Bitdefender Family Pack 2020 Unlimited (36m.) ESD that changed to 15 HW - CLEAR FRAUD

bit4 · February 2022

hello

i have bought Bitdefender Family Pack 2020 Unlimited (36m.) ESD

producent code: BDFP-N-3Y-NL in 11.12.2019

there was clear information that Unlimited amount of Hw can be used (it was working properly for some time until now....) and today i can see that my unlimited license was changed to limited 15 Hw wihtout agreement with me.... this change of licencing before it actually expire... this is clear fraud.... that situation should be shared to public / social media to let other know that this happen with Bitdenender

Majki · February 2022

I totally agree. I have ordered and activated family unlimited pack 3years subscription in 2020. In recent 24hours the product suddenly changed to limited 15 devices. Without any previous warning the product was randomly deactivated on devices leaving it without any protection. As BitDefender is focusing on security and is willing to change terms and apply them without any notice and by doing it in such way that they are putting users at risk. This action completely denies the reason why to install any product from them. You cannot be sure that one day you have some kind of protection but the other day you discover that they have changed the terms so security software is not protecting you anymore. By this action BitDefender completely lost my trust to them. From my side I will not recommend to anyone to buy any service from them as they cannot keep the promise/terms and for me are not trustworthy. The support desk only said: Sorry, these are the new terms...

Aventador21 · February 2022

Hi All. I am facing the same issue. I am renewed up until April 2023 and this morning I have woken up to a number of devices showing as being inactive and thus not protected.

I received no communication around this major change. I feel that Bitdefender has let down the community. I have supported and recommended Bitdefender to all my friends and family and have had an active subscription for 10+ years. This is an absolute joke.

How can Bitdefender say they are a security business when they have left so many devices unprotected? They have also committed fraud (bait and switch) by selling us a product with UNLIMITED DEVICES and then switching that to 15.

I will be asking my credit card company for a chargeback for the 3-year subscription as well as reporting this to UK trading standards, the EU Online Dispute Resolution centre and will also send this forum link to tech blogs and prominent tech YouTubers who I am close with to have this widely publicised.

Alexandru_BD · February 2022

Hello,

The 'Unlimited' version has been a subject of controversy, as in some instances, subscriptions were purchased, copied, and then resold multiple times, in breach of the Fair Usage Policy provided in the Subscription Agreement.

For security and privacy reasons, the multi-device subscriptions are intended for use only in the same household, where a family member can manage the Central account for all their family members.

A campaign was implemented in April 2020, where the users that purchased licenses from doubtful sources were informed of the risks of not having full control over their subscriptions.

To mitigate the unauthorized resale, the 'Unlimited' version was discontinued and a new version capped at 15 devices was created instead. This measure was necessary exactly because of a fraudulent resale of slots that took place. So we had no choice but to discontinue the Unlimited version.

As expected, this modification led to several complaints, mainly due to the fact the 'Unlimited' version could no longer be renewed, or the users did not agree with this change.

I can understand this and at the same time we have offered the affected Unlimited version users that require protection for more than 15 devices, a second 15 devices Family Pack subscription at no additional cost.

Thus, there is no fraud involved, apart from the unfair resale practice that was committed against us.

As you can imagine, if someone purchased a subscription with Unlimited devices and resold slots afterwards, the end users would not have full control of their subscription, as the account owner would sell the installation links to them and have their devices protected in their Central account. This was a serious concern and we had to take action. Unfortunately, this also affected the customers that owned this Unlimited version in their households.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards.

Rogacz88 · February 2022

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/306174#Comment_306174

Sorry but why BD steal licence in situation when i have legal licence?

You can't change rules when licence time dont end.... That is a steal!

bit4 · February 2022

in many countries noone can change licence agreement before it actually ends... its against the law...

we were your customers for years and with your actual action our families were left unprotected without any warining or notification about upcoming limitation to 15 dev and rest our hw ended up with no protection leads only to final comment that we cant trust BitDefender anymore... you have lost our trust to your products and that you actually care for your customers... i think many will not continue the licence and this situation have to be published so any new custommer will know that in any day they can be treated like trash... where you show "how you care about custommers" and "where you have the law..."

btw now you limited to 15 hw? so after this action you really think that your custoemrs will trust you now???

anyone that actually will buy or will have still valid license for 15 hw cant trust that you will decide in future like few months or years that there will be huge change and you will limit from 15 to to 5? this is crap....

Sanpo · February 2022

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/306174#Comment_306174

This is simply not true as my friend's family are complaining and never received a single notice about this nor have they received the offer you're describing. Why was this never announced to those that have unlimited devices??

Majki · February 2022

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/306174#Comment_306174

Hello,

Is it a joke or real company statement ??? Yes, there were frauds when users were abusing unlimited package but I think you could eaisly identify accounts with suspicious huge amount of devices and make a selection but not a global switch without warning applied to all customers. I have bought a licence from authorized reseller not from some "shady" eshop or a person. The "greatest" thing is that you have randomly deactivated devices (windows,android,etc.) so in case I was using for example antitheft function and lost it or got stolen the device then I cannot use this function because I have to reactivate the subscription on the device physically it cannot be done remotely. Well done guys this completely make sense to me as explanation from security company which I have trusted.

btw: "...I can understand this and at the same time we have offered the affected Unlimited version users that require protection for more than 15 devices, a second 15 devices Family Pack subscription at no additional cost..."

Where is such offer ? How can I easily get to it ???

Anyway you have overstepped it too much by what you have done.

Admit it, fix it, apologize otherwise you can rename your products: Total Insecurity & Distrust package

And do it as soon as possible. It does not matter how much you will invest into marketing once the trust is broken it is really hard to get it back and the competitors on the market will definetely use this ...

Alexandru_BD · February 2022

Hi,

Please understand that the Unlimited version had to be discontinued due to special circumstances. As stated above, if you require protection for more than 15 devices, you may contact our Support Teams and the commercial representatives will provide an additional Family Pack subscription for up to 15 devices.

Bitdefender reserves the right to improve or change various features of its Products / Solutions and to offer, from time to time, at no additional cost, migration to the new available versions / Products / Solutions. Also, Bitdefender, at its sole discretion may modify certain features of the Product/ Solution.

This was not a scenario where some of the licenses could be kept and others discontinued. The version had to be discontinued entirely and I shall provide more insight on this.

The second reason for which the product is no longer available in our portfolio is the migration to an upgraded subscription model. As you may have noticed, a single Central account now supports the activation and usage in parallel of multiple subscriptions valid for the same Bitdefender product (e.g. Bitdefender Total Security for 5 devices and Bitdefender Total Security for 10 devices). It will also accommodate multiple different products, such as Internet Security and Total Security, for example. This was not possible before.

During the process of migrating to a different subscription management infrastructure, the unlimited devices configuration could not be compatible anymore. So there were two reasons behind the decision to discountinue the Unlimited version and it made total sense to do it, otherwise, there would have been two ongoing issues that couldn't be resolved: 1. the ongoing unauthorized resale of the subscription slots and 2. the inability to further develop the solution set and subscription model.

The campaign could not reach all users in good time, and I agree we could have done a better job here. But when it comes to trust, I think this action should strenghten it, as this not only protects existing affected users of the dangers of not having full control over their subscription, but it also ensures that such scenarios do not happen again in the future. So it was made for the greater good and I hope you can view it from this angle as well.

I hope it makes more sense now.

Going forward, if you have more than 15 devices to protect, kindly send me a private message and we can sort this out.

Best regards.

Rogacz88 · February 2022

@Alexandru_BD

I think you don't see client side :)

To be honest:

1. When client buy unlimited license for 3 years, you must give him unlimited license for 3 years or giveback money and compensation due to his loses when you end that product.
2. Changing license type without any explanation because one client was a cheater to worse license (From unlimited to limited) is similar to robber. For example You have 10 apples. I take 5. You left only 5. How you feel after that?
3. Being passive aggresive and force to understand company side is just rude.
When i start conversation in your style with clients in my company i can start search new job.
If your message contained:
Greetings, apologies for the problem. Explanation of the error, support in contact with the support department and re-apologies for the obvious error of the company, no one would feel cheated or robbed.
In my opinion Bitdefender waste to much time for new options adverts in product (2 adverts in my first screen in Bitdefender app is about Password Manager, how to disable those adverts? Its not a tip, is an advert). If Bitdefender move that wasted time to contact with client everyone will be happy.

@Majki Small tip - contact with Bitdefender support, they can help you and change licenses limit to 15 to bigger, without troubles. They help me a lot with that case.

To Bitdefender bosses:
Case @Alexandru_BD
Regarding his being rude and not supporting him in solving this problem. I do not want him to be punished, in my opinion he just needs training, just like the whole company, the scandal broke out due to failure to contact the customer. Especially with such important changes as changing someone's license.

PS:
"Bitdefender reserves the right to improve or change various features of its Products / Solutions and to offer, from time to time, at no additional cost, migration to the new available versions / Products / Solutions. Also, Bitdefender, at its sole discretion may modify certain features of the Product/ Solution."

You're right only Bitdefender can't:
Violate the terms of the contract concluded at the time of purchasing the license.
Rob clients.
Break the laws under which the purchase was made.
Also remember that the product regulations / license is lower in order of power than commercial or criminal law.
To sum up?
Contact with the customer! This is where it fell, and you must put it the most in the coming months :)

Majki · February 2022

@Rogacz88 You have addressed and pointed it well. I totally agree.
@Alexandru_BD I have opened ticket to request additional licence - ticket number# 1007215550

1) As been pointed in previous post. BitDefender company must improve the way how they communicate with customers. When I have discovered that the subscription somehow changed I have contacted support desk but they did not offered me additional licence just answered that terms has changed.
I have learned about the offer here in the forum and that I have to contact support again with this request. Why ? Is it so hard to assing second licence automatically to the owners of original unlimited package ??

If you did not do it already then based on this topic please send at least an email with information to the other customers because I think a new topics with the same questions will appear in the forum soon.

2) I think that the new system which was deployed did not handled the migration properly and the answers about greater good are just excuses for unexpected technical problems.

3) What actually made me angry:

BitDefender is not a free AV solution, I have payed for it.
I have choosed BitDefender based on my previous experience and decided to buy 3years plan of family package for me and my family. By this action I have gave BitDefender a trust that they will take care of the cybersecurity on devices of my family members.

BitDefender is also installed on the devices owned by my parents (same household rule is not broken). They do not have such computer skills as younger generation have and can be more easily fooled by various attacks.

So when the security solution which I have gave a trust stops working without any advance notice, warning. Then I find out explanation in forms of excuses for this action and why and how etc. I do not care about it. The only thing I need is what I have payed for. The working security solution.

When you are saying that one of the main reasons for this was abusing the unlimited licenses and reselling. Well you could select accounts with suspicous huge amount of devices and send them a warning. During the transition to a new system you could automatically assing more licences to customers with active unlimited package subscription.

I do not need to protect hundreds of devices but the sentences bellow are true. I have bought a licence under the terms which were changed. Do not wonder that I currently do not trust BitDefender because it is not a partner I can rely on.

"
Rogacz88:
".........
>
> PS:
> "Bitdefender reserves the right to improve or change various features of its Products / Solutions and to offer, from time to time, at no additional cost, migration to the new available versions / Products / Solutions. Also, Bitdefender, at its sole discretion may modify certain features of the Product/ Solution."
>
> You're right only Bitdefender can't:
> Violate the terms of the contract concluded at the time of purchasing the license.
> Rob clients.
> Break the laws under which the purchase was made.
> Also remember that the product regulations / license is lower in order of power than commercial or criminal law.
> To sum up?
> Contact with the customer! This is where it fell, and you must put it the most in the coming months :)
....."

linda H · July 2023

Ik zou graag mijn abonnementsgegevens vinden. Het abonnement van mijn echtgenoot is 5 juli verlopen en hij heeft een nieuw abonnement gekocht. Nu krijg ik OOK het bericht dat MIJN abonnement verlopen is ....wat mij ten zeerste zou verwonderen want ik neem steeds een abonnement voor 2 jaar en 10 apparaten. ( mijn man voor 1 jaar en 5 apparaten ) Nu is het in het verleden wel gebeurd dat mijn man met sommige apparaten per ongeluk op MIJN abonnement zat. Bovendien hadden we tot 2 jaar geleden ook nog een ander abonnement op het bedrijf.....Is daar de verwarring ontstaan ? IK KAN HELAAS NERGENS CONTROLEREN WANNEER IK MIJN ABONNEMENT HEB AFGESLOTEN ... ik zie wel dat ik momenteel 5 apparaten van de 10 op mijn abonnement heb. Bovendien zie ik op mijn GSM's ... 2 android apparaten geen enkelen melding van een verlopen abonnement ..... Bitdefender scant gewoon. Het heeft me trouwens ook heel wat omwegen en moeite gekost om toch nog op mijn gegevens in Central en dashboard te vinden !!! ook niet vertrouwenswekkend.... ik kreeg alleen banner : uw abonnement is verlopen, koop, verleng etc....

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GRAAG SNEL ANTWOORD, ik ben een trouwe klant en ik begin mijn vertrouwen te verliezen... waar kan ik de volledige informatie vinden over mijn laatste abonnement ?