Avangate review: Refund of $86.38

A few months back (about August 2023) I was interested in renewing Bitdefender and got an email for a substantial discount. I wasn't able to see complete information for the company, so I opened up the link on my desktop and proceeded to make the purchase, on a single screen, which was simply a link to Paypal. I never received the registration code from this vendor so I immediately felt like I had been scammed and contacted Paypal to open up a fraud investigation.

They reported that the cancellation was indeed fraudulent and the amount (it was less than $20) was refunded.

However the transaction in 2023, which I successfully reversed, never resulted in me being directed to a page with any additional information, such as a disclosure that I was being entered into an auto-renewal program. It was simply a Paypal link and not even a proper receipt or invoice at the end. (There was an email notification that the purchase went through, but no details like acknowledging who the vendor was that I'd made the purchase from - it definitely didn't say Avangate).

In 2021 I had purchased Bitdefender through best egg via Paypal and made sure that there was no auto-renewal in Paypal for that. I hate those.

But somehow this fraudulent party in August of 2023 was able, via Avangate, to enter me into auto-renewal and so I just received a charge for $86.38 showing up in my Paypal account as if I'd purchased something and authorized this auto-renewal.

Currently I am working with Paypal to try to take care of this. It's definitely not right. Avangate, if they are working through 3rd party individuals to make software sales, needs to ensure that auto-renewal is only initiated WITH FULL DISCLOSURE TO THE BUYER. When a buyer simply makes a one time purchase and there's no indication of ANY AUTO-RENEWAL, it is definitely fraud and I believe Avangate has already lost class action law suits on this matter - so why are they now engaging with 3rd party individuals? Perhaps as a way to avoid further class action cases? It's not going to work. Some of us are taking meticulous notes to find all the parties involved, among which, Avangate is surely not insignificant.