Nord's refund policy is scummy, and they should change it

VPN
1

The title says it all.

I attempted to cancel Nord on 4/16 because I am trying to get better control over my finances, and I’m cancelling services that I don’t absolutely need until I have a little more money in order to afford them. My renewal wasn’t until 4/18, so I thought “Great! I’ll cancel before it renews.” Simple, right?

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Well, as I’m sure many of you know, Nord does not make it quick or easy to cancel their service. After dicking around the website for 10-15 minutes, not being able to find a “CANCEL” button, I googled it and somehow ended up on the cancellation page. Frankly, I don’t remember how I got there. It was frustrating. Anyway, _even on that site_, it was frustrating. The colored button which looks like “next,” at a quick glance, is actually the “Nevermind” button, attempting to get you to inordinately reverse your attempted cancellation. Ok, I’ve seen this on other websites. Kinda low-brow, but not uncommon. What happened next was super frustrating. After finally clicking the right set of buttons, I get to the final screen which says something about my request for cancellation being completed. So, I think “Awesome. Maybe when I’m in better financial shape, I’ll resume my service.” I like having a VPN, and Nord’s was easy to use. No problems, right?

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Wrong.

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I spent the weekend at a wedding with my friend, and Sunday cleaning my house and looking at houses with my girlfriend. So, when I woke up Monday and saw a charge from Nord, I was really confused. I log into my account, and sure enough, it says my account is active. This was puzzling. So after going back and forth with a customer service agent via their chat function, they A: finally cancel my auto-renewal, and B: tell me that I need to show proof of my cancellation via email in order to get my most recent month refunded. I go and look, and to my surprise, the only email I was sent was an email where I had to click a link in order to _CONFIRM_ my cancellation. Even after going back and forth, the agent would not refund me. They cancelled my auto-renewal, but no refund. They forwarded my request to their team via email, and I got a very quick email from a “customer service” agent about 5 minutes later saying nope no refund.

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Wait, what? I was holistically confused. Maybe I wasn’t observant enough. Perhaps I didn’t read the cancellation website carefully enough. Who knows. But apparently that email only lasted 15 minutes after I requested cancellation. They say this is for security reasons, and that is absolute horse shit, because I was able to log in to my account using a saved user/pass combination, chat up the agent for 5 minutes, and get auto-renewal cancelled. Hardcore security ya got there.

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And now they refuse to refund me, because I didn’t “complete the cancellation process.” Give me a fucking break. This is classic “dark pattern” behavior that so many companies use in order to try and keep customers on the hook for services they no longer want or need. Was I careful enough to read the website in detail? Who knows. But… companies should treat us like fucking human beings. It is so scummy to me that on the _same day I was charged_, they would not offer a refund. I have not logged onto Nord for several days. I have not used their service. This was a miscommunication/mixup/mistake/whateveryouwannacallit, and I am not trying to get one over on them. They are trying to get one over on me. It’s bullshit. Don’t subscribe to this company. They don’t deserve your money. More honest, decent, companies, deserve your money.

UPDATE: Big thanks to /u/caramel_member for helping me out with some behind the scenes action. Despite them already emailing me that I’m not eligible for a refund, they reversed course and are offering me a refund. While I am happy they’ve offered this refund to me, it doesn’t change how I feel. Someone who wasn’t as persistent or didn’t make such a stink on reddit wouldn’t be offered the same refund. Nord should reconsider how their refund policies, and cancellation process, work!

2

This is exactly why I stopped using Nord. There are a lot of good VPN services out there and I don’t need to use one with such a shady business model.

3

Whether their intention is to be deceptive or not, this behavior fits well with their business model. They set their monthly rate ridiculously high so they (I assume) rely on 1-year and 2-year subscriptions, and their incentive to provide quality services decreases.

Piss someone off enough to stop them from using the service? Well that’s ok because you already have 100% of the revenue and none of the cost for the next year. Want to cut corners on your software just to push users toward your freemium password manager? Go for it. What are those customers going to do about the new security risk? Switch?

There are other VPNs that are willing to continuously work for the money you pay them. That’s why I left.

4

my theory is this is the reason they give these fancy 3yr deals, so u dont puy through ios/android inapp purchases(double protection with paypal) where u can easily cancel

imyself hv a few spare debitcard tied to a bank/acc with almost no money in it to easily cancel

once ure nord ends, use diz, their newyork4 server spits out comcast ip

Nord should reconsider how their refund policies, and cancellation process

them liverpool sponsorships and cnn-ads dont pay themselves yaknow

5

I bought 1 month for $11.95, just to try out the service. Keep in mind, this was not even a free trial. However, they automatically opted me into recurring payments. Then, when I got hit with the 2nd charge (for the 2nd month, which I didn’t’ explicitly purchase), they will not refund the charge. Same crap about “30 day refund only applies to the first month.”

This is lame. When I go into a brick and mortar, say like Home Depot, and I buy 1 hammer, Home Depot doesn’t keep charging me for more hammers on subsequent days, weeks, or months.

I bought 1 month of NordVPN and that’s all I bought. Should be simple.

So, my recommendations are:

  • Don’t sign up with NordVPN, to begin with. They’ll rely on their TOU as a way to back out of any sort of refund for what I, and most customers, would deem unscrupulous billing practices.
  • If you do sign up with NordVPN for only 1 month, you should explicitly go into your account and disable recurring billing. As of 8/26/2021, the instructions are here to disable recurring payments.
  • Be very careful if you update your billing info. The footer, in small print states: “By updating your payment details, you agree to turn on automatic renewal for your current subscription. See offer details and cancellation terms here.”
  • If you choose to discontinue NordVPN, you should explicitly request that your account and all data be deleted. As of 8/26/2021, you can do so with the form here.

Yes, a scummy company, for sure.

6

i don`t understand why people dont use the chat option. i have cancelled twice in the last 6 months after trying out and always used chat option. Very quick . took 5 minutes.

7

Express VPN just did this to me. I turned off auto renewal and went for Nord. Express then charged me anyway and I emailed them and they said it wasn’t turned off and sent them a picture then said they would refund it. It still hasn’t gone off my credit card though and I’m giving it a day or 2 more before I go to my credit card company

8

I’m glad you posted this and I wholly agree. Companies that do this kind of sketchy shit are already going fast down that slippery slope into scamtown. It’s a damn shame to see Nord be this way, acting like a bunch of assholes.

9

Can you recommend a better one? I thought Nord was the best but now I see I’m wrong, which sucks. And explains a lot. I’ve had such a hard time with them lately and their lack of phone customer service. I waited over an hour for a chat room agent. Terrible customer service and I still have unsolved issues.

10

Whats your preferred VPN?

11

Because you shouldn’t be required to talk to someone to do basic account management. And you’re right. Once I started chatting with an agent, they were quick to cancel the auto-renew. Look up “dark patterns.” Requiring someone to use a chat service, talk on the phone, or go through extra steps just to cancel something is an attempt to prevent them from doing so. It’s {current year}, I should be able to manage my account on my own.

12

I spent over an hour waiting for an agent in their chat room, then gave up and posted here. Got help right away.

13

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14

How do you remove your payment info?

15

Same. My card expired actually and I have no intention of giving them the new one

16

proton

chloeayling sealofapproval

17

It’s a little dated but maybe this will help?

https://www.speedtest.net/fastest-vpn

18

Well, I’ve decided to stick only with known and reputable companies based in favorable non-Five Eyes countries for privacy, and with reasonably priced plans where I can pay monthly. My rankings:

  1. Proton, which I currently use. They have a $5 (€5 if you don’t choose USD) monthly plan. It only allows for connecting 2 devices at a time but that’s fine for me. If you need to use more than 2 devices simultaneously, their next plan up is twice that price and you might as well move on to #2 at that point. Great service and clients for Windows and Android. Location: Switzerland
  2. Mullvad. I would pick these guys if I had to pay in Euros or needed to connect more devices. It’s €5 monthly (~$6 at current exchange rates, and 10% off when you pay with BTC or BCH) and you can connect 5 devices at a time. I’ve used them and they have great service and clients for Windows and Android, though their Android app doesn’t offer the adblocking feature I like from Proton and others. Location: Sweden

Both of those are companies with good records, good service, no logs policies, and in jurisdictions that are legally and practically favorable in terms of privacy. They also both have full or partial refunds if you aren’t unsatisfied. Some honorable mentions that don’t check all the same boxes as the two above:

  • Surfshark. While they don’t offer a reasonably priced monthly plan, they are particularly cheap if you can take advantage of extra deals and that makes them a lower financial risk compared to other long-term options. $59.76 for 28 months with coupon code REDDITSPECIAL. That’s $2.13/month, and if you can also take advantage of a special offer through Capital One, you get an extra 25% back and end up paying $44.82. And they allow you to connect an unlimited number of devices. They tend to get good reviews but they haven’t been around as long as the other guys and, like I said, don’t offer a monthly plan. I personally tried them and didn’t get as good of speeds. Location: British Virgin Islands
  • IVPN. They offer a $6 monthly plan for connecting 2 devices. I haven’t tried them and I don’t hear much about them but what I have heard is positive. Location: Gibraltar

My thoughts on a few other providers (purely my opinions):

  • ExpressVPN. They have a good reputation but their monthly and long-term plans are comparatively pricey. Never tried them. Registered location: British Virgin Islands
  • Private Internet Access. They had a good reputation but were acquired in 2019 by Kape Technologies and I’m not a fan of that (something to look into). They have a no logs policy but are based in a Five Eyes country. I had good speeds with them but left.
19

they are always trying to get you to stay as a customer hence the "call in to cancel’ policy. i dont even bother looking to cancel online for anything because i know its a dead end street. i just call or chat online saving me the headache of trying to find a way online…

20

Interesting… I usually chat within 5 minutes , but this was a couple of months ago. Maybe things have changed …