McAfee
Reviews and Complaints

There should be class action law suit against this practices. MacAfee took money from my account without authorization. The first time, I complied with the bank for me to call MacAfee refund the charges, and end up a renewal for half the price. As far as I know, I did not agree for an auto renewal.
This time I have the bank deal with them since money was taken from my bank account without authorization.
Learning from this scam, I am looking for an alternative for MacAfee.

I had McAfee years ago on an old computer that was replaced over 4 years ago. I've been getting both mail and emails requesting that my credit card be updated for my renewal subscription. I contacted McAfee over a month ago to notify them that I no longer had that computer, and requested that they stop trying to obtain current credit card information. I also informed them that I had taken my account off of auto-renewal. I spoke to someone in India. Not only did they have an old email address, but my old home address since I had moved over 3 years ago. Yesterday, August 23rd, I received an email that automatically was transferred to my new email account, that I was charged over $80.00 for a renewal on a computer I no longer had. I checked my credit card, balance and lo and behold they obtained my new credit card information. I had taken off my auto-renewal since my computer was replaced over 4 years ago and I had another software installed. Not only did they go and put my account into auto-renewal again, they fraudulently charged a credit card that had no balance and was not being used! I immediately contacted my credit card company and requested that they remove the fraudulent charges, close out my account and issue another card number. McAfee claims that they work with the banks and credit card companies to obtain the new information so that their customers do not have a lapse in subscription. THIS COMPANY IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED! THEY STEAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION IN ORDER TO GET BUSINESS. Any reputable company who wants your business would not do this, especially if you do not update your credit card number after it expires! I did not have auto-renewal, but they turned it back on in order to charge for their product. There should be class-action lawsuit against a company who will go to these lengths to get money for their business. After this, I wouldn't ever use their product again, nor would I recommend them.

The "Auto-Renew" is in the fine print terms of the contract. You HAVE to agree to these "terms" in order to install the McAfee product you purchased. In those terms lies the scam: the ONLY way you can activate your McAfee purchase is to agree to let them auto renew. They 'auto renewed' me the second year (2 months before my existing subscription even ran out, no doubt to prevent you from changing to a better company). If you purchase McAfee ONCE, they got ya ... I went to the bank and had my credit card # changed (issued new CC), then, the next year I got an email from our pal McAfee saying they were "unable to renew due to incorrect payment info" (the CC # they had now was no longer active). Simply, if you buy McAfee on any credit or debit card---CHANGE YOUR CARD NUMBER or McAfee will auto-renew every year--months prior to your current subscription running out.

S C A M.

On March 30th, 2009 I went on-line to order to order a download software program. When the program was downloaded it was an entirely different program.

I was charged for that program. I have tried numerous times to e-mail them about the problem but never received any replies.

Now I have tried again the the web site that was provided to my credit card provider is no longer on the internet.

I now think this was a scam.

I downloaded 3 user anti virus security from Mcafee. When it was done I had nothing but problems. So, I thought ok I will call them. What a joke.. having to pay for assistance that ruined my computer. I had no restore points, no search it was blank. At this point was furious. Why should I call for technical assistance on their faulty product?
This is the biggest rip off on the market. My computer was secure and never left unprotected before I downloaded their garbage. I am contacting the BBB. 44.99 now cost me 139.99 a damaged computer and a headache.

Beware of this company!

You should know that no antivirus program can stop all viruses on their own.

Count yourself lucky! Take it back to the store for a refund and read the numerous complaints on this very site about their unethical practices and unauthorized charges.

True. If you're bombarded with pop ups and ads on sites like porn sites, don't EVER click it.

An anti-virus providing a virus? Really? Business. Btw, reimbursement? Come on buddy! LOL

Dear McAfee,

Every time I try to type something important, your ad always pops up on my screen and I can't see my typing. Even if I have a timer for typing on a test your ad still pops up, the ad takes a couple minutes to delete it and my teacher wants me to have a good accuracy rate on my test. My teacher also wants correct words on my test. My teacher wants not many mistakes.

loss of anti-virus security for my laptop .

I found the McAfee software to be useless in blocking or removing Trojans. It is very invasive, and slows up the operation of my laptop. I spent five hours trying to get their customer representative in East India to cancel the $90 automatic renewal. More like malware than a genuine antivirus utility.

I agree MacAfee sucks I originally purchased a one year contract with Mac Afee cause it came highly reccomended as one of the best . At first there were no problems with it till I upgraded to Windows 7 then I started having problems. Got that fixed again no problems at all except for the fact that the software mysteriously stops working 3 weeks before it's time to renew it then all of a sudden it stops working and all you get is oh your computer is unprotected and renew your subscription notices and that's with three weeks left on the subscription which I found strange but never the less we renewed for another year. Well low and behold 2 weeks ago again the Mac Afee came up as not working again that the real time scanning had been turned off and to turn it back on. When I tried to turn it back on up came the please renew your software for continious service, huh we still had a month on the original contract. They ripped us off on the final thirty days that we had already paid for. I contacted them because actually our renewal date isn't until the 26th of this month and I was informed I should go ahead and renew now. I informed them that we planned on renewing on the 24th thats still 2 days until expiration date. And they informed me that there really was nothing they could do until then WTH I basically informed them that their software was crap and no this time we would not be renewing. I removed the software off both computers a couple of days ago which actually sucks cause we're entitled to it until the 26th but oh well. I suggest tryiny Microsoft Security Essentials one it's free and it works great. It's what I've been using and I love it . It's actually a much better Antivirus Spyware program than Mac Afee . I will never use Mac Afee again if I can help it.

DONE !

So you panic...everyone can witness your cowardice.
Yeah, sit back and enjoy your cheap victory.
This is a good opportunity to move on to different sites to be heard.
AND to report you to authorities more serious than CB, you know?
So long, crook.

Report, report!

If only I had read these so very very bad MacAfee reviews I could have been saved tremendous anxiety and cost. McAfee protection is an expensive send up. Last month I renewed my subscription; the money went from my account and I removed the old program and installed the replacement. This was where the trouble started. Three days after the purchase I received a notification that my new version of McAfee was expired. At great expense I rang customer services and was told I was correct that I had paid for the renewal but i was told i needed to talk to a technician who would check my computer by remote but for this they wanted the sum of £54 refundable if no virus was found. No virus was found and McAfee successfully downloaded the version that had disappeared. Some days later my money was refunded. This happened twice. Both times £54 went in an out of my account for five days. Two days ago the third time, being a 67 year old woman I got hysterical with McAfee support refused to hand over any more of my pension money and insisted on a full refund as I no longer trusted McAfee. Hysterics prevailed and a hasty promise of a refund was made. I have a five day wait for my cash back and in the meantime have had to pay out for a Kaspersky replacement. So far Kaspersky is good for me.

Bbb1

no anti virus can take that much space, they all may be garbage but this doesnt happen .
could be a virus ... will research on it

no antivirus can take gigabyte of space i have tested all they all may be garbage none took that much space . this look like new virus ...thanks i got some thing to reseach on

I have just checked my visa account to find that McAffee has removed £64.99 from my account without my authorisation (ref no:85204721216130808030184) The only McAffee product i have is Anti-Theft which was paid for a few months ago and is not due for renewal.
As all the other products that i had were discontinued 1-2years ago.
Please refund me the amount of £64.99 immediately as this has taken me over my limit. If i had brought this product (Whatever it is) i would not have used a card that would have taken me over the limit.
Yours Faithfully
Miss Wendy Willimott

After having what I now call my “McAffe Experience” I told their customer service that I would never pass on an opportunity to warn others about McAffee’s service and questionable business practices.

Last Summer I purchased McAffee Antivirus software. After downloading it would not run. I contacted their tech support and of course had to talk to someone who could barely speak English named Roger….RIGHT! He spent over an hour having me change a bunch of settings. The software still would not start up. So Roger transferred me to another tech idiot and continued making changes in numerous areas on the PC. I told him this is not normal to have to change all this stuff and he says No Problem…No Problem. We will fix it.

And you know what..he did. As soon as he had me restart the PC it crashed. Since I was so pissed and it was late I told him I would call back the next morning. The tech I talked to then says well it is obviously something wrong with my PC and not our software. I responded by telling him I agreed and McAfee Techs were the cause of the something that was wrong with my PC.

They then had the gall to try to charge me almost 100 bucks to fix the problems they caused. That was the proverbial straw and I told them what they could do with their product and it was understandable in any language. I told them to refund my card, and to take my name off of their contact lists. I took my PC to a friend who works in the MIS field and he had it fixed in a couple of hours and told me he was surprised it did not crash sooner after all the changes they made.

McAfee NEVER refunded my card, and I keep getting emails and snail mail etc. even though I have responded to every email telling them to remove me from their lists.

I received a letter from them dated June 01, telling me that my card had expired and wanted me to update it. The subscription I never got to use did not expire until July so it is obvious they tried to charge my card in May, two months before the renewal was due. They do this so they can use your money for a couple of months even if you do not renew. I consider that an unethical business practice but honestly have learned to expect nothing less from this bunch.

Luckily my card expired in May so that screwed up their scheme. I called the number they put on the letter and was not a nice person. Of course I was told I would be removed from their lists, I will believe it when I don’t see it.

I have decided to file a complaint with my States Attorney General consumer affairs branch and encourage those having similar problems do so for their State.

Again beware of dealing with this company

I ordered a McAffee software since last month and did not receive software

Same problem here...problem still not resolved although Windows Defender stopped the AntiCirus 2010 from popping up when accessing my internet, now I can't open files or install or uninstall...can't even run cmd or regedit...still waiting for help from Microsoft since AT&T has failed once again to provide support for their program!

I agree entirely. I bought a sony vaio with a year subscription to mcafee and when i had to renew I found Microsoft Security Essentials, Works Perfectly :)

Macafee continues to charge my credit card even though we have told them more than a year ago we no longer have that computer. They don't care. Saying they cannot issue refund if it has been longer than 6 months. Bull crap. This is a ripoff company.

Customer service and technical support is poor. The personnel are not knowledgable about the products or current issues. I have sent e-mails to technical support, customer service, corporate public relations (Francie Coulter), and their president (Dave Dewalt). No one has responded to their Site Advisor problem with the Google search engine. This company discourages telephone calls by charging a fee for "premium service." My current subscription to their service will end in a couple of months. I will choose another service provider that is customer friendly.

I agree, McAfee service is terrible I had exactly the same issue with a nasty little virus that they claim they removed then sold me a new antivirus software. Not only did the same virus return the service tech says he never claimed they could eradicate the virus and could not find a history of previous service call even thou I provided him with a reference number. I was told I had to pay another $120 to remove the virus At the same time I was told the virus remains hidden and can reappear but if more then 30 days I would need to pay again. bottom line Don't use Mcafee. Better yet BUY A MAC and don't worry about viruses

Mcafee is a nightmare to deal with. It is NOT the best anti-virus and my Mcafee let a virus slip thru that seems to have messed up a bunch of stuff. There technical support couldn't fix it after more than a week of talking with them. Finally they revealed to me that there was an issue with downloading to Windows 64 bit systems. I don't know if this was true but I said that I wanted my money back. The technical department said it would be no problem to receive a refund and yet the customer service department tells me they can't. I am still waiting for my refund and may sue if anyone is interested in a possible class action law suit.

My 3 yr agreement with McAfee expires in January 2017, received an email from McAfee in June 2017 offering reduced pricing for new 360 security package. So I called, and was informed the new agreement would take effect immediately and not be tacked onto my current agreement. Was also told that my current paid package is not fully protecting my computer due to the upgrade. Why didn't McAfee email me directly to inform me of the status change of my current agreement with them? Am I wrong to assume that entering into an agreement for a length of time be honored for the duration? If they reneged once in honoring an agreement, why would one assume that McAfee won't do it again. VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THE WAY McAFEE CONDUCTs BUSINESS!

I currently have a subscription to McAfee. I recently experienced a virus attack. My first reaction was to contact McAfee and find the steps to remove the virus. I was informed that I would have to pay $89.95 so McAfee's "Virus-removal specialists" could remove my virus remotely from my computer. I asked if there were any other ways to have this removed but was told this would be my only option. After continuously asking and going back and forth with my customer care rep, he finally gave in and told me the McAfee website/customer blog that could provide me with free virus removal programs. The link he provided wasn't very user-friendly, so I did an internet search for a virus removal program myself. After some research, I found a legit removal program. I downloaded it and let it do its thing. What do you know? The virus was removed and I kept $89.95 in my pocket. I couldn't believe that I was being led to believe that paying was my only option until the rep was tired of me asking for alternative routes!

McAfee wouldn't update...tech help told me that it was my broadband speed the first two calls...speed was fine..3rd call they told me to delete it & reload...doesn't want to reload of course...the next four calls to tech help are to try & solve that..inc the last which they accessed my PC...they reckon it won't download cause i have a virus in my PC...isn't that why i had McAfee in the first place? for a fee of $129 they can remove the virus their program should of stopped...there scan tool stinger doesn't detect anything any how...don't waste your money on McAfee...the tech help seems promising but you'll spend hours in front of your computer for zip! think i'm up to 12 so far

I purchased McAfee Antivirus software from McAfee Site. After installing it worked fine for 3 weeks. Then suddenly it said "Certificate Expired " and asked me to Activate. I called McAfee support they did something remotely in my machine and it seemed to work. I asked if this will recur. They guaranteed it won't. It recurred after 1 month. Again I called and they fixed remotely. I again asked "Are you sure it won't recur!" They assured me it won't recur. It has recurred again. Their service is appalling. If my PC is not protected half the time because of this, I was wondering why spend money and purchase a licensed antivirus software. I would not recommend anyone to buy McAfee. They are fraud. I have all the ticket numbers saved for which I called McAfee for support. I can show if need be.

Based on my recent experience with McAfee, customer service is an oxymoron with this company. Their customer service department was not interested in assisting me. They use a variety of methods to try and discourage solving complaints, such as putting you on hold endlessly, saying they don't have the ability to transfer a call, promising to research and let you know their findings (but not doing so!). Don't frustrate yourself by dealing with them. There are plenty of free anti-virus programs available to you instead of spending money with McAfee. Save yourself time, money and aggrevation...my experience should not become yours.

I know McAfee is a big professional company which is providing anti-virous support to the customers worldwide. Basing on this information and basing on good perception developed about this company I subscribe to this company's product. My laptop recently suffered from serious technical setback affiliated to virus when the McAfee anti-virus protection was on. I could not switch on my set even for about a month. Then I took the computer to the technician, they declared the computers hard-drive was fully corrupted due to virus and so it can not be repaired. The solution was there- change the hard-drive. So ultimately I had to do that. I lost my valuable data landed up into serious trouble. I spent 140 pounds to repair and to reproduce my lost data I have already spent about 390 pounds total 530 pounds which is the cost of almost another new computer.

Now, McAfee should refund this amount of money so that I can have the feelings that I have been backed to recover from the problem which was generated through virus?
I did not get satisfactory reply from London Customer service.
Waiting to hear from you.

With regards
Kazi Mushfiqur Rahman
London
+[protected]
mushfiq2977@yahoo.com

McAfee's software has crashed both my computers, each with different operating systems, and for the second year in a row. The new software CD does not install properly and McAfee provides absolutely no information on how to contact them for tech support!. When I finally do contact them via the web site it takes up to an hour to be told, via e mail, that someone will call you the next day for tech support. They do call, but it is the next day and they do not call at the time promised. If you miss the call you start all over again. If you are lucky enough to actually ever speak withcustomer support, they often do not fix the problem the first or second time. So you start over again on their website to contact them. The have NO PHONE NUMBER to get in touch with them for help. This product and their support is ***.

SiteAdvisor when installed appears to disable IE 6 browser capability. The nice wide IE 6 address bar is gone, wiped out. Can't bring it back no matter what! SiteAdvisor bar is not wide and doesn't have the features the IE address bar did. Also it defaults to Yahoo searches. Yuck! The only ONLY reason why I have it now is because I can't get my IE 6 address bar without reinstalling it and even then SiteAdvisor seems to have wormed its way into the operating system. Strange thing is I can't find much information about this anywhere.

Do not get involved with Mcafee. Their crap software permitted a common trojan to infect my computer after identifying at deleting it. They will charge you $89 to remove a trojan or virus. Their foreign call center is a horrible. They are like robots. The conversations are bizarre. It doesn't matter what you say, they respond as if you said something else. Maybe they just read off a paper but they will not address what you say. I have drained the batteries in 3 phones and made over 20 calls trying to install the software on my new computer. The error message says I am not connected to the internet. The Mcafee chat people actually said I was not connected to the internet while chatting with them over the internet. Maybe they thought we were using the chat with a couple of coconuts with a string tied between. I should have learned my lesson. I advise not to get involved with comcast or mcafee if you value the quality of your life.

I Recently bought a laptop and like all computers it came with a free temporary subcription to McAfee. Today I was attacked by a virus that downloaded one of those fake protection software thats obviously a scam. However, it crashed my internet and wouldnt allow me to do anything but THANKFULLY my McAffee still worked. After running several scans and McAfee telling me my computer is secure i completly wiped my hardrive and loe and behold, my computer is fine ( minus my files) Thanks McAfee, now i know never to use ur software again.

Just went the rounds with Mcafee customer service for the 3rd year in a row for my boss's computer. He stopped using the software 4 years ago (when I came onboard as IT) but every year in January they charge him again and I call again to reverse it. They tell me they delete the information, but it happens again. And here's the kicker: in that time he's had an all-new Amex card issued with new numbers, but apparently Amex is just updating the info with Mcafee and allowing them to charge again.

Please DISPUTE this with your credit card company and tell them that you have not ordered the product. If they tell you to dipute it direct, then tell them you have tried for the last three years and they should automatically refund your account and when Mcafee send proof of an invoice ... still go ahead and say that it's still in dispute. I made the mistake by ringing Mcafee ... which is a call centre in India (which I later discovered) and they assured me that once they received the money they would refund the fee! Well, I informed the chargecard that it was no longer in dispute, they repaid the money to Mcafee, who now deny receiving the money and won't refund it, because our subscription is now cancelled! Even though I told them that the money is probably sitting in a miscellaneous account as the subscription has been cancelled so they probably could not allocate the money!

Good luck

I have had an identicle problem. No product on my computer for three years and 25th December 2008 Mcafee took just under 40 pounds from my account. Yes no email address and yes lots of details requested but just ignored. No refund ever received. 25th December 2009 they have done it again. It appears Visa just pays as if authorised so we have to wait for a statement. Then complete formal claim form, which should arrive in ten days, they will argue the case. DID WE DO SOMETHING WRONG. It sounds like we are the villian. The message which came over lound and clear was we are very fry please just accept and go away. Lucky we are BRITISH

I was victimized by this very scam. Now I know more details, thank you!

5/3/2021 I got an e-mail stating that I was being charged $279.99 to renew. I contacted you to dispute subscription to McAfee I said to my self no way was I going to agree to this! I contacted you people to cancel this subscription.. After much talk and info I had to in put to my computer I was told that you had cancelled the $279.99 to my account . I made a mistake and put in a wrong amount. That I had entered $1500.00 to much. (1797.99) He said that he would lose his job if I did not return his money. He said that I should go to the TARGET Dept. store closest to my location and purchase gift cards in the amount of 3 @ $500.00 each. I told him that my car was broke and that I would have to take a bus. He said OK that he would stay on the line till I got back! He said then he would tell me how to send the gift cards to him! I slammed down the phone. I am still not sure I canceled . @ DEVIL 87GT@yahoo.com

It really seems like a scam. I bought a computer for my daughter in December 2014 and we immediately purchased and installed McAfee antivirus. One year later the service was cancelled by McAfee and a recurrent message would appear at the screen informing that the service was cancelled and asking for a renew but the renew of the service wasn´t interesting for us, thus we didn´t take any further action.
In 2015 we moved out of England. The fact is that they continued charging us every year after that the amount of £89.99. I returned to England this year and only then aknowledge the charges. For my surprise I was told by the bank that they couldn´t do anything about it and I should contact McAfee directly but they were fully aware of the "problem". And so I did. McAfee confirmed the fact that the services were cancelled one year after the purchase but I didn´t "call" them to cancel the services, reason why they continued charging me. They reimbursed me for the charges made in July 2018 (despite the fact that the first purchase was made in December 2014, no reason whatsoever for them to be charging me in July) but they refused to reimburse the previous charges made in 2016 and 2017 even though the services were no longer being provided. So, I strongly advise people to be aware of McAfee "type of procedures".