Antivirus Firms Short-Changing Customers 205
Barence writes "Two leading security firms have been accused of ripping off customers by cutting short their antivirus subscriptions. AVG and Symantec are offering their own customers discounts on subscriptions via email or pop-ups, but the new subscriptions start immediately, 'short-changing' users who had months left on their existing deal. Both Symantec and AVG owned up to the practice, and said they had no plans to change their ways, instead advising their customers to upgrade as close as possible to the end of the subscription. However, the pair actively send out emails and pop-up messages that encourage customers to upgrade immediately."
Re:Windows - Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
it works better than Norton and McAfee
Really setting the bar up high, aren't you.
Of course, Antivirus software is a worthless scam (Score:3, Insightful)
It always was. It only catches some of what's out there, and once your system has caught something, you're hose. Time for a wipe and re-install. The stuff it doesn't catch is what you'll get. I recommend against it for everybody I know. Too many people think that somehow having antivirus software actually does something useful, or that their PCs will be magically immune because they have it.
The only real defense against viruses is software that is written from the start to have as few security holes as possible, making sure you keep up on patches, and being careful about what you agree to when you computer asks you if you're sure about something.
People who are already participating in a scam getting scammed even worse than they originally thought isn't much of a surprise to me.
Not in my experience (Score:4, Insightful)
As a reseller of AVG, I have never experienced an upgrade license behaving in this manner.
If the end-user is unintelligent enough to purchase a brand new license direct with AVG, of course they will get a brand new license that starts on the date they purchase it.
However, if they renew an existing license, the license always renews from the existing expiration date, AND they often tack on a few extra days or weeks to the license. Even if they are renewing and also upgrading to a different version (say, Antivirus to Internet Security), the license is upgraded, they are charged the prorated upgrade price based on time left on the existing subscription, and then the renewal year(s) are added.
So if you are getting short changed, it's your own fault, not the vendor.
Re:Avast also (Score:5, Insightful)
You realize that MSE is tested as the best, lightest, cheapest AV solution available, right?
I used to use AVG until it got spammy. Then I used Avast! until MSE came out and it tested better. (I use Linux and my brain as my main AV products...)