My Full Experience with Express VPN

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1

I thought about getting a VPN for the better part of 2 years, I just didn’t have time to wade through the bazillion companies. Quite a few VPN companies have spotty reputations, and I’ll be honest, I’m not bursting with confidence over the integrity of the industry in general. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting it to be smooth. Call it the accumulated wisdom of life.

Still, I rolled the dice, and finally, on Monday, I signed up for an ExpressVPN account. I signed up, paid, watched the charge hit my bank statement, and within minutes, I was downloading the software.

I used it a bit to verify that everything was working, then went on about my week. I felt good about my choice.

“Well, I stand corrected”, I thought, "this company seems pretty professional. And here I was being all cynical.”.

It feels good when things succeed.

Anyway, Monday turns into Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, and finally it’s FRI-day, FRI-DAY, gotta get down on FRI-DAY, come on, everybody now …. fun, fun, fun, fun … you know how it goes.

I digress.

Friday rolls around, I fire up the VPN and …. ahhhh, yes, now THIS was more in line with my expectations.

ACCOUNT SUSPENDED

We couldn’t verify your billing information, so we’ve canceled your payment.

To reactivate your subscription, please email [email protected], subject line: Billing Verification.

The Billing Team will respond within 24-48 hours."

Sweet!, right before the weekend, and it’ll be up to 48 hours before anyone gets back to me. Woot! I was really hoping that I’d get a VPN that went down without notice for 2 days, and it looks like I lucked out!

Even though this was espected, a tyipically barrage of obvious questions popped into my head:

  • How did the charge go through to begin with? The bank certainly had no trouble taking the money from me. Isn’t verification supposed to happen at the point of sale?

  • Shouldn’t I be having this problem elsewhere? I’m not saying that online transactions are smooth everywhere else, but the card and billing info has never been a problem. Again, if the billing info was bad, how was the charge approved, and how was the money taken from me? I’ve had the card for well over a decade. I used it twice today at points-of-sale without issue.

  • Why didn’t I get an email? I don’t find out about this until I use the product (hint: this is obviously when I’m trying to accomplish something with it), and then, in this very insulting way.

  • This would work really well during bandwidth crunches. During usage spikes, give yourself a 48 hour reprieve by “not being able to verify” billing info. Not saying that happened, I’m just saying.

  • Suspend first, ask questions later? Really? Over $12? You couldn’t, you know, make a good-faith effort to … I dunno … contact me first and see if I could solve your issue before 86’ing the account right before the weekend? I would have worked with you, no problem.

Oh no, perish the though! That’s crazy talk! I’m just a customer. An insigificant piece of the online commerce puzzle. Why on earth would someone waste tme contacting me?

So there you have it. The totality of my experience with ExpressVPN.

Out $12 with nothing to show for it. Now that’s the online commerce I know and love.

Here’s wishing better luck to the rest of you.

2

I’m a new user of Express also and have had no issues. However, what you are describing has happened with other purchases but ended up being due to my fraud protection on my accounts. I just had to verbally approve the charges. The stress is worth it as the protection has rescued me on many occasions. Please update us on what ends up being the reason for the suspension.

3

Really weird, I’ve had this service for maybe 3-4 years and had no hickups while traveling nor from home.

Let us know what the actual reason was. I work in fin tech and have seen all kinds of errors in all sides as to why a charge might ‘go bad’. Could also be something in their own system where it went wrong and someone felt was easier to just reject the subscription (your money should be charged back to your account) and let it be retried later; not good practice but does happen.

It’s such a complex world, all the players, regulations and all details depending on payment down the whole chain.

I don’t have any specific loyalty to Express VPN, but I would say try to get payment sorted and then evaluate it. It might have been out of their control, or not, difficult to say.

4

I’ve never had any issues before, but I think you’re discounting how much can go wrong with online transactions, and transactions in general.

Like someone has said, it could be fraud protection or something wrong with your bank, or it could be Express. This being the first time I’ve ever heard of this even happening for Express I’d assume it’s your bank.

Just email support about it, they literally accept my emails and have a human respond to them over what server I should try using for Netflix. They’ll help you out the best they can, so don’t worry about it too much.

You seem overly cynical and overreactive about it tbh

5

That happened to me before. They explained everything to me as much as they could. The charge on your account was only an authorization. You can check that with your bank. Your transactions are not as instant as it looks. You may take it as you have given an “authorization” to the ExpressVPN to charge your account whatever amount it is. Now the bank will sort out your transaction with ExpressVPN. It usually takes a couple of business days before the money gets “transferred” to them. Now with the suspension, you would just need to verify your details with them. Though $12 may seem a little bit amount of money, but that’s how they take your security seriously. That’s my opinion though. I’ve been with them for over 2 years now and I feel safer surfing the internet with their service. Hoping everything will get sorted out on your account.

6

I try to watch Netflix on it for movies outside the US but it shits itself

7

yeah Express VPN is the bomb excellent and the best out there by far

8

I hear you, but it’s a card that I use often online, and it’s $12. Twelve whopping bucks. And it’s recurring every month. Fraudsters tend to aim a bit higher, and they likely won’t bother with recurring payments since they’ll be discovered before they can renew very many times (I assume).

You’d think Express could float me two days worth of the $12 I gave them … which is 80 cents … versus cutting it off entirely. It’s the assuming bad faith on my part which has turned me off.

I don’t want to show my age, but I remember a time when sayings such as “The customer is king” and “the customer is always right” were common.

Of course, the customer was not always right, it was more a state of mind, where the customer at least enjoyed the benefit of the doubt unless they proved unworthy of it. It seems like so long ago.

BTW, I just made a software purchase this morning (flight simulator telemetry app), and there was no issue.

As far as VPNs are concerned, reliability and availability are huge. After all, what good is a VPN that you can’t use? For whatever reason. That’s the exact same protection as nothing at all, despite having paid for the product, and having them money taken out of my account. It’s not like they just rejected the payment, they took the money then suspended the service days later. Lose/lose for me.

ExpressVPNs policy of “protect themselves first”, while I’m sure commonplace, is disappointing nonetheless. We’re talking a potential loss of 80 cents. With so many VPNs offering free trials, it’s hard to imagine cutting off a customer who has already indicated their intent to pay.

Like I said, perhaps they’re all like this and I realize that this is the best it gets. I guess I’m not so cynical as to have abandoned all hope for better treatment, though.

That being said, I do thank for your feedback. I appreciate it. I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

9

I hear you and don’t disagree. It’s the handling of it that I think was wrong.

S**t happens. Of course. Maybe their fault, maybe not, anything could be the case.

Since it could be anything, why am I, the paying customer, the only party to the issue to be disadvantaged?

See, while I’m supposed to be understanding, Express, OTOH, has taken the “it’s the customer’s fault” position … even though there is no real evidence to support this being the case. After all, all of the info passed the point of sale screening. Bad info will almost always cause it to fail.

So, you’re right, it’s not good practice.

Honestly, I doubt the issue is their fault, probably something with the bank and international payments, but the handling of the issue is 100% their doing.

It may be entirely impossible, but I’d sure like to find better treatment … if it exists.

Yeah, I know … good luck with that.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. It was insightful.

10

WoW!.. you basically typed a whole novel! Over something so little, omg hahahahahahahaha omg I just can’t fathom how much time one has on their own hands to post about this, … there are literally people dying of hunger in Africa and having to walk 7 hours a day just to get water and you want to sit at your luxurious desk probably eating MnMs and complain about how little Miss Bo Peep has lost her
ExpressVPN Sheep. (which… :pinching_hand::ok_hand::woman_tipping_hand: is probably the Most Amazing Technologically advances VPN there is and amazes me every day!! Like I mean wow! Like… the little fuckkn show they pull in front of your eyes with the browser extensions! Is fucking awesome!!! Like… they wow… but you have to have a slightly larger brain then usual to understand what’s going on… I can’t stress this enough… you do need some sort of a brain. To understand…
But anyway back to the point…) and doesn’t know where to find them…

And now I’ve wasted half my life typing this… I’m just as insane
“kills own self. :woman_facepalming::water_pistol:

11

You seem overly cynical and overreactive about it tbh

W-w-w-what has happened? I’m so confused.

OMH, who am I? Where am I? Nothing makes sense to me anymore.

See, up until this moment, I’ve typically found Internet users to be tirelessly self-critical while being non-judgmental toward others.

What you’ve done here, however, is something completely unique. You’ve publicly enunciated a criticism of my personality, while, and here’s the part that is unexpected … failed to mention any of your own faults.

I can only surmised that I’ve crossed into some kind of alternate realm, as this certainly doesn’t sound like the Internet that I know.

I can’t help but wonder if this new paradigm will catch on?

Nah.

P.S. Aside from that, I appreciate your feedback. They sounds like they’ve treated you well, and I’ll keep it in mind.

12

So, like, I’m in Africa and just had this exact problem happen to me too, but guess I should start that 7 hour walk for water instead of looking for help online!