Why the frequent subscription renewal reminders for F-Secure Safe?
I am getting frequent renewal reminders for my F-Secure Safe subscription which is due to expire March 28th. The application pops the "Subscription expires in ... days" every day and every time I login to my PC (Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit OS, if that matters).
The F-Secure application does not seem to keep track that I just saw the same notification (and clicked on the "Later" button) an hour earlier when I first logged into my PC. And it always pops this notification up just after midnight (when the day changes) but nevertheless often, on top of that, several times a day.
I don't know what the dumbass reason for it is except to get the customer to renew early? I am guessing that F-Secure thinks they need to act like a parent reminding their child to brush their teeth or what-now. But it's actually more annoying than inciting to renew.
And before anyone proposes that, I am not interested in having to "open a support ticket". This is the sort of stuff F-Secure's product development should have caught in the testing phase. Why should I have spend my time to have to open a ticket and keep it updated all the way to resolution for?
Answers
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Hello,
You can call this a known problem or a misunderstanding between trying to make a normal design and its perception by normal users. The intention, perhaps, here is quite normal (in a general sense). After all, if the user is aimed to renew the subscription, then it is better to plan this action in advance (budget as such, family budget, cost planning, accounting for expenses for the next month, and so on, as well as anything unforeseen, so as not to suddenly be left with an expired subscription or with not enough funds for such things as cyber security solution). Thus, if you have been notified and you are ready (willing), then you can extend it. Of course, there is also somewhat marketing too (but, probably, it was not a reason / idea for the most annoying parts).
The point that user need to be reminded each day (midnight or first logon) is probably due to the fact that there is a "counter". So, each day - less time for subscription duration. Reminder. There are probably other triggers for re-showing the notification as well (hours without rebooting the system, major update/restart for software or logging in as a different user or something else. This was explained somewhere, but I can't remember where). But it should not be too much often. At least, more than twice per day (?!).
Before I refer to related discussions (and quite a long time ago) - I will express the idea that perhaps the current state of situation may change in future versions. For example, the next one. Where all such wishes could be taken into account and where the implementation of displaying notifications and other things could be redesigned.
Some feature requests about:
- https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/105684/disable-renewal-notification
- Subscription renewal popup — F-Secure Community (f-secure.com)
- the renew pop need to be able to be set to the users requirements! — F-Secure Community (f-secure.com)
- Turn off incessant (every 20 seconds!) popup for subscription renewal — F-Secure Community (f-secure.com) (a bit strange initial request, because about something else. But comments are also about discussed points).
And some discussions about:
- https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/comment/105128
- https://community.f-secure.com/en/discussion/comment/104246
In some other discussions, there was information that "renewing" in advance - unused days are saved. I didn't have to check it. But, there is Knowledgebase article: https://community.f-secure.com/safe-en/kb/articles/8880-i-have-lost-some-days-after-renewal-of-f-secure-product-how-can-i-get-the-days-i-had-left-back
Anyway, if there can be some kind of discussion. What annoys you more? That you are reminded of information about which you know (or which you do not want to know). Or is it too early? Or the sudden appearance of Reminder? Or that it happens every day. Or not only with first login, but after midnight too?
And how would it be better? "Dismiss" once and for all? Or postpone for some days? Or something else?
What if the upcoming builds can be with fixes around this trouble.
Thanks!
