I purchased an Avast subscription last year on 27/11/2022. The subscription was valid until 27/11/2023.
I cancelled the auto-renewal option on the customer portal after the purchase.
To my surprise, on 23/10/2023 I was charged 93.99eur on my PayPal account for a subscription reference period 27/11/2023 - 27/11/2024. The charge was made by Digital River Ireland, Ltd.
On 24/11/2023, I realized this value of 93.99eur had been charged to my PayPal account. I contacted Avast that same day requesting the cancellation of the upcoming subscription, already charged to me more than 1 month before the start on 27/11/2023, and reimbursement for that same subscription. Ticket 19847864.
Was contacted by Avast customer service via email:
• Email 24/11/2023: Avast refused the reimbursement. I replied requesting the cancellation of the subscription and reimbursement.
• Email 25/11/2023: Avast refused the reimbursement. I replied requesting the cancellation of the subscription and reimbursement. I raised a claim to PayPal for “Charged for a cancelled subscription”.
• Email 27/11/2023: Avast customer service agreed to refund the amount in full. They also offered to keep the subscription with a 50% reduction in the initial value. I opted for the full reimbursement.
I have checked my PayPal account every day since 27/11/2023 and there have been no refunds to date either from Avast or Digital River Ireland, Ltd. Certainly, the Avast billing team will confirm this without the necessity of asking me to re-check my PayPal account over and over.
Moreover, via the order history, it can be seen that the subscription has been refunded. This is false and incorrect and should read “refund is pending”. Again, the Avast billing team will be able to corroborate that the refund has not been provided to my PayPal account or that same billing team should provide clear evidence as to where the refund has been issued because it was not to me.
Via the same order history, I could verify that the subscription was cancelled on 27/11/2023. No email or confirmation of the cancellation was provided to me.
I have since 27/11/2023 had email exchanges with Avast customer service on the following dates:
• 30/11/2023
• 03/12/2023
• 06/12/2023
• 07/12/2023
After a total 7 email exchanges and having discussed with 6 different customer service agents which would have escalated to the appropriate billing team, the status as it stands today is:
1- Subscription cancelled since 27/11/2023 (before the debut), no email sent with the subscription cancellation. Cancellation was verified via the order history.
2- A refund of 93.99 EUR has still not been provided to me since the subscription was cancelled on 27/11/2023
I truly do not understand what is the reason for delaying the refund as it has now been over 2 weeks since the subscription was cancelled and over 1.5 months since Avast has charged me for a subscription not wanted, not used and cancelled as records show. I also do not understand why after communicating with 6 Avast customer service agents this refund issue is still pending.
I would appreciate it if the standard customer service response emails and apologies would stop and action would be taken by Avast customer service to resolve this issue without further delay, and reimburse me for the amount of 93.99eur that has been paid for a service cancelled and hence not provided and more importantly taken from my account without my consent.
Anything else from a speedy reimbursement to my PayPal account at this point is unbecoming and reflects poor customer service and lack of any attention to customer satisfaction.
I trust that despite a poor track record demonstrated thus far in attending to Avast’s obligation to reimburse me, Avast will make things right so we can close this subject matter.
I await a reply and will post further developments.