F-Secure and Cleverbridge not cooperating: unable to renew subscription
I have a five-device subscription to F-Secure safe. It is set to manually renew. Starting about a month ago I started getting pop-up messages telling me that my subscription would expire October 20 and asking me to renew. I clicked the "Renew now..." button and it took me to the F-Secure site to renew.
To my surprise, as I clicked through the renewal process, it completed without asking me for my credit card information. Apparently it automatically used the old credit card information that I entered when I originally purchased my subscription.
That is the first problem. I am astounded that F-Secure, a company dedicated to privacy and protection from malware, stored my credit card information without my knowledge or consent.
The second problem is that the stored information was out of date. Perhaps because of that, or perhaps because of Cleverbridge policies, my subscription did not renew. I continued getting the the pop-up messages every day, but when I clicked the "Renew now..." button, the F-Secure site would not allow me to take any renewal action, but instead only displayed "We are waiting for confirmation of your payment."
I contacted Cleverbridge multiple times, but they refused to correct the problem. They took the stance that everything was fine, replying with boilerplate cut-and-paste giving me links where I could change my payment options. Despite the fact that these replies did not address my problem, I duitifully did as told, but unsurprisingly nothing changed.
When I asked Cleverbridge why, if everything is fine, do I continue to get the pop-up notices saying my subcription is expiring, they abdicated responsibility and said that is F-Secure's problem, not theirs.
When I attempted to contact F-Secure, they ignored me, cutting off my chat windows without ever responding.
It has now been a month since this saga began. My subscription has now officially expired, and I am still in the same position I was in when this started.
What can I do to get this fixed, and how can F-Secure improve its payment processing and customer service? This is the worst customer experience I have had in years, and I don't think I have ever had this much trouble trying to give money to a company. It seems like F-Secure doesn't want my business.
Comments
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Hi Laksh, thanks for getting back. Yes,I did open a ticket yesterday in the F Secure Finnish Customer Care. They never came back to me, but I found later in the evening an email with invoice and instructions on how to pay. Interesting that they instruct me to pay the invoice at latest two days before the official due day to Cleverbridge, in order F Secure not to cancel my service.... So the invoice has two due days.
Cleverbridge has continued to maintain silence.
I hope that also my fellow F Security Community member to whom's thread I posted my comment has received his invoice.
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Hi @Laksh,
Cleverbridge did finally charge my credit card, and my subscription seems to be properly renewed now. I am no longer being prompted to renew.
I'm very happy with F-Secure, but your relationship with Cleverbridge is doing you a disservice. Cleverbridge seems too eager to dismiss problems, stating that they only process the payment. That may be partially true, but it isn't helpful, and it harms F-Secure's reputation when they are the face being presented to your customers. Furthermore, the way they store customer credit card information without asking permission is completely antithetical to F-Secure's principles.
Thank you for your good wishes, @Supa, and I'm glad your situation is straightened out too.
And thank you also to @Simon for keeping me encouraged.
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I have the same problem. Cleverbridge have made numerous attempts to complte renewal but each time my account still states that F-Secure licence is expired. F-Secure have made several attempts to resolve the issue without success. The latest action that they have taken is to delete the application from my pc and install a one month licence for 1 pc. Not a lot of use as it will need to be removed and replaced by a five licence version if they manage to resolve the issue. This is also of no use for my other devices. If they can install a temporary single licence for one month it seems odd that they can't install a multi user licence for twelve months. F-Secure have advised that they will reolve the issue in less than one month. I have referred Cleverbridge to their Terms and Conditions that state that they will replae any Product or Service that fails with a version that works. Their response was to offer to cancel my order and provide a refund. this will leave me with no security. An interesting approach.
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I have had exactly the same problem from the first of October. I raised the issue wit F-Secure and got the same stock replies. When the subscription expired on 30-31st October (the notifications are ambiguous) I still could not pay with the old details, even though they are correct. I managed to change tp Paypal, and after going round some odd loop a few times I managed to pay. I was told that all is in order, but my F-Secure settings say that I am still expired. Returning to the F_Secure website I was told that I need to re-install on the five devices covered. Three of these are not mine and are not in my possession. After more thrashing round I was told that reinstallation is not needed but it would take A FEW HOURS to be updated.
Frankly I am furious; with Virgin Media who offer the service without vetting it properly, F-Secure for running an incompetent renewal service and support team, and Cleverbridge (whoever they are) for having a not-fit-for-purpose payments system. If it was only my machine covered I would have uninstalled the service and started to use the free (and highly rated) AVG.
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I also have a problem with renewing my subscription. After being prompted to renew I did so just prior to the expiration date, it then took about 3 days before the payment was deducted from my account but a week later and my subscription has still not been renewed. Each time a manage to go into my account I get the message that my subscription has expired, even though I have paid for the renewal. I have emailed their customer service and received an email back saying that my payment was received, finally. The first time I tried to make a payment I received a message saying my payment details were out of date so I re-entered them and it went through. I have never had this problem with them before but I am now unable to get my protection or my money back as I have not had any response from them.
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Hi @JDavidJ,
I can understand your frustation about the renewal of SAFE, and sorry for the trouble! Has your SAFE account been renewed successfully? If you are having the issue still, do let me know so that I can check further with the team.
Hi @JAG66,
Since you mentioned you have contacted our support team regarding the renewal issue, could you please send me your case number as a private message so that I can followup with them for a response?
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I just renewed F-Secure (Virgin Media UK offer) and Cleverbridge made a 'Recurring Transaction' which I would never authorise for any supplier. This is a facility where a supplier can take whatever they like, when they like from your credit card account. I'm still astounded that credit card companies allow this.
I comlained, to the bank and to Cleverbridge. They replied stating that they have cancelled the transaction and refunded via PayPal.
I didn't ask for that either.
F-Secure appears to be genuine, Cleverbridge ain't so clever.
Now I have to find a decent internet security system at reasonable price.
DaveK
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There are several free antivirus packages out there that get excellent reviews. So if I have the slightest hint of payment problems at my next renewal, I will not waste any time and correspondance, I'll simply change provider.
These F-Secure guys make a lot of money from us, and need to get their act together. It is simply not good enough for them to use a crap payment service when there is Paypal and others that work well.
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Just received a reply from Cleverbridge stating that renewal is agreeing to a 'multiple payment product' which is made clear when you pay. I didn't see that and if it goes via PayPal why do they feel the need to add conditions?
"Multiple Payment Product" does not say "Recurring Transaction". Here's my reply to their customer services guy.
Dear Brian O,
Sorry, I must have missed the very important information that I was agreeing to your organisation making a charge on my credit card for whatever amount you like and whenever you like.
I've just read through the pages and pages of your terms and conditions and still don't see it. You mention a 'multiple payment product', but even if I had seen that it would mean nothing to me.
I am aware of the banking term, "Recurring Transaction" which I would never agree to.
Notwithstanding that, I did not request that you cancel my twelve month subscription to F-Secure, I asked for the "Recurring Transaction" to be removed.
Although not considered fraudulent, incurring a "Recurring Transaction" on a customer's credit card account is Sharp Practice and I am still astounded that the credit card companies allow it.
Your action just lost F-Secure another customer.
Regards to you,
David Kinnear. -
I'm not disputing that you guys have an issue with recurring transactions, and I agree that this should be made clear when renewing your products. However, if you renew via your My Safe portals, there should be an option somewhere in the Account settings (or payment settings) to turn off Auto Renewal. F-Secure would need to clarify this ( @Ben ?), but logically, that would imply that a recurring payment would not be set up. I'm not sure if you can change it once the subscription has been issued, other than by cancelling the subscription, but it might be worth checking out your account settings in your My Safe portals.
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