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Red faced McAfee offers to fix hosed systems
INSECURITY OUTFIT McAfee has offered to fix the one per cent of PCs running Windows XP that were hosed by its software stuff-up.
The antivirus company apparently thinks that "a small percentage" of Windows XP users had problems caused by its recent software update that could not be fixed.
According to the McAfee website, the outfit's "immediate priority is to get you back up and running."
It has a set up toll free support numbers worldwide with qualified technicians standing by to diagnose computers and determine the fastest way to get them up and running again.
If this does not work it is offering to get its users the software they need to fix their PC systems.
"We can get you the software in one of two methods. You can either download the software fix from a working PC, or we will express deliver a CD to you," the website reads.
McAfee has offered to reimburse reasonable expenses, such as a visit to a local tech support specialist.
It is also offering free two-year extensions of current subscriptions at no charge. This extension will appear in the "My Account" section of the McAfee Web site within the next 30 days. µ
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It is amazing that this type of thing does not happen more often. Envision a mass of gigabytes of virtually-unprotected data -- a nice mix of system files and other random data -- that the poor antivirus vendors have to sift through. Imagine anyone designing an operating system like this in the first place. No wonder bad things happen, with or without an antivirus program on Windows systems.
It is in McAffee's best interest to repair these systems that are paying their rent. Otherwise many people might just install a certain free Unix-like operating system and not require McAffee's services anymore. And that would never do.
I recall Starforce game protection ruining my Windows. Also Registry Mechanic and many other software products during the last decade.
But never ever I've seen a company apologize and offer so many reimbursements for the damage they've done. And yet we see countless of articles bashing them all over and over again.
I know this does not compensate the lost time, nor excuse their late response, but still - what more do you want from them?
For all I know it's a Microsoft's fault as much as McAfee's: their OS should've never allowed a critical system file to be deleted by a third party software that easily! And I don't want to get into argument about the other OS faults that led to this disaster (like the need for A/V at all :))
So please, either stop bashing them or at least start rubbing off the other software companies that cause our "beloved" OS to BSD from time to time.
Or just stop pretending to be objective...
I have a windows vista and I used their DAT 5859 twice but it didn`t fix my computer. So I contacted them by e-mail and eventually got to talk to them through free chat. But they told me they would phone me in 24hrs to help to go through restoring my computer with the disc. They told me it would cost £1 a minute to call them. Yet this is all their fault and my computer has been down for 6 days now