With more than a month to go before I was due to renew my McAfee virus etc
protection software, the company did it for me, deducting the cash from my card automatically and e.mailing me to let me know! I find this offensive since I did not ask for this service, and anyway, can renew manually for a lot less than they took - though, to their credit, the sum was refunded as soon as I objected.
It might not have been so serious if they'd done it a day or so before the renewal date, but a month early is excessive. Any views?

Ditch McAfee and go for free AVG or Avast... They are good and they are free

I've heard of this happening to someone else too. They did the same as you. They complained to McAfee and got a refund.

McAfee is criminal in about 33 different ways... that was one of the kinder classes of robbery they pulled this week. Symantec is as bad, charging little old ladies $26 on their credit card before they will even take the call to see why they called, then keep them on the phone to charge them more.
They are crooked enough anyway without pulling that baloney.

I tell all my customers to ditch Symantec and McAfee for various reasons

Interesting to read abt other people's reactions to this - but hadn't we better take care about publicly using words like 'crooks' in our postings........? One for the moderator, maybe.

No, I don't think so. I see no problem with them calling them crooks, as long as it's true, and it is.

When someone tells you up front that auto-billing/renewal is available, and YOU must change settings to use it, then it isn't 'crooked'.

http://us.mcafee.com/root/support.asp?id=renew_subs

However, IF they say that THEN they set your renewal by default to auto, THAT is crooked.

A search of the internet turns up many complaints of unauthorized charges for renewal by Mcafee. Although the accounts are anecdotal, it appears to be a questionable business practice at the very least.

Norton did that to my wife also - throwing stones requires LOTs of stones and a strong arm.

Or maybe one large stone and an extremely strong arm.... :P

If a company did that to my dad he would never even look at there product again after gettting the money back....

Hmnn, yes, but that's [I][B]quite[/B][/I] a throw from my lcoation! Seriously, I'm amazed nobody who has replied seems worried about the legal aspects of certain comments, but it's clear that I'm in the minority here.
Never been keen to pay for what I can get free, but the product seemed good to me when I first started. Will consider all the comments when renewal comes up........Thanks for the responses.

Yes, I am going to respond once more, I would just get AVAST! or AVG, as they are both very good and free. The reason I don't worry about legalities is that is is my opinion, and they cannot prosecute you (or anything else) for having an opinion.

Thought members might be interested in my latest experience trying to keep my pc safe and clean with McAfee Security Centre. After due consideraton (see earlier postings re. McAfee) I finally [I][B]did[/B][/I] decide to renew my sub and was offered a decent discount on the web page price. However, when I logged on to renew, I was told the discount was no longer availabe...
Fortunately, I had the offer in writing (an e.mail) so phoned them and insisted on escalating from the "tier 1" footsoldier to a manager for approval, otherwise I was ditching the membership. After only a couple of mins' delay, the lower figure was honoured, so now I am still using their software, which I must admit I like. But the company really needs to examine their customer loyalty procedures.
We used to have a gag here for this kind of experience: "Remember, the customer is always wrong"

Well you gotta like McAfee a lot more than I like McAfee to go to the effort to call them when they are just following one of their many traditional practices... at whatever you paid, I suspect it is too much.