Personal Firewall problem

[RunAmok]

Ex_Brit,

I think that's part of the problem we all seem to be trying to bring to McAfee's attention.  When technical support - both entry level and finally, Tier-2 - acknowlege a design problem or bug after a frustrating series of chats, the problem slides off into a black hole.  McAfee is a major software vendor, and many other vendors will assign a tracking 'bug' number to a reported and verified problem that the customer can can use to track and monitor status reports or furnish additional information. And when a significant number of customer service problems revolve around inadequate 'service', there should be some way to report that as well to a group who's charter is to review customer complaints and identify necessary changes in customer service to address potential lost customers.

Beyond the obvious capability to simply voice our frustrations in these discussions, I'd hoped that someone closer to the internal McAfee structure could recognize a pattern of customer concerns and voice those concerns to those in positions capable of addressing them.  It's been very disappointing to find that Consumer Service does not - and will not - take on that role.

[exbrit]

Well basically that's what happens.  Peoples' issues are noticed and trends noted and we pass everything we get back up the line.

As far as getting something fixed, I know Tech Support can be a pain to deal with but if you ask for escalation on an issue usally that produces good results.

[RunAmok]

First, I'm glad to hear that is indeed what's happening.  Unfortunatly, we don't see that - or any evidence or response or changes - when we do try to point out the problems we see.  In fact, it's quite the opposide...  What little we see is lip service at best, and either misinformation or re-direction back to the problem area in most cases.

You're quite right in that Tier-2 people do usually have the experience and expertise to troubleshoot and confirm a problem.  The problems I report generally have no relationship to config settings, invalid expectations, etc.   What Tier-2 folks don't have is any way to fix a design problem or bug, and again, those reports which are supposedly sent to 'development" seem to head straight to that black hole.  A couple examples include the McSvhost error at shutdown, ping requests accepted and answered even though the "Allow Ping Request" is not checked, slower run times for full scans, and - of course - my favorite so far lately since it's something I had, used, and depended on until they updated what I bought and paid for with something totally different and a poorly tested and obvious beta version - Traffic Monitor, missing to begin with, and then not working when Tier-2 got it installed.  All of those reported problems are at least two months old, and are alive and well and living in the aforementioned black hole.

Chat sessions with first level Tech Support people get a "Well... it's working" response (or some totally unrelated or really bogus response) when it's obviously not.  And when you can get them to escalate, Tier-2 simply confirms the bug and has no way to suggest an estimated resolution time frame.  And getting to Tier-2 is not always a stress-free process either.  If I had to guess, I'd say that the first level people are goaled on how may chats they close out - legitimately or not.  Getting something escalated is often a struggle with the tech insisting that I MCPR and reload for the third time before they'll escalate, since they can't find anything else they know how to deal with.

So, you're right.  Tier-2 has more talent, more experience, and more options to deal with a problem.  But that doesn't help much when you've already identified what the problem is.....

[exbrit]

I tend to agree.   We do pass back suggestions all the time but it can be a frustrating experience dealing with any large corporation.

[stagda]

Large corporation or not, if a party wants to keep customers you work at it.  I see no effort here.  I just wasted like an hour trying to simply send an email about this very problem.  Something the software and website promises is an option.  An option that is never actually offered to paying customers.  It's been days since the last post and no updates.  My product is still exhibiting this behavior and no solutions.  The only thing more disappointing than the problem itself is that this corporation doesn't seem to really be interested in that fact. 

If I were to reinstall my product, it would be the third time this year.  I agree with Che, it's time for a change.  You've lost me and believe me when I say that it is a big loss.  But I'd rather deal with a smaller company with actual customer service that listens with assistance I want and risk less frequent definitions than go through what I went through just now.  I don't want to chat with someone reading from a script only to be told something I already know.  Which is why I wanted to try email.  What a mistake that was.  Only made me run the worthless Virtual Technician 3 times before I figured out I'm not even allowed to.  I guess that's what I get for using Google Chrome.

The most disappointing thing is that it isn't the fault of all of you nice and helpful ppl reading this.  The reality is my message is probably lost even bothering to write it.  But I do feel slightly better.  I guess tomorrow I get to price the competition.

[newjack]

Stagda,That is about as dead on as it gets.I agree 100%.Other then the fact that Mcafee is a big security vender,it does not discount the ongoing problems & complete run around that the paying costumer gets when they have a problem.In todays day & age not many people seem to understand the concept of "the costumer".Real costumer service is virtually extinct.I can`t say that Mcafee has not made an effort in my case,because they have.

But when your running a basically new computer with a subscription for Mcafee security.You expect not to have a problem every other day.Or so it seems.I have had problem after problem since.There are a few folks on here that are great!With out them i probabley would have kicked in the computer already.But how many times does a person want to go through tech support with a new computer?Constantly dealing with frustrations due to a product that is supposed to protect your investment.I am sure i too will be shopping somewhere else when my time is up,barring a solution to my ongoing problems & a product that is stable in the future.Who cares though?For everyone that leaves i guess there is a new guy just around the corner.

                                                                                                                          Good luck Jack

[Mercury57]

Well, here it is Mid-August and I have exactly the same issue on two of my computers.  I just don't get it.

[RunAmok]

Mercury57,

Neither do the rest of us - or more to the point - neither does McAfee.  All the problems I mentioned months ago in entry 12 of this chain are still alive and well and living somewhere in that black hole that McAfee tucks away problem reports in.  Even though - in this case - we've reported at least one method to easily reproduce and verify the problem, the end result is the same...  nothing, nada, zip, zilch.   Same thing in other many chains too.  At least in this one, we do get some feedback from time to time although volunteers like Ex-Brit don't seem to be able to get the attention of those who should be responding (and fixing reported problems) either...  <sigh>.

[Dinz]

Hello all,

Sorry for the frustration caused ,  could you please run the virtual technician from http://mvt.mcafee.com  and post your session id’s .

Also, let me know the following information like,
Do we have any other security software installed in the computer ?
What is the operating system of  the computer?

Regards,

Dinesh K

McAfee Online Community Moderator

Message was edited by: Dinz on 8/16/10 3:39:31 PM GMT-06:00

[RunAmok]

Dintz,

Virtual technician may be a handy tool, but I've been less than impressed by several instances of MVT finding nothing wrong and telling me that everything's fine  - as I stare at an obvious problem.  If you really want to see the symptoms described in the first post in this chain, simply follow the steps mentioned in the second post (#1) to duplicate the problem.  If the pattern file is missing (or possibly corrupt) the main screen says "Your computer is protected - No action is required", everything is running, up to date, and fully functional while Windows warns us that there are problems and all the sub menus in the McAfee product say Firewall, Virus Scan, etc are turned off - and can't be turned on. It's not that I couldn't fix the problem by simply running update to download a valid pattern file; the point is that the product's main status screen claimed it was working normally when it was obviously not and auto-update did not kick in and resolve the problem.

I might add that when you can duplicate the problem in-house, you don't further inconvenience users and can run all the tests and view all the symptoms and associated config options and any associated data for yourself.  And for the record, the system here was (and is) is running VSP 2010 under XP SP3 with no other security software installed.

As far as some of the other problems I've described in other posts in this chain - such as Traffic Monitor not working, - it worked fine and was a valuable tool in VSP 2009, but does not display real time traffic stats, network connection useage, won't refresh, etc, in VSP 2010, even on a totally fresh download install on a brand new computer as of three days ago.  And I might mention that problem was reported in March, verified by Tier-2 in early April, and consigned to the 'black hole' since then.