Trend Micro

I called about my subscription of Trend Micro Internet Security. The woman I got acted like it was a problem to deactivate my account because I found it on Bestbuy.com for $29.99 for the Trend Micro Titanium. The subscription does not do an update of the program and it looks the same and the Titanium looks newer, so why pay the $53 for the subscription? After her attitude and telling me that after you took my money it would take 1-2 months to get it back, because I like the program, I am out $90 until I get the refund for the subscription in a few months and I need to mark my calendar to ensure that I get the money back. Your people on the subscription is horrible. People are out of work and you have ugly people working for you. I have the credit on my calendar for 3 months out to ensure that they return my money because after I asked for a supervisor, no one called back.

My virus protection continues to turn off sporadically and if I am online I can turn it back on but I cannot get an answer from Trend why this happens. Also, they just advised me that it only protected from viruses if I am using "outlook" and not if I am using Yahoo or AOL or whatever.

Why am I paying money for this when they don't even put on their packaging that the protection is very limited and will not suit my needs if I don't use outlook? I recently had someone grab my email addresses and send out links to everyone on my contact list. For this, I pay money from my social security check which doesn't go that far in the first place?

I purchased a Toshiba computer and at the same time purchased Trend Micro Pro anti virus software based on their $50 rebate promotion. The rebate was only valid at Staples during the period August 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010. I submitted all required documents and received a post card indicating that your receipt date is not acceptable. Second the post mark (August 7, 2010) does not qualify for the rebate. This is a Staples only promotion and reflects on you.

Trend Micro using digital river to process cards has used my card for auto renewal after repeated attempts to stop auto renew over the past 16 months. After little relief from Trend Micro in Jan 2010, I resorted to deactivating my debit card at my bank stating that I was deactivating the card to protect against further fraudulent charges. In May of 2010, my account was again charged through the deactivated card with a forced and fraudulent expiration date. This is the problem. I only lost about $130 over the period of 16 months. These companies are by default auto renewing the software and collecting millions, one 50-dollar bill at a time and no one will do anything for 50 or 100 dollars.

Failure to honor rebate offer on purchase made Aug. 8, 2008, duplicate register receipts and rebate forms were issued with purchase. They claimed it would take 8-10 weeks. At about 12 weeks (early October) they sent an email claiming they'd mail a third of the amount in another 8-10 weeks. I replied explaining the amount was $40 short and already beyond the original 8-10 weeks. It's now beyond that as well. And, I wrote a detailed explanation with duplicates of all required submissions, to the company making the offer, Nov. 14.

I'm out $60 promised to induce my purchase, plus the cost of making a dozen or more copies (2 sets, 1 for me and later one to send with my letter), and the cost of 2 mailings. -- none of which should have been necessary. Plus, the unmeasurable cost in terms of aggravated pain induced by the increased stress over the extra effort, the disappointment, the excessive waiting, anticipating, lack of resolution, and enduring the insult of injustice.

I've received no portion of the rebate or even the courtesy of a reply ... nothing! I''m disabled and have lived in constant pain 20 years. I am unable to afford time, energy or money to make a career out of forcing a company to perform honorably ... even more so now that I've lost half of my life's savings recently (as many have) and my income for disability ends in two months. I've been unable to work for 20 years and certainly cannot replace any lost money by working now.

I simply cannot afford to be used by unscrupulous, greedy people ... or to endlessly endure the upset this has caused me. And, I doubt I'm an accidental example, given all I've done to pursue it. So, I fear there's a significant amount of the public equally duped, and the rest should be warned. Tragically, their product is exceptionally user friendly, making it difficult to look elsewhere in the future.

PC-Cillin product update does not work with dial up internet. Large download takes 6 hours and restarts from beginning when connection fails (unlike most of their competiton which have downloads that pick up where they left off upon reconnection after failure.). Trend acknowledges the problem but refused to send CD to accomplish update. Was told by their customer service that I would need access to a better internet connection to use their product.

A computer newspaper columnist recommended this company's software product, PC-cillin, for virus protection. Their ads offered a $25 main-in rebate. I sent in the rebate form with everything filled out and included, UPC code stapled to the form. Approx. 5 weeks later, they sent a postcard saying my mailin was not complete and UPC code was not included and send it again.

Since I had copied everything I sent, I sent copies of all, again within two days. It has now been 6 weeks since that time and they are showing through their "Tracking" location, that the claim was denied due to incomplete submission. Their rebate tracking location is well laid out with all graphics enhanced towards denials. I wonder how much this company has profitted off their denied Rebates?

On April 22, 2005, Trend Micro sent auto update Pattern 594 for their PC-cillin Internet Security software to many thousands of their subscribers worldwide. The antivirus company's update acted like a virus, and disabled those computers. As a pacifier, they offered to extend the subscription by one year for U.S. customers (a value of $25), and by one month for customers in Japan.

My case # is 448458. My repair costs were $240. Due to a series of Catch 22s, I needed to devote 19 hours of my time to speaking with phone tech help at Dell, Verizon, and Trend Micro. I also spent 6 hours reinstalling and setting up typical types of software on the reformatted hard drive.

Trend Micro's legal dept. reviewed copies of my $240 receipts, sent on their request. I suggested they reimburse me the $240, or I would consider suing them in small claims court for $1,500. (Expenses, plus 25 hours of my time, rated at $50 per hour.) They denied any liablity to me and all other customers.

I ordered a FREE upgrade from the 2004 version to the 2005 version. I downloaded the updgrade via the Internet. I was billed for the upgrade. I brought this to their attention, but their response did not address the situation. They sent me a physical shipment of the upgrade, PLUS a $4.49 unlimited download option that I did not order or need. I have already downloaded the "FREE" upgrade and it is working normally on my computer.

Not a complaint but rather an interesting clause ("out of the country")can be found in Trend Micro Software Evaluation Agreement in paragraph 3 which reads as follows:

3. Product Registration. In order to download the Software for evaluation purposes, You may be required to register your copy of the Software with Trend Micro. If registration is required, You will be prompted to complete a brief questionnaire in order to receive an Activation Code. You must install this Activation Code in order to use the Software and receive Maintenance. By accepting this Agreement, You agree to register Your Software as a condition of Your trial use of the Software and Your right to Maintenance during the Evaluation Term, and consent to having certain limited personal data stored outside the country where You are located and/or in jurisdictions where privacy laws may not be as stringent as those in your own country