Buying Dangerously: Bad McAfee on Automatic

Kelly's Buying Dangerously Grade for McAfee: 'F', for difficulty in cancellation of auto renewal and for auto renewing at twice the current price.

Less than a week after the original post this happened:

ALERT from The Wall Street Journal. Oct. 11, 2006 McAfee said CEO and Chairman George Samenuk plans to retire and President Kevin Weiss was terminated from the company in the wake of findings of its stock-options probe. The software maker named Dale Fuller as interim chief executive officer and president." See comment at end.

An email from McAfee arrived saying they had automatically renewed my subscription to Viruscan Plus for $39.95. Since I was now using Symantec products on all my computers, I didnt want to renew it so I started the dreaded 'cancellation' process. It's usually very hard to stop/cancel/return some product or service than it is to buy it. This isn't a mistake, it's the plan. The strategy is to make it hard. Protect the sale, screw the customer (and the brand). If its true, it qualifies as one of Mikes Bad Companies. Is McAfee one of them?

I tried to find out how to cancel. Nearly impossibe, as it turned out.

So I clicked on it and spent 20 minutes trying to cancel. Try it. Nothing works. So I spent 10 minutes trying to contact Customer Support. Heh, heh, you know what that does, leads you into a Knowledge Base of everything but what you want. Delay, delay, obfuscate, etc. This isnt looking good for a high rating from Mike.

Finally I am getting closer to getting to a person: I have to fill out a 'ticket'. Presumable to make me line up for something, but no matter, I was finally going to get to someone. At this point I wondered what they charge on their site for the product. Was the renewal a good deal as claimed? I went to a fresh McAfee site (not from my cancellation ticket page) and found they offered the product new for $19.95. HALF of what they charged me for the good deal renewal. HALF!! This wasn't shaping up for a good grade from Mike!

So I returned to filling out the ticket and pointed out my chagrin at not being able to cancel and finding they had automatically screwed, er, renewed me at twice the current price. I pressed send, and the next screen said it has NOT been sent and I should read through a few more totally irrelevant solutions from their Knowledge Base. I declined and said send it. I also testily added that I would expose them in 'my blog' if it turned out that they were just making it hard, and this was their chance to straighten me out.

I'm waiting for their comments.

Monday -

response from McAfee - we cant find your order. Maybe you ordered it direct from McAfee? Try them. Who are these people? How did I get routed to them?

So I go to the McAfee site and ask for a live chat:

Please wait while we find a customer service representative to assist you...
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
You have been connected to Regina Solomon.
Regina Solomon: Thank you for contacting McAfee customer service. How may I help you today?
mike kelly: did you get my last message?
Regina Solomon: Hello Mike, I'll be happy to help you.
Regina Solomon: No, Mike. Could you please type it again?
mike kelly: I want to cancel a recently auto renewed subscription.
Regina Solomon: Thank you for the information.
Regina Solomon: One moment please, while I look up your account details. I appreciate your patience.
Regina Solomon: Mike, I see that you have valid McAfee products registered under the e-mail address [email protected]
mike kelly: What is your question?
Regina Solomon: If I understand you correctly Mike, you wish to get the refund for the McAfee product which was auto renewed under your account recently?
mike kelly: ...yes, very good.
Regina Solomon: Could you please let me know the reason for your refund?
mike kelly: I'll try this slowly: because I am cancelling the renewal.
Regina Solomon: Mike, did you receive my previous response?
mike kelly: yes
Regina Solomon: May I know the reason for your refund?

Then, my battery failed.

Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please....
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

Went home to get the ac adapter and plunged back in at McAfee.

Please wait while we find a customer service representative to assist you...
You have been connected to Kevin Peter.
Kevin Peter: Thank you for contacting McAfee customer service. How may I help you today?
Mike kelly: Please cancel my recent automatic renewal to McAfee anti virus service.
Kevin Peter: Mike, I'll be happy to help you.
Kevin Peter: One moment please, while I look up your account details. I appreciate your patience.
Kevin Peter: Mike, I see that you have valid McAfee products registered under the e-mail address [email protected]
Mike kelly: And?
Kevin Peter: May I know the reason for the cancellation?
Mike kelly: I am using another product.
Kevin Peter: After researching your account, we have found that your subscription was auto renewed on 10/2/2006. Would you like for us to refund this recent charge and cancel the McAfee Always on Protection feature so that you will not be billed again in the future?
Mike kelly: yes.
Kevin Peter: Please give me a moment while I process your refund. I appreciate your patience.
Kevin Peter: As requested, we have refunded the McAfee Always on Protection charges of ($39.99), which will be credited to your account within 3 - 5 working days, or before you receive your next credit card statement. You will be getting your email confirmation within six hours.
Mike kelly: OK, I have another question.
Kevin Peter: I'll be happy to help you.
Mike kelly: The auto renewal offer was for $39.99 and I went to McAfee site and found the same offer for $19.95. Am I missing something here?
Kevin Peter: Please give me a moment to research your issue. Thank you for your patience.
Kevin Peter: Mike, yes for the special offer it would be the amount you have seen.
Mike kelly: So the amount charged on auto renewal is not the lowest price.
Kevin Peter: Yes, it is the correct amount Auto-renewed.
Kevin Peter: I would like to ensure you're satisfied with the support I offered. Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
Mike kelly: Your last answer is not clear to me. Could you read my question again and try to make your response clearer?
Kevin Peter: Mike, am sorry. I could understand your question. Yes it is not lowest price.
Mike kelly: Is that a policy?
Kevin Peter: I would recommend that you contact McAfee Customer Service number at 408-992-8599 in order to know about your account details.
Mike kelly: Will they know of this conversation so I dont have to start all over?
Kevin Peter: Yes. you please explain briefly they could understand your issue.
Mike kelly: But will they have this discussion thread that I can refer to?
Kevin Peter: I understand your concern. Please contact us with this case reference number 20452399, if you have any additional issues.
Kevin Peter: Mike, you please refer to this case number.
Mike kelly: I have one more question: why is it so easy to oreder something new and so hard to cancel at McAfee?
Kevin Peter: Mike, we have processed you the easy cancellation source.
Kevin Peter: I understand your concern and would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Mike kelly: I'm not referring to this call which worked well. The problem is finding out how to get hold of you.
Kevin Peter: You please refer your case number and can easily contact us.
Mike kelly: thanks, kevin.
Kevin Peter: Thank you for contacting McAfee Customer Support Center. If you need further assistance please visit us again.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

Bottom line -

McAfee Caught Red Handed being Bad!

I suspect this will set off an alarm somewhere at McAfee. Why is that? Because they 1. did something wrong (giving best customers the worst deals; breaking the trust in the relationship), and 2. someone admitted it (which they will think of as the problem and really it was a healthy admitting of a problem on one persons part - this is called transparancy). The real problem is that they made an offer for automatic renewal that, at least in this case, proves that people who trust them for auto renewal are taken advantage of. Some call it, screwed.

As for my question on why it is so hard to cancel a subscription vs buy it, the person working with me saw that it was taken care of quickly on his part, which was absolutely true. He did it well and the system worked well at that point. But it took me about an hour to cancel an auto renewal that could have been much more efficiently done by my just replying back the the auto renewal notice that I was not approving it. Would have taken me 30 seconds, tops. So I spent an hour more to get it done because McAfee's systems architecture requires it. Like, by design. Hey, Delay by Design!

Let us know your experiences.

BTW, I am not a disgruntled former employee of McAfee, nor an employee or consultant or whatever of a competitor. I am a customer, now a former customer.

MFK

Less than a week after my naming McAfee a Bad Company, McAfee announced the Chairman/CEO and President are leaving the company. Wow, Results!! Guess there were a few more Bad Company things going on. I'd like to claim a direct connection between my actions and todays results, but chances are, there is not one, other than if you find a company acting badly, it is likely to show up in many ways, not just customer experience. This is a great thing to learn. I'm going to send a copy of this blog to McAfee PR and the new President and see what happens. I'll let you know.

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