Trend Micro–I will NEVER Buy From You Again
A complete customer service nightmare, not to mention I made the mistake of trusting my data to this bunch of losers.
Last April, I bought one year of the SafeSync data protection program, that supposedly backs up my files to a server on the cloud. About ten days ago, I accidentally deleted an important file. So I strolled over to the Trend Micro site, and attempted to retrieve the file.
After all, whenever I click on the software, it smiles at me and tells me that all my files are up to date.
It wasn’t there.
Not only wasn’t it there, but the last time that folder was backed up was in July! I wish I’d taken a screen shot. I haven’t changed any of the settings since I set up the program.
So of course, I initiated a customer service request. And my request apparently led some employee at Trend to delete my entire backup, so I could not demonstrate that it stopped working.
Today I spent an hour on the phone with a tech, who was not able to locate any of my files. At this point, having utterly lost confidence in the product, I asked for a refund. I was told, first by Miss Clueless (who was, BTW, a very poor listener) and then later by Richard, her supervisor, that I would have needed to request that refund by 30 days after purchase. Then Richard tried to blame it on me, saying the empty data folder meant I had installed it improperly. I pointed out that I could see the first three months of files when I’d logged on earlier in the month. I pointed out that I had paid for a year of service, and that after 30 days, it was still working properly. No refund. I tried to escalate. He said “I’ll save you time. There will be no refund” and did not honor my request to talk to his supervisor.
Hello! I bought a year of backup data security; I received, apparently, three months
I am therefore adding to my list of missions to save you from buying anything from a company whose product lies to its customers, whose customer service staff is atrocious and which does not stand behind its product. All they had to do was give me back my $61. I would not have been happy about the lost data, but at least I would not have been charged for services not received. But they can’t be bothered, and I’m not going to get any work done until I vent. I’m pretty steamed at the moment.
In addition to safeSync (yeah, real safe!), they also make an antvirus product called Titanium and a cyberblocker called Online Guardian. And a suite called Internet Security Pro, and an eneterprise security program called Endpoint Security. Guess what I won’t be buying! A company this lacking in business ethics shoots itself in the foot. They clearly have no concept of customer service as either marketing or damage control.
My blog gets automatically posted to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, with over 10,000 total connections. I hope I can save a few of those people from wasting money with a company that doesn’t care.
UPDATE: Apparently they realized what they’d done (and I was very open and upfront and said it would be going on social media) because about four hours later, I got a call that they would “make an exception” and issue a refund. Today I picked up an e-mail that my refund is in process.
And that saved them from having me repost the link numerous times, so they should be glad they finally acted.
Shel –
This is really unfortunate. About the time that Norton was becoming miserable to live with, Trend Micro came along with a good, solid and lightweight product (I’d seen Norton brick a number of machines). Then, about two year later, they started going downhill in terms of customer service. But this is a new low.
Of course (and I’m saying this for your readers) it underscores the importance of testing your backups from time to time.
For my backups, I’m now using CrashPlan because they have a bulk rate (up to ten machines for $120) and they allow backing up both locally and to another machine in the mix. It’s very versatile. If you want a single subscription, it’s $60 per year per machine.
Sorry for your tsuris…
Thanks. Your comment went to Akismet Spam for some reason.
They did make good on it, under pressure–and today I took a free-trial offer on Carbonite (hadn’t seen your post yet). Micght look into Crash Plan–does it run on a Mac?
Shel, what a horrible company! Not to mention what a dumb company…don’t they know about the power of social media? Apparently not!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience so that others will know to run the other way as fast as possible.