I bought a license for Panda AV Pro 1 PC / 1 year......then I upgraded that license to a 5 PC / 2 years..... First problem, Panda failed to detect a virus which I reported on their forums I was not happy, next, I come to know that everytime you format, Panda will detect your system with a new MUID as if it was a new computer, and thus, if you activate again, it will use one of my seats for my 5 user license. As a person who formats a lot, testing new hardware every now and then and new software, this is a deal breaker for me because after a while, my license will show that it has been used up by all seats even though I just have it installed on one or 2 computers. There is no way to de-activate the license through the Panda AV Pro itself like other programs allow you to remove the license and there is no way to login to the webportal and manage your license / seats........so this is a big deal breaker for me.... next, I try to contact their so called VIP support that has nothing to do with VIP, I only for a reply after 72 hours with non relevant information to my request....... I then emailed them several times asking for a refund....no luck I contacted them via Twitter, they just keep telling me someone will get in touch with me which he did, but never got back to my reply...... Then I filed a case via PayPal but PayPal rejected my case for the first time saying that they cannot verify non tangible items such as software licenses....... although they have always helped me in the past... I am stuck now, I want to cancel this license which was bought just a few days ago and is not gonna serve me any good...... Can someone help me with the contact person of some manager @ Panda who will actually reply to me? Thanks
Panda will never issue a refund. The only recourse is to charge back your credit card. If you used Paypal via Bank, then you need to dispute the charge through the bank. Ideally you should choose a single credit card with a strong warranty, and chargeback policies that favor the consumer. In my case I use Discover, which doubles the warranty of anything I buy online, and guarantees a chargeback if I dispute it. Paypal has little to no protection, which is why I avoid it's use in most cases. Amazon-Payments is a better choice where that type of system is required. I was shocked to see Norton has a 60 day refund policy, even for used codes, which encourages me to give them business. As for Panda, I was forced to charge them back in the past as well.
I lack the technical knowledge to know if Panda has the ability to detect the use of your license on another PC in a way other than why you lost a seat. But if there is, from what you say, Panda's Sales and Advertising appear, in effect, to be a form of fraud. In your next attempt to contact someone at Panda who can either refund your payment or reset your remaining number of seats, the use of the term "fraud" and "Filing a Complaint with The Federal Trade Commission" (which you can do online) might work wonders. Panda does business in the USA , http://www.pandasecurity.com/usa/homeusers/solutions/antivirus/, and is thus subject to the jurisdiction of the FTC. From what you tell, I would not hesitate to play "hardball" with Panda. But I am a retired trial lawyer and a deep-seated sense of justice is ingrained in me. You are clearly getting screwed and Panda is blowing you off apparently. If Panda has a USA or other public relations contact listed on it's USA site, a similar email to him/her should also be sent. I tried Panda but stopped more than a decade ago because of antiquated password BS and impossible customer service. (At that time Panda protection could stop completely while that cute little panda remained smiling in your tray giving no indication something was amiss.) Was nice when pBust was here but if he has indeed moved on - fight for what you paid for. BTW: Thanks for posting. I was actually thinking of giving Panda a try, but after reading your post - no way.
Kaspersky does the same thing regarding limits on activation. I reached the activation limit of 15 times, and I made a call to USA Kaspersky tech support, and they reset the activation. They did ask a lot of questions, but I had all the right answers. Anyway, hope you get it sorted because you are definitely not getting what you paid for.
imo if you used a card i would immediately dispute it. a client of mine just today had a VERY bad experience with his previous av when he tried to renew he had an issue so he called into them and they proceeded to try to tell him he was badly infected and that he needed to let them connect to his machine to remove 12 programs all shown to be malicious from their end (yeah okay) he called me while on the phone with them and put them on speaker phone and i listened into the whole conversation and let's just say they were trying to scam him 100%. the sadest part was the phone number he called was in the email he got with his renewal lic in case he had any "problems" with the activation. he is now today filing a charge back for the 2 years av he bought from them to extend his lic. i will not post who it was unless people would like to know. long story short ALWAYS AND I MEAN ALWAYS use a credit card when buying things like this even if you pay through paypal. this was you can dispute things like this. and then if you somehow get stuck with auto renewal you can as a last resort just cancel the credit card to stop them from charging you again. if you would like to shoot me a pm and ill get your info and call my contact at panda (though it may do zero good this is why i stopped selling panda out of my shop i ran into many times where i had trouble even as a reseller getting things taken care of) you may want to contact who ever it was the did the billing for them also like avast uses digital river im not sure who panda uses but i can find out for you if you want me to.
How do you make money doing this? He purchased the license from them, then calls you for free advice?
Thanks for the advice bro, doing a charge back here in Dubai is a hassle and takes lots of time. I'll just sell this license to one of my customers that I repair PCs for and be don with Panda for good
I do that as well. In the past I've sold off Webroot, Avira, and Bullguard. Products I won't use, but purchased and didn't feel like hosing my account at Newegg or whatever.
yeah this is much easier than filing a claim through the bank and waiting for a month or so till it's verified and resolved.
i handle everything else for him and now i also handle his av needs. he wanted an av i did not carry or sell at the time previously and when it came time to renew he just went ahead and bought from them. but simple i always provide excellent support and this makes me permanent clients who then always come to me anytime they need anything else from then on. and on top of that he recc's me to many other people who are also now my clients so when he needed a hand i helped him out. imo this is whats wrong with business today. i run mine like an old world company when someone needs help i help them out. this makes life long clients.
Well judging by the state of Panda support, which itself is an "old world" company (based in Spain), you're doing yourself a disservice calling your business that. you go above and beyond and many people appreciate this.
True. We find people gain more respect when you are expensive. Not only are their expectations higher, we can afford to meet their expectations with the talent and resources. My CEO says 'Not everyone can afford us, and we are OK with that, because we can't afford everyone as clients.". We charge by the 15 minute block, if you call for some simple questions, the clock starts ticking, but you can expect to get an engineer on the line, and expect to have your question/problem properly addressed. But that's why we are successful, and growing by the week. 75% of our work is cleaning up the messes from other IT companies, or "Joe Bob" PC Mechanic. Joe Bob is fine for running around fixing driver issues, or installing AV's but when a company expands, and needs some UTM, or several ESXI setups, or some VLANs, Joe Bob tries to do it, and makes a mess of things. So often it's cheaper for people to just pay for the pros, and be done with it. Obviously Panda doesn't care too much anymore about customer care. Not to brag about Norton, but open a web chat with them and they seem like they are willing to do what it takes to help.
Without customer service, how does Panda survive? how does it get return customers? Surprises me..... if anyone experience what I experienced, they would never renew the license, and would never recommend them. You know how word quickly gets around. A company with phone numbers that don't work (talking about the Dubai number), no customer service, a lame forum that you would be lucky to get a reply in 48 hours and it's usually 2 guys that reply.....no refund policy.... such company must be shut down!
What I'd like to know more is how are they getting such good results in lab tests lately. Panda was always a mediocre AV at best.
I assume this is a result of movement to cloud, fingerprinting, and machine learning types of systems? Companies that invest into that kind of technology are going to start to pull ahead of traditional signature/heuristic based AV solutions, and we're already seeing that.
My refund request was approved and I no longer see my license under the Panda Account, they said I will get the refund in like 15 days! finally! I get a response.....
