Ivacy

Ivacy not honouring their own "Life Time Subscription" as "Life Time", but only 5 years – I paid for a "Life Time Subscription" on 20th March 2018. A couple of day ago, when VPN service enabled, the pages stopped loading with "Page not found" errors. I contacted Ivacy chat support and was told that in the Technology Cloud services, "Life Time" is a maximum of 5 years. This limitation was not written on their own special life time… Read more

service advertisement when I signed up. James, the chat representative, told me to write to the senior management on the "support@ivacy.com" email address, which I did. I received their response in its entirety: " Ivacy VPN (IVACY VPN)

Jun 29, 2024, 16:33 GMT+5

Dear Esteemed Customer, Thank you for bringing up your inquiry regarding the terminology used in relation to our "lifetime" subscription offering through affiliate partners. Allow me to provide some context and clarity on this matter. In the technology industry, the term "lifetime" typically denotes the life cycle or supported period for a given software product or service. This duration can vary across different types of technologies, but for cloud-based services like ours, a standard "lifetime" window is often around 5 years. While this practice is widely accepted within tech circles, I understand how it can lead to confusion and even be perceived as misleading advertising when presented to general consumers who may not be familiar with this context. When you purchase a "lifetime" subscription from us or our partners, it's reasonable to expect permanent access for your own lifetime as an individual. Allow me to directly address this discrepancy. Our intention was not to deliberately misrepresent or deceive, but rather to align with the common industry language used by our affiliates and partners. However, we acknowledge that we failed to adequately define and disclose these parameters in our customer-facing materials. Furthermore, since we highly value your business, I will gladly extend your subscription period with 24 MORE Months absolutely FREE. How does that sound? We appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention, as it gives us the opportunity to enhance our disclosures and business practices. While our terminology is rooted in industry norms, we understand your perspective and are committed to setting proper expectations through transparent and ethical communication.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or concerns. Sincerely, Ivacy Customer Success Team "

They offer me a 2 years extension which would then terminate my "Life Time Subscription" unless I pay for more years. The reason I signed up and purchase the "Life Time Subscription" was to expect having it for life!

I am wondering where they decided that "for cloud-based services like ours, a standard "lifetime" window is often around 5 years"...

This does not meant that it has to be!

Ivacy VPN is owned by PMG Pte. Ltd and is located in Singapore, operating under that legal jurisdiction. I am curious how this sudden change of "Life Time" definition would be appreciated by a tribunal.

Photos provided shows that the expiry date is reset every 5 years for another 5 years. Why don't they want to keep it that way? The expiry date is 20-March-2028! More than the 2 years they want to give me.

Ivacy Management, if you read this review, you should be ashamed of yourself. This is not the professional way to breach a contract with a loyal customer.

Update 30-Jun-2024: After fighting for my Life Time subscription to continue, I asked to at least keep it active until its current expiry date of 20-March-2028. To my surprise, James from Ivacy Support has offered an additional 5 years, but after that, I will have to buy an extension if I want to keep using Ivacy. It is better than nothing or the initial 2 years. Still, I am not happy with the fact that I purchased a "Life Time subscription" where there was no mention of any "In the technical world, it is common for a lifetime to be about 5 years"... and I believe Ivacy should honour this as a lifetime, not come back on their deal because it is inconvenient for them to have a customer who had a chance of paying a one off US$60 for using the service for life. Why putting such offer available in the first place then? Knowing that the customer would have to argue a lot to get some more years, but eventually it will terminate. In my book, this is called "false advertisement" and "tech world" or not, it should be for life. My take on this is the I would have had Ivacy VPN, which is quite good, for 11 years at a cost of $60. In 5 years time, there might be another 5 year subscription at a very good price (hopefully). Otherwise, I already have a friend of mine who has a real "lifetime subscription" with "Unlimited VPN" for over 14 years and has offerd to give one of her multiple "device" license to use...