Bitdefender indecent behavior with renewal

To protect my internet gadgets, I use Bitdefender, my annual subscription is expiring On January 7 2022, so I bought an annual Bitdefender total security upgrade subscription from a reputable Amazon reseller. In order not to interrupt the protection of my Internet gadgets, I called Bitdefender in advance and activated the new software with the help of the operator. After activation, I threw away the card with the activation code, I thought that I no longer need it, how badly I was wrong. Exactly on January 7, at about noon, I watched the new program self-activate, what was my surprise when I checked the dashboard of my account and it turned out that my subscription for the year 2022 has not 365 but 350 days? I called tech support to find out what happened to 15 days from my annual subscription? To this, the operator asked for an activation code or send them a purchase order, if you ask me for confirmation of the purchase, it looks like you suspect me that I stole this software and this is very humiliating. The fact that they stole 15 days of service from me is a confirmed fact; now I have to prove that I am not a thief, and this very much offends me as a buyer. I sent a copy of the purchase order for the program via email, but after I did not have a pleasant aftertaste. I was so upset that want to cancel subscription and get refund but it turned out to be impossible. My advice to who is reading this article - To avoid any hassle Buy American product.

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Comments

Alexandru_BD

Hello @ArchyDice and welcome to the Community!

I have noticed the Support Teams have extended the validity of your subscription accordingly.

The proof of aquisition is a standard support procedure for licenses purchased from online marketplaces. The invoice is requested because there are various offers available at retail stores on marketplaces, however, not all of them are affiliated with Bitdefender. In some instances, licenses were purchased and then resold by unauthorized sellers. If the product is purchased from a doubtful source, it may not function properly, the activation code may not have the advertised validity and in some cases, we are unable to provide support.

As a world-wide trusted cybersecurity company, the security of your account and quality of service is of the utmost importance to us at Bitdefender. That means when using Bitdefender solutions, you should be in full control of your Bitdefender Central account and license and to ensure this, the proof of purchase is paramount, as it helps us determine if the license comes from a trusted source.

I regret to hear of the inconvenience you have encountered. I can assure you that the agent's sole intention was to determine the source of the code, for your own safety.

The validity discrepancy was caused by the fact that the active license in the Central account, prior to your new purchase, was Internet Security (for up to 3 devices). As you have upgraded your solution to Total Security (for up to 5 devices), an extension of validity could not be possibile, because the products were different and the variation of devices they could cover was different as well. Thus, the Total Security license was actually activated in parallel with Internet Security, causing the validity to overlap (in this case, for 15 days). With our upgraded subscription model, the Central account can now accommodate multiple subsciptions.

I hope my explanation was helpful.

Thank you for choosing Bitdefender.

ArchyDice

I have just one simple question: - Why when I call first time to activate total security operator did not ask me about legitimacy of my purchase? also I ask him how preliminary activation will affect duration of subscription? He assured me that I will receive a full protection period of 1 year starting from January 7, it does make sense to me, for example - during promotion I purchased a renewal for another program from another vendor, sale 13 month license for the price of 12 month and activated one month in advance, my license was extended for 13 month after expiration of old one. Obviously your program was written by a scholar who forgot to test it. It is not surprise to me, this time after hassle with activation I read forum - your program had has bunch of bugs which you are not fixing.
Final word - Business is built on trust if you lose trust you lose business.

Alexandru_BD

@ArchyDice I cannot pronounce myself in regards to the conversation you had with the first Support agent, however, I have noticed that you interracted with two representatives. Most probably, the second agent that took your case relied only on the ticket note left by the first agent with whom you spoke over the phone, and did not check the status of the new activation. I believe there was a human error involved.

With the new activation process, Bitdefender has transitioned to an upgraded subscription model that allows subscriptions to be either extended, or activated in parallel in the Central account, with the scope to protect more devices.

This also allows the Central account to accommodate multiple subscriptions of the same kind, or even different subscriptions, for more flexibility. A merge of validity between different solutions cannot be achieved by design, due to different product specifications involved. For instance, one cannot extend the validity of a Total Security subscription using an activation code for Premium Security, as the later has a Premium VPN component which Total Security doesn't.

Detailed information concerning the activation process can be viewed in the tutorial below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp9TtWz-Q8c

I would like to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. So far, no bugs have been reported for the activation flow, but the feebdback is valuable and much appreciated, as it helps our developers to spot the areas of improvement and find the best solutions that will enhance our user's experience.

Stay safe.

ArchyDice

Stop bothering me, I am not interesting in your explanation. As I promised to the second operator I will post my review in all Internet sites where it will be accepted. I just started using total security, for sure there are holes and bugs, so we will meet again on the fields of the Internet.

Alexandru_BD

As you have joined us here, I wanted to share some information to help you get started.

Of course, we are more than happy to receive feedback, ideation and feature requests, as this is also one of the purposes we have all gathered in this Community. We can make our user's voice heard with our developers and also address any bugs that may appear, before they scale.

As consumer feedback is widely encouraged by us, there is also a bug-bounty program in place, where the users testing, evaluating or using Bitdefender can submit their findings and help make Bitdefender better.

Should you be interested in such a program, check out the link below for more details:

https://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/bug-bounty.html

As you can see, you've come to the right place when it comes to reviews and feedback and we encourage you to send your submissions in an encrypted format to bugbounty@bitdefender.com

Enjoy your Bitdefender product and I hope we'll hear from you soon.