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McAfee To Pay For PC Repairs After Patch Fiasco

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the in-over-their-heads dept.

Barence writes "McAfee has offered to pay for the PC repairs of consumers affected by last week's faulty antivirus update. The problematic patch falsely identified the SVCHOST.EXE Windows file as a virus, causing PCs running Windows XP SP3 to crash or enter endless reboot cycles. In a blog post addressed to 'Home or Home Office Consumers,' the company offered to reimburse PC repair expenses, though there was a notable caveat. 'If you have already incurred costs to repair your PC as a result of this issue, we're committed to reimbursing reasonable expenses,' the company said. 'Reasonable expenses' has yet to be formally defined."

5 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Not gonna be enough.. by Hebbinator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't see how this even begins to approach the amount they are in for.. they are going about it the wrong way. In signing up to pay home/ home office users, they are automatically assuming guilt for themselves (as if anyone wasn't sure that they were guilty in the first place?)

    First off, they are starting with home / home office users. This population will incur the highest cost per computer to fix - i.e. instead of paying 1 IT guy 30/hr to fix a bunch of computers in one place, this is one-at-a-time visits to Geek Squad (ugh) or whatever which will run 50+ per computer..

    This is just opening the door for future corporate lawsuits - i.e. "Clearly they have said that they were the cause of this issue and are willing to refund some of their users to the tune of X for just ONE computer. My company lost 1000 computers, I want 1000x dollars, plus lost productivity."

  2. I was thinking this would be a boon for me... by chaffed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was thinking this would be a boon for me. I do in home and business support in my off hours, good spending money. However, due to my issues with McAfee, none of my regular clients use McAfee AV products.

    So, if I had recommended McAfee to my clients, I would be a rich person now. Damn, doing the right things doesn't make as much money!

    --
    What could possibly go wrong?
    1. Re:I was thinking this would be a boon for me... by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Heh.... Doing the right thing almost always *ensures* you'll make less money -- at least in the world of computing.

      I do on-site service too, and honestly, that's one reason I charge higher hourly rates than some of my competition. I've seen, first-hand, the way they leave a PC after they're supposedly done "cleaning up a spyware infection". Typically, they run a couple of their favorite programs on it, letting them run through and remove whatever they find, and they declare it "clean" - charging their fee and leaving.

      I actually take the time out to test a system after I clean a virus/spyware issue, and if I see any evidence that, say, pop-up windows are still occasionally coming up in Internet Explorer, or error boxes are displaying from files that got deleted but not removed from the registry entries referencing them? I go back in and fix all of that. If I can't get it to where I'm satisfied it's 100% back to normal, I sometimes back up all their documents, bookmarks/favorites, Outlook email store, autocomplete files, photos, music, and whatever else - wipe the drive, and rebuild the whole machine.

      Honestly, that stuff takes many HOURS to do right, and I can't really bill a person for all of the time that takes - so I just "cap" things at that point with what I think is a fair price, and "eat" the rest of it.

      If I was less honest, I'd do what the other guys do and just do a quick, easy automated "once over" of things, take my money and run. Chances are good they'll call back and pay a second or third time to go back and mess with the remaining junk that was left behind anyway. And if not, at least I wasn't stuck putting in hours of unpaid work to do the job right....

      But I dunno.... there's still something satisfying about knowing you did a job the best you could -- even if it usually goes relatively unappreciated.

  3. Re:Definately an by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Using the made-up "virii" as a plural for viruses makes you look like a retard.

  4. "Patch Fiasco" by RevWaldo · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Ladies and gentlemen, coming to to you all the way from Seattle, Washington, the one, the only - Patch Fiasco!"

    or perhaps...

    (Twelve bad guys lie dead or mortally wounded on the street, surrounded by astonished and bewildered townsfolk. One speaks up.)
    - Who are you?
    (the man lights a cigarette, drags it in and exhales, then adjust the brim of his hat.)
    - My name... is Patch Fiasco. (turns around and starts walking away. music: mournful slide guitar)

    --
    Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!