NordVPN - Trying to get a partial refund

Danger781

Hey folks,


I've tried engaging with NordVPN support in the hopes of receiving a partial refund as this service simply isn't up to my needs. I pre-paid for two years up front but I have zero intention of utilising the second year, never mind the remainder of the first year.



Do I have any leg to stand on in the hopes of receiving a partial refund for the second year? Honestly I probably wouldn't even be pursuing this anymore if the first support agent I interacted with wasn't such a snotty prick when I was simply making an inquiry about partial refunds..


Anyway, let's start in the beginning; When I was first looking for a VPN supplier I had two challenges in mind that needed to be resolved:

1. Removing geo-restrictions on Amazon Prime TV (And Netflix potentially)
2. Added security when downloading and seeding torrents on my home connection.

Quick research suggested that NordVPN were OK with P2P connectivity and that they were one of few suppliers that worked with Prime TV to remove the geo-restrictions. Sounded like it ticked all of the boxes so I went ahead and purchased a subscription and this is where my initial disappointment was faced.. There is no NordVPN app for the Fire Stick. Some more research suggested that it is possible to sideload the Android app onto the Firestick, which worked fine but it's completely unusable in anything that allows me to retain my sanity. I'm randomly navigating around the UI and hoping I land on the right button as there is no method to the madness of the app layout.. I feel like I'm trying to enter cheat codes into a game console while trying to move the fire stick cursor around the UI. To make matters worse, if I did manage to successfully connect using my cheat code sequence of button pressing, I was not guaranteed to connect to a server that removed the geo-restrictions. From what I can see it's lucky dip whether it will work or not.. Nobody in their right mind could call this "Fit for purpose" so that rules out #1.


I held onto the subscription as I figured I'd use it regardless when I get my home media server up and running properly.. I have almost never logged on since originally purchasing this subscription. This week I've finally got my new server set up so I was getting my torrent machine working via VPN. This is really what caused the most frustration as I now learned that NordVPN does not allow port forwarding which has a knock-on effect of:

• Severely reduced speeds. I have a 240Mb connection at home and on an open connection I can download torrents at about 20MB - 30MB/s at peek speeds. While on the TCP connect to the VPN I was hitting a max of 4MB/s, and via the UDP profile I was hitting 2MB/s max. This is painfully slow compared to usual.
• As a second side-effect of not being able to port forward it means that I am not contactable to the torrent tracker service, meaning that my contributions and share ratio do not reflect accurately as the tracker does not show me as connectable. I am not connectable because the tracker connects over the incoming port set via my torrent application.

The above two combined are a complete deal breaker, and when you also consider the lack of FireTV support, it means that the VPN is simply not fit for purpose as it doesn't resolve any of my needs. I now have absolutely no need for the NordVPN and I have zero intention of using it unless port forwarding is implemented.



The first support contact I was in contact with stated there is a no exception 30 day refund policy. However there clearly is exceptions to this rule, as there is an official reply from NordVPN to a customer on TrustPilot stating that they will be offering a partial refund:
https://ie.trustpilot.com/review/nordvpn.com




Do I simply need to write off the money paid and put it down as a learning experience and avoid NordVPN at all costs in the future?



Theoretically could I request a chargeback via my bank if NordVPN won't budge, providing the bank with details of my interactions with their support agents?

GerardKeating

Danger781 wrote: »

Theoretically could I request a chargeback via my bank if NordVPN won't budge, providing the bank with details of my interactions with their support agents?

If you try a chargeback and lose, your card issuer will normally levy a fee, so you could still lose more money.

Someone might argue that your main problem (lack of firestick app) was poor research on your part, unless they claimed a firestick app.

The port forwarding issue would be easy to miss, Are you doing the port forwarding in NordVPN, or is your router ?

Cockford Ollie

For UK Prime you no longer need VPN. Contact Amazon support and ask them to change your location to UK. After Brexit who knows what will happen to this method.

For American Prime, you could set up the VPN on your router, or get a cheap second router with the VPN setup and connect to that for when you want to use the VPN. Probably not worth it for the content you get. Also the stick itself might be geolocked to the market you bought it in.

I don't see why they would refund you. Should have got the 1 month plan as a trial or canceled within 30 days for free.

Xterminator

Hi Op

IMO you haven't a leg to stand on legally - so far - ill come back to this. Its not marketed as a service for fire-sticks that gets your amazon prime.

your main issue appears to be the lack of native support for the fire stick. that one is on you. Nowhere on nord vps website do they offer claims their product will work with fire-stick.nor do the make amazon prime claims etc.

their headline offering is "Get secure and private access to the Internet" - which it does,
next selling point "Protect all your devices" and it lists the supported devices/ OS. no firestick there.


nor is it their issue that your torrents are not tracking right. thats not to say they might not have some support KB articles to help you, they may. But again its not their issue.

but the last claim they make is the one i think you should pursue with NORD VPN support. "Enjoy fast and stable connection anywhere". you are not getting this service. however it has not been established why, as least in your information above.

I recommend you open a support ticket, work with them and if you cannot resolve the speed issue then you would have a stronger case for partial refund. But only if you can establish the issue is one at their end. if the issue is at your end or your isp throttling etc, i don't think they would legally be obliged to refund, however if you work with the tech support guys to the end, and still do not get the service advertised, then you be in a strong position.

please do not bring up the other issues as part of your argument for a refund - as its not their problem. you could mention that the lack of (native) support for fire OS does reduce the usefulness of your subscription to you, but again, that was quite clear from the outset.

finally here is an independent review of the service offered by nord vpn. https://uk.pcmag.com/vpn/40845/nordvpn
Its a 5 out of 5 top marks review. as are most. they offer a good service - and most of your issues are around not what they do, but what they dont do - it seems your expectations were not met, but were they reasonable expectations?

DivingDuck

Danger781 wrote: »

There is no NordVPN app for the Fire Stick. Some more research suggested that it is possible to sideload the Android app onto the Firestick, which worked fine but it's completely unusable in anything that allows me to retain my sanity.

Just for reference, because I had the same issue: there is an app for it, it just only works with the newer model of FireStick. I had the original stick, put the app on it, and it didn't work. After a long song and dance with support, they finally admitted that the app will only work on the newer model.

Picked up the 4K version recently, loaded the app, zero issues.

Might not solve your problem, but if they refuse to refund and you want to keep the service and had been considering upgrading your Fire stick, it might be worth considering.

Danger781

Xterminator wrote: »

I recommend you open a support ticket, work with them and if you cannot resolve the speed issue then you would have a stronger case for partial refund. But only if you can establish the issue is one at their end. if the issue is at your end or your isp throttling etc, i don't think they would legally be obliged to refund, however if you work with the tech support guys to the end, and still do not get the service advertised, then you be in a strong position.

This is what I tried to do. I went via support chat first, made my problem explicitly clear about not being able to port forward.. I explained that my speeds were not acceptable and that outside of the VPN I was able to get maximum speeds but I was currently getting ~10% of my max speed on VPN. So I still went through the song and dance of an inexperienced agent pasting in recommendations from KB articles - I work in tech support for a living so I know the story We went through:
- Verifying that I was connect P2P enabled VPN host

- Asking me drop from the VPN to verify I was getting full speeds
- Asking me to change from TCP to UDP VPN profile (Which made speeds slower somehow..)

- Asking me to verify my settings in the torrent client matched their recommendations in terms of max peers

- Finally asking me to change torrent clients from Transmission to qBitTorrent



I got tired of changing and updating things that I knew were not going to help, and I had no interest in changing torrent clients or fiddling with more settings when I knew it all worked perfectly via Tranmission off the VPN. It was going to have no effect so I politely explained how port forwarding was necessary in order for me to experience my desired speeds, and at this point he seemed to lose interest in helping me and kept linking me to a knowledge article that stated port forwarding was not supported.



At that point I asked if there was a next level support I could reach out to, or a manager or escalation team of some sort. I specifically said that I appreciated the time he had spent in helping me troubleshoot and I that I also understand he may not have the authority to issue a refund; So I requested to speak with someone who could. This was request was simply shut down.



So I asked for the email to contact the support team so that I could explain my situation in better detail. He provided this with a snarky comment saying "You're wasting your time you'll only be told the same thing" (Can't remember the exact word-for-word quote but that's pretty close). Maybe it was because I was tired but that really pissed me off. I expressed my disappoint and said that was not very professional, provided him with a negative rating and promptly ended the chat.



Email support then followed up with an email saying "As per your discussion with my colleague..." so again the door was shut.



Maybe I messed up by pointing out the lack of port forwarding functionality.. I don't think the engineer even knew what I was talking about.. Either way the lack of professionalism is enough for me to not recommend NordVPN ever again.