Why is surfshark scam and you should never pay for it?

VPN Forum
1

So i have met with Surfshark in 2018-2019ish. Until that time i had NordVPN, then Kaspersky VPN then Surfshark. it was great, unlimited devices (which was my main issue with kaspersky), quite good service and support was awesome. I tested it for a year and then upgraded it to 3 years, then another black friday sale came and i extended it 3 more years, even upgraded to Surfshark One.

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So in October 2022-ish i started having a problem with my pc. Usually i do not use Surfshark app, instead use the chrome extension because i do not want my pc to use is for everything. Issue was auto-connect. It was not working the first 10-15 minutes of launching the browser. Contacted support, it was different, they were still telling me to reinstall the app, they were telling me to change protocols, none of these are options for chrome extension. It took days and multiple people and issue still wasnt resolved. So what i did is, i kept chrome running in background and started when windows started. That way while i was getting into my computer, that 10-15 minute would have been passed and it was already connected with no issues.

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During this time i had absolutely no issues with my iphone or ipad. They were both working very well.

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Then a few days ago my friends told me that they cannot connect to Surfshark. And when checked, it turned out turkish isp Turk Telekom blocked surfshark website and since the name was blocked nothing was connecting. But since i had nothing to do with Turk Telekom, i still had no issues. It all worked for me, until 2 days ago.

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2 days ago, my pc was unable to connect to any server, any time. Contacted support, went through mandatory “it is not the app, i use extension, that option is not even available, yes other devices are connected” but they also added a “ah you are from turkey, surfshark is blocked in turkey” to the mix. The thing is it still is not blocked on my isp. i can trace, ping, check domain and ip details of surfshark with and without vpn and they are the same. dns is not rerouting to famous blue page or not-so-famous-but-still-known white blank page of turkish “blocked websites server”.

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also noticed that my iphone can connect to vpn but has no access to internet when connected while my ipad has absolutely no issues at all. can connect, disconnect, change server etc. all works and the thing is they are on same wifi.

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so we tried open vpn, same as iphone, it says connected but has no internet, tried wireguard, can only connect to frankfurt server that is downloaded from shark-china website.

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then i asked for a refund. since i have 4 more years already paid i thought i could at least get refund for the last 3, hell even last 2. they told me that my 30 days is over so they will not issue a refund. even though it is a service that they cannot provide (again, this has nothing to do with Turk Telekom blockage, i am not on turk telekom, i am using a different isp, different dedicated private ip) but i kinda accepted it.

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then i asked them to cancel auto renewal and remove my payment details from the account, because it was clear that i will not be able to use the service i paid for 4 more years due to “AmAgaWD yu in saem kuntry” well at least save me the pain and money for an accidental renewal. They told me for the service i paid a year or two ago that they will not remove it as long as i have the service active due to fradulent reasons. then the “agent” started spamming long texts about how to change dns, how to change it on ios, how to change it on windows etc. i asked them to stop sharing it and “i do not fucking care about the vpn right now” they told me they will end the conversation. i asked them “how shitty this is” and they ended the conversation.

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so here i am, unable to use a service that i prepaid for next 4 years with a company that;

1- Refuses to refund

2- Refuses to provide

3- Refuses to cancel renewal of

4- Refuses to remove payment details of.

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And whatever i come with their answer is “yu in turkeh”. so? i have literally 3 isps (2 mobile, 1 fiber), none of them have anything to do with Turk Telekom (vodafone, turkcell (superonline) and superonline (tellcom)). one device connects, one device cannot access internet with your vpn, one device cannot even access to your website with your provided vpn (and has 1000+ ms latency) and other cannot even connect with all your workarounds.

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so i talked to my bank a few minutes ago, they will replace my card in 12-24 hours, so that payment detail, they can shove it up whatever they want. with 4 years of prepaid service? i dont know what to do yet. I will tell anyone and everyone, until the day i am out of breath not to use, or at least not to pay a dime to this scammers.

2

Hey there, we’re sorry to hear you’ve had connection problems using our service. We also apologize for the misunderstandings between you and our support agents — we understand this has been frustrating for you, especially considering your positive history with Surfshark.

We’re aware of the increased blocking of Surfshark services by different service providers in Turkey, and our technical experts are searching for a solution.

Canceling the auto-renewal of your subscription is indeed possible, and we’d like to help you by expediting this process. Would you mind sending us an email at [email protected] so we could provide you with more information?

When a user has active subscription under their account, we are not able to remove their payment information only. This data can only be deleted by removing the whole account. As we do have a no-logs policy, the very limited payment information we have is used to prevent fraudulent activities and maintain security of your account as long as you use our services. You can read more about it in our Privacy Policy: Surfshark Privacy Policy

3

The stupidity is strong with you.

4

Have you reached out to the email address provided by MagicFrogz? I’m curious to see how they respond! I’m glad I checked this sub moments before I signed up.

5

surfshark is not a scam. You’re just ignorant

6

Pre-paying for more than 2+ years of a service is never really a good idea. Best practice is 1 year quite frankly.

Either way try the open vpn app, ditch the surfshark pc/browser apps.

7

Cry to Erdogan about it.

8

It is very disturbing to see that Surfshark is heavily using bot accounts here to upvote/downvote comments. I noticed it in some other topics as well. This is just bad policy. Countless other companies tried it before with little success.

We all know there is an ongoing problem. We all know Surfshark failed to take measures (i.e. they did nothing). We all know customer support is horrendous. Insulting OP with shills isn’t going to help you with that. How about you start to take responsibility instead?

About the topic: I am a lawyer myself and I know very well that they have to accept to refund if they can’t provide a solution in a reasonable time frame. As u/AvocadoBrit explained correctly, you can’t charge for a service that you can’t provide. This is already more than 2 weeks, so I would say they don’t have much time left. Will they refund? I don’t think so. They know most users won’t sue them. They will just try to get away with it. It may not be a scam in the literal sense but surely a bad-faith act to maximize profit at the expense of their customers.

Notice u/MagicFrogz did not say a word about refund policy in their answer. They know it would look bad if they outright refuse to refund for a service they can’t provide anymore but they can’t accept it either because then everybody would ask for refunds. So they conveniently skip that part and refer you to a snail-paced, endless spiral of correspondence with customer service.

I still have 1 more year but I didn’t ask for a refund, because I can still use it with some subpar band-aid solutions. I know they would refuse if I asked for a refund. So I will make them lose customers instead, making sure that people would know about your shortcomings.

9

I am in a similar situation to you, and have requested ‘as an extension of goodwill’ for Surfshark to refund pro rata, my multi-year subscription.

If they refuse me, I believe they’ll have a problem - as legally speaking they cannot sell a service that doesn’t work and refuse to refund a subscriber’s money; this is unreasonable, and inequitable - and I would argue (for many other reasons too) you cannot evade refunding a customer’s money just because of a clause in your contract.

Your situation may differ a little from mine because I have paid with a US financial institution, so I have a legal nexus through the USA (although I am currently in Istanbul).

I am talking with Surfshark, whose support were initially very flippant and antagonistic - although I persisted (politely) and kindly asked they escalate my case to their legal department.

Another complication is that Surfshark is based in the Netherlands.

My guess is that this situation could get messy for Surfshark if they do not handle things in an equitable manner, and I will be happy to update people accordingly.

If anyone is interested in pursuing a legal claim (especially if you’ve a nexus with the USA) kindly get in touch with me.

Additionally, I am interested (wherever your legal nexus with Surfshark happens to be) to understand more about their treatment of your case, and to see exactly what they have been telling you if you’d be willing to share these with me privately - and I’ll be more than happy to reciprocate in kind.

There is always more to these types of situations than meets the eye, and the most ignorant people are those who have absolutely no idea about what they’re talking about - but think they do.

Good luck, and thanks for posting in here!

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Can you give an update on the Turkey situation? Thousands of users here are waiting to see if this is resolved or should they get a refund and go elsewhere.

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No i havent but thank you for reminding me. Ill contact them in a few minutes and see what else i am doing wrong.

12

yes, and with enough publicity about stuff like this, it will cost them further business - which is a very short-sighted way to run a company

13

Lol. Why ignorant? The guy has been using the service for years. Now one day he wakes up and he cannot use it anymore. Not having the desire to tweak into settings for a service that you pay for is not ignorance. He can at least tell how much he gets disappointed and suggests to people not to make the same mistakes.

Or, are you a fanboy?

14

Yep. I learned it the hard way. I thought “they are so good so far, what could go wrong? They are help oriented anyways” and here i am :slight_smile:

15

wtf does erdogan have anything to do with it?

16

thank you for your post

the surrounding legal issues are (in some cases) a little more complex regarding contract law, however, in many jurisdictions the consumer gets even greater leeway and protection from the courts and consumer laws (passed by ruling bodies to protect ‘the little guy’)

I don’t like being treated poorly by a business, but when this happens I will aggressively fight my corner, and I know a little bit more about all of this than I’m posting in public.

on point of principle I do not like what Surfshark is doing - although I will reserve judgment until I hear back from someone at their corporate offices who has some responsibility for things, as opposed to what their inadequate customer ‘support’ people have told me so far…

… watch this space

;o)

17

yea lets share information but to be honest nothing happened after this. all they do is telling me to use wireguard or openvpn and those either stop working after a few minutes or dont work at all. and it is clear that this subreddit is not a platform for anything but praising surfshark.

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ill look into netherlands thing, when i searched a few stuff i think i found uk, not netherlands. being a netherlands company might help me too.

18

The Turkey situation is still being researched by our technical experts and we’d also appreciate it if users from Turkey could send us diagnostics reports from their Surfshark apps - this could make the process faster. Thank you for your interest, we appreciate the patience and understanding of all users affected by this issue.

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please DM me… (for a more personal exchange; I’m happy to share more in private)

I tried to get support from them initially - which was painfully slow (like one email a day) because even their support wasn’t accessible, and that is not acceptable either. After three days of nothing (and I was already running Wireguard) and I found a solution with another company (that worked without problems) I just uninstalled everything from my computers and wrote in to ask them for a refund; I’m a few months in to a multi-year contract.

this whole thing with the service not working in Turkey is not on, and the way they’ve been treating people (that I know about) isn’t good business for them either.

if I was Surfshark, I would do the right thing - which includes providing proper support for my service, and where there is a disruption and/or an inability to provide the services contracted for, I would extend goodwill (further than the initial trial period) and refund customers if they ask for such.

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i will send you a dm with actual details and it might work better for both of us in private.

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i am at work right now so it might take a few hours, or more maybe :smiley:

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even shady torrent websites, stupid iptv services, adult platforms can overcome this but they are telling me/us that a company that is purely focused on one aspect of internet and claims they are the bost of it can not? it just doesnt make sense