Renewal Options Are Dismal

garioch7

I am a longtime BD user of Total Security. My subscription expires in 17 days. I had always been able to get a good 3-year renewal price, but now the emphasis seems to be on one-year renewals if you want a good price (not $99.99 CA), or any of BD's discounts for a one-year renewal, which come with forced auto-renewal enrollment, which I do NOT want.

Yes, I know, you can jump the hoops and turn it off. The latest price I saw for a 3-year subscription was $167.00 CA. That is not happening, and it turns on Auto-Renewal as well!

I was formerly very active in these Forums, but of late, these recent business practices of BD have given me pause.

If @Alexandru_BD or any of his colleagues can privately provide me with a good price for a 3-year renewal, then that would be great. I like the product and have relied on it for years for my Windows computer and Android smartphone security.

Otherwise, I am gone. The renewal prices and terms I am being offered are too onerous for me.

There are competitors out there, including an OS security solution which is free and can be "hardened" using a free utility. It scores very well. Forum rules would, I believe, prohibit me from mentioning any competitors.

I do weekly offline external drive system images and have a premium anti-malware program, so ransomware is not a concern for me. I don't need VPN; I don't need a password manager (I already have the best cross-platform password manager, IMHO), and I only need to protect four devices.

I really don't want a divorce, but with the limitations of the BD TS product, like not being able to easily disable it entirely without uninstalling entirely to troubleshoot issues that it might cause, and being unable to export your "Exceptions," it may be that BD has outlived its usefulness to me.

I also dislike how "territorial" BD TS is. If it finds one alternate security solution, it will not install. So if you do have to uninstall BD TS to troubleshoot a possible conflict, you have to uninstall your anti-malware program, then install BD TS, reinstall your anti-malware solution, and then configure the recommended exceptions to both painfully, one by one, after you have reinstalled your anti-malware solution!

It is with sadness that I pen this post. I have always loved my BD TS, but it seems a divorce is imminent.

Regards,

Phil

Gjoksi

Hello.

I strongly believe that @Alexandru_BD will do his best for you to have the best renewal offers.

Just wait for his response on Monday, when he will be back at the office.

Kind regards.

garioch7

@Gjoksi

Thank you for your encouragement and your many, many, very valuable contributions to this Forum. I see now though, that I am being presented with an error when trying to log in, something about an "Invalid State Token."

I was able to get around it, but it does make you wonder . . .

For sure, I will wait until Monday. I don't want a divorce. I like BD TS, warts and all! It is a great anti-virus solution.

Thank you again for replying so promptly. Have a great weekend.

Regards,

Phil

Scott

I am a longtime BD user of Total Security. My subscription expires in 17 days. I had always been able to get a good 3-year renewal price, but now the emphasis seems to be on one-year renewals if you want a good price (not $99.99 CA), or any of BD's discounts for a one-year renewal, which come with forced auto-renewal enrollment, which I do NOT want.

 Yes, I know, you can jump the hoops and turn it off. The latest price I saw for a 3-year subscription was $167.00 CA. That is not happening, and it turns on Auto-Renewal as well!

@Alexandru_BD , if you could nail that one down, please, that would be helpful, as I don't want to be leading other members astray if Bitdefender is changing their subscription terms and pricing (below link). And that it wouldn't be a behind-the-scenes accommodation individually for better pricing, thing.

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/96520/renew-a-lapsed-subscription-to-start-at-a-later-date

Kind regards,

Scott

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD , @Gjoksi

Finally, this afternoon, 15 days prior to expiry, I was offered a three-year subscription for 50% off. I took it. My subscription is now renewed, and it was quite painless, with no activation codes to mess with, BUT, it still enrolled me in auto-renewal, which I had to turn off and then delete my credit card on the 2Checkout site. What a total waste of time, and it was not easy to navigate.

Why can't BD just offer a good price to long-term customers when BD starts with the nagging "expiry" emails and notices? Why can't auto-renewal be an opt-in process instead of a mandatory process that you have to opt out of?

BD darned near lost a good customer who has recommended their product to all of his clients over many years. I do warn my customers about the BD unwelcome mandatory auto-renewal issue and turn it off for most of my clients because they don't want to be paying more than they have to.

I had no intention ever of trying to get a huge discount on the price, just a reasonable three-year renewal price in recognition of being a long-time customer and advocate of BD security products.

I am happy not to be divorcing in the next three years. You can mark this thread as solved.

Regards,

-Phil

Alexandru_BD

Hello @garioch7 and welcome back to the Community!

Indeed, you have received a special early renewal offer and I'm glad to hear you took advantage of this considerable discount for a three-year subscription. These offers give you the opportunity to renew at favorable prices during the subscription/license period, but they are not linked to previous subscription/licenses in terms of preferences for the automatic renewal feature and in this scenario, the setting cannot be kept from one subscription to another.

This happens for two reasons:

1. If the customer decides to purchase following an offer they received, a new order will be placed which of course means they are again enrolled in automatic billing by default for the next expiration term, as with all new purchases online and because each order has its own renewal flow. So, in this case the new subscription was not linked with the previous one in terms of billing preferences, although the validity was successfully extended manually using the activation code.
2. The second reason has to do with the fact that the Central account can accommodate multiple subscriptions and the user can decide if they wish to use the new activation code following the purchase to either extend the validity of the current subscription/license or to add a new subscription in parallel with the existing one(s) with the scope to cover more devices. This allows more flexibility for users that require more slots for protection. Since there can be multiple subscriptions in the Central account, each subscription will have its own renewal flow and preferences set for the automatic renewal feature, depending on the customer's needs.

Of course, the automatic renewal feature can be disabled anytime after the purchase.

I hope the information is useful and I also hope that you will remain our faithful customer for many years to come 🙂

Best regards,

Alex

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD

Thank you for your reply. While I am very happy with BD TS, I am not so happy about the hassle entailed in renewing a subscription. On that subject, we have to respectfully disagree. That is one of the reasons why I prefer three-year subscriptions. I don't want to go through the renewal hassle every year just to obtain a discounted price.

Have a great day. See you around.

Regards,

-Phil

Scott

@garioch7 nice avatar :)

Alexandru_BD

@garioch7 thanks for replying. Of course we can agree to disagree 😁

I understand why a three-year subscription is more convenient for you.

Enjoy your Bitdefender product and see you around 😊

The dog is beautiful btw!

Regards

garioch7

@Scott @Alexandru_BD

Thank you for the compliments about my first Sheltie, Morag. I would pass them on to her, but she is deceased. I have another Sheltie now, Moira, 2.5 years old. 🐕

I will try to find more time to visit here, but right now, I have a huge video and photo project on the go, which will take weeks to finish.

Have a great day, and see you around these parts in a few weeks.

Regards,

Phil

Alexandru_BD

I'm very sorry to hear about Morag.. 😥

I wish you and Moira good health and happy times together.

I'll see you around and good luck with the project! 👋

Best regards,

Alex