On December 25,
I purchased a two year subscription to Shield Deluxe
from PCShieldSecurity.com., aka The deal came with an
additional 90 days free. So my
subscription would end around May 25,
2012. Cost $39.95. The program worked fine until Sept. 23.
On Sept. 23,
I purchased SpamShield from the same company for $29.95.
After paying the price with PayPal I was unable to download
the software. I contacted the service
department (somewhere in India) and after their technician tried for an hour to
assist me, he stated that my computer was running too slowly because of errors
in third party software and that I needed to hire them for at least a one time
tune up at $99.95 so that they could get it running properly. He was quite persuasive. He expressed disappointment that I did not
agree to a full year of service (around $200) but felt that the one event
service would do the job. He then turned
me over to their billing people since this service could not be paid by
PayPal. After billing my Discover Card I
was turned over to another tech. This
began a three hour marathon in which not only were some critical files removed
from my computer so that my Virus protection (Shield Deluxe) would no longer
operate, but my configuration was changed in ways unknown to me still, so that
my computer is no longer recognized by web sites with which I had secure
connections (banking, investment, etc). At
the end of the three hours the tech indicated that there was a problem with
their server and that he would need 24 hours to get it fixed. He would call me back on Sept 24 between 12:30 PM and 1:30
PM. I gave him two different
phone numbers in case one were in use at the time of his call.
I shut down my computer and refused to use it during the 24
hours because it was vulnerable. When
there was no telephone call on the 24th. I began to complain. I called PCShields service number. I talked with a technician and after numerous
attempts with invoice numbers, order numbers, etc., he was finally able to
locate the open service log. He
immediately referred me to a senior technician. I was placed in a queue and waited about
15-20 minutes before my turn came. The
line rang and a female voice began asking something. I could not understand what she said, so I
said hello. I was answered with a
question is there anyone here? I said
again hello. Click. I emailed their customer service outlining
what had happened and giving them all the reference numbers. My chief complaint was that I had spent $130
on service and software, none of which works and that I had even lost the use
of my $39. Virus protector.
They had promised a return call which they never
attempted.
Sept. 25 came with no response. I began to protect my PayPal account and my
credit card account. Still no response
from PCShield. The first kind of
response from PCShield came on the 26th when they simply refunded
the charge from Spam Shield without any contact with me. Around 2:00 PM
on the 26, two full days after they had promised to telephone me, they responded to my e-mail by telling me to call their customer
service number. I responded that I will
not be placed in line again. They are to
call me and fix the problems or I will let the world know what kind of outfit
they are.
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