Weblogs like this are great for venting at the frustrations of dealing with companies. As I'm writing this, I'm on the phone — on "hold," waiting for the Next Available Representative at the McAfee Customer Service Department. I switched from McAfee's virus protection program to Norton, and the McAfee folks don't seem to want to turn loose of me. Their subscriptions work off automatic renewals, meaning that if I do nothing, they charge my credit card each year. They make it very difficult to stop them from doing this. Their website is full of all sorts of wonderful Customer Service options, all designed to let you control your account online and to minimize the chance that you'll need to speak to an actual human being on their staff. You can do just about anything over there except to cancel your account or turn off the automatic renewal option.
That, for obvious but odious reasons, they make difficult. They tell you to "Contact Customer Service," which I have done repeatedly by e-mail to no apparent effect. Fortunately, I have a secret weapon: The credit card I gave them when I signed up has since expired. They keep trying to charge it to no avail. If it hadn't expired, they would have long since charged it for a service I no longer want, and — assuming I realized that — I'd now be fighting them for a refund instead of what I'm doing, which is to get them to just cancel the account and not keep sending me e-mail that there's something wrong with my credit card and… Hold on. Someone just came on the line.
Okay. A nice lady just cancelled my account. According to the timer on my phone, I was on "hold" for 19 minutes. Remember that the next time you sign up for any service that does automatic renewals.
There. I've vented and I feel better.