PureVPN lifetime account - Should we trust this company?

VPN
1

I am another customer where PureVPN are refusing to honour their lifetime commitment.

Like other posters, I bought a lifetime license and PureVPN have now unilaterally decided to expire the account after exactly 5 years.

I bought my license in December 2016 after having a few months to trial their service, at the time the company were offering many durations, including 3 year, 5 year, and lifetime. I paid for lifetime. If I wanted 5 years then I would have paid for 5 years which was being offered at a lower price then lifetime.

During my time with PureVPN I had several non-related support tickets with them. One such conversation was with their Mr Sam Sharp who held the post of Head of Corporate Affairs, and in an email he referred to my account as a “lifetime account”.

In December 2021 PureVPN flagged my account as expired. They no longer respond to my emails or service tickets (tickets 1718923 / 1814467), instead referring me to Stack Social, who in turn have offered my a license to a different product called Keep Solid VPN Unlimited - claiming that that will be a “free replacement, lifetime subscription with no additional charges or renewals”. But would this be honoured in a few years time ?

In addition, Stack Social point out that PureVPN do not currently offer a lifetime account. But that is irrelevant ! It does not matter what contract terms PureVPN offer currently - all that matters is what the terms of the contract were at the time that I entered into that deal with them. They wanted and took my money in exchange for a ‘lifetime contract’. If they do not honour that commitment - then they are in breach of contract.

Here in the UK, the appropriate law would appear to be the Consumer Rights Act 2015; and there is also the CISAS dispute resolution route that Ofcom (the regulator) would advocate.

PureVPN’s marketing arm prominently push “fastest speeds / no logs / etc.” - which are claims that not everybody would wholeheartedly agree with. Customer goodwill and trust is hard to earn and not difficult to loose. Existing and aspiring customers may wish to ponder whether PureVPN, with its recent history of repudiating contracts, is an honourable company to do business with ?

Caveat emptor.

2

Happy to jump on this - my ‘lifetime’ account via StackSocial was due to expire 2022-01-17 and with assistance from PureVPN support on this sub I’ve managed to get that renewed. Expiration date now reflects 2027-01-19.

When I initially contacted them, StackSocial was pretty keen to get me onto another provider’s package, even offered my $20 for inconvenience. I didn’t like the provider, I declined. Their next offer was a one-time 2-year extension of the PureVPN subscription, which I didn’t even reply to.

I’m not happy that PureVPN had to get involved directly in what seems to be StackSocial’s problem, but I confirm it can be resolved.

3

Hey u/hilltop2019, I am sorry for the trouble that you have been facing with your lifetime issue. But please understand that your agreement for the lifetime subscription is with StackSocial (meanwhile PureVPN is just the service facilitator) and you need to contact them to renew your account.

We are more than happy to nudge StackSocial from our end on your behalf, however, we do not control the lifetime subscription nor its policies. If you can share your email address with me in chat, I’d be more than happy to escalate this with StackSocial but please understand that the terms & policy-maker of this subscription is StackSocial.

4

I am the original poster of this message, and my issue has now been resolved.

Well, here we are again, 27 days later.

Thank you to the various posters who have commented here and elsewhere and shared their experiences, advice, and outcomes.

A very big thanks go to the moderators of this site who have advised me via chat and played a hand behind the scenes to resolve this matter.

Like many other users, it seems that the root cause was not with PureVPN themselves, but rather with Stack Commerce who fronted the original sale, in my case back in 2016.

As advised by the moderators I had numerous e-mails with various Stack staff, who worked pretty hard to get me onto a different product, and also offered me the ubiquitous $20 credit bribe. (Note that they did not offer to refund me 20 dollars - but merely credit my account with them against future purchases on their site). Having read numerous cases here regarding this lifetime license fiasco, I knew to stay calm and persist for my rights.

Eventually, my case with Stack was escalated (immediately after me mentioning contract breach) to a “manager”, who immediately promised to sort out this issue, which to his credit he did.

Stack’s manager stated that I now have another 5 year license, which can be further extended after that. This is the same outcome as other customers have experienced, so I guess we’ll all be back here in 2026 / 2027 !

I’ve used PureVPN over the last few days and it all seems ok. Case closed.

​

My overall takeaway is that these license duration issues do no favours to PureVPN. Customers are invariably unhappy as their licenses ‘expire’, and then confused when directed back to the original re-seller (in my case, Stack).

Perhaps some sort of message needs to be incorporated into Pure’s customer account information page, explaining the situation and directing them back to the reseller ?

As a customer, I am satisfied that the issue has now been resolved, but frustrated at the hoops I had to jump through and the time taken. Does this happen with other VPN providers ? I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m sure that some prospective buyers will be put off by these stories.

Ultimately it is up to PureVPN to decide their marketing strategies, and maybe they are satisfied that using resellers in this manner works for them. Perhaps they periodically review customer satisfaction, including reseller issues ? It certainly keeps the moderators occupied.

I started this posting by asking whether we should trust this company ?

I am satisfied that my issue has been resolved (albeit for ‘only’ another 5 years), and am grateful to the moderators who took my issue seriously and helped deliver the solution.

“Caveat emptor” = you decide.

5

Update: Account renewed for another 5 years. Thank you. Will be back here in 2027. :grinning_face:

In the similar situation. Currently running back and forth between StackSocial and PureVPN ti kets to get this sorted. Seems StackSocial lied all about this lifetime subscription and is now offering customers to move to a different VPN provider. Would appreciate if PureVPN can help escalate this for my account as well.

6

I too am having this issue with StackSocial and PureVPN. With no results so far.

7

I’m having this same issue so I guess I have to go the company I brought this from reather then the service provider

8

Thank you for following up to share that StackSocial eventually did what they agreed to do. I’m following the same path of 1) offer a junk VPN, 2) offer $20, 3) offer 2 years PureVPN (give up rights to future renewal). Has anyone found an attorney interested?

9

Hey, u/nikhilkhorwal your PureVPN account has been extended! I am sure our support team would have updated you on this as well.

10

Both PureVPN and StackSocial are breaking a contract

Neither should be trusted.

Terrible

Dealing with same thing as you