I hate the way Best Buy does the renewal


Userlevel 5
Badge +19
I mean I like that you get what you pay for. (Norton used to urge you to renew early and then in the fine print it would say that you forfeited any remaining days you had on the old subscription. Best Buy has never done that.)
 
But...
 
And it's a big BUT!!!
 
About a month ago I get an email saying that my subscription would automatically renew with the credit card they had on file and there was no action required on my part.
 
For most of the month, the Webroot panel has been yellow and every day I am urged to renew.
 
Three days ago, the panel turns red and there is a red excamation. I even called Best Buy to make sure that I didn't need to push the renew button and enter my info. But they said no.
 
Today I turn on my pc and Webroot says it is expired and all shields are off. So I call Best Buy again and they say it's OK. It shows that I am still active. (But not on my end.) She says that it is scheduled to renew at midnight on the 29th. She also confirms my credit card. So I guess I'm OK, but seeing all the shields turned off doesn't give me a sense of confidence. So I shut the pc off and will wait until tomorrow to use it.
 
This happens every year. When I mentioned it last year, somebody on the forum said there might be a brief period in between the billing cycles where it shows expired. But I'm telling you that it is expired for a full 24 hours! This happens every year. If there is a thirty day grace period, it seems like the shields should at least be on.I did notice that windows didn't complain about there not being an anti-virus, so maybe that means it's OK. I don't know. All I see is red and the shields are all off. Confidence zero.
 
Seems like there should be a better way of handling this!

13 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Thanks for the feedback - we are working on improving the process and I'll pass along your feedback to the folks here to make sure thye incorporate that into the process.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
So I talked to some folks here and if you are on the auto-renewal then Webroot shouldn't be behaving the way you described.  It should just autorenew in the background and stay green the whole time.  I'm going to have someone here contact you to troubleshoot and figure out why it isn't working properly.
Userlevel 5
Badge +19
Thanks. I received a message from my bank late last night saying that my card had been used. I checked it and it was the BestBuy charge. I got a email from the Geek Squad today at 2:00 pm saying that my subscription had successfully been renewed.
 
When I turned on the pc...after having it off all day yesterday...the first thing I saw when I opened my desktop was a renewal notice from Webroot. I opened the webroot panel and it was green again and all the shields were back on. I ran a scan and then closed webroot to the task bar again. There was a second renew notice under the webroot panel. Although Webroot was green it also had a renew button. I opened Webroot again and now the renew button is gone. It has been replaced by a GetHelp button.
 
As near as I can remember, the same procedure I described above has happened for the last 5-6 year whenever it is time to renew. Only difference I can remember is one time they said they needed my help because my card had expired and I need to update it.
 
Even if I click the renew button, it makes no difference in the processs. Everything I descibed happens every time.
 
Don't get me wrong. I like BestBuy and I like Webroot. Just don't like this renewal procedure. If Webroot is going to expire on the 28, then they should renew it at the start of the 28 and not the start of the 29th. But that's just my take on things.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I'm wondering if you have more than one keycode that might be causing the confusion.  Would you like me to have support contact you to sort all this out?  We did put some effort into making the renewal process easier, so if it isn't working properly then we'd like to find out why.
Userlevel 5
Badge +19
Support can contact me.
 
As far as the keycodes go...
 
This is a new pc. About 3 months old. I downloaded the BestBuy installer and then I entered the keycode BestBuy gave me. It has only had the one keycode installed on it. My old pc (which I still have an seldom use) has the same keycode on it.
 
The old pc originally had a different keycode. I think I tried to use that password thing and it wouldn't let me log in and I contacted Webroot and they told BestBuy to give me a new keycode. It is the second code that I am still using. The original keycode is dead. It still shows in my console but is inactive. But again that keycode has never been on the new pc.
 
If anybody looks at my account, I wanted to point out that I also have a second subscription that is just Webroot only...not purchased from Best Buy. This code has never been on the pc that I was having the renewal drama with either.
Userlevel 5
Badge +19
Just wanted to add that I have two keycodes because I have too many devices. But I have not overlapped the keycodes on any device.
 
And it must be normal to get the repeated renewal messages, because if you call Best Buy and go through the recorded answering service and say that you are calling about your antivirus software...a recorded message will ask if you are calling about the repeated renewal messages. They will say that it is OK. That the messages will continue until your software renews. (Or something similar to that.)
 
The only part that I really object to is that Webroot said it was expired and the shields were all off, but my software wasn't scheduled to renew until midnight of the day after it expired. In my case, the software expired on April 28, but the renewal didn't happen until 12 am on April 29. End result was that Webroot was saying it expired for a 24 hour period, even though I had an auto-renewal.
 
BestBuy said my software was still active and all was well. And maybe they were right. But it bothered me that Webroot was reporting that it was expired all all shield were off.
 
I mean, if I try to go to a website and Webroot blocks me and advises me not to go there because there are know viruses, then I should listen right? But if Webroot says that it is expired and all the shields are off, I should think there is nothing to worry about.because there is suppose to be a 30 day grace period.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Ok I'll have support contact you and see if we can get everything sorted out.
Userlevel 5
Badge +19
Thanks.
 
When I turned on that computer today, there was a red renewal message. But the Webroot panel was green and all shields were on and it said I had 364 days left on my subscription. I don't recall ever getting a renewal message after it successfully renewed before.
 
I wonder if there is still something active on  Best Buy's side of things with the old expired code.
 
I looked at my account in webroot on the computer in question and there is only one keycode listed.
 
I did look in the console and I have two active subscriptions...a Best Buy one and a Webroot only one. That is correct. There is also the expired keycode that used to be for the Best Buy subscription. I looked at the expired keycode that was listed in the console and it is different than the active one on the computer in question. I don't remember this but it also said that the expired code was an automatice upgrade to another keycode. So maybe the problem has something to do with that.
 
Glad to hear that this isn't the way it is suppose to work...the way I described in my first post.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I think something must be awry with your keycode.  I talked to one of the escalation folks in there and they said it didn't look like all the flags were set properly.  Probably the easiest thing to do is just issue you a new one.  Has support gotten in touch with you yet?
Userlevel 5
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I heard from Tech Support today. They mentioned that there were multiple keycodes associated with my email address. Is that a problem? I have 6 devices and the most available through a subscription is 5 devices.
 
There apparently were 3 keycodes associated with the Best Buy account. I only know about 2 of them. According to the note in my console, the second was an automatic upgrade from the first. Tech support also said that it appears that I have a new keycode waiting for me to activte. I know nothing about this keycode. It was not mentioned in the email I received from the Geek Squad on April 29, 2015. If it is older than that, then I don't know when or why it was issued.
 
Even though my Best Buy subscription is now active and has 363 days remaining, I still got a red prompt to renew today.
 
I think when my subscription with Best Buy ends next year, I will switch so both subscriptions are Webroot only. As I recall, when the non-Webroot subscription renewed, the remaining days on the expiring subscription was simply added to the new subscription.
 
With the Best Buy subscription I have always had the drama I discribed in my first post. And I have called the Geek Squad every year asking why it keeps telling me to renew when I already have and again when it says that it is expired when I'm waiting on them to renew.
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Yes you can do that next year and look around Christmas time WSA have sales on from Black Friday on into the new year! The only thing is if you use the password manager make sure to back them up before switching keycodes as you will lose them that is the only issue when changing keycodes and if you buy the Complete and use the Password Manager and the Back Up & Sync you have to make sure you get your Backed Up files and Passwords and you can always contact Webroot Support and add new keycode time onto your current keycode so you don't have to worry about it then that's what I do!
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel 😉
Userlevel 5
Badge +19
Thanks. I haven't used the password manager or Back Up & Sync. Maybe I don't know what I am missing. I was always afraid to have all the passwords in one place. If they hack that they they would have them all..
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
Well if your using the Best Buy via Geek Squad then you have a special version of Webroot SecureAnywhere Internet Security Plus which does not have Back Up & Sync. See the difference between the 3 here: http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/
 
Thanks,
 
Daniel 😉

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