I had been happy for a long time...
EDIT: I truly appreciate the response from customer service. As I had been trying to explain, customer service should exist to be able to step outside of policy on a case by case basis in order to accommodate for unusual circumstances. I am glad that someone listened and took appropriate action to issue me a refund. That said, I am still leaving a star off of my review due to the fact that I had to jump through so many hoops for them to finally take action. I hope they pay attention to this and try be more attentive to customers in the future. Their products are great but the company needs to be great as well.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I had been a happy, paying subscriber of NordVPN for several years. The product always worked well and I did not have any problems. I was willing to overlook their slightly complicated billing settings because I was happy with what I was receiving. Well, that all changed when I tried to sign up for their Dedicated IP service. I signed up for one month and happily paid the approximately $8 for the first month. After trying the service for a few days, I realized that it did not work for my needs and I stopped using it. I thought I had cancelled the service and that no auto-renewal had been turned on. I was wrong.
I was charged another $8 for the subsequent month. I was initially surprised but I reached out to support within around 10 minutes of the charge hitting my bank account. I tried to explain the situation to them and ask for the service to be cancelled and for the most recent charge to be refunded. I did not request for a refund for the first month where I had been trying the service. I also did not ask for any refund for the other Nord services that I am/was using to be refunded.
Support replied to me with the standard, "This is our policy, sorry" response. Not what I desired but it was expected. I tried to explain that I had recently had some financial trouble (which is absolutely true) and I was trying to cut back on expenses. Also, the Dedicated IP did not work for what I needed it to and I had not used it since the initial first or second day after I had signed up. They would not listen to me and basically referred me to the terms and conditions that I had agreed to when I signed up.
I have worked in customer service for many many years and I understand policy. But does customer service not exist to help people when their situation falls outside of cookie cutter responses and situations? Am I trying to abuse the system by asking for help when I feel like I am a victim to their (presumably) intentional complicated billing practices? How can I possibly trust a company that clearly does not care about their customers???
I hope they enjoy their $8 they got out of me. Unfortunately for them, it probably costed them hundreds of dollars that I would have gladly paid into the future to continue using the other products.
Reply from NordVPN
Hello, Brendan. We are truly sorry to hear about your experience. Our refund policy does state that we issue refunds for the initial purchase only. However, we take each case into careful consideration, and we're sorry to hear that the dedicated IP did not work as intended. We have refunded your latest purchase, and you can expect to receive it within 5-10 business days. We hope that this situation does not overshadow your overall experience with our service, and we genuinely look forward to the opportunity to make it up to you. -E.G.
