EZTrust Renewal Deception

[Chuck]

Just a friendly warning to others about the business practices of
Computer Associates. I seem to recall a question in this newsgroup
recently (but can't seem to find it now) about whether anyone recommends
this program. After having used EZTrust AV since the days of Innoculate
on my personal PC, I had been renewing my subscription for 9.95/year,
which I thought was a reasonable price, considering there are free
programs just as good and that I don't feel I should have to pay *that*
much to protect my system with the already-too-high price of computing
in general. I received an email stating that I had 30 days to renew it
again for that price. When I renewed it within that 30-day period, they
charged me 19.95 plus some kind of extra fee, for a total of 21.95.
That's more than double the price at which they claimed I could renew
it, plus an unexplained fee. (And I'm just hoping they haven't
additionally added some kind of recurring monthly charge on my credit
card...) This will be the last year I use this program while I explore
other options.

Chuck

 

[DaVinci]

Did you contact Computer Associates to inquire about the additional charges?

 

[Chuck]

Did you contact Computer Associates to inquire about the additional charges?

After reading your reply, I decided to at least try contacting them as
you suggested. (On the very rare occasions I contacted a major AV
vendor, I *never* received a reply, so I was hesitant to even bother
trying until I read your reply.) However, I couldn't even email them.
They apparently only allow emails through a web-based form, which no
longer recognizes the email address with which I registered with them!
(Despite the fact that they send me html email notifications for every
signature update at that email address,,..) No, spending a whole day in
an attempt to contact them just isn't worth my time. I have to face the
fact that I got screwed.... and that this company is no longer
customer-friendly... and that their business practices are indeed
questionable...Thanks for your reply.

Chuck

 

[Heather]

(e-mail address removed)

This is the Canadian support address that I use......give it a try and see
if you can get some answers. I have never had a problem with EZ Trust and
am willing to be it is just a clerical error. I do have another tech
support address, but it is also Canada......

Heather

 

[DaVinci]

Chuck,

The following is the contact information from the 6.2 GA release:

"The TSA cannot answer questions about Billing, Promotional Pricing,
Discounts or Refunds. For assistance with these queries , please email the
my-eTrust Client Advocate at: (e-mail address removed)"

Good luck if you choose to pursue it.

Tom

 

[William W. Plummer]

After reading your reply, I decided to at least try contacting them as
you suggested. (On the very rare occasions I contacted a major AV
vendor, I *never* received a reply, so I was hesitant to even bother
trying until I read your reply.) However, I couldn't even email them.
They apparently only allow emails through a web-based form, which no
longer recognizes the email address with which I registered with them!
(Despite the fact that they send me html email notifications for every
signature update at that email address,,..) No, spending a whole day in
an attempt to contact them just isn't worth my time. I have to face the
fact that I got screwed.... and that this company is no longer
customer-friendly... and that their business practices are indeed
questionable...Thanks for your reply.

That parallels my experience. As a result I canceled all three of my
accounts. I use Avast on one machine because its free and seems to work,
but the GUI is very hard to use. I am willing to pay, say, $20 for an AV
program and $10 per year to renew my subscription. But no more. (Wouldn't
it be nice to catch a few virus writers and spammers and make them pay for
everybody's av protection, even if it means working their entire lives just
to pay for it.)

 

[James C.]

No, spending a whole day in

an attempt to contact them just isn't worth my time. I have to face the
fact that I got screwed.... and that this company is no longer
customer-friendly...

Chuck,

Email me off list, we'll see if we can sort this out for you.

Thanks,
James

 

[JC]

After reading your reply, I decided to at least try contacting them as
you suggested. (On the very rare occasions I contacted a major AV
vendor, I *never* received a reply, so I was hesitant to even bother
trying until I read your reply.) However, I couldn't even email them.
They apparently only allow emails through a web-based form, which no
longer recognizes the email address with which I registered with them!
(Despite the fact that they send me html email notifications for every
signature update at that email address,,..) No, spending a whole day in
an attempt to contact them just isn't worth my time. I have to face the
fact that I got screwed.... and that this company is no longer
customer-friendly... and that their business practices are indeed
questionable...Thanks for your reply.

Chuck

I know this feeling. I've had similar experiences with software authors
(not referring to Eztrust). The last time I got ripped off was paying for
Incredimail, which supposedly gave me free updates for life, only to have
them later decide to charge for any new graphics they add (double the cost
of the email program itself).

When software authors do stuff like this, it just fuels the reason why warez
exists. I myself and getting sick of getting burned by software authors.

 

[Roland Stiner]

I know this feeling. I've had similar experiences with software authors

(not referring to Eztrust). The last time I got ripped off was paying for
Incredimail, which supposedly gave me free updates for life, only to have
them later decide to charge for any new graphics they add (double the cost
of the email program itself).

When software authors do stuff like this, it just fuels the reason why warez
exists. I myself and getting sick of getting burned by software authors.

I have used EZAntivirus since the free days and have found it to be very
good. That said, the customer service is non-existent. You are on your
own! Have a problem; you're stuck... Sad but that's the way American
business works now. Customer service is too expensive and that's the first
thing that gets cut.

Roland