Avast tried to renew my subscription, and as I was not aware the auto-renewal was on, I received a “your renewal payment failed” message because I have to update payment details.
My first question is… why do I have to update my subscription 34 days in advance??
I also received a message reading that I’ll “lose premium features bringing you digital freedom and security in 0 days.” Why would I lose premium features if I still have 34 days to go from my Avast PREMIUM Security subscription??
Another message I got: “We tried to charge you for the upcoming subscription period but failed. Please double-check the funds and limits on your payment method, or we may cancel your subscription.” Why would you cancel my subscription when it expires 30 plus days??
Somewhere it reads that my “next payment date is 31 December 1969”. Why 1969???
You’re not alone, they are nagging the hell out of me with random popups with about 3 months remaining!, just had another popup now. Will not be renewing after this as I had this issue last year.
Andrea,
I had something similar last year. I loathe this auto-renewal (a-r) marketing chicanery and, once I finally managed to get through to someone, made that very clear.
I was duly directed to my payment settings where I was able to disable a-r. My “subscription” was immediately cancelled and you can imagine how I felt about that. However, when I spoke to someone I was told that the software was still active for the remainder of my contract but it would not auto-renew i.e. my “subscription” was NOT cancelled.
So either the marketing department doesn’t understand English (and perhaps the equivalent terms in other languages) or they choose to use misleading language. I’ll let you decide for yourself. The bottom lines are:
if you paid for a year you’re entitled to a year and they’re required to provide it.
the company knew what it was doing and could easily have made appropriate changes to its marketing practices.
this is a very poor way to treat customers and is more likely to put them off than encourage loyalty.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that, in common with insurance policies, one should almost never a-r. Companies rely on customers just letting things run on. A much better approach is to keep them on their toes by reminding them that we can switch so they need to keep their prices (and processes) attractive. I generally set a reminder in my calendar a month ahead of renewal dates. When that time arrives I start reviewing products and prices. I then give my existing provider first dibs at keeping me as a customer. If they make a good offer they get my custom. If not I’ll go somewhere else.
