Wednesday, August 08, 2012

McAfee, The Cheater


McAfee has dishonest business practices. In fact, I'm confident it's not only intentional, it's business as normal for them. I haven't used McAfee in YEARS. The last email I have on file from them is from 2010, when I'm certain I cancelled the service. Fast forward two years and I suddenly get a bill. On a credit card I never use. From McAfee. For services that were neither requested nor rendered.

I tried to call and resolve the issue, but their helpline doesn't recognize Skype's touchpad tones, making it impossible to access their menu. Next, I tried the chat help. This is the transcript:

GoToAssist (14:24:55):
Thank you for contacting McAfee Consumer Support.  An agent will be with you shortly.

Praveen (14:24:55):
Hello, Jenna. Please give me a moment while I review the description you have typed in.

Customer (14:27:05):
okay

Praveen (14:27:34):
As I understand your concern, you would like to know about your subscription?

Customer (14:28:09):
I do not HAVE a subscription. I have been charged for something I cancelled two years ago.

Customer (14:28:26):
I want the charge removed. Immediately. And my information removed from your databases.

Praveen (14:28:27):
Jenna, I see that you have expired McAfee products registered under the e-mail address (...)

Customer (14:30:18):
My last contact with McAfee until this morning was in January 2010 with that email address, yes.

Praveen (14:31:32):
Please hold on for additional few minutes, I am checking your account status. I appreciate your patience.

Customer (14:32:18):
I will hold

Praveen (14:32:33):
As I understand your concern, you are unable to renew your McAfee subscription?

Praveen (14:33:24):
Sorry for the wrong information. Please ignore the previous response.

Customer (14:33:28):
I DO NOT HAVE A McAfee subscription. I DO NOT WANT a McAfee subscription.

Praveen (14:33:36):
May I have your billing  phone number for verification, please?

Customer (14:33:43):
(number removed)

Praveen (14:35:07):
May I have the first name and last name that you used when you registered the McAfee software?

Customer (14:35:37):
Jenna Pashley

Praveen (14:36:27):
I am still not able to locate your valid account Jenna.

Customer (14:37:56):
That is because I do not have one. Yet my credit card was billed this month by your company.

Praveen (14:38:11):
Since we are unable to locate your valid account, I would suggest you to contact our McAfee Phone Support to locate your account using your credit card information.

Customer (14:39:38):
I attempted that, but the customer service number doesn't recognize the touch tone dial, and so I cannot speak to anyone.

Praveen (14:40:03):
May I know the country in which you are located, Jenna?

Customer (14:40:06):
I will contact my credit card company and tell them that this is a fraudulent charge.

Customer (14:40:23):
Is it pertinent?

Customer (14:40:33):
I am calling via Skype.

Praveen (14:41:10):
I would recommend that you contact McAfee Customer Service number at 1-866-622-3911 in order to know your account details. Their business hours are from 8 am to 8 pm CST, daily.

Customer (14:43:00):
I called that number.

Customer (14:43:28):
It did not recognize the touch pad. With the numbers? That you have to press to talk to someone?

Customer (14:44:17):
This is a great conversation, by the way. I'm going to blog it as evidence of why no one should do business with McAfee. Not because you are a bad employee but because your company has such terrible business practices.

Praveen (14:45:29):
I would suggest you to call the number and inform the issue and locate your account by providing your credit card information Jenna.

Customer (14:45:43):
You have a nice day. I will report the McAfee charge on my bill as fraud to my credit card company and let them deal with it.

Praveen (14:45:54):
Your Service Request number for this chat session is (...). You can quote this number in your further contacts.

Customer (14:45:55):
Goodbye.

---

If McAfee recognizes that I had expired products and no account, it should be a no brainer that I dont owe them any money. They didn't even send me a notification email; just charged my card and hoped I wouldn't notice.

Visa was very understanding and I don't think I'll have to get my blood pressure worked up like that again over this company. But seriously? In Brazil, this would totally be cause for a lawsuit. Why can't the US fond a way to stop this practice of  fraudulent billing and/or neglect to cancel accounts by what are considered legitimate companies?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too funny!! At least the credit card companies are easy to deal with. Do you really think lots of people don't bother to check their charges monthly? That is sad! Right now I'm complaining to my card company about a 3 cent error. I'm not giving them any more $$ than they are entitled to receive. -Mom

anne said...

people don't look, alot, at their statements. esp now that so many folks are "paperless" -- not hard to look, but tendency is to just pay online and not worry about it.

sometimes credit card companies are easy to deal with, but not generally when THEY are at fault, I have found...
moral of story?
yeh, well.
sigh