Others say...

"DO NOT BUY ANY MCAFEE PRODUCT"
This is less a review for Total Protection 2007, and more a review of Mcafee's customer service support, which obviously extends to all of their products.

I used a Mcafee product for about six weeks with no problems. One day, I had a technical issue. It was then that I discovered that Mcafee's technical support and customer service departments are shamefully unprepared to assist customers.

- I had to pay three dollars a minute to use the technical support telephone number. Of the seven minutes I was on that call, I was on hold for more than half the time (still being charged). When the technician finally emailed me instructions to resolve my technical issue, I quickly discovered he had sent me instructions for an issue completely unrelated to mine. In essence, I spent 21 dollars on hold music. (seven minutes)

- Mcafee has an online technician chat option for those people who do not wish to pay for technical support. My experience was VERY slow, I was frequently disconnected, and most importantly, I chatted with EIGHT different technicians (I cut-and-pasted all the chat sessions), and none of them was able to provide me with information that was even remotely relevant to my problem. They were all using standard cut-and-paste respponses that did not address my difficulty. (four hours)

- I studied the Help Tree, FAQ, and Help Index sections on the Mcafee website, to no avail (one hour)

- I finally called the customer service support line (it's NOT a toll-free number), explained that I wanted a product refund, and was told I would be contacted within 48 hours. When I wasn't, I called and began an almost indescribably difficult process of getting my refund:

- conversations with TEN different customer service representatives
- being put on hold for one hour on TWO separate occasions, having to finally hang up and call back
- being cut off twice
- in all, spending FOUR HOURS on the phone

The worst part is that my issue STILL isn't resolved. Since I'm demanding that I be reimbursed the money I spent on calling technical support, and that I be compensated for all the personal time and phone time I have invested, I'm STILL dealing with them.

This is a shameful, disgustingly low level of customer support. It's a shockingly unethical way to do business, and it robs the product owner of any peace-of-mind. We buy internet security and antivirus software for peace-of-mind. But this horrible experience has utterly robbed me of it.

PLEASE DO NOT BUY ANY SOFTWARE PUBLISHED BY MCAFEE.







"Jim's review of McAfee Total Protection 2007"
McAfee Total Protection is not able to be located on the McAfee website, but you can get tech support on the product. They apparantly don't sell it anymore. Nevertheless, it is a good product. The greatest complaint I have about it is that it consumes lots of resources, especially at startup, when it calls home and downloads updates and also starts scans. You can schedule the scans for a different time, but the downloads happen at startup. And during startup, while these downloads are happening, you might as well go get a cup of coffee, because the computer will practically not respond to any commands! Also, the program interrupts with a warning message when ANYTHING changes on your system. Most times this is the result of something you are doing, like downloading and installing a new program. It always pops up at bootup...apparantly a Registry Key changes every time the machine boots up. I'm going to try Norton Internet Security. PC Magazine echoed my comments in their Dec. 26, 2006 "The Best of the Year" article.

"great antivirus bundle!"
McAfee is a PC Magazine Editors' Choice for anitvirus protection. I find it easy to use and very effective. It stops identity thieves, spammers, predators, spyware, hackers, and backs up important files. Great value. I never start my computer with McAfee installed.

"Uninstallable: Absymal Tech Support - $3 per minute phone support"
I purchased Mcafee Total Protection last week and after five hours of "live" chat tech support(two minutes minumum between responses), I was still unable to get this software to install. First they blamed it on an earlier version of Mcafee, then it was a CA etrust virus program, then it was my earlier version of Mcafee again. They have no clue. Even worse, phone-in tech support costs $3 per minute!!! I was then refered to email tech support, but they won't answer my emails. This product was free after rebates, but I still had to return it. I felt like they should pay me after the headaches this cost me.

"Horrible!!"
I have been a Mcafee user for the past five years. Decided to purchase this product based on past experience. Once I installed it, the problems began. Email took at least 10 min. to open up and my computer's performance became nonexistant. Uninstalled it and everything was normal again. Reinstalled it - same problems. Decided to go to McAfee's website to see if there was a patch or something. Nothing at first and then went further into the online forums. Then I realized that myself and about 5,000 other people are having this same problem right now. Check it out for yourself. Trust me - there's better ways to waste 50 bucks.