First off, I wanted to try out a VPN for a couple reasons. I had received a copyright infringement letter from comcast, and I play League Of Legends and wanted to try it to possibly remedy the packet loss I have been experiencing. I chose IPVanish because I just googled “best VPNs” and a couple websites suggested them.
First issue: After I decided on them I started the check out process for one months subscription. I do the deed and they tell me I had just purchased a year. I am pretty confident I changed the option to go for a month, but none the less I could have made a mistake. I immediately sent them an email to their support email. That was Thursday night, it is now Monday morning and I have yet to year back from them.
Second Issue: They advertise a server in Tampa Florida. It doesn’t show up anywhere in the desktop application to use. I also checked the forums to see if it was down, and there was nothing. So now I had to connect to Miami, which is over 300 miles away compared to the less then 100 of Tampa.
Third Issue: Ping spikes. I was testing out the service and constantly, every 10-15 seconds getting 800ms Ping spikes. I tried connecting to different servers, all around the US. Same issue for all of them. I turn off the VPN service and i experience little to no ping issues at all.
So Now that I haven’t heard from them in a few days, would it be grounds to contact my bank and have them reverse the transaction? Also, is there any VPN anyone in Florida have had great success with using for gaming?
You were not provided what was sold to you, go right ahead and cancel the charge. Your bank will work with the seller and deal with it. You’re being wronged, luckily using credit helps make that right. (Debit will likely work too, it’s more of an annoyance though.)
FYI, Torguard is based out of FL and has their main presence there. You’d probably have very good results with them.
Also, Tampa isn’t a major IX (Internet Exchange), Miami is. So you’d likely have to be routed through Miami to get to Tampa anyway. Routing very rarely can be calculated based on the actual distance between two locations.
I tried the one month of IPVanish, as well. The support was, indeed, pathetic, as I didn’t even get my registration completion email that allowed me to use the VPN for a couple of days. I then got another response to the same request a few weeks later, which didn’t affect me but clearly shows they have no idea what’s going on over there. Other than the support, though, I didn’t have any problems.
The service itself seemed fine to me. In the month I had it, I torrented/gamed (WoW/D3) near Washington (state), Virginia, and Louisiana. I pretty good test pool. I always had good speeds unless the internet connection itself was poor. I wasn’t monitoring as closely as you were; however, my in game latency and torrent speeds were always fine.
I just got auto charged for one month because I forgot to cancel, but was thinking of doing PIA to try out next. PIA is consistently ranked amongst the best on many sites and here in /r/vpn. I did my research like you – a quick Google search. I should’ve done better since I’m a network security engineer.
Like /u/virt-who said, I wouldn’t get too tied up on going through Tampa. The differences between many of these places is milliseconds, and with Miami being your main IX in the area, you’re likely going through there are some point, anyway. Unfortunately, internet routing is not based much (read as: at all) on physical locations. So, in the end, it could be no difference.
I can’t speak about usage for gaming / Florida, but I’ve had success with Private Internet Access (PIA). It’s relatively simple (start on computer startup and connect) and has some neat options (e.g., disconnect internet if VPN drops).
Regarding your poor service. I definitely think that’s up for dispute at your local bank and to do a charge back. If this was a credit card, it’d be even easier, since for me, I can do a charge back directly from the website without actually having to talk to anybody.
Just coming back to update. I finally got a response, they are refunding my purchase all together and canceling my account. Atleast they got that right.
My speeds were pretty consistent with what I get normally, but sluggish at the same time.
As far as the tampa server goes, I understand, and I see that it most likely doesnt matter, but it’s still disappointing to see them advertise a server that they currently aren’t supporting or isnt available for yous.
Just a heads up for PIA. I signed up for this one last Thursday and ever since having some speed issues. I am based in Miami and like you a gamer ( CS GO though). I submitted tickets concerning this issue and their response time was more than 48 hrs. Also, I was constantly getting high ping when in game making it unplayable. So much so that for past couple of days if I want to play, I disconnect my VPN. I did speed tests and no matter what server I connect to, found that was getting around 40% less download speed.
If you are using a VPN to prevent packet loss/get a better ping in a certain game you should use a VPN that is physically located near the datacenter the game uses.
For example, the server for League of Legends North America is located in California… so you would want a VPN located in cali to TUNNEL your connection to cali skipping all the hops in between.
