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BulletVPN Shuts Down, Killing Lifetime Members' Subscriptions 36

VPN provider BulletVPN has shut down its servers with immediate effect, leaving subscribers without service regardless of their subscription terms. The company announced the closure on its website, citing "shifts in market demand, evolving technology requirements, and sustainability of operations."

Users with active subscriptions can receive a free six-month subscription to competitor Windscribe, "along with discounted long-term plans." Windscribe clarified it has not acquired BulletVPN or assumed control of its operations, and no user data including email addresses or account information was shared between the companies.

BulletVPN Shuts Down, Killing Lifetime Members' Subscriptions

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  • by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @11:28AM (#65519490)
    Clearly, lifetime plans only mean the company's lifetime; even then with bankruptcy and restructuring the company may live on while the lifetime plans die...
    • by Asgard ( 60200 ) <jhmartin-s-5f7bbb@toger.us> on Monday July 14, 2025 @11:41AM (#65519548) Homepage

      Not even that, it means 'whatever we want it to mean'. Many many years ago I purchased a 'lifetime' VPN via SlashDot Deals. Come to find out 'lifetime' was defined (unwritten) by the VPN company as 5 years. The dollar value was low enough that the 5 years worked out to a trivial amount per year so I didn't come out feeling outright swindled, but I was disappointed in the marketing gymnastics just the same. The company still lives on today.

      • by srg33 ( 1095679 )
        Name 'em
        • VPNSecure.

          I too bought a "lifetime" VPN from them through Slashdot deals. Started off great, then one by one they shut down their nodes til only 5 eyes locations remained. By that point I'd switched to something else, but they sent out a long "woe is us" e.mail explaining why lifetime didn't mean that and if you'd be so kind as to buy it again at ~20$/year, we'd be ever so grateful.

      • by aitikin ( 909209 )
        Ivacy re-instated my "lifetime" plan after I bitched about it to their customer service.
      • What is your use case for a VPN? Short of using torrents and not wanting DMCA notices, or watching Netflix as if you're in Europe, my understanding is there is very minimal privacy and security advantages. But people keep buying these subscriptions based on FUD.
        • by Asgard ( 60200 )

          This was prior to DoH / HTTPS ubiquity so public wifi hotspots still had some risk, plus it was a fun toy.

        • One use case for a VPN is allowing incoming connections to a home PC that is behind an ISP's firewall and/or NAT. Such a PC might be running a game server or a low-traffic web server. Another is connecting to the IPv6 Internet from an IPv4-only home ISP such as Frontier.

          • Most VPNs are behind NAT so anything allowing inbound is a specialty service, afaik BulletVPN never offered inbound. Of course that would introduce latency making a game server an unusual use case. Use of IPV6 on the few ISPs still not supporting is a valid use case, but a really narrow one without too many users, revenue from that is unlikely to pay for their ad campaigns. Someone technical enough to need IPV6 is also probably capable of setting up their own VPN or has access to a work VPN for this purp
        • Most home users are not seeking privacy first, it's mostly about being able to appear to be coming from other countries, or at most just hiding from their ISP who is obligated to monitor them.

      • > Not even that, it means 'whatever we want it to mean'.

        When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.

      • Not even that, it means 'whatever we want it to mean'.

        As South Park taught us. Always read the End User License Agreement. :-)

      • Name, and shame.
  • The term "lifetime" in a lifetime subscription or warranty always refers to the lifetime of the company issuing it, not the lifetime of the customer.
    • A lifetime guarantee refers to the life of the product. I.e. a pair of waterproof shoes with lifetime guarantee, are guaranteed to be waterproof until they have a hole. In general guarantees only guarantee that the product is free from fabrication defects and will keep working as advertised during its lifetime.
      • by aitikin ( 909209 )

        A lifetime warranty refers to the life of the product. I.e. a pair of waterproof shoes with lifetime warranty, are warrantied to be waterproof until they have a hole.

        FTFY. Guarantees legally have a different meaning than warranties. If my company offers a guarantee on a product and anything goes wrong, they have to repair/replace. If we only offer a warranty on the product, we warrant it against defects for that timeframe.

        Interestingly to me, my understanding was that lifetime warranty/guarantee/support had legally-binding requirements that companies had to set aside certain amounts of capital to legally claim. It's partially why my company trained me to say, "Unlim

  • by TWX ( 665546 ) on Monday July 14, 2025 @11:54AM (#65519586)

    When I had to drive to a particular part of town every now and then I'd use the carwash near my destination since they did a decent job and weren't overpriced. They always offered lifetime car washes as a rather expensive package.

    Last time I was there they were still offering those expensive lifetime packages. Next time after that I was in that part of town, perhaps three weeks later, the carwash was fenced-off with rental chain-link fencing. When I drove past a month later the carwash wasn't only torn-down, but a crew was pouring a new foundation for an apartment complex.

    Given the amount of time it takes to go through the permitting process for such construction, they would've known for well over a year before that the place was closing. They probably sold the land and worked out an agreement with the buyer to continue running the carwash until the buyer was ready to start construction.

    I'm not inclined to purchase 'lifetime' anything unless my fairly short-term usage is going to be enough to offset it, because you never know for how long the place will be there, even if they are honest and attempting to keep operations running in perpetuity.

    • They did honor the deal for the lifetime of the car wash. Were you expecting something different?

      Anyone who hasn't figured out that "lifetime" belongs in the same pile of terms as "unlimited" and similar marketing ilk has earned themselves the experience of learning a valuable life lesson.
      • Actually that would be fraudulent contract since the terms under the contract were tied to information that one party could not possibly know. It's the same with knowingly selling a defective or stolen product. You are liable for this. The only issue here is that there's no entity left to sue - but in theory if this was proven to be a wide spread fraud the directors of the company could be barred from starting a new business in certain jurisdictions.

  • As many have stated, "lifetime" services often refer to the lifetime of the provider. This looks like a classic "pump and dump", as they saw their profits crest they closed the doors.

  • Tomorrow we'll see ads for MissileVPN offering lifetime subscriptions for only 20% more than BulletVPN used to offer.
  • Lifetime in the cloud means nothing when the wind can simply blow it away. There is no such thing as "ownership" or "lifetime" when the cloud is involved.

  • BulletVPN was owned by Nixworks OU, a company based in Tallinn, Estonia. Ali Jawad is identified as the CEO.

With all the fancy scientists in the world, why can't they just once build a nuclear balm?

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