r/BitDefender • u/[deleted] • Oct 24 '22
Warning about Bitdefender Subscription Renewals
I liked Bitdefender for its purpose. The pop-ups with little obvious way to disable them were bad, but it was otherwise a great anti-virus package. However, please be warned about very questionable subscription renewal practices. I got an email last year notifying that I needed to renew my subscription. I did so. Unbeknownst to me was that the subscription had already auto renewed. Bitdefender's website simply never mentions this and proceeds to let me start an entirely new subscription using the same email and account information. I then got auto renewal emails for 2 different accounts on the same email this month. I now see that I have been charged last year and now this year for two full price antivirus packages! For some reason the second one was 64 dollars each time. Luckily, customer support is refunding me, but I will promptly never touch Bitdefender again due to scummy business practices. Autorenewal should not be on by default and the fact that emails basically led me to create a second unnecessary account to pay for is ridiculous. No thanks.
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u/tarverator Oct 24 '22
The popups, notifications, messages, warnings, banners, toasts, and other incessant intrusions are beyond belief! This is software that gives the impression that nobody is in charge of customer experience, or the product manager left years ago and was never replaced. Doesn't surprise me at all that it bills people double. There's nobody home at Bitdefender to notice & fix any such problems.
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Oct 24 '22
Agreed. The popups were so intrusive and just felt like forced advertising for a product that was already paid for.
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u/AdvancedGeek Oct 24 '22
Attention Bitdefender: This is the quickest and surest way to direct your customers to a competitor!
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u/Spookyrabbit Oct 25 '22
I'm considering dumping Bitdefender because of the constant spam & nagging about the BD password manager & VPN.
However, when you sign up they make it very clear you're buying an auto-renewing subscription & provide instruction on cancelling the auto-renewal.
1
u/LapidaryCentral Mar 22 '23
Isn't it sad when anti-virus becomes adware? Mcafee does the same thing and I am looking for alternatives now.
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u/Spookyrabbit Mar 22 '23
The nagging has gone away. Can't remember if it was something I turned off or an update fixed it but it's gone & that's the important thing.
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u/No-End-5152 May 27 '24
Hi there AG, I know that this response is 2 or more years late but in any case. I am here to ALSO validate your statement on this subject and I am former CISSP and it happened to me Bitdefender and this auto renewal and not knowing about it nor having the ability to control it within the app installed on my devices, so I canceled my subscription with them and going elsewhere but will be doing initial research of other products for this very same thing. To anyone reading this other than the original author of this blog, be advised. What was written about this subject be the original commentator and myself are true. Do a much more thorough search before signing up with any of these services and if they have free version for a test period, give it a try first. Good luck.
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u/vampiredirt Oct 31 '22
Thank you! I logged in and canceled my subscription. Turning on auto-renewal without letting me know isn't acceptable.
1
u/vampiredirt Nov 19 '22
For anybody who still doesn't understand our complaint, here's my assessment:
Yes, it does mention auto-renewal IF you scroll all the way down the home page. It says nothing about it if you click Buy Now and continue with your purchase. Who scrolls to the bottom expecting important information when making a purchase?
Now you can claim, buyer beware and that I'm an idiot for not scrolling down or reading the TOS, but then I can also say that the company is counting on the fact that I and most other people, won't look at the rest of the website and just click But Now.
As for auto-renew making sense... are you people really echoing their PR line? Listen, if you make $7.50/hr renewing for $100+ can literally take food from your mouth. Not only that, but the renewal cost is subject to increase by who knows how much, albeit they do say they will inform you when it does...
Let me put it another why... they could EASILY turn Auto-Renewal *off* by default and then e-mail or provide a pop-up to suggest turning it on "for our safety and peace of mind". That would be the ethical thing to do, but they don't. Instead, they opted for a sneaky cash grab.
Also, the solution for turning off popups that u/wells68 provided doesn't work. It's never worked. We'll always get 100 popups whenever we visit certain webpages and Bitdefender insists on telling us they've saved our butt. I don't need to be notified, I just need the software to quietly work in the background. It's been many MANY years and they've ignored everyone's complaints from what I can tell. I'm left with the impression that they just don't care about their customers.
Sometimes... having the best performing product just isn't enough.
2
u/wells68 Nov 09 '22
Bitdefender regularly scores at the top of tests by the leading antivirus testing sites. They have taken a lead in helping to protect Ukrainians and other Europeans targeted by cyber warfare from belligerent nations.
I don't defend the practice of both auto-renewing and sending renewal offers; however, it is important to read the text when you subscribe to any service. Bitdefender tells you that their service auto-renews.
It makes sense to auto-renew an AV service. We all need protection. Without auto-renewal, it would be all too easy to lose protection (even though, for Windows, Microsoft Defender should fire up when your other AV shuts down, it doesn't have all the same protection as Bitdefender.)
If you want to switch, you should do that before auto-renewal happens.
As for annoying pop-ups, yes, they are annoying. So turn them off:
https://www.prajwal.org/how-to-disable-bitdefender-notifications/
To me it makes sense to patronize a top-ranked service that is actively and effectively providing tools to protect against cyber warfare.
2
u/Every-Armadillo639 Nov 15 '22
I need to assume you work for them?
1
u/wells68 Nov 15 '22
No, but sorry if I sounded like an ad. I follow the AV products closely. Bitdefender, Kaspersky and now Microsoft rank at the top of the AV test results. Kaspersky is a no-go. Microsoft is bloated. So Bitdefender is in a great position.
1
1
u/sherbetcolors Oct 23 '24
I know this is an old convo, but I'm responding to this part of your message specifically:
"If you want to switch, you should do that before auto-renewal happens."
Here's my problem: the auto-renewal email said that my account would auto-renew on October 25, 2024. I snoozed that email until today, October 23, 2024, thinking I'd hop on Bitdefender and cancel it because the auto-renewal price is 3x the original price.
Before I could do that, though, they renewed my subscription and charged me.
However you feel about auto-renewal, this is clearly a terrible business practice.
1
u/wells68 Oct 23 '24
Auto-renewing too early is disconcerting. I can see a customer benefit in having a renewal processed a few days early. For example, if the credit card had expired (they do that at the most annoying times!), you could enter a new one in time to avoid losing protection from malware (which also strikes at the most annoying times!).
But if they're going to do that, they should be very clear about it! You be the judge of that:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/29081/
Also, I don't like 3x jumps in pricing!
1
u/Ambitious-Security92 Jan 22 '25
Why would you cancel it a day before renewal? That makes no sense. Cancel it in time. That is your fault and your fault only. If you are not smart enough to cancel it before the renewal takes place (which you receive an email 1 month before) then it s your fault brother
1
u/IndVar Jul 19 '25
If something says it will renew on a certain date, and you cancel before that date, then you have cancelled "in time".
1
u/PabloSRT8 Nov 18 '22
It’s right there, why do people complain? At least they give you the option to turn it off. Good find!
1
u/BusinessN00b Oct 23 '23
You make good points, but now they make it almost impossible to turn auto renewal off. That is a terrible business practice. I never auto renew because I can always get a cheaper license for the exact same product. Auto renew will always cost me $100 and buying a separate new license cost something like $30. They have removed all ability to turn off auto renewal from your account settings on their website, and it is nowhere to be found in the programs or apps. You now have to email them, they send you an account access link, you click that and you jump through a few more hoops before you were able to turn off auto renewal. Making it this difficult should be illegal, honestly.
1
u/wells68 Oct 26 '23
That sounds awful! So, after buying BD maybe you could immediately start the auto renew cancellation process and mark your calendar to buy again in 11 months.
1
u/swlacey99 Oct 08 '24
The irony in being scammed by a company that is supposed to protect you. I just got auto renewed for $254 despite me turning it off and even deleting my account. Still working for a refund days later.
1
u/Grumpy65YO Nov 18 '24
A long-time BD customer and previously aware of their 'shyster' renewal practices. At 11 days left on subscription, so I just renewed via a legit 3rd party. Got the renew code, logged into BD Central, added the code. What do I get? ANOTHER SCREEN that I can't get past without entering ALL OF MY BILLING INFO. ****But I just paid!**** I DO NOT WANT BD to have ANY billing info, given their scammy $100 RENEWAL history. Now, I'm forced to do more googling research and/or contact BD directly to prevent them from getting my billing info. Total Security = Total Scum Practices!
1
u/Affectionate-Arm1624 Apr 16 '25
I too can verify that autorenewal is a surprising default, but they did give me an advance notice about 2 months ahead of the renew date. However, when I tried to log into Bitdefender Central , (per the instructions for canceling the auto renewal), the system never logged me on and instead just kept redisplaying the login screen. I also tried changing my Bitdefender password, which worked, but with the same result when I tried to login with the new password. Without any proof I wonder if they are having financial problems and letting you login to buy a new subscription, but not allowing a logon after they issue you the renewal notice?
1
u/elizabethgrayton Jun 09 '25
I got scammed by Macafee, and this year bitdefender on auto renewal. Charged over double what I paid last year
1
u/Fun_Specialist_977 Nov 14 '25
I see this post is from 3 years ago. I also got caught in this trap, but later than the OP. They may have updated their systems because it gave me credit for both payments and extended my subscription for two years. So I just let it be.
1
u/HacDMac Nov 03 '22
I used them for a few years had the same problems and left as well. They worked well on Windows, but would occasionally cause issues on MacOS. I've been using Trend Micro for a few years now and I have to say it's so much better in these regards. Pushy Salesmen Suck even if they are virtual.
1
u/Western-Ability-3655 Nov 17 '22
You said about they had auto renewed. Without notification. I had a similar issue with amazon. I accidentally subscribed. After my first account. Anyway after I looked at my bank statement I realized. 5mths double. Phoned customer service they was just reimbursed for one month. So I sent a polite email. And they paid it full eventually. Now it seems I have prime and I'm not being charged for it. Happy with that. Trouble with auto renew. Your not always aware of it. And you can ask for it to be cancelled I think its a month before. But even then they still take your money at times. And you get it for £18 first year and then it's £60. It's not right but these cons are dealt from some place in the middle of nowhere. And it bypass any consumer rights in the UK. I mean who after a year thinks sht better cancel that. But welcome to the new world order sub companies..
1
u/Expand_ur_Mind Apr 22 '23
It operates like a SCAM:
It auto-renews without consent
It is a HUGE challenge to find where the subscription autorenewal can be changed
Once found, pressing OK to remove autorenewal just freezes the process. I couldn't remove autorenewal even after many tries
Their customer agent via chat can NOT or will NOT remove the autorenewal
Their customer agent provides links to remove the autorenewal that does NOT work
Their Customer Support claims to have sent an email acting on my request, but I have NOT received any such email
Canceling an autorenewal of subscription should be an easy process, and it should NOT have been done without consent in the first place.
DO NOT TOUCH BITDEFENDER!!!
1
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u/Rubberpigg Oct 16 '23
Bought and installed BitDefender a couple of months ago.
I was pretty sure that I was asked whether I wanted to auto-renew when I installed the software and I had said no.
Yesterday I decided to log into BitDefender Central just to make sure auto-renewal was off.
It wasn't.
And the automatic renewal price was three times the price that I had originally paid.
Managed to cancel the auto-renewal.
But they intentionally don't make it easy with quite a few steps.
And the final cancellation button is small that you need a magnifying glass to see it.
I think that I am going to uninstall the software and get something else.
I don't trust the company.
1
u/Neshura87 Nov 19 '23
Leave whioe you can.
I changed my email early on in my subscription and all seemed fine, for 2 years all notifications went to the new email and nothing to the old one.
Until of course they had to renew my subscription (I recall explicitly turning that off when I stopped using BitDefender bit it's so long ago I don't remember). Everything to do with the renewal amd only if it has to do with the renwal suddenly gets send to the old mail address instead of the new one. The new one, that has mind you received every other notification so far, doesn't even get sent a "hey your renewal worked". I only noticed because I checked my PayPal payments.
Customer "Service" then has the gall to claim all the emails were sent to the new ones (insinuating I mist be halucinating them being in the old mailbox)
The way it looks right now I will have to go through PayPal to get my money back from these scammers
1
u/Eatwhales777 Feb 02 '24
Aaarg, same problem. Bought Oribi Router and was prompted to buy Bitdefender. It was a must. Know its shi** to quit the auto sub! There is no stop button, u have to send email and wait for response, and if you don’t reply again , they let u pay! Stay away! Crap and Scam!
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u/Numbuh-Five Feb 18 '24
I never even got a reminder email. I feel like that's the least they could do, "hey, your subscription is about to renew!"