Automatic payment taken from my bank account that I didn't authorize

[Donald127]

Got an email yesterday stating, "Your Avast Cleanup Premium - 1 PC, 1 Year has been successfully renewed."

Your Auto-Renewal Order Summary

Product

Avast Cleanup Premium - 1 PC, 1 Year

Order ID

61121432200

Price charged

$52.74

Automatically renewed to

May 15, 2020

I NEVER signed up for automatic renewal. The only thing I have automatic payments set up for is my car insurance.

The money was taken out of my account with no advance notice. Not so much as an email from Avast saying, "Your Avast Cleanup license expires in X number of days". I would have gotten sacked by overdraft fees by my bank had I not had enough money in my account when they pulled this stunt.

And please don't simply give me a link to the "Customer Support" page, I've been there half a dozen times and it's absolutely useless as far as helping me resolve this. I did find a Request a Refund link, filled it out, and as soon as I hit "submit" I got a "Server Error" popup so I don't think my request even went thru.



Does anyone actually read these submissions as they come in? All I get is "We've just received your request and you can expect us to get in touch shortly via the email you provided."



I haven't gotten an email yet from anyone. At all. How am I supposed to know Avast is actually doing anything I asked if they won't even acknowledge me in a timely fashion?


Oh, and who is responsible for coming up with the Captcha images? I've clicked thru a dozen editing this post alone and none are even remotely decipherable.

[DavidR]

First, sending multiple requests for the same issue can actually slow the process, they are handled in a first in first out order, so the second one starts the clock again as does the third and the forth.

Your initial response is the one giving you the Support Ticket ID so the process is underway.  Generally it can take up to 5 working days to process your refund request.
a
The captcha is only for the first 3 posts, it is an anti-spam measure to combat spambots it has to be difficult.

[Donald127]

Well, I contacted my bank since my account shows the payment as "Pending" and told them it was unauthorized and I am disputing it.

We'll see who I hear back from first, my bank or Avast. Either way I'm supremely upset that I need to go through this BS to begin with.

[DavidR]

1.  I don't know how/where they would get your payment details from if the only thing that you have on auto payment is for your car.

2.  Have you tried a free trial for an Avast product, like the Avast Cleanup Premium ?
The thing that is a bit strange is the email that you received containing the:
"Your Avast Cleanup Premium - 1 PC, 1 Year has been successfully renewed."

Have you ever made a payment previously for Avast Cleanup Premium ?

3.  Some products have a free trial, but you may have to complete your payment details (that is for auto payment) and if you haven't cancelled the trial and auto payment at the end of the trial the payment is processed.

However,  the point made by your bank about the payment as "Pending" which would be correct as it wouldn't be due until the 15th of this month.

If you have made a refund request then it should get processed. 

[BWhit]

Hi Donald127,

I can confirm that the refund for your payment has already been submitted for processing earlier today, and you will receive emails confirming this from both our support team and our distributor (Digital River). I am sorry that you did not receive any confirmation of this earlier. Please be aware, it may take between 5 to 7 business days for the funds to travel back through your payment card and to show back in your account.

The auto-renewal feature was enabled at the time of the original purchase, and information about this, including instructions for how to cancel the auto-renewal, were included in the original confirmation email sent to you. I apologize if this wasn't made clear enough to you at the time.

Our distributor did also send an email on April/15/2019 at 4:54 AM (CDT) stating that the auto-renewal payment would occur on April 30, 2019. This email was sent to the same email address as the auto-renewal confirmation email that you have copied into your post. If you cannot see this message in your inbox, your email provider may have incorrectly categorized it as a promotional or spam email. This email also contained information for cancelling the auto-renewal.

[Donald127]

Thank you.