Warning about HitmanPro business practices.

Discussion in 'other anti-malware software' started by Bodhitree, Dec 5, 2012.

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  1. Bodhitree

    Bodhitree Registered Member

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    Sorry for the new account, I was an old school member of this forum but lost my account information, and no longer have access to that email account.

    Nevertheless. I purchased a 3-PC 3-YEAR license to Hitman Pro. I tend to re-format my PC's once a year to clean them up, but sometimes due to hardware/OS upgrades I also reformat. I found out the hard way Hitman Pro has limited activations the very first time I had to re-install it. I notified SurfRight about this and received some pretty arrogant replies, and an attempt to sell me a 'temporary' 25 license pack. Not a good way to do business. Then they accused me of violating my license, but if they had used common sense they would have seen the 4th activation was the same PC as the 3rd activation, only reformatted and running different OS version!

    Overall I have to say I am extremely disappointed in how they treat paying customers, especially one that would fork over quite a lot of extra money for a 3-PC/3-Year license. Clearly I am not a scammer or pirate, or interested in multiple activations, clearly they know this but rather then handle it in a professional manner, they want to 'sell me more'.. Pretty sad.

    I felt I should give the appropriate warnings as a result of this. I can provide emails from their sales/support representative if anyone cares to take a look. But it's pretty clear they are intent on treating customers like criminals.
     
  2. berryracer

    berryracer Suspended Member

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    Thanks for the warning bro. I'll make sure I never buy anything from them!

    I hate companies that don't check on what PC is the license being activated. Same thing for for Kaspersky. If you activate a license more than 15 times on the same exact PC, your key is blacklisted and due to their slow support it will take you like 30 days to have them rectify the issue.

    ESET and Bitdefender rock in this area as they know on how many PCs is your license run simultaneously and don't penalize you by how many times you activate it on the same PC
     
  3. Firecat

    Firecat Registered Member

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    It's only a few vendors that have such issues - I have never faced such a problem with AVG, PC Tools, Norton or BitDefender.

    It is within your rights to demand/request means of reactivation, for your product remains licensed for 3 PCs and not for 3 activations. I think all companies should provide means for activation revocations; or at least adopt a realistic scenario for automatic refunding of activations, i.e. disable/refund 1 activation if there is no activity from that particular configuration/computer ID for a month or so. I know some vendors do this already, but it really needs to be standard for such products.
     
  4. jo3blac1

    jo3blac1 Registered Member

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    Thanks, I don't use HMP but I will for sure not recommend it for anybody.
     
  5. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Bodhitree,

    Contact Erik Loman in private by PM here on the board, explain it and see whether it can be solved in private: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/member.php?u=99034

    Bodhitree,

    It is NOT allowed to post here private email conversations! Make note of that!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 5, 2012
  6. Brandonn2010

    Brandonn2010 Registered Member

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    I'm sure Erik will take care of this. I would hate to see everyone turned off an excellent product because of this one incident.
     
  7. Cudni

    Cudni Global Moderator

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    Please do not post emails correspondence - it and related ot posts removed
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2012
  8. Firecat

    Firecat Registered Member

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    You'd be surprised just how many vendors are doing this now. This is a huge headache, to be brutally honest. Some even track the active internet connection instead - so if one day you're using one of those USB pocket internet devices on the same PC, it gets counted as two computers as the network connection hardware has changed in this case. Some use a combination of both these methods, so the chances of false activations there are less.

    However, most of these vendors have systems set where they will replace your key in case a problem like this occurs; *or* the activations are reset on a periodic basis by tracking activity from a particular computer/hardware configuration (if there's no activity for a significant amount of time - 1 activation restored).

    It's a bit unfortunate that SurfRight haven't set up such systems in place and their response isn't really adequate IMO. However, do contact Erik Loman and see what he comes up with - sometimes a different representative knows a different method to get things done. :)
     
  9. Bodhitree

    Bodhitree Registered Member

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    I know with Webroot you can log in online, and 'revoke' an activation to a specific PC and then 'renew' one for another. It's pretty efficient, and I have done it at least a dozen times in the last year for myself, or client PCs.

    I really think they need a system like this so legit customers don't suffer.
     
  10. Disney

    Disney Registered Member

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    I am saddened to see that a few here seem to think a private message will take care of this . It very well may for the person sending the message . The problem still exists for everyone else . I too will stay away from this product and make sure my customers know about this . This is poor business .
     
  11. jmonge

    jmonge Registered Member

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    very strange cause i NEVER had this problem before and i re-format my pc so many times and re-install again without any problems,i just use same computer name when re-installing windows
     
  12. Bodhitree

    Bodhitree Registered Member

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    Very likely they use PC-Name to identify installations and re-installations. I will test this later, but I would be willing to bet if I renamed my PC's back to the default ones, I could reinstall.

    Nevertheless, I still wait to hear back from them, and Erik directly.
     
  13. jmonge

    jmonge Registered Member

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    let us know please
     
  14. sm1

    sm1 Registered Member

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    Trend Micro uses PC names for activation purpose. But when I reinstall it clearly says that the other pc will loose the protection and the key will be transferred to new pc. Other vendors should also use this option.
     
  15. erikloman

    erikloman Developer

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    First I want to apologize for the bad customer service experience.

    I've received your email, including the emails that you exchanged with Lisa (our support representative). What I understand is that you activated the license on 4 different installs (which are the same PCs). Lisa already upped the activation count to 6.

    I must note that HitmanPro does not make a complete fingerprint of the hardware so it cannot tell whether the license is activated on the same hardware. Therefore we have a policy were you can activate more that the purchased license count. But if you exceed this overage then a support email will often help as well as several other Wilders members can vouch for.

    You said: "and received some pretty arrogant replies". I've read the emails and frankly the tone of the message was not arrogant at all, just several standard replies about Lisa agreeing to upping the activation count. I am sorry you've read this as being arrogant. I will see if we can change the wording of the emails to future customers. I must admit though that you are the first interpreting this as "arrogant".

    On a technical point of view, I will see if we can add the possibility of moving a license in a next release.

    Again, I am sorry for the bad experience. If you want I can help you in the future regarding HitmanPro licenses (you have my email address).
     
  16. erikloman

    erikloman Developer

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    That is a good suggestion. I will discuss this with the team to include this in one of the next builds.
     
  17. iammike

    iammike Registered Member

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    Question, what about if you completely reinstall the PC and give it the same name, wouldn't that be an issue ?
     
  18. erikloman

    erikloman Developer

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    Depends on how you reinstall. If you restore it from a backup then its not an issue. If you reinstall then it will 'eat' an activation.
     
  19. sm1

    sm1 Registered Member

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    I replaced my hard disk and also upgraded my OS to windows 8. I gave the same PC name but still trend micro showed the warning that the key in the previous installation would be deactivated and transferred to the new machine. In my trend micro account the name of the pc in which the key is active is shown. Trend micro might have identified the changed hard disk:)
     
  20. Firecat

    Firecat Registered Member

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    Like I said, I have encountered cases where a security product will register an innocuous hardware change as a new computer. USB internet? New computer. New graphics card? New computer. But in all these cases, the activations were usually refunded after a period of time when there was no activity from the "old" configuration, so it was a temporary inconvenience.

    The point is, all these vendors need to provide means to refund activations to the user. Support takes care of it most of the time; but in the odd case you get accused of being something you're not :)
     
  21. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    The very operating system you use follows similar procedures. Due to the increase in piracy even the good guys get shafted. This is a case of the actions of a few ruin it for the majority. It sucks, but it definitely doesnt mean you shouldnt buy from them.

    Since you have already gone through this 1 time with them and knew their TOS why would you arrogantly ignore past experiences and then have the audacity to call out a company?
     
  22. Bodhitree

    Bodhitree Registered Member

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    I have no idea if you are talking to me, or someone else? I am unsure what you are talking about ignoring past experiences, and knowing their TOS. So I will assume you are talking to someone else.

    Nevertheless, I interpreted the emails as arrogant simply because when you have a support issue, and support tries to sell you more licenses rather than solve the issue, I consider that pretty arrogant. As others have noted, I purchased the licenses, I am working within the constraints of the licenses (3 PCs for 3 years), I am not violating any TOS. However everytime your PC changes names, you apparently eat an activation, and that's what I found unacceptable.

    I am appreciative of the additional activation which should cover my re-installs over the next couple of years that remain on my license. Thanks Erik, I would strongly advise a method for customers to de-license a PC and re-license another - within the same IP cluster. Webroot has a really good system, I can lot in to their website, and de-license PC's as much as I want, and as long as I only have 3 live activations, they don't care.
     
  23. Scoobs72

    Scoobs72 Registered Member

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    The decent thing to do would be to change the title of the thread to something more appropriate now?
     
  24. jo3blac1

    jo3blac1 Registered Member

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    Can you please let us know when this activation system will get changed? I do think this is a pretty good software but can't recommend this with such licensing issues. Paying customers should have ability to format their computers as many times as they want without having any issues. But that's just my take on it. Whether customer service was unprofessional or not that's another matter.
     
  25. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    I was replying directly to you. See the first quote. You said in your original post you found out the hard way that HMP had limited activations per key. You then decided to disregard what you were told in the past and continued to be reckless anyway. Then you come on here and bash the company when it was your own fault. My point was even the OS you use has limited activations yet you claim this is unacceptable. This is common practice due to piracy.

    Going off PC name is a horrible idea. People would just rename all their PC's to have to same name to get free stuff. A company is in business to make a profit, not break even or lose. All of the alternatives mentioned here are a losing proposition.
     
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