order I unchecked the auto-renewal box. Both times with complete success.
automatic renewal option is very important option while placing an order and should be informed right after making the purchase. It should be informed that your product's automatic renewal option is on but the only reference I got from the order is the following, it doesn't say that it's on at all.
With Avangate myAccount you can:
* View order details and keep track of your online orders status
* Gain instant access to your online shopping history
* Re-download license keys/codes* and download invoices
* Manage your subscription payments (auto-renewal), if your product supports such an option.
* Renew the license of the purchased software when it expires
* Find support contact details such as phone and email addresses of software publishers
* Download the installation files of the purchased software (if Download Insurance was also purchased with your product)
If you can link information or a screen shot where that option is clearly visible, that would be nice.0 -
From the Avangate account page, you can see that both renewal payments are disabled. I am not going through a purchase to find the auto-renewal box, sorry.
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I had the same problem today. I made sure I didn't check the option for automatic renewal. I wont refund, but I'll never buy anything again with Bitdefender or any product that uses Avangate, also I'll never recommened this product again, and will recommened against it and being carefull and wary of buying it if they don't like something like "automatic renewal option" that isn't easy to find while purchasing.
I already cancelled the automatic renewal.
"Please note that the automatic-renewal option for your Bitdefender Antivirus Plus license has been successfully canceled. Your request was processed by Avangate as the authorized vendor of BitDefender SRL."
I hope I don't get anymore problems from them.
Yeah, but like I pointed out, it technically isn't Bitdefender's fault. It's Avangate's. And other antivirus companies go through Avangate as well. For example, Iobit, Kaspersky, SysTweak and even HP (yes, you read that right, Hewlett-Packard the computer company uses Avangate) all use Avangate!
With that being said, wouldn't you say it's a little harsh to blame Bitdefender?0 -
Dear all,
For any issues regarding the automatic renewal system please send us an email at [email protected]
or submit a ticket to Bitdefender Commercial team from this Facebook platform:
https://www.facebook.com/bitdefender/app_268724459959771
Thank you!0
