It’s not often that you need to get in touch with VPN customer support since VPNs are pretty easy to operate nowadays – and technical issues are few and far between. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, though. Here are some reasons why you’d end up in this situation, and where you can direct your questions.
- Before You Try VPN Customer Support
- Why Contact VPN Customer Support
- 3 Ways to Reach VPN Customer Support
Before You Try VPN Customer Support
You might get your answer faster by checking out your provider’s “knowledge base.” It’s basically an in-depth FAQ section that should cover most concerns or general questions you may have. Saves you the hassle of waiting in a queue, which is always a pain – no matter how short the wait is.
Some providers’ websites literally have a section called “Knowledge Base” that you can check out. You may also find it by going to their Support or “Help” page. Here’s what it looks like for ExpressVPN – your provider’s homepage should have a similar button.
If there’s no immediately visible “Support” or “Help” button at the top of the homepage, you’ll definitely find it at the very bottom.
Clicking or tapping on the Support button should direct you to something like this:
Follow the same process if you’re on mobile. Alternatively, you can try looking up your problem through the search bar.
Notice that you can also contact VPN customer support through this section, as well. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in their FAQ, return to this section to talk to a human instead. Although, if your provider offers live chat support, you’ll have a little notification in the bottom right corner of the screen letting you know about it.
Why Contact VPN Customer Support
1. Troubleshooting
Who would have guessed, right? But yes, you can ask support reps about any problems regarding your VPN. Connectivity issues, speed slowdowns, not being able to unblock Netflix – anything you can think of. If it’s network-related, they’ll probably direct you to a solution even if your problem is not necessarily tied to the VPN itself.
2. General Info
Couldn’t find what you were looking for in the knowledge base? You can ask the support reps anything you find unclear about using a VPN. For example, how to use a feature like split tunneling for improved speeds, if their client supports it. Or whether they have dedicated VPN servers for torrenting. These topics are usually covered in FAQs, but hey – you know where to go if they aren’t.
3. Refunds
If you haven’t purchased a subscription through your provider’s website, you most likely have to go through their customer support to request a refund. Expect a few questions from the representative, such as why you’ve decided to cancel. That is, if your provider doesn’t have a “no questions asked” money-back guarantee.
Related: How to Get a VPN Refund from Google Play and App Store
3 Ways to Reach VPN Customer Support
Response time depends on the quality of the provider, the contact method, and extraordinary circumstances out of anyone’s control (whether or not there’s a pandemic raging outside, for example).
1. Live Chat
As mentioned before, most VPNs with live chat support will have a small chat notification in the bottom right portion of the screen. Here’s ExpressVPN again as an example. Once again, the process is the same on mobile.
Some providers may include a quick FAQ section directly in the message box – neat. Take NordVPN‘s live chat for example:
2. Email or Support Ticket
If you’re not in any particular hurry – or if you expect a lengthier discussion that’s outside the scope of a simple chat – you can try contacting your provider directly by email, or by creating a support ticket. ExpressVPN has a button for both of these directly below the Support section we illustrated earlier.
Alternatively, just google “[Your VPN provider’s name] support email” and you should find a page like this that includes the full email.
As a side note, you probably need to include an email when filing a support ticket.
3. Social Media
While it’s a pretty roundabout way of doing things, it’s not uncommon for a VPN to have an active social media presence. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and VyprVPN have messages enabled on Twitter, for example. So don’t be afraid to slide into their DMs if you have a quick question and don’t want to bother with customer support chat.
Don’t expect every provider to be as inviting, though.
Have you had any trouble contacting your VPN’s customer support? If not, how fast do they respond on average? Let us know in the comments!
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