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McAfee Reviews
ConsumerAffairs has collected 1,024 reviews and 2,090 ratings.
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Reviewed Nov. 26, 2023
Overall all antivirus engines are pretty much all the same with various degrees of effectiveness but I've noticed a pattern lately from many companies taking over customer's desktop screens to use as their personal billboards without consent. If I paid for the product this should not be. I demanded a refund from Norton for this reason and it will be one of the major factors in me choosing my next Antivirus subscription. DO NOT USE NORTON NOR MCAFEE.
Reviewed Nov. 11, 2023
Terrible company. Lies to you about their product then when you get mad after finding out they lied and try to cancel they won’t allow it and their representative called me a liar … never use this company.
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Reviewed Nov. 11, 2023
I stupidly had the auto renewal setting on with my subscription. They raised the price from $96/year to $170/year!!!! Unbelievable! Make sure to turn off the auto renewal setting asap so you don't get ripped off like I did!!
Reviewed Nov. 9, 2023
McAfee® LiveSafe™ was preinstalled on the laptop device my child (under 13) received in 2021 after a brief "free trial" period the service rolled into a two-year subscription for $81.65 w/ tax. he canceled the service and uninstalled the software about 18 months after that subscription change. recently we received an auto-renewal that was not authorized it was set as the default on the account when it was set up as a free trial. The auto-renewal cost was $163.30 w/ tax. The billing payment receipt notice said we had 60 days to request a refund. I requested the refund within a few hours of the transaction being posted to my account—the website for McAfee forces a call to Customer Service to request a refund.
I informed the CS that the child was not authorized to enter a subscription contract and the sales agent argued this point. after about an hour of pushing me to keep the service for a much-reduced fee, they finally agreed to the refund. It took far too long and many moments being placed on hold while they "reviewed the account" they could see that the software had not been installed on any device for nearly a year. This company will do anything to keep its software on your devices. It was frequently overriding settings and altering user settings that were well outside of the "virus" protection realm. We are glad to be done and will never use this company again.
Reviewed Nov. 8, 2023
We cancelled our subscription two months ago. Removed this application using their tool. Auto renew was off and thought that was the end of it. Yesterday we received an email that they charged me 199 dollars via our Chase card. Made it clear we no longer wanted their software. They refunded our card. Six hours later we received another charge to our credit card, this time for 149 dollars. They didn't want to refund us (** rep) until I told them they would be facing a major lawsuit for fraud. Received our refund ASAP. This company should not be in business because they are committing fraud.
Reviewed Nov. 6, 2023
I bought McAfee a year ago and never had any problems I was aware of. I rarely got a warning of viruses, etc. My subscription ran out and I would have renewed except my card had expired and they could not renew from their end. I was immediately flooded with pop-ups from them every 30 seconds or so with various notices and warnings. four days later I still get them. Even though I can not recall getting a notification from them warning of a virus when the subscription was active, they are now sending popups saying I have five viruses, I have been hacked, there are numerous Trojan horses, etc. Strange there were no problems until the subscription expired. I uninstalled McAfee but I still get repeated popups. I have no idea how to stop them. This sort of activity is the mark of a crooked business in my opinion.

Reviewed Nov. 4, 2023
A scam and just wont stop lying to get my money. When I got my computer McAfee was the default anti virus software. It actually was some help with scanning downloads. However, when I accidentally got hit by malware it immediately started blowing up my screen with notifications like "YOUR COMPUTER HAS 5 VIRUSES. BUY MCAFEE TO ACTIVATE ANTI VIRUS." And things along that line. I was scared but I decided to try to download a free anti virus (that also had better reviews) and then I dowloaded a 2nd. The other anti virus extensions all said that the malware had been deleted and was no longer a threat. However, McAfee continued to spam me so I tried to uninstall it but it didn't work. It is still harassing me.
Reviewed Oct. 31, 2023
My family and me stopped using McAfee, it's because they are cheating us. They are not reliable once if you do autorenewal, they overcharged our account and provided very poor service. They charged our account before the renewal period, and they provided trial service which ended soon. Their agents online and over the phone are not keeping up with what they said. I am not recommending McAfee Antivirus Protection to anyone and never do any business with them.
Reviewed Oct. 28, 2023
Overcharged, poor service. I honestly will never do business again with this company. EVER. They let scam centers run wild with scam emails and calls and don't do anything about it. It's like they support it or something. They employ cheap call centers that do their customer service during the day and scam call center at night. This is another great example of a company that eventually will lose every customer it has one, by one.
Reviewed Oct. 26, 2023
I have a MAC so maybe my experience is different than PC users. The every month, Mcafee Antivirus stops working. This seems to be whenever it updates the virus definitions. The only solution is to manually remove and install the new version of Mcafee! I don't have the time or inclination to do this so I am going to switch back to Norton Antivirus. Mcafee wouldn't even give me a refund because it was 32 days since I purchased it. The founder of Mcafee was a terrible person as well. Look him up!
McAfee author review by Shelley Elmblad
Founded in 1987, McAfee is a longstanding and trusted name in antivirus software for consumers and business because of how the company has continued to advance products to keep up with a changing industry over the years. Now a part of Intel Security Group, the brand will be eventually be renamed.
Global threat intelligence: McAfee uses this process, which collects data from millions of sources from around the globe, to offer real-time protection against viruses and other malicious threats.
Protection for all devices: One McAfee subscription with a 30-day money back guarantee includes antivirus protection for all PCs, Macs, iOS and Android phones and tablets and Android watches. Anti-theft features for mobile devices lock down the device and can locate it when lost or stolen.
Parental controls: This feature offers filtering and monitoring of what children can access and see when they are online. You’ll have to upgrade to McAfee Total Protection at $89.99 to get parental controls. Two other options cost $79.99 and $59.99, and discounts may be offered for the first year.
True Key Identity Manager: This is a secure software password vault that is used to log into mobile apps, websites and devices using a combination of facial recognition, fingerprint or devices.
Home network scanning: McAfee can scan a home Wi-Fi network to detect unprotected devices.

Shelley Elmblad is a writer with years of experience covering small business, mobile apps, personal finance and tax software. Shelley’s goal is to help others choose the best software to run a small business, track personal finances and save money.
McAfee Company Information
- Company Name:
- McAfee
- Year Founded:
- 1987
- Address:
- 2821 Mission College Blvd.
- City:
- Santa Clara
- State/Province:
- CA
- Postal Code:
- 95054
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.intelsecurity.com
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