I think it's time that PC Tools apologised to all of us

[petercardiff]

I would like to see a formal apology from PC Tools on their website and for them to take V5 off sale until they can give ALL of us a working version.

I have gone through all the BETA testing comments and nearly 99% of comments are saying that there were serious problems with everyone of the beta releases right up to version (11) 169.

And this version is the one they released to the public as the final build.

What a disgrace.

So come on PC Tools - admite your mistake and stop your product from killing off your company's good name - either sort the problems out or take the product off sale.

Sometime soon all this is going to hit the press and it's not going to look very good for you.

[vecchio]

THE PROBLEMS WITH this product happens not only with the vista users.i am a xp user and have scan problens the scan in sd5 scans more less files than sd4
and i dont think scanning less files i stay more protect
please see http://www.pctools.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45912
in sd4 i have on average 70000 files scanned. with sd5 i have only average 45000 files.again, i know its a reported issue but i hope pctools dont tell me "we are unable to recreate the problems"i love SD but its time to pctools offer a product TOTALLY free of bugs as we paid for it

[katie]

I would like to see a formal apology from PC Tools on their website and for them to take V5 off sale until they can give ALL of us a working version.

I have gone through all the BETA testing comments and nearly 99% of comments are saying that there were serious problems with everyone of the beta releases right up to version (11) 169.

And this version is the one they released to the public as the final build.

What a disgrace.

So come on PC Tools - admite your mistake and stop your product from killing off your company's good name - either sort the problems out or take the product off sale.

Sometime soon all this is going to hit the press and it's not going to look very good for you.

I can see that you are very frustrated from all of this and thats understandable. I also agree that there are bugs in SDv5 from going through this forum and reported issues, even though my system is running fine with SDv5. However, IMO - Say for example, PC Tools has a customer base of 10, 000, 50 people from the 10, 000 may experience this problem (maybe more maybe less, who knows)... PC Tools may have done extensive testing in their labs (as if you wouldnt for such a product), but couldnt get the same problems, from this they may think the product is good to go releasing the final product. Obviously the people visiting this forum come here if they experience problems (im here to help :) ), if everyone has this problem then I would think there would be a sky rocket in posts, but it doesnt look that way considering the easy access of the forum. So it looks like a hand full of people are having similar problems and a few different bugs here and there. Some people are also running a similar environment and SDv5 has been running perfectly for them. I seen a few of these posts as well. It is good to see that PC Tools have made this a top priority issue to fix and the moderators suggest that this will be resolved soon. So we'll see how that goes. I hope this makes sense.

kt

[allibear]

I can see that you are very frustrated from all of this and thats understandable. I also agree that there are bugs in SDv5 from going through this forum and reported issues, even though my system is running fine with SDv5. However, IMO - Say for example, PC Tools has a customer base of 10, 000, 50 people from the 10, 000 may experience this problem (maybe more maybe less, who knows)... PC Tools may have done extensive testing in their labs (as if you wouldnt for such a product), but couldnt get the same problems, from this they may think the product is good to go releasing the final product. Obviously the people visiting this forum come here if they experience problems (im here to help :) ), if everyone has this problem then I would think there would be a sky rocket in posts, but it doesnt look that way considering the easy access of the forum. So it looks like a hand full of people are having similar problems and a few different bugs here and there. Some people are also running a similar environment and SDv5 has been running perfectly for them. I seen a few of these posts as well. It is good to see that PC Tools have made this a top priority issue to fix and the moderators suggest that this will be resolved soon. So we'll see how that goes. I hope this makes sense.

kt

Hi Katie,

Whilst I know where you are coming from on this, the vast majority of the general public won't. It's all down to sales at the end of the day, and having been in Business Management for 22 years I know only too well how bad publicity can hurt those valuable sales. It can happen overnight and take ages to recover from. My pain is with PCTools here, and I believe petercardiff's post, though sounds angry, has come from the heart with a genuine concern for a product he believes in and the company that produced it. Not that I take Download.com seriously, but a lot of traffic does pass through there, and V5 is now available on there and the bad reviews are comimg in already, it won't take this long to spread like wildfire to the more credible review sites, and I'm afraid most of the general public will take the reviews at face value.

It will get fixed - It may take time - It could be resolved next week!
It will take as little or as long as it takes.

Unfortunately it is a minority who will understand this, that's just the way life is. It is obvious that this went to release to soon, maybe due to pressure for a Vista compatible version? I don't know. But from a business point of view, and no other reason, I agree with petercardiff, react to the problem, take it off sale if necessary, flood out V4, and release it when it is ready to build on the reputation of Spyware Doctor and not diminish it.

I'm routing for this to turn around quickly all the way! :D

Best regards allibear.

[Howard]

And we should get a refund on our subscriptions. I have said this in another post. In any case I have lost faith and gone over to another product.

[Necrosis]

And we should get a refund on our subscriptions. I have said this in another post. In any case I have lost faith and gone over to another product.

If they have given you your money back, why are you still posting here???

[mrwul]

.... if everyone has this problem then I would think there would be a sky rocket in posts, but it doesnt look that way considering the easy access of the forum. So it looks like a hand full of people are having similar problems and a few different bugs here and there. ...kt

Maybe a lot of people are still with v4.x and are not aware of v.5 being released. Actually I was not aware of the update until I visited the PCTools website.

Maybe a lot of people donot visit the forum? How many are actually visiting the forum and posting?

Anyway, I uninstalled SD5.0 - it slowed down my system tre-men-dous-ly.
It freezed my system: it takes 20 seconds before anything at all happens when clicking on whatever button.
When launching an application, like SnagIt, after 2 minutes still nothing showed up. In the taskmgr/processes I cud see it was active, but not under the applications tab.
CPU was constantly running at 55-60 pct.

In my earlier post I wrote that when replying on a forumthread, or clicking on 'preview post', IE7 reported there was no connection (but actually there wás a connection).

etc.etc.

At one point in time SpywareSweeper also had such memory hogs/freezing
your system. I switched to SD 4 and had no problems anymore.

Guess PCTools will release a patch after a half a year or so..., timebeing forget about v5.

==

[callmedude!]

I can see that you are very frustrated from all of this and thats understandable. I also agree that there are bugs in SDv5 from going through this forum and reported issues, even though my system is running fine with SDv5. However, IMO - Say for example, PC Tools has a customer base of 10, 000, 50 people from the 10, 000 may experience this problem (maybe more maybe less, who knows)... PC Tools may have done extensive testing in their labs (as if you wouldnt for such a product), but couldnt get the same problems, from this they may think the product is good to go releasing the final product. Obviously the people visiting this forum come here if they experience problems (im here to help :) ), if everyone has this problem then I would think there would be a sky rocket in posts, but it doesnt look that way considering the easy access of the forum. So it looks like a hand full of people are having similar problems and a few different bugs here and there. Some people are also running a similar environment and SDv5 has been running perfectly for them. I seen a few of these posts as well. It is good to see that PC Tools have made this a top priority issue to fix and the moderators suggest that this will be resolved soon. So we'll see how that goes. I hope this makes sense.

kt


Sorry KT, I don't know whether you are directly involved with the PC Tools development team but regardless I believe your views are out of sync with the majority of the people posting on these forums.

Hopefully your views are not the general concensus of those at PC Tools because I would be mortified to think they were.

I agree with the others that are requesting that v5 should be pulled until the major faults have been addressed.

The reputation and integrity of the product is at stake here. Continuing to distribute a "production version" with serious performance issues that affect the entire system, not simply the application in question is brave at best, foolhardy and reckless at worst.

I am confident that the users who have requested the temporary pulling of v5 are probably bigger supporters of PC Tools than even you and are extremely concerned about protecting the reputation of this product and the company itself.

I'm still a supporter of the team and the product but NO WAY will v5 be installed on my PC again until the system performance issue is completely resolved.

Please take it off before some magazine reviews it!! :eek:

[Liteboy]

I have to agree with callmedude!. I am an avid supporter of SD and PC Tools but I am shocked that it has gone to full production. I have gone back to V4 but will have to consider if the subscription is worth renewing when it comes up. Support have said they will continue to update V4 for quite some time. Just hope that there is not some automatic upgrade process in the pipeline. Lets hope they sort it soon but I'm not holding my breath.

[Cutter]

After a few days of using v5 I to have to agree with the majority on here, v5 seems very bad and I don't use it, untill I start seeing a few post that say it's got better, after updating having to turn of norton06 which I wasn't to happy doing it locked my system up, locking up after about 20min each time I restart it, I think alot of people don't open needless threads as must have already said what other want to say.

Not just that maybe like others I only realised there was a version 5 when I formatted and needed to re-download spyware doctor.

Cutter.

[petercardiff]

I can't agree with Katie, I think she works for PC Tools as she's WAY TOO POSITIVE about this crap that PC Tools have released.

As V4 doesn't get automatically get upgraded to V5 via the Smart Update function then I guess there's one hell of a lot of people out there still on V4 who don't even know that they can upgrade to V5.

This means that there will be hundreds / thousands of more unhappy users in the future if PC Tools don't get this sorted very quickly.

But once again, Why did they release this when there were absolutely loads of comments on this forum that SD5 just wasn't working.

No one has answered that yet.

We only get the reply that it is of the highest importance and it will be investigated. It should be STOPPED from being downloaded.

I would like to see the stats for how many V5's are actually being run at the moment compared to V4 and then how many are complaining. I would think about 90% of those running it are in trouble from what I've read on here.

Also Katie, I know so many users who if things go wrong with their PC's just don't have a clue of what to do to sort them out, so they either just uninstall everything, format their machines or go to a local computer shop for help.

Only the more PC minded users will be on this forum - I wouldn't think it's the "common" man here.

I really think you need to open your eyes and live in the real world and listen to the comments here. You must just be one of the lucky ones who's PC is running fine.

Well good luck to you!

[Saxel]

I really feel that you must stop being offensive to other contributors to this forum if you wish to continue to use it.

Katie and Allibear have over the time I have participated provided support and assistance to very many users and like myself are users and in no way connected to PC tools.

I too am using V5 very successfully I find it far more usable than V4 and have from the outset of the beta testing.

I am perhaps fortunate that
I use XP not Vista
I have not installed the AV plug in because I use other security software.
I use Firefox as a browser not IE
I have disabled browser guard and site guard as they conflict with other security software I have installed and listed as a known issue which will be resolved.

If I activate site guard sure I get the high CPU usage and lock ups others mention without it the programme loads quickly and consumes little resource - programmes load & the internet works just fine.

It is true that there have been issues relating to Vista throughout the Beta testing period which are unresolved.
Many also report the slow loading of IE 7 which is being worked on but which does not effect me fortunately.

When build 169 was released some new issues did appear and some previously resolved issues with mainly Zone Alarms and NOD32, reappeared which I think caught PC Tools out.

I do believe that the programme was released too early and said so last weekend in another post where I suggested at least 2 weeks more Beta testing was required.

I also agree that build 169 was certainly not the version to release and based upon the experience of many who were beta testing anticipated such a response upon its release.

PCTools need now to correct these issues quickly.

Just as I understand many people are having problems which could have been avoided by delaying the launch I ask you to believe many of us are running V5 successfully.

[allibear]

I won't quote another lengthy post, but in agreement with some of petercardiff's recent post-

For every user who posts in a forum, posts a review somewhere, or complains directly to a company, there will be hundreds, if not thousands that will simply remove the product and look elsewhere, never going back due to a bad experience.

I also know many people who wouldn't have a clue where to even start if there was a problem with something on a PC, or the avenues available to them.

It's a catch 22, with a snowball effect that can have a detrimental effect on any business.

I personally would hate to see this happen with this product. :(

I am just your average 'Joe Blogs' user with no affiliation with PCTools what so ever, just like Katie. Remember the purpose of a forum is for everyone to openly express their views and opinions.

I believe Katie is just one of those people in life with a positive outlook on everything, will always see a cup as 1/2 full, rather than 1/2 empty. Some people see things the other way around. Depending on what sort of a day I am having I can swing between the two! This is what makes us all individual personalities :)

PS. Sorry Saxel, I didn't see your post go up before this. I left it half way through to let the dog out and came back to it without checking if another post had been made!

[Lord KiRon]

I do not care if they apologize or not.
I want the damn thing start working ! ;)

[Bubbba1]

Just hope that there is not some automatic upgrade process in the pipeline.

Well, if you mean - will your credit card be automatically charged, by element5, for renewal of your subscription? Yes, unless you arrange with element5 NOT to do so, it will. This topic recently came-up in another forum, where someone's card was charged, and the person had, long prior, quit using SD.

I've accessed my order form from the trusty file cabinet .. it clearly states that renewal will be automatically charged unless I contact element5, indicating otherwise.

[Bubbba1]

I too am using V5 very successfully I find it far more usable than V4 and have from the outset of the beta testing.


Well, I just would point out that running v5 with half, or more, of it's intended "features" disabled isn't what I'd call "using v5 very successfully".

I too am using XP. Honest self appraisal of my computer skills would place me solidly above average. And, this release was, imho, premature and ill-timed. It is, clearly, still (and should have 'offically' remained) beta in it's present state. Chock so full of bugs as to be, uh - almost, unusable. But, that's just my opinion. My prediction is that PCTools will, ultimately, regret their decision .. if they don't already.

[misery]

I don't think I have an order form, how do I contact element5 ?

[wrongworld]

I've accessed my order form from the trusty file cabinet .. it clearly states that renewal will be automatically charged unless I contact element5, indicating otherwise.

Funnily enough, I didn't check to have the automatic renewal when I ordered my recent 1-year subscription renewal, and there is no mention of it in any invoice or message coming from either PC Tools or element5. Where should I check that I have not opted in?

Thanks,
Andrea

[MrTimmy]

You can log a ticket with PC Tools Support and tell them that you do not want to have your subscription automatically renew. When (if) your ticket doesn't get any notice, send a PM to AChen with your ticket number and ask him to escalate it.

I did this and in a day I had an email from PC Tools support stating that the automatic renewals were cancelled. A week or three later, Element 5 sent me an email stating the the automatic renewals were cancelled.

This technique worked perfectly for me. I hope it does for you too!

[Bubbba1]

You can log a ticket with PC Tools Support and tell them that you do not want to have your subscription automatically renew. When (if) your ticket doesn't get any notice, send a PM to AChen with your ticket number and ask him to escalate it.

The direct approach, which I accomplished yesterday, requires accessing your element5 account. Any purchases you've made with them are listed. In my case, for PCTools, Spyware Doctor and Registry Mechanic. Clicking them individually, I discovered a clickable 'switch' which toggles OFF auto-renew. Element5 transmitted seperate emails, confirming that I had refused annual, automatic re-subscription, charges to my credit card.

[Bubbba1]

Funnily enough, I didn't check to have the automatic renewal when I ordered my recent 1-year subscription renewal, and there is no mention of it in any invoice or message coming from either PC Tools or element5. Where should I check that I have not opted in?

Thanks,
Andrea

Well, from a message I read here (I didn't know either before reading, certainly not at purchase), PCTools purchases are all configured for automatic, annual, re-renewal charges to your credit card. Buried deep in the EULA, you agree to it as a condition for use of their software. We all, very carefully, read the EULA's for all the software we install .. don't we?

[hughlafollette@tampabay.r]

I agree entirely with Peter. I sometimes wonder if those who test these programs are running them on the latest generation of machines, with few prorgrams running in the background, and therefore assume that what works fine on their machine, will work fine for the rest of us. Taint so.

I have a gig of memory; my processor +3 gh. Even so, my computer is close to unusable.

This is such a serious problem, that I cannot afford to wait a month for them to fix it. As I see it, I have three choices: (1) turn off all on guard tools, (2) switch to a different antispyware program, or (3) slog through for a couple of days in hopes for a fix -- and then choose (1) or (2). Since (1) isn't viable either ("To keep using SpyDoctor I think I will turn off the features that made me want to use SD.")

I shouldn't have to make this choice. No one should.

They should recall it until it is fixed.

[Mindless]

The text 'annual subscription' is on the email with the invoice from element5 too.

I am also a happy XP IE7 SD5 user with a few onguard things turned off cause my poor laptop is almost as old as I am... of course there are some bugs, but hey, compare PC Tools with most of the other software-companies... some of them don't even exist and are just pretending to be a company :eek: or they are called Microsoft:eek:

[himself]

WHAT A DEBACLE . . . . . . . IT IS 2007 WOULD YOU BELIEVE.



Got rid of the manure . . . . and I love my computer again !!!

It's never been faster !!!! And everything works as intended.

So much for PC Tools, 'Essential tools' for your P.C.

NEVER AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hammer]

I installed SD 5.0 one week ago and experienced a lockup of both Internet Explorer 7 and Outlook Express; a Ping issued within a Command Prompt returned nothing. A search of the forums said to untick DNS Protection in Network Guard; lo and behold, everything unlocked and went back to normal without even a reboot. I ran fine for several more days with no slowdowns or problems whatsoever (I'm also running Zone Alarm 6.5). Then yesterday, SD Smart Update showed an update available, but the program locked up when I clicked on Next. I tried to shut it down from Task Manager but it said that Windows had locked the application. I tried to reboot but got a BSOD. Like the rest of you, I reverted back to 4.0.

Yes, maybe PC Tools should have caught this, but I ran with Norton for three years and experienced exasperating bugs constantly until I switched to Zone Alarm six months ago. Look also at the problems with Vista. The only uncorrectable problem I was experiencing with SD 5.0 was Smart Update. I'll just wait for 5.1 to come out. I don't want to upgrade Zone Alarm to 7.0 until a new stable version of SD is released because ZA and SD 4.0 don't coexist peacefully.

[dunernin]

I have had to turn off SD5 because a) Internet Explorer ran like a snail and b) Incredimails arrived in a series of attachments to a blank email; each folder within the attachments contained the logos, wallpaper, emoticons, etc. and the text was scrambled in a Wordpad folder.
Having turned SD off everthing is now running OK.The resent email arrived as it should and IE is fully recovered. So, what is the next move??

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO OBTAIN A REFUND

[spangbr]

i checked on the website in the support area for "cancel" and nothing comes up. i also searched on "renew" and nothing comes up.

[jwsolve]

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO OBTAIN A REFUND

You need to go here:-

http://www.pctools.com/info/returns/

Click the "Request Refund" button at the bottom and fill in the relevant information. They will respond within 10 days. (I think it's 10 anyway)

[socrfan]

I installed SD 5.0 one week ago and experienced a lockup of both Internet Explorer 7 and Outlook Express; a Ping issued within a Command Prompt returned nothing. A search of the forums said to untick DNS Protection in Network Guard; lo and behold, everything unlocked and went back to normal without even a reboot. I ran fine for several more days with no slowdowns or problems whatsoever (I'm also running Zone Alarm 6.5). Then yesterday, SD Smart Update showed an update available, but the program locked up when I clicked on Next. I tried to shut it down from Task Manager but it said that Windows had locked the application. I tried to reboot but got a BSOD. Like the rest of you, I reverted back to 4.0.

Yes, maybe PC Tools should have caught this, but I ran with Norton for three years and experienced exasperating bugs constantly until I switched to Zone Alarm six months ago. Look also at the problems with Vista. The only uncorrectable problem I was experiencing with SD 5.0 was Smart Update. I'll just wait for 5.1 to come out. I don't want to upgrade Zone Alarm to 7.0 until a new stable version of SD is released because ZA and SD 4.0 don't coexist peacefully.


What problems with Vista?? I'm not having any. And Zone Alarm is not Vista compatible but that isn't Microsoft's fault. Too many people are blaming the OS when companies aren't updating their products.

[socrfan]

I have had to turn off SD5 because a) Internet Explorer ran like a snail and b) Incredimails arrived in a series of attachments to a blank email; each folder within the attachments contained the logos, wallpaper, emoticons, etc. and the text was scrambled in a Wordpad folder.
Having turned SD off everthing is now running OK.The resent email arrived as it should and IE is fully recovered. So, what is the next move??

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO OBTAIN A REFUND

So why not just use version 4 for now? It'll work fine until 5 is fixed.

[Paulas]

So why not just use version 4 for now? It'll work fine until 5 is fixed.

So why is Version 5 still being promoted for download on the PC-Tools web site? At the very least, the badly flawed Version 5 should be removed until fixed.

[allibear]

What problems with Vista?? I'm not having any. And Zone Alarm is not Vista compatible but that isn't Microsoft's fault. Too many people are blaming the OS when companies aren't updating their products.

I'm not having any problems with Vista either.

A few niggles with graphics drivers in the beginning but the ATI catalyst drivers are now working hunky dory, (for me anyway), and so is everything else!

I am still using SD4 though. But I am happy to stick with that until the issues with SD5 are sorted, no rush. :)