No protection from anti-virus charges

SOUNDING OFF: Ripped off? Stunned by good value? Write, blog or text your experience to us

A reader from Carlow contacted us because she has reached "the ragged end of my tether" after months of trying to get any degree of satisfaction from an anti-virus software provider.

She received an e-mail from McAfee at the end of March informing her that her subscription renewal was due. "I replied to this message and renewed my subscription by credit card in early April. I then received another e-mail confirming that I had renewed and giving me a receipt number for my payment."

Since then, however, she has been sent numerous e-mails telling her to renew and warning her that her PC is no longer protected. "I checked my credit card statement and the payment went through on April 11th. I have tried to contact McAfee through their consumer care (hah!) websites and have sent messages setting out all details and citing the receipt number. All I get back is a reply thanking me for contacting them, giving me the first name of the person sending the message and telling me that they can't sort the problem out but giving me another link to the original customer care page and telling me to contact them." She says the company does not have a telephone number listed for Ireland so she tried ringing the UK and was onto them for half an hour, having to give the same details over and over. She was then told that the customer service rep would look into it. The rep "faithfully" promised to ring back that day, but she never heard from him again.

She rang the company repeatedly and, on at least four occasions, was disconnected while halfway through her story. "On the fifth attempt, I managed to tell the whole story and was on the line for 45 minutes, only to be told that the reason I was getting messages telling me I was expired was because I hadn't renewed my subscription in the first place! Even though I gave her my receipt number and read out the details showing on my credit card statement, she still wouldn't accept it. Eventually, she took remote control of my PC and told me that I was on to the wrong extension and she couldn't do anything to help me. She gave me a new number to ring and when I did, it was an out-of-service number."

Our reader says she is now losing the will to live. "All I want is a refund now because I really couldn't face going through this when renewal time comes around again. I am €107.32 out of pocket and my PC is totally unprotected."

We contacted the company to find out why this reader was let down so badly. In a statement, the company said it tried to "ensure all customer issues are dealt with effectively and offer a relevant solution to their problem". It apologised to our reader for "any inconvenience caused" and said the company was looking "further into this issue to understand the reason for the problems highlighted".

Out of their Box

A reader has been dismayed by the policy in Gamestop, where they are currently selling new Xbox games at the low price of €9.99 when two Xbox games are traded in. This reader's son brought in two relatively new games in to take advantage of the deal, only to be told by staff that neither game was acceptable for trade-in purposes.

"I can understand if you came in with a four-year-old game, but these were contemporary games."

Gamestop does cover itself in the terms and conditions on the sticker, where it says it "reserves the right to refuse a particular title", although it doesn't say why.