On 6/24/20 I paid for Netgear Armor. The expiration date in my netgear.com account says "2021-07-23."

I also purchased Pro-Support.

When I log into my router, in the HOME area the Security button says "STATUS: NOT ACTIVATED." When I log into my Nighthawk app on my iPhone, Security says: "Expired - Off" and when I tap it, it takes me to the store where it wants me to buy it all over again. (Important note: my Nighthawk app is logging into the correct account, and I have attempted to delete the app and re-install it and reconnect it to that account.)

At armor.netgear.com (also logged into the correct account - I have triple-confirmed that), I have a list of devices that had been scanned back on Jul 30, 2020 and a lot of devices that were never scanned. However, this I believe was from a "trial subscription" that I was somehow given, that has expired. (I never asked for a trial subscription. I bought the product.) If I click on one of these devices it says on the Overview block, "Local Protection: Your NETGEAR Armor subscription has expired." If I click on the "hamburger" icon on the upper left hand side of this UI, and select "My Subscriptions," it says "It seems you have no subscriptions." And gives me two buttons: one "Activation Code" and one "BUY NOW."

Here is an important point: when I bought Armor I never got an activation code. They said one was issued, but I did not receive it. (It is NOT a junk mail issue.) I opened a pro support ticket to get them to re-send it. Over the course of 7 tickets and nearly three months of emails, phone calls and online chats, the end result is they said THEY CANNOT RE-ISSUE THIS CODE.

Without that code, I cannot activate Armor. Nor can I install BitDefender on the client side.

So I asked for my money back, and THEY REFUSED. They said the period in which I would have been due a refund has expired.

So I paid them for a service they are not providing, they have refused to even pro-rate or refund any portion of what I paid, and they keep closing my tickets when I try to get someone to resolve this.

On a side track: twice they referred me to a different team: BitDefender has its own customer support. BitDefender also could not help with this activation code, because they said they don't have access to Netgear's database where the activation code resides. But apparently Netgear doesn't have access to it either.

If there is some technical flaw that prevents Netgear from re-sending an activation code - that is a major problem they need to address. But until they address it, they should be refunding users who cannot activate the product they bought. But they are refusing to do so - and that is a business decision not a technical one.

I am not going to sit back and let them take my money. I'm going to fight them on this and I won't give up.

Forum Discussion

Paid for Armor, but impossible to activate - and NetGear refused to refund