Auto Renewal

Stewart Lee

2nd year running Bitdefender seems to try to get me to auto-renew, even though I'm pretty sure I kept the auto-renewal box unticked?!! I tried many times now to untick this on my subscription page but the function doesn't appear to work (poor). It seems to me that they tried to force loyal customers to auto renew at a much higher price than a new customer. A big turn off for me. Not sure I'll be renewing again. NOT happy.

Gjoksi

Hello.

You can stop the auto-renewal for the Bitdefender subscription, by following these steps:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/29081/

Just follow the steps as described in Method 1, because some users in the past reported that the steps from Method 2 didn't stop the auto-renewal.

Also, from my personal experience, Method 1 did/does the job.

Finally, you can stop the auto-renewal for the Bitdefender subscription by contacting Customer Support at:

cancel@bitdefender.com

Regards.

gandrew

The steps suggested by Bitdefender and on the web to stop auto renewal of subscriptions do not work on my IPad, but work using an Apple MAC. Best to use your computer! Another option is to email support and request them to stop the auto-renewal for you, email - support@2checkout.com

I think Bitdefender central software as implemented on iPads needs attention as it’s not possible to get to payments etc. (the software goes around in a loop).

WELSHBOY

WHY IS MY RENEWAL EMAIL FROM YOU COSTS £74-99 AND ELSEWHERE ON YOUR SITE ITS £23-99??

I WILL CANCEL MY RENEWAL IF THE CHARGE IS NOT REDUCED.

REGARDS

Scott

Hi @WELSHBOY

What you are probably seeing on the Bitdefender site is a promotion price, for new users.

I would contact support to see if they can give you a better price on your renewal. From the Account, Billing and Subscription box, go through the prompts until reach the black Contact Support box. You will have three options, Chat, email and phone support, which is not toll-free. Chat can be the quickest way to get things started.

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

Kind regards,

Scott

RalphvQ

My subscription auto-renewed to Antivirus Plus. I do not need a VPN nor a password manager. I have these throuf DropBox and Dashlane. However I could use an an antivirus on more than two machines. what should I do? I would have appreciated some choices rather than moving me to a different plan.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @RalphvQ,

Based on my findings, you previously had a Total Security subscription that expired on September 18th.

The automatic renewal feature was enabled for the above subscription, however, the automatic billing was not applied due to incomplete/delayed/invalid payment details. When this happens, you should receive a follow-up email with further information for finalizing the order. Since you also had an Antivirus Plus subscription which you have purchased initially in 2020, this has been renewed as well in the following years and the latest renewal went through successfully on September 24th 2023. Basically, you've had two different subscriptions running since 2021, Total Security and Antivirus Plus and because the automatic billing for Total Security was not applied at the due date, only the Antivirus Plus subscription was kept. Your plan was not changed without your consent. The VPN doesn't imply any additional costs in this case, since the basic version is included for free in all Bitdefender home solutions.

To sort this out I would recommend contacting the Support teams to inform them which subscription you wish to keep, as adjustments can be made. The Total Security subscription can be cancelled altogether, considering the payment failed and you can opt to upgrade the renewed Antivirus Plus subscription and turn it into Total Security, for example.

You can get in touch with our engineers by choosing one of the contact channels available here:

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

Choose between chat, phone and email/ticket and keep in mind that chat would be the fastest option to reach them.

Let us know how it goes and I hope the information is helpful.

Regards,

Alex

John_G

I received my auto renewal notice today. Pretty slick. The price looked a bit high, so I did some googling.

I am not sure if Bitdefender knows how a 'Customer Loyalty' program works. I am pretty sure you don't retain customers by charging them just about 50% more for the same product than when a new customer subscribes.

Just in case Bitdefender actually reads these posts, here's a heads-up, your program punished customers for wanting to continue using your product.

All the best, John

Alexandru_BD

Hello @John_G and thanks for joining us here.

If you are referring to the new aquisition discounts available on the Bitdefender website, these are valid for the 1st year of subscription only. In the event the automatic renewal feature is kept enabled, the Bitdefender subscription will be automatically renewed prior to the expiration of the term and each anniversary thereafter for a fee no greater than Bitdefender's then-current price, excluding promotional and discount pricing.

This means that the automatic renewal pricing is not linked to ongoing offers, discounts and promotions available at the official Bitdefender website or at different points of sale throughout Bitdefender's Partner Network, and for this reason they are trying to offer customers the opportunity to manually renew at favorable prices during the subscription period (e.g. in-product early renewal offers, commercial emails).

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 does offer peace of mind and there are certain benefits, but they do come at a cost, namely the full list price of the product. While this could be perceived as a price increase, the reality is that the automatic renewal price is exactly what Bitdefender would cost if there were no discunts available. As such, if you have purchased Bitdefender with a discount initially, should you choose to keep the automatic renewal feature enabled, you will be charged the full list price of Bitdefender at that time.

Here are some benefits that come with Auto-Renewal:

• Peace of mind. You’ll enjoy continuous protection against all online threats. Auto-renewal keeps your defenses activated without interruption for all devices covered by your current subscription.
• Time-saving. You won’t have to go through all the steps of manually renewing your subscription. This is why 90% of Bitdefender customers choose to keep the Auto-Renewal plan.
• Opt out at any time. You can cancel your automatic renewal service at any time. Once canceled, you will have to manually renew your Bitdefender product.

Nobody is questioning your loyalty here, it is much appreciated, of course. I think it's important to explain exactly how this feature works and what it implies, so that we don't get the wrong impression.

I hope the information is helpful.

Regards,

Alex

John_G

Hello Alexandru.

Thank you for getting back to me.

In the past I used to receive more advantages offers by email and they used to be under My Offers in Central. I see this no longer happens.

This morning I tried using the 'Option 1' option to change the auto renew option, but cannot see my current subscription. The last one seems to be from 2018 or 2019! I have sent a email requesting the auto renew option be removed.

I am very sorry, I know you cannot change it, but no long standing customer, in his right mind, will ever accept that he needs to pay double for their annual subscription.

Regards,

John

Alexandru_BD

Cheers @John_G and thanks for your reply.

In the past I used to receive more advantageous offers by email and they used to be under My Offers in Central. I see this no longer happens. - Check the following settings, they could be disabled on your end:

Bring up Bitdefender and go to Settings -> make sure Special Offers is turned ON, as shown in the below screenshot:

Then go to https://central.bitdefender.com/ and sign in. Click on your profile in the upper right hand corner and select 'Bitdefender account'. From there, go to the Data & Privacy tab and tick the desired box "Receive in product insights regarding threats, news and offers" or "Receive insights regarding threats, news and offers via email."

Having set these up will ensure special offers are being sent to you, when available. If you have these settings already enabled and you still don't receive special offers, then this should be further investigated by the support teams, to find out exactly why the preferences are not being applied.

One more thing to note regarding the automatic renewal feature is that the preferences are not kept from one manual order to another. As the Central account can accommodate multiple licenses/subscriptions, each will have its own renewal flow. I'm adding this because I've seen cases where customers reported they disabled the feature for orders placed years ago, but purchased other subscriptions since, and the expectations were that somehow the preferences set in the past would apply for subsequent orders as well, but that's not the case.

If method 1 doesn't work for your for some reason, you can always contact the Bitdefender Support teams and they'll help you out. Did you purchase the latest subscription from the .com website? I'm asking this because if it was purchased elsewhere, for example on another localization (DE, CH, NL) there's a different vendor (shopping cart) and in this case the subscription may not be displayed in your 2Checkout account.

I hope the information is helpful.

Regards,

Alex

John_G

Hello Alex.

Thanks for the reply. I've turned the Special Offer notification on.

When I go to my Data & Privacy option I get one option, 'Delete account'.

Maybe BD is sending me a message !!

Alexandru_BD

Good one. 😂😂

Yes, that option may or may not be displayed depending on the localization/country. However, if you have enabled the Special offers option in-product, it should be enough.