EGeezer
Summertime -
Premium
join:2002-08-04
Country!
 ·Callcentric
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T CallVantage
|  Unsticking yourself from your security app
Suppose you sign up for a subscription to that product you had tried or had been recommended to you. Then, after several months, decided it was not suitable for you. OK, don't renew, right? Well, it may not be that easy if you used your plastic to sign up and you didn't read that 3000+ word agreement.
This article by Scott Dunn in this month's Brian Livingston newsletter describes Scott's interesting informal test of three well-known vendors.
It looks like a good reason to have a single purchase authorization feature with one's credit/debit card.
--
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes or its theories will hold water.
|
|
Name Game
Premium
join:2002-07-07
North Myrtle Beach, SC
| The bigger issue with any Auto-Renewal from any company is the fact that somewhere they must keep your credit card info and the expiration date of your card...trusting them with that data base has been the downfall of many to date.
--
Gladiator Security Forum »www.gladiator-antivirus.com/ Missing Kids »www.missingkids.com/ |
|
Mercurybird
Premium
join:2004-06-24
Hooks, TX
·Allegiance Communi..
·CableOne
| I use Windows Live One Care. Recently my renewal date came up and Windows renewed it without asking. I was thinking of letting it go in favor of Blink, which I was testdriving at the time. You can imagine how miffed I was over that. So the debit card information that they have listed is yanked. They could have at least asked first. Lesson to me!
--
You're an American. You get a free pass, but nobody rides for free. |
|
mers2
Premium,MVM
join:2004-03-20
USA
clubs:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to EGeezer
Some of the major AVs have been doing this for years. It appears everyone else is now taking advantage of trusting customers. Problem is there isn't enough backlash from consumers to change this rotten practice.
--
Team Discovery
|
|
Hutch
My Throne is the Dunny
Premium
join:2000-10-14
Out House
 ·Internode
| said by mers2  :Problem is there isn't enough backlash from consumers to change this rotten practice. I agree, we the consumers should harras Companies via email, phone, mail and let the public know through forums like dslreports. Even though some people don't completely read the fine print when they purchase items on the internet. This is a low down dirty practise of gaining revenue from the un-knowing, un-educated user.
I myself have had to pull my credit card details for the same reason. |
|
Interceptor
We want... A Shrubbery
Premium
join:2000-07-24
Birmingham, AL
| reply to EGeezer
Precisely why I use "ShopSafe" from my CC company. 
It will generate a temporary number for you for the time you specify, and no more than the amount you specify. To the vendor, it looks like your CC expires in a couple of months and your credit limit is surprisingly close to the item you're buying. |
|
Owlbet
Ignite the Ice
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-24
Palmer, AK
clubs:
·MTA Online
| reply to EGeezer
said by EGeezer :It looks like a good reason to have a single purchase authorization feature with one's credit/debit card. ...and people think I'm nuts because I like a shiny box with a CD inside. 
Anyway, I do renew subscriptions to favorite applications like Zone Alarm, SpyCop, and Norton. To date, none of the vendors involved have auto-billed my credit card for renewals. Symantec, however, will send you an email to give you the option of opting out of the auto-renewal. |
|
buttoni
Premium
join:2005-08-16
Temple, TX
·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to EGeezer
McAfee has started using this practice. Used to be you had to manually/verbally request Auto-Renewal (which I never did). Now they have the Auto-Renewal clause built in (more like buried in)the EULA. But when they charged me for a renewal I didn't want (tired of update issues & memory bloat), one call to customer service resulted in a refund being initiated both courteously & immediately (very same day). A few weeks later they called for feedback as to why we discontinued our McAfee. I was brutally honest.
Moral of this story: READ THOSE EULA'S WORD FOR WORD!!!!!
--
-------
WinXP Home SP2;512MB ram; Firefox 2.0.0.3; IE6 if needed; Comodo FW 2.4.18.184; Avast4Home 4.7.986; CounterSpy 2.1.946; ATT DSL 2Wire 1800 modem/router |
|
onDvine
Premium
join:2005-01-29
So. CA, USA
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by buttoni :... Moral of this story: READ THOSE EULA'S WORD FOR WORD!!!!! OR at least use EULAlyzer to "read" them for you and bring your attention to stuff you may wish you'd known about later.
--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. ▪G. K. Chesterton |
|
noway1
join:2004-11-29 | reply to EGeezer
Surprise, surprise. The big three are behaving like pirates and expect sympathy when their software is pirated. |
|
T Bell
You Can Fly
Premium
join:2003-10-23
Terra Firma
| reply to Interceptor
said by Interceptor :Precisely why I use "ShopSafe" from my CC company. It will generate a temporary number for you for the time you specify, and no more than the amount you specify. To the vendor, it looks like your CC expires in a couple of months and your credit limit is surprisingly close to the item you're buying. Bingo. I use this for every singe online transaction. If the charge is $10, I limit the card to $10. An extra step anyone should take - it's worth the extra three minutes to generate a number. |
|
buttoni
Premium
join:2005-08-16
Temple, TX
·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
2 edits | reply to onDvine
Thanks for the EULAlyzer tip! Will download & take a look at it. I was guilty of assuming that just because I had read the EULA when I originally bought the McAfee FW, the EULA hadn't changed. WRONG! They snuck that little tidbit into the EULA (without public announcement)sometime between Dec 2004 and March 2006.
--
-------
WinXP Home SP2;512MB ram; Firefox 2.0.0.3; IE6 if needed; Comodo FW 2.4.18.184; Avast4Home 4.7.986; CounterSpy 2.1.946; ATT DSL 2Wire 1800 modem/router |
|
onDvine
Premium
join:2005-01-29
So. CA, USA
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by buttoni :Thanks for the EULAlyzer tip! ... You're welcome. "They" often sneak in a phrase giving themselves the right to make changes in agreements without notice. |
|
Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX | reply to EGeezer
We've been Slashdotted:
»it.slashdot.org/it/07/05/20/1314231.shtml |
|
