How on earth does the paying Customer contact support when bitdefender mess up??

Dominic Hayes · 2023-10-06T16:36:18+00:00

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Well thank you bitdefender, for disabling all protection on my laptop and suggesting that the subscription, with 361 days to go, has expired! What kind of **** service is this from a, so called, internet security company?!!?

I am totally unimpressed with you lot these days, all you seem hell bent on is taking my money and the idea that I should get some Value in return seems lost your you!!

Regards

Dominic

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Scott

Hi @Dominic Hayes

You should contact Support from the link below, as they will be able to help you. Go through the Account, Billing & Subscription 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

Dominic Hayes

Hello Scott

Sadly, while the menu options you indicate are present, it just sends me around in circles. bitdefender are clearly not interested in resolving their problems, only taking our money. It is shameful from any corporation, but when the Customer has been loyal for 12 years, as I have, it is shocking! Forcing Customers to jump through hoops of fire to contact support when their software has failed, again, so abysmally, is disgusting but, sadly, common practice these days.

Kind regards

Dominic

Scott

Did you try Chat? You do have to go through some prompts (questions) before you get to the Contact box. If the webpage isn't responding, try another browser or clear your Cache etc. and see if that helps.

Otherwise, @Alexandru_BD will check into this for you on Monday, as he is off for the weekend, unless he pops in by chance before then. He will get it figured out for you, one way or another.

Kind regards,

Scott

Dominic Hayes

Thank you Scott. Chat did not present itself as an option.

It is shameful that bitdefender are so scared of their Customers that they must make it so very taxing to start a conversation with them. What are they so scarted of? Why must the Customer pay the price for; purchasing their software, tracking down their bugs and errors and then wasting more precious time trying to find out how to get in touch with the people who created the mess in order to try and get them to make sure the problems stop?!

Shameful!

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/329255#Comment_329255

Try this:

1) Go to https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

2) Select Purchase & Manage Subscription

3) Choose My Bitdefender Central Account

4) Select Contact Support, and you will be presented with the options of chat, email, and phone.

Regards

Alexandru_BD

Hello @Dominic Hayes,

Based on my findings you have an active Premium Security subscription valid until 2024. Where exactly do you see the expiration message? Is it in the Bitdefender UI or in Central?

Before we jump to conclusions here, we need more information from you. If the antivirus is displayed as expired on a device where it was previously installed, try to use the switch account feature to login using your account credentials, as the product draws its validity and configuration according to the license/subscription active in the Central account.

As a valued provider, Bitdefender strives to provide its customers an unparalleled level of fast and accurate support and for this they have created The Support Center. This is the knowledge base that contains articles and common fixes for frequently asked questions and represents the self-service area available for all Bitdefender users. In the event a solution cannot be found there, you can get in touch with the Bitdefender engineers by choosing one of the contact channels available at the link below:

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

To connect to a Support representative, mention your reason of contact (this is required to ensure your inquiry is redirected to the relevant support team) and choose between the two live channels, chat or phone, or fill in the contact form which will create a ticket for the engineers and this will also provide you with a reference number. The usual response timeframe for an open case varies between 24 to 48 hours, depending on the workload and business hours.

On top of the self-service area and 3 contact channels for Customer Support, we also have this wonderful community. So, there are plenty of support options to choose from and Bitdefender is not afraid to talk to its customers 🙂

Kindly let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Alex

Dominic Hayes

The bitdefender client was saying that the subscription had expired. The bitdefender client showed the correct account credentials and provided a link to attempt to re-fetch the subscription from central, which I used but which, obviously, did not work. The bitdefender client was completely locked out and none of the buttons worked, so I could not use the client to connect with central or contact support. Totally useless.

There was no help to be found in the support centre and it is shameful that the Customers should have to put in so much effort merely to communicate with bitdefender support. bitdefender should provide an email address, not hide behind the barrier of the, so called, support centre.

"As a valued provider" is a strange comment, what about the valued Customers, upon whose investments bitdefender relies for their profits?

Contact form, that must be well hidden!! Every time I need support, usually due to problems created by bitdefender around a renewal, I am expected to waste hours of my valuable time, jumping through the hoops and over the barriers that bitdefender construct as obstacles. And here I am again, wasting my time seeking support for another instance where bitdefender has failed to protect my computer.

I resolved the issue by clicking to install on a new device, the laptop which bitdefender had failed to protect. For how long had it been made vulnerable by bitdefender's failures?

I do not expect that you will know or care about any of this.

Alexandru_BD

Hi @Dominic Hayes,

The Support Center is structured in a way that helps Bitdefender users find answers to FAQs or basic troubleshooting steps that may solve the issue they are encountering. In time, common requests have been observed and some of them can be resolved by following some simple steps that are available in the supporting documentation within reach of users. Some users are also tech-savvy and enjoy solving the challenges by themselves, but the knowledge base offers a plethora of step-by-step instructions and solutions that everyone can follow.

In the event a solution is not found in the Support Center nor the Community, usually more information is required for troubleshooting, such as logs coming from the product and in some cases, remote intervention must be carried out. This will help the engineers obtain a better understanding of the context and the circumstances involved. Such specific operations cannot be carried in the public forum, thus it is recommended to contact the Bitdefender Support Teams, for a detailed investigation.

For this, a single contact channel would be insufficient. When you have so many customers, you cannot provide just an email address for contact. Bitdefender has live chat, various contact phone numbers for multiple languages and a contact form on top and these channels are available in the same location on the website, for ease of access:

On the Bitdefender homepage, the Support button will reveal the Support Center, where the knowledgebase is located together with the contact options. It only makes sense to have them all in one place.

Once you are there, you will notice that the support articles are divided into categories and the user guides are also available for each product. Then, if you scroll down the page, you will find the 'Contact Bitdefender Support' tab.

Upon clicking this option you will be asked for the contact reason, so that the inquiry is redirected to the relevant department, as explained in my previous comment.

Once you select the contact reason, you will be asked a few more details such as the type of issue and product you are using, again, to make sure your request reaches the correct Support team. After completing this information, you will be given a few possible remediation steps along with 3 contact channels to choose from: live chat, phone and contact form/email and they look like this:

From here, chat would be the fastest option to reach the Support teams and if you click on "Call us", several phone numbers will be revealed. Choosing to send an email will open the contact form, where you can also attach logs and screenshots relevant to your inquiry:

The Support Center has been specifically designed with the customer in mind and should you be interested to find out more about it, you can read its story here:

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/92548/the-story-behind-the-new-bitdefender-support-center

It's not about hoops and barriers, it's about the desire to streamline the Support process and create more alternatives using a layered approach and including self-service, community support and multiple contact channels because they do care about the customer. It's a strategy that has proven its efficiency not only in the antivirus industry, but in other businesses as well.

Now back to the issue at hand, to me it sounds like there was a either a network issue, or maybe an admin account issue, unsure at this stage. But if the issue resurfaces, I would recommend to contact the Support teams via chat, as this would be the fastest way to fix it. I understand the frustration this may have caused and I'm very sorry to hear this has happened to you. But I honestly hope the information above will prove useful in the future.

Regards,

Alex