Private Internet Access has been having a rough time in the last few years. Sure, they are one of the most popular and fair-priced VPN providers out there–still, but there have been a few hiccups in the road. We covered their pullout of Russia, their inability to work with Netflix, and we even just recently covered a piece where we examined if their quality of service has declined due to many complaints. Now, just recently, PIA has reportedly fired an entire third party support team to hire an in-house team.
You can find many complaints about Private Internet Access here on their forums. A lot of users are complaining about poor speeds, poor customer service, and some server issues. Some users are complaining that their tickets are just going unanswered.
We did a little bit of digging around into this issue and it turns out that PIA did indeed fire their own support team. The reason being that the third party hired team was not doing a good job, and their new team, working in Denver, Colorado should do much better.
PIA’s Response to Issue
“A large number of better trained PIA customer service team members are currently working out of our new office in Denver, Colorado. The new members have been phenomenal and our customers have already recognized the improved service levels and have provided the highest average daily ratings our customer service team has received this year!”
Sure, this sounds great for the future. However, it doesn’t mean that the last month still hasn’t been chaos for PIA customers. Since there has been a transition from new to old, there has been a bit of a hold up for customers. For the new team, they are still adjusting to backlogged tickets while trying to respond to new requests.
No Transparency?
Some users wish that PIA had spoken out sooner about transitioning their support team. User “RubberDuccy” on Reddit explains. “There was not a big enough outreach to let customers know ahead of time nor during the process of submitting a ticket that there were changes being made that would affect response times. Customers were vastly left in the dark and it shows in the PIA forums, this Subreddit, and other privacy/VPN subreddits.”
In turn, Jayson, head of customer service responded that he “appreciates the feedback. I can promise that things will improve and the queues will return to normal. I can also promise that responses will be an improvement and more accurate.”
Overall, this does seem to be a positive change for PIA’s overall level of customer support. However, it still does seem a bit sketchy to be using a third party support team in the first place, especially to handle user data during live chat.
Alternatives to PIA?
While PIA is still a decent VPN, there are a few better options out there. I would recommend TorGuard since it is our top rated VPN provider with better customer service, similar speeds, and even better security.
