Abusive auto renewal despite previous Paypal automatic payment cancellation

PatDz

I cancelled the automatic renewal on my paypal account two month ago, I did not want to renew my subscription that expired July 7. Much to my surprise, and without any authorization or notice, Bitdefender managed to charge a 60 euros renewl to my Paypal account yesterday July 7. This is unacceptable, and illegal. I have lodged a complaint with Paypal and I am reporting Bitdefender to the consumer agency in France. I want an immediate refund and a stop to this dishonest sales tactic.

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.

From my personal experience, Method 1 did and still does the job for stopping the auto-renewal.

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

cancel@bitdefender.com

Finally, for the refund process, check out this article:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/7217/

Also, you may obtain a refund by contacting:

refunds@bitdefender.com

within 30 days of your initial purchase or of the automatic renewal date.

Regards.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @PatDz,

You have successfully disabled the automatic renewal feature for your Total Security antivirus on Jan 24, 2023.

However, you had a bundle order with a Premium VPN included and the automatic renewal feature was not disabled for this one as well (each subscription has its own automatic renewal cycle). Consequently, your Premium VPN subscription was renewed at the due date for the full list price of 60 Euros, excluding any existing discounts at the time (the discounted price is valid for the 1st year of subscription only).

As indicated by @Gjoksi above, you can request a refund for this automatic billing by sending an email at refunds@bitdefender.com within 30 days of your initial purchase or of the automatic renewal date.

The automatic renewal feature is not a dishonest practice, but a widespread feature in the antivirus industry, similar with subscription based streaming services. The Bitdefender security solutions come with an automatic renewal feature that allows you to conveniently retain your protection when your Bitdefender subscription expires, without having to go through all the motions of manually renewing your cyber-security solution.

Please keep in mind that, whether you want to activate the renewal option or disable it, you can do it anytime. 

You can cancel the automatic charges for your subscription by logging in to your Bitdefender Account and disable automatic renewal, or by contacting Customer Support at: cancel@bitdefender.com.

If you have agreed to permit Bitdefender to automatically renew your subscription by charging a valid credit card number which you have provided to Bitdefender at the time of your initial purchase, your 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.

The automatic renewal pricing is not linked to ongoing offers, discounts and promotions available at our official website or at different points of sale throughout our Partner Network and for this reason we are trying to offer our customers the opportunity to manually renew at favorable prices during the subscription period.

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.

I hope the information is helpful.

Regards,

Alex