Auto-renew subscription charge

[Gullen]

Hi,

 

So I am looking for help with an auto-renewal issue I got. 2 years ago I got a key / trial (can't really remember the specifics due to it being 2 years ago) for Bitdefender antivirus. I hardly used it because I didn't like the massive system usage it took, and I knew I was careful enough on the internet that it wasn't a necessity for me. Anyways, I just forgot about it.

 

A couple days ago, I got a PayPal notification saying a charge of £54 was authorised, my first immediate thought was has my PayPal been breached; has someone used my account to buy something? When I checked my email I finally found what it was, apparently I signed up for a Bitdefender autorenewal and that has kicked in and charged me.

 

That sucks, I'm normally good with autorenewal traps, if I'm signing up for a software trial or whatever, I usually set a calender reminder for me to cancel the subscription before it charges me, but this one must've slipped through the cracks.

 

Anyways, £54 is a lot of money for me, I'm a student who's really tight for money as it is - so I contacted Bitdefender support to ask for a refund and cancellation on my account. I got a reply in a couple of days time, basically saying all they can offer me is either a longer subscription or 60% partial refund. I don't want either, I just want my money back for a product I wasn't aware I was purchasing.

 

What is my next move guys ? I have attached screenshots of the support email (I haven't replied yet). Do I reply standing my ground saying what offered is not acceptable? Do I threaten their support with going a legal route if the don't comply? Do I contact my bank and try and get a chargeback ?

 

This has never happened to me before and I don't really know where I stand legally, I feel I've been scammed even though I know I must of signed a T&C for this. Why is it so hard for a company to give you money back from a mistake ? I feel like I've been robbed.

 

Anyways, I really appreciate any support you guys give, I'm just super stuck right now and looking for advice. 

 

Thank you

 

[kb5zue]

As for myself, I don't use any anti-virus software other than the one that comes standard with Windows.  I check the virus definitions every night before shutting down my machine to make sure that everything stays up-2-date and so far I have not had any problems whatsoever.

 

As for your situation, the people at Bitdefender gave you several options but unfortunately for you, a total refund of your money was not one of them.  And don't forget, you did click the box in the T & C to sign you up for the auto-renewal so with even just that, you have to accept some responsibility for your unfortunate situation.

 

So, since they already have your money and you know that you won't be getting any of it returned, you might as well bite the bullet on this one and take them up on one of their offers.  If it was me, I would take them up on the offer to extend the current subscription until August 2025.  That way you're happy that you don't need to give them any more money and they are happy they are not losing you as a customer.  That way, you both win.

 

Just my opinion, wish you the best of luck in trying to figure out what to do.

 

Good Luck

 

[Gullen]

28 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

As for myself, I don't use any anti-virus software other than the one that comes standard with Windows.  I check the virus definitions every night before shutting down my machine to make sure that everything stays up-2-date and so far I have not had any problems whatsoever.

 

As for your situation, the people at Bitdefender gave you several options but unfortunately for you, a total refund of your money was not one of them.  And don't forget, you did click the box in the T & C to sign you up for the auto-renewal so with even just that, you have to accept some responsibility for your unfortunate situation.

 

So, since they already have your money and you know that you won't be getting any of it returned, you might as well bite the bullet on this one and take them up on one of their offers.  If it was me, I would take them up on the offer to extend the current subscription until August 2025.  That way you're happy that you don't need to give them any more money and they are happy they are not losing you as a customer.  That way, you both win.

 

Just my opinion, wish you the best of luck in trying to figure out what to do.

 

Good Luck

 

It is unfortunate, I kinda knew at the back of my mind my only option would be to bite the bullet. It always still worth getting second options tho, well at least that's how my mind works. It just sucks that a simple, oblivious mistake has caused me to loose £54 to a company.

 

At the end of the day I do get that it was my mistake made, I just get really annoyed with companies who really just care to make a quick buck rather than actually care for their customers.

 

The whole process just feels so anti-consumer to me. That's not just exclusively Bitdefender though, that opinion spreads to any company that forces you to agree to a autorenewal, hoping you'd forget and give them your money without giving you the option to say no I don't want that anymore.

[johnno23]

100% agree with your sentiments but that is excatly why many companies use the auto renewal. they can earn a lot of income thru the simple reason many people forget.

 

[Gullen]

9 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

100% agree with your sentiments but that is excatly why many companies use the auto renewal. they can earn a lot of income thru the simple reason many people forget.

 

I'm very surprised there isn't some sort of consumer protection law to help people who fall Into the trap placed.

[johnno23]

There has been so many cases but the lawyers are smart and put the reponsibilty on the consumer. After all the auto renewal is very useful in many scenarios but as always anything that can be perverted for profit by someone else the one garantee in life is that the someone will find it and use it.

For example you own and drive a car you live in the UK the AA (automoblie association) auto renewal can be a godsend as nothing worse than drivng from london to leeds only to break down on the motorway and then discover your membership had expired....anyways a software company see this and thinks///COOL I can do that as it is a service and if they dont need it but forget to cancel I can renew it on their behalf and make profit. any form, of legislation would adversly effect the compamies that use the system to benefit their customers so thats how the arguments get presented. I beleive the only successful cases where it was removed was when the consumer was being locked into a contract and denied the ability to jump ship to another service. In europe at least they made mobile phone contracts easier for people to choose as millions were being locked into a service and that autorenewal prevented them from going to another service provider for a better deal etc.

[Gullen]

On 2/14/2023 at 1:22 PM, Gullen said:

Hi,

 

So I am looking for help with an auto-renewal issue I got. 2 years ago I got a key / trial (can't really remember the specifics due to it being 2 years ago) for Bitdefender antivirus. I hardly used it because I didn't like the massive system usage it took, and I knew I was careful enough on the internet that it wasn't a necessity for me. Anyways, I just forgot about it.

 

A couple days ago, I got a PayPal notification saying a charge of £54 was authorised, my first immediate thought was has my PayPal been breached; has someone used my account to buy something? When I checked my email I finally found what it was, apparently I signed up for a Bitdefender autorenewal and that has kicked in and charged me.

 

That sucks, I'm normally good with autorenewal traps, if I'm signing up for a software trial or whatever, I usually set a calender reminder for me to cancel the subscription before it charges me, but this one must've slipped through the cracks.

 

Anyways, £54 is a lot of money for me, I'm a student who's really tight for money as it is - so I contacted Bitdefender support to ask for a refund and cancellation on my account. I got a reply in a couple of days time, basically saying all they can offer me is either a longer subscription or 60% partial refund. I don't want either, I just want my money back for a product I wasn't aware I was purchasing.

 

What is my next move guys ? I have attached screenshots of the support email (I haven't replied yet). Do I reply standing my ground saying what offered is not acceptable? Do I threaten their support with going a legal route if the don't comply? Do I contact my bank and try and get a chargeback ?

 

This has never happened to me before and I don't really know where I stand legally, I feel I've been scammed even though I know I must of signed a T&C for this. Why is it so hard for a company to give you money back from a mistake ? I feel like I've been robbed.

 

Anyways, I really appreciate any support you guys give, I'm just super stuck right now and looking for advice. 

 

Thank you

 

===== UPDATE =====

 

I don't know if this is the proper way to do a post update or not, ahhhhhh well. 

 

So I decided I would email back standing my ground - a full refund is what is needed. I'm not the best at emails, so I got ChatGPT to write me an email to reply with (see it below). And it worked !! The next email I got back was confirmation of a full refund. Absolute win for ChatGPT!

[LogicalDrm]

On 2/14/2023 at 4:52 PM, Gullen said:

I'm very surprised there isn't some sort of consumer protection law to help people who fall Into the trap placed.

There is. But the issue is that it only works if the note about auto-renewal was burried in ToS. In EU, it must be shown at the page where you sign-up. If it isn't, then it can be considered trap. Since this was 2 years ago when you made purchase, are you sure that you weren't charged for that amount year ago? Rarely even deals are for longer than 1 year. So if you have paid for subscription once already and your bank/PayPal has records on that, your defense of "I didn't know" doesn't hold when 2nd payment goes through.

 

Chargeback is always option, but it will take time, it can put you on watchlist by bank/CC and it can put you on blacklist by company you issued it for. I have done it once. Took 3 months and reissue of my card. My reason was legit, the details got stolen while buying unrelated product. I don't remember whether I got both payments back or just one of them, both were €35 worth.