Can not pay/select without using Bitdefender VPN + Safepay

@MartijnS ,

Welcome to the Bitdefender Forums. Would you be so kind as to send a Private Message to @Alexandru_BD , our Forum Administrator, which includes the date and Support Ticket Number? He will be able to find out the status of your ticket and let you know.

Please post back and let us know how you get on.

Thank you, and have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Thank you Phil, I have send him a message.

@MartijnS ,

Thank you for posting back. I know that @Alexandru_BD is committed to providing outstanding customer support.

I will be watching this topic to see what he says.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Thanks Phil! have a nice day too

@MartijnS ,

@Alexandru_BD must be away. @Mike_BD , @camarie : Can anyone update this user on the status of his ticket?

Thank you for your patience. Hopefully, one of the three Bitdefender staff members pinged will respond . . .

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

"since a few weeks we are not able to select airplane tickets or to pay online.We can only do this when we turn on Bitdefender VPN+Safepay."

I am not sure to what this refers to, as is too vague. Is this a problem on a browser? all of them?
VPN can be a solution in regard of going to a website which allows connections or various operations depending on the country detected, so that might be a cause.

Can you explain (here, but even better also in a support ticket) what are the steps you are trying, and what is not working?

@camarie I just left a long comment but do not see it back? I have also send you a PM.

I do not see the comment yet.

@camarie did you get it now?

Got it and replied, thanks. Must have been a small delay.

@camarie I just send it to you, did you receive it?

The message

Hi and thank you for reaching out.

Chat 1009130521 - Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 at 07:15

To summarize, there have been issues in the process of selecting and making online payments for airplane tickets since 2024. Or can not access certain websites. We did not have this in 2023.

We use Google Chrome and Edge in 2023 and 2024.

We recently moved countries and on this server we have the same problems.

The only way to select and pay is when we turn on Bitdefender VPN + Safepay. Many websites do not accept VPN so we have a problem.

This occurs on 3 laptops and 2 Android phones.We moved countries last week, different server, so the server is not the problem.

We performed the tasks below:

1 Sending summaries + screenshots and the problem

2 Turn off the Online Threat Prevention and visit the websites

3 Updating

4 setting a custom DNS server
5 Sending a log

6 uninstall / reinstall - After uninstalling and reinstalling Bitdefender we had a pop up for a few seconds with the notification that the product is not compatible.Also at notifications in the laptop is the notification that the product is out of date.

7 sending product version details
Result: Problem stayed the same.

We did not do the following: Suggested was that we would visit highly commercial websites fully unprotected to experiment if one of the modules is the problem. This department had no idea what the problem could be so they thought that experimenting on our risk would be a good idea. We did not agree.

After April 17th all communication stopped and they did not reply to my emails and therefore I had to contact Customer Service. CS can not help me and they only tell me that I have to be patient because the departments are too busy.

CS supervisor would get back to me, did not happen, did not hear from Quality or the 2nd line of Technical support. So no idea why nobody is picking up my case?

I suggested to provide a similiar new product to see if all the problems are gone, they ignore this in full.

2nd problem since 2023 that often Wen Protection is switched off on the Android Phones. It happen again a few days ago. By luck we saw it in Central.

If you need more details please let me know, Thanks!

Chat 1009130521 - Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 at 07:15

Hello Camarie,

To summarize, there have been issues in the process of selecting and making online payments for airplane tickets since 2024. Or can not access certain websites. We normally use G Chrome, but also tried Edge.

We have been on several servers in 2024 as we moved countries twice the last half year. So the server can not be the problem.

In 2023 we used the same browsers, different servers, never encountered problems that I can not select and pay. We did encounter a few times that Web Protection is switched off on the android phones without any notifications. By accident we saw this in Central. This happened a few days again.

The only way to select and pay is when we turn on Bitdefender VPN + Safepay. Many websites do not accept VPN so we have a problem. This occurs on 3 laptops and 2 Android phones. Websites where we have to most problems with are AirAsia, LionAir can not select or even see the options. For example we could not pay at Ethiad airways, only when we turned on VPN+Safepay.

But we encounter the problems that many Asian websites do not allow VPN.

Since March 25 we performed the tasks below:

1 Sending summaries + screenshots and the problem

2 Turn off the Online Threat Prevention and visit the websites

3 setting a custom DNS server

4 Sending a log with the provided tools and send this through a link provided by Bitdefender

5 Updating
6 uninstall / reinstall - After uninstalling and reinstalling Bitdefender we had a pop up for a few seconds with the notification that the product is not compatible. Also at notifications in the laptop is the notification that the product is out of date.

7 sending product version details
Result: Problem stayed the same.

Contact stopped on April 17th and never heard back from the agents and they did not reply to my emails. I had to contact Customer Service twice this week. 0 answers or results. Their only reply, be patient because the departments are too busy. Also CS´s manager/supervisor is too busy.

The last days CS did not get back to me, they told me that they would, nor did a Technical department or Quality.

I simply do not understand why a new similar product is not given to see if the problems are gone. I asked for this, they ignore this in full.

Please let me know if you need more details, Thanks!

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/32406/

Hello @MartijnS,

I have asked our technical leads to get back to you asap. They have acknowledged the issue, they are investigating further and as soon as they have news, they will send you an update along with further instructions. I have also received your private message.
I cannot pronounce myself regarding the websites, that needs to be investigated in depth by the Support teams and yes, they may ask you to perform a few tasks / follow some instructions to find out what could be causing that behavior and this is part of the troubleshooting process.
If Web Protection gets disabled without notice on Android, this mostly happens due to the accessibility permissions. This article explains what actually happens:

@garioch7 I was off indeed, sorry I couldn't get back to this sooner.

Thanks.

@Alexandru_BD ,

Welcome back. We missed you! 😢 Everyone is entitled to vacation time, even you! 😉

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

@Alexandru_BD thank you for your message. I also had contact with Camarie.

We do not mind performing some tests ,we have been doing these since March 25.

We already tried a few times with the Power Saving mode, we found this link a few months ago as we encountered this problem several times in 2023 and 2024.

But all the other apps were still on and working properly. It is only Bitdefender which is switching off. But will monitor it these coming weeks. And will turn on/off my power saving mode a few times to test what happens.

Today I received the following from Technical Support : As mentioned previously on the ticket, a fix for this Bitdefender behavior is still undergoing development. We do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but we will contact you as soon as it's implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender. Please keep in mind that all reported bugs require investigation time. Since product updates are usually released once a month it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product - this does not include the debugging period

I am not sure is he is referring to the Web Protection on Android, or the VPN+ Safepay selecting & paying air plane tickets.

Thank you Alexandru.

Hi,

It's good to be back @garioch7 🙂

@MartijnS I don't have access to your open case but I'm sure they are referring to the VPN+ Safepay issue and not Web Protection turning off on Android, that's another story and there are some challenging aspects of the OS that are interfering with the app in that scenario, as explained in the previous article. The basic troubleshooting steps may help, but I've learned this also depends on the type of phone used.

You are most welcome, I hope this gets resolved swiftly. 👍️

Hello @camarie and @Alexandru_BD I just wanted to let you know that a technical agent has not contacted me so far regarding to do tests etc. We reported this on March 25- 46 days ago.

I did receive an email on April 29 that I receive 3-months of free subscription and the mssg: a fix for this Bitdefender behavior is still undergoing development. We do not have an estimated time for the release of the fix yet, but we will contact you as soon as it's implemented by an automatic update of Bitdefender. Please keep in mind that all reported bugs require investigation time. Since product updates are usually released once a month it may take at least 1 month until a fix is implemented in the product - this does not include the debugging period.

So for my understanding this can take easily another +2 months? And is our problem became a general issue and more people are facing these problems? Because why would an isolated problem being implemented in an update?

We ask ourselves is our current product working properly as we did receive the notification after reinstalling: Product is out of date and the pop up: Product is not compatible.

Is it not easier to provide a new product, because now we are waiting weeks and if above is correct, these weeks turn into months to see IF the problem is solved with another update. I understand that the technical departments are swamped, but as a customer I ask myself what is going on?

I also asked CS and Quality this question, but they do not reply to me.

Thanks

Hi @MartijnS,

Apparently, they haven't found a solution to correct this specific behavior that you are encountering. It has been classified as a bug and it's under the attention of the development teams. You have not received updates on this topic because the engineers are still investigating.

At a first glance, after I talked to the VPN guys, it seems it is the server (as is the server of airline company, for example) which detects the connection from another country and denies it. We are still gathering pieces together, since it is quite hard to understand what a server outside of our control does and why. This is one of the reasons we are still investigating this.

Hi. It can not be that many different servers are denying us all of a sudden.

It was not only Airasia, it was also Aegean and Etihad.

Etihad airways is a Middle Eastern airline and this was not possible from Greece without the VPN and Safepay.

Also booking the airline tickets in Greece for a Greece airline -Aegean airlines -for a Greece local/national flight - from Crete to Athens, this was also not possible without VPN + Safepay. A Greece server would not deny a national airline for a nation flight.

And same problem with Airasia from the Greece server, but also now in Thailand.

This all started in 2024.

So it happened in Europe for European flights, even a national one. Crete-Athens

From Europe to Asia with an Middle Eastern airline, Etihad - Athens- Bangkok

And From Europe the Asian flight : Bangkok- Cambodia.

In Dec 2023 we booked from Portugal the flight Lisbon - Athens - Athens -Crete. With Aegean and in October the flight Lisbon-Kuala lumpur (Malaysia) . And several flights from Faro Portugal to Amsterdam, same Portuguese server. And had no problems whatsoever.

In 2022 from Spain, Spanish server the flight Malaga - Amsterdam - Mumbai and back. No issues. Also not booking Indian national flights from the Spanish server.

It just started in 2024.

The problem that Web Protection switches itself off on the Android phones without notification was in 2023 and in 2024.

I think the problem lies in our Product version. That is why I have been asking for a new product for weeks now so we can see if the problem is solved.

Hello @Alexandru_BD this is our problem, it is being investigated now for 50 days. I understand that departments are very busy but it is not that I reported this last week and I am impatient. I reported this on March 25. I just received a message to carry out an update. I did, restarted the computer. Problem is the same. Not sure if there is another way to update besides right-click the icon+update. I did not see the version which was mentioned in the email. I asked them how to see this version number or to explain how to carry out the update in a different way.

Hi @MartijnS,

Yes, I got in touch with our technical leads yesterday after I read your recent comments and they followed up asking you to look for updates, as this would be a good place to start. I don't think the delay is being caused by their work volume, it's just that this is a very unusual situation and they haven't found a fix yet… I mean, it's the first time I hear that someone cannot purchase tickets online without the VPN, this is not something you see everyday.

It's also strange that you are unable to make payments WITHOUT the VPN and not the other way around, that would be most common, I think. Reviewing this thread, there are a few ideas that come to mind. Since you have mentioned that you've purchased so many flight tickets over the years, I think there's also the possibility that your IP address or the range of IP addresses your internet service provider (ISP) uses might be blacklisted for some reason, and since flight companies may share such information between them, your transaction attempts may be denied by multiple arilines. This can happen if there have been security issues, fraud attempts, or high levels of suspicious activity associated with those addresses. Again, this is just an assumption and I think the only way to verify this is to contact the airlines directly and explain the situation and check if the range of IP addresses isn't actually blocked by them. This came to mind because if it works when using a VPN, this happens because the VPN gives you a different IP address that isn't blacklisted, allowing you to complete transactions.

Furthermore, payment gateways used by airlines might have additional security measures or restrictions that could inadvertently block legitimate transactions based on your IP address or device information. I know this may be a long shot in your case, but it's not impossible.

Since the problem persists, my advice is to reach both parties, because this may help speed up the resolution. You got in touch with Bitdefender and this was the right thing to do, of course, but I think you can also contact the airlines' customer support for assistance in the meantime and inform them of the issue. They might provide insights or alternative payment methods, until the Bitdefender engineers get to the bottom of this, if this is something they can fix and IF the issue is actually related to our VPN.

Regards,

Alex

Thank you @Alexandru_BD, we are on a different IP address than in March 2024? I have told this many times. We moved from Greece to Thailand. Same problem here in Thailand, different IP address. So the possibility of a blacklisted IP address is not holding up. Sorry to say but this is also a very far fetched theory. Also as we lived in 2023 in Portugal and 2022 in Spain, all different servers and IP addresses. 2024 lived in Greece and since April 2024 we live in Thailand. Totally different continents and IP addresses. Not an IP address problem.

Problem also occurs on 3 laptops and 2 Android phones so it is also not an isolated device problem.

My wife has a brand new laptop and with her laptop we never purchased a thing online. Not a blacklisted Device problem

I just checked with my friend who flies 25x times per year all over the world and she never had 1 issue. Neither did we till March 2024. So a thing as buying many tickets can not be the issue, besides this, we bought 3 tickets on that Greece server/IP address.

We encountered the problem with our first ticket, Etihad Airways. I checked with Etihad customer service when payment was not possible.

Calling Etihad's customer service was my first thought and action in March 2024. I could select, fill out all the details, but not pay. Tried PayPal and 2 different credit cards. Nothing worked. The airline checked and told me that it could be either my antivirus or had to clear my cache, or switch to another type of browser. Clearing of the cache and the use of Chrome and Edge I already tried before calling the airline.

She could not help me any further.

Then we tried the VPN+Safepay and had no problem paying that ticket.

Website of Airasia was worse as we could not even select the ticket. I checked on the forums if there was a a website problem at Airasia. There was none. I contact my friend and asked to try to select the flights, and without any problems he could. He buys 10x more tickets than we do. Not a problem at the airlines

But turning on the VPN+Safepay we could select and pay.

The same problem occurs here in Thailand, different server than Greece. In addition from 2017 till March 2024 we did not buy a ticket at Airasia. Not blacklisted at Airasia.

Then we tried to book the Greek flight with a Greek airline form a Greek server from 3 laptops. Could select, not pay. So turned on Bitdefender Safepay +VPN, which was a Greek connection and not directed via another country. Then we could select and pay.

Strange as we had no problems buying the ticket in December 2023 with the same airline in Portugal.

We tried everything before turning to Bitdefender on March 24.

I hope you understand that I am a bit surprised that you ask me after 51 days to check with airlines, blacklisted IP- addresses when it is known for 4 weeks that we moved countries, therefore a new IP address. Even mentioned this in my initial call here on this forum on April 23.

If I understand correctly the department(s) are investigating this from April 17 and 28 days later on May 15 there is not an idea what it can be so therefore there is a high possibility that the IP is blacklisted, which is not possible as we moved continents, or we buy too many tickets, or it can be that the payment gateway at the airlines share backlisted IP addresses and device information. To repeat myself, we are on a different IP address and my wife has a brand new laptop-new device. We have the problem on all 3 laptops, but not had this problem in December 2023 and 2022.

Got it @MartijnS, thanks for sharing these details with us. Well, given the circumstances I think only the engineers can shed some light on this, eventually. I don't think there's much we can do here, on the forum, but please do keep us posted on the outcome, as this is a rather unusual situation and just like you, we are waiting to find out what is actually causing this problem.

Will do. But we are at a point that we need a new product. As this is taking too long. I think that after 51 days it is time to provide a new product to see if the problem is solved. If so, it is a bug in our product version but I do not think it is fair that the customer has to wait for months till they finally detect the problem, debug it and implement it in a release. This needs to be done as a case study at Bitdefender, but not at the expenses of the customer and only repeat that we have to be patient, as this is lit. what is happening now.

It is taking up too much time for myself but also for the departments and a big chance that it is solved with a new product. Asked also the Quality department, they never replied once in the 51 days. CS supervisors would contact me, not once did this happen in the 51 days. They only tell me, also yesterday, that the departments are too busy and they receive more requests than usual and therefore the delays.

@Alexandru_BD @camarie

As promised I would keep you updated.

Nothing has changed, they told me today that there is no problem and that we have to contact all the websites and all the airlines. Seemingly everywhere around the world we are blacklisted and flagged. No matter we have different IP addresses, move countries or have new devices. I took my laptop to my friend in BKK in the beginning of May, on her internet, different IP, same problem. But I guess they tracked us down there too so also blacklisted of course.

All of a sudden 3 Techn engineers contacted me in the last 24 hours under a different chat number 1009285490? This chatnumber was for the Sales department to provide a new product. This of course never happened. As the Technical departments refuse this and told me today that the problem lies with us. First we got a message that a colleague would contact me, that colleague already contacted me a day before and I replied immediately but did not hear back from him. Great start. The 3rd one, disabled vs enabled and checked several VPN connections and it was all fine and Thailand connects ofcourse better with the Asian websites? We never had a problem with VPN, the problem is that without it we can not pay or select. But I guess he selected and PAID for an airline ticket at Airasia with our current product and that worked fine, I asked him if he had paid the airline ticket without using the VPN+Safepay. I am waiting for his reply and if he can show me that purchased ticket.

That we had this problem in Greece with Greek airlines on a Greek server too, that must have been completely irrelevant.

Bitdefender can not acknowledge the fact that it is possible that there is a bug/defect after an update/release. This happens and this is also not the problem. But not providing a new product and dragging this case for months and completely ignoring our questions and we have to repeat and repeat, yes that is very unprofessional and we simply do not understand. We are not frustrated over the fact that all of a sudden there is a hiccup, but this level of incompetence and lack of willingness to help the customer is extreme. So far it is denied in full that there is a problem. So we tried to explain and waited for +2 months. But Bitdefender does not want to acknowledge that there could be a hiccup and is not interested in providing a new product to see if the problems are solved.

There is only way to solve this and that is to change our antivirus as it is not very likely that the problem is solved and we lost all confidence. Bitdefender is not interested in helping the customer by simply providing a new product, it denies that there is a problem and did it upmost best to drag this for 2 months and indeed we gave up. Some things can not be changed. Sad and unnecessary and both parties lost so much time, or at least we did.

Hello @MartijnS and thank you for keeping us updated on the progress of the investigation.

It has come to my attention that the troubleshooting process is still ongoing and the Support engineers will keep in touch with you for further assistance and next steps. At this point, the assistance we can offer on the forum is limited, because you are encountering a specific situation that we have not faced before and for which we do not know the answers here. Further, this is a task that needs to be handled exclusively by the support engineers, as they posess the required tools and relevant knowledge to get to the bottom of this. Like I've said, this usually happens the other way around, where the VPN may prevent accessing particular websites, thus the situation you are experiencing is not that common and its investigation may involve several support and engineering teams along the way, which translates to longer response times and may affect the overall resolution timeframe.

Regards,

Alex