"I did my VPN research. CNET and PC Mag initially rated PIA highly. Here is where YOU(and myself) MUST BE AWARE OF!!!! REVIEWERS NEVER TEST WHAT HAPPENS IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG!!! Found out the hard way believe me!!!
PIA was my 2nd VPN product. Had major installation problems from initial install. THEN HERE IS WHERE IT BORDERS ON Bait-n-SWITCH! THERE IS NO TELEPHONE SUPPORT, NO SCREENSHARING, AND COMPANY HIDES ITS TELEPHONE NUMBER AND DOES NOT ALLOW TELEPHONE SUPPORT. LIVE CHAT SUPPORT IS USELESS! Email support only. PIA has a "general mailbox which means, in my 3 week case, when replying to an email, if it is not replying to the very 1st response, your reply goes to the bottom of the general mailbox and it is 1st come 1st served.
Screen shots largely ignored. Don't email multiple questions because they will only deal with 1 question at a time and you will not get a response to the others asked.
Now my continuing problems dealt with PC's. Windows XP, 7 and 10. The Win10 computer was BNIB with NO antivirus and all Windows AV/Firewalls OFF. Failed right out of the box! Same with the others. Tickets escalated from Tier1 to Tier2. I had about 5 different support working at various times at T2 doing repetitive,redundant troubleshooting. None talking to each other. I finally got 1 T@ Tech@Adam that had a great workflow. The very 1st thing he did was start a program already within PIA Settings, to report failures/bug reports. WE were now getting some progress. All three computers were running fine but then the Win7 crashed. PIA kept blaming Norton AV. So I had Norton "Disable/Exclude" PIA Manager from any intrusion by Norton.
It has been almost a week with no problems. But I also forgot to mention that London Trust/PIA HAVE CHANGED their installation process. How do I know??? Because I have screenshots of the process as it is installed while it was failing daily all day and now those line codes are missing.
So I am quite pleased to date. I cannot excuse the invisable cloak the company presents when in trouble BUT After confirming with CNET and PC Mag reviewers, out of the top 7 rated, only 1 VPN software company had a toll free support number and it was in India. The other 6 did not and all 7 had NO screensharing, Live Chat support to see "real time failures".
And since informing CNET and PC Mag(Disquis) of all this they have removed their reviews of all the 5 companies VPN software I tried.
If PIA, LTM would take a customers advice and implement the above "delta factors". They could be #1.
BUT IF THINKING ABOUT A VPN Provider..1st Question is SUPPORT.
UPDATE: 21September2016
They, PIA, has fixed the bugs to date. I am now auto logged in and evrything works fine.
This IS really the best VPN provider around and I have tried them all. But I do wish they had screensharing to see exactly what the problem is when it occurs. Thanks PIA..LOve Ya!!
UPDATE: February 2021
PIA stopped support on Windows7 computers.
After months of "fixes" PIA VPN still wont work on a Win7 computer.
I asked for a pro-rated refund on my account.
They refuse to do it!
FBI IC# Complaint filed and Fraud Complaint filed with Colorado AG."
"They autorenewed my policy. I no longer use or need it and had long since forgotten about it until I got an auto renewal in my email.
I emailed immediately to cancel and ask for a refund.
Cancelation was a breeze. The refund is a whole different story. According to the rep I contacted their "policy" is:
"Accounts that have renewed or have been upgraded are not eligible for a refund per our terms and service."
That's BS especially since I've paid for an account I'm locked out of so I can't even use it if I wanted to! Never had any issue cancelling an account and receiving a refund in a situation like this.
I'll be calling my CC to dispute this bogus charge. No trust or love for London Trust Media or Private Internet Access VPN.
Buy at your own risk!"
"Super cheap and very reliable! They don't store records or keep files on customer browsing/downloads including torrents. Based outside of the US so some laws do not apply and warrants would not bring up anything because their is no digital paper trail, as there is no records kept because it's either being wiped as it's being used/written or it's not programmed to store any info. I have been using this for over a year now and even the FBI (if requested) can't get the files because there are none!"
"I signed for a one year service and I am getting auto-renewals I cannot stop. I am unable to login into their website and there is no phone number to call. I submitted a ticket on their website and I disputed the charge through paypal and was denied! (so they are fighting it). They are not a US company so they are not found on the BBB to file a complaint. I have another call into pay pal. "
"Did the year service and you can choose what server to use around the world. They don't keep any logs so everything is pretty safe. Provides software for your phone and any computer you want to put it on."
"I asked for a refund so far all I'm getting is the run-around to emails to me but no results"