Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deal With Unreasonable Companies?

New submitter Ash-Fox writes: I recently ran into troubles trying to get reasonable quality of support from an anti-virus vendor, where they are attempting to cop-out of providing any reasonable support and then refusing to offer refunds under the guise of their EULA does not allow it. However, their EULA does not implicitly say that they cannot provide refunds in other circumstances, as the support tries to imply, and further living in Europe (as is the anti-virus headquarters), this EULA for sales is only valid if that was provided as the terms of sales contract, which it was not. How do other Slashdotters look to address companies that behave poorly and seek to only provide at best their minimum legal requirements?

Comments

So I was gonna rant about your lack of detail

[redmid17]

Then I read your imgur post and have this to tell you:

1. It's not built-in functionality

2. It's in beta (as of 8/10/2016) - Bash on Ubuntu on Windows && Installation Guide. This is only available to a specific subset of Windows users (eg Windows Insiders Program).

Disclaimer: "This is the first release of Bash on Windows and it is branded "beta" deliberately - it's not yet complete! You should expect many things to work and for some things to fail! We greatly appreciate you using Bash on Windows and helping us identify the issues we need to fix in order to deliver a great experience."

You can't expect 100% compatibility with something still in beta. There are broken things and things that will be changed. Expecting Avast to work with it right now or refund you for a beta-product is unreasonable. Maybe common handles things differently than civil law in this case. I know Europe has better consumer protections in many many ways than the US, but I can't see where anyone would reasonably expect a refund or extensive support for a beta add-in when the product works perfectly with production level software (aka Win 10).

customer retention specialist != technical support

[lusid1]

That's really the central problem from what you've posted. You need technical support so a ticket can get opened in whatever 3rd world coding farm they have outsourced the product to. Seeing that your support request is being handling by someone who's title says "customer retention" means you will never get a refund, and your issue will never be resolved. That's just not what they are there to do. On the org chart they probably roll up to the sales group.

Cut your losses and move on.

I never have this problem

[jdavidb]

I recently ran into troubles trying to get reasonable quality of support from an anti-virus vendor

rotfl, I can't imagine getting much support at all for that.

How do other Slashdotters look to address companies that behave poorly and seek to only provide at best their minimum legal requirements?

I don't buy proprietary software.

Not doing business, and public posting

[phorm]

Not doing business with them again is a start, but honestly one of the things I've found is that some businesses who do some *amazingly* bad support/PR, also seem to have public walls on their Facebook pages. I've had decent luck getting some response from businesses by posting a detailed summary of my issues on their wall.

You're trying too hard

[JosephDoeden]

You've already put a lot of effort into failing, why not just move on? They make a good point. You should have tested the software better. It would be NICE of them to give you a refund, but they have no reason to, especially if you at like a dick. Walmart and Amazon will give you a refund because you buy LOTS of stuff from them. A company like this can just write you off as a loss and move on. It's their choice. You can wage a social networking war against them.. as you appear to be doing already. I wonder if your Ask Slashdot for help is more of a form of clickbait in the this case. I don't think you need help, you appear to be aggressively pursuing the issue with nicely made propaganda. What you need is distribution and Slashdot is not the place to get it, but it's not the place NOT to get it. Reddit seems like a better target for this type of thing.

Cancellations, threats and legal action

[guruevi]

Pretty much in that order:
- You cancel whatever service you have with them so they get no further money if you can legally do so.
- You threaten them with cancellation, non-renewal or no further sales - most smaller companies will bend over backwards to maintain clients
- You threaten with social pressure (trade groups, other departments or companies you have ties with, social media)
- You go for legal action. In European countries this is a heck of a lot easier as consumer protections are baked into the law even if you have contracts saying otherwise. In the US you have fewer protections but small claims is often viable for small companies even if you can't recover the whole sum. If you have a legal team staffed, talk to them about your options but unless you do jury trials are usually too expensive unless you get a class action going.

Don't EVER use social media or other publishing options to outline issues you have with a company. It's too easy for a big company to bully you with lawsuits and you may say something that's not strictly true or legal or even shows you violated a clause or your contract. All communications from your company should go through a lawyer.

Mention their name! Avast! Dispute the charge.

[www.sorehands.com]

Don't mention "reasonable quality of support from an anti-virus vendor" instead identify them by name and repeat it often!

I don't know if your credi card or local provides it, but here in the USA, you can dispute quality of product if it is purchased in your state or within 50 miles of home. Your home computer is within 50 miles of home.

But, when disputing the charge make it simple, "when I install it, it breaks my computer." When I remove it, it works perfectly."

It's antivirus software, what do you expect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Use the AV checker that grew between your ears!
Don't install every shit program, don't browse the web with javascript enabled by default (noscript, ghostery) and only download torrents from trusted uploaders.

Pass the odd software here and there through that online antivirus website and you are good.

1) Your Computer will run MUCH faster
2) You take responsibility
3) not a single virus infection in over 20 years

ohh and if you want extra protection. Just set your firewall to block any outgoing unless you white list it.

I Don't.

[brian.stinar]

You are talking about somewhere between $50-$100, right? You walk away from it, and realize that your time could (HOPEFULLY?) be better spent on more productive things.

When a small store gave me incorrect change, and was unpleasant about the correction of that error, I walked away and never came back. Anything else would have not been worth my time. Unless you want to turn this into a hobby, I suggest you take a similar approach. Whenever anyone asks me about that store, I tell them a similar story, and advise them to go to a different store. That alone cost the store far more than when they jacked from me on my change. It was the store owner that robbed me.

Step1 NAME THEM

[Lumpy]

All of these people protecting these bad companies in these posts are insane.

Freaking Name the company you are having problems with. What the hell is wrong with people protecting companies that screw them?

Re:Step1 NAME THEM

[NotAPK]

It's fear.

They are worried the company will come down hard on them in some way.

Land of the free indeed...

Re:You aren't reasonable

[Ash-Fox]

It has been my experience that people who use the word reasonable, and use it a lot like you did, are the most unreasonable people on the planet. If you've made demands that you "feel" are "reasonable"

You know what the funny thing is? If the person had actually even checked their internal staff or checked their own support forums, they would have found it was being worked on and a fix was pending. That would have been enough to resolve the ticket with me, their support person was lazy and didn't even bother checking throughout the entire ticket, then their supervisor, right at the end did the same.

So unreasonable of me to expect a company that sells a security solution to provide some information on the certainty on supporting of features! Especially when I state out my assumptions in the following e-mail blatantly so they can correct them if I'm wrong. But no, the "customer retention specialist" some how managed to miss that again? I don't buy it, it was terrible support.