Autorenewal Opt-in
In response to: httpx://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?/topic/80361-auto-renewal-when-asked-not-to/, which ends with:
"The forum is not an intended communication channel for commercial cases, we only handle technical related matters and issues here. "
I feel this is an attempt to beat around the real issue here and prevent people from speaking their mind about an issue that could easily be resolved.
I was in the same boat. Just a brief history:
I started my subscription with paying EUR 28 for Bitdefender Total Security. Autosubscription was off (I never renew automatically for any service).
Today (roughly a month before end of subscription) I got a mail for autosubscription and was to be billed EUR 69,99 (meaning it was turned on, but not by me!)
When trying to cancel the subscription, you suddenly get 35% off the subscription fee
Couple of things here:
In my country (NL) opt-out needs to stay an opt-out by law. So I registered a complaint with our federal authority for consumers, Consuwijzer, about this way of doing business. It's intent is pretty clear: get more money out of people not paying attention.
When you try to cancel the autorenewal, you get an offer for 35% off an already 40% higher subscription fee.
While I do appreciate a business trying to make a buck, there's better ways to do that!
Personally, I've seen Bitdefender use overly aggressive tactics the last few years. I find this way of operating appalling and am done buying your products due to this, both personally and professionally. It makes me wonder what step Bitdefender will do next to gather more cash and why this is done so aggressively, my personal experience is that this could easily hurt public trust in the company.
Well, it did hurt my trust in the end.
Still, I do not discourage others to buy BD-products, but I do feel there should be a cautionary tale on this forum about this.
So: Always ask for a better deal or spend some time googling around and turn auto-subscription OFF as soon as you can.
If my fellow Dutchmen read this: Be sure to log a complaint with Consuwijzer as well, this is not a legitimate way to do business.
Finally, to address the last comment in the linked post: There's no formal forum rules in place. Do not make them up if you see something you don't want to read.
If people want to speak their mind on a feature you offer in the subscription service or in the program, don't close them off. It will make others suspicious.
If you want to lock this one as well, go ahead. I'll post it to Reddit as well. Just as Hoppysailormon did in in R/BitDefender, with another fine example on how BD keeps using these tactics.
Be aware folks!
