They’re doing it to us again!

Who is doing what?

Software vendors are beginning to bury vague statements in their EULAs authorizing them to automatically renew your subscription by charging your credit card at the end of the current subscription for yet another year of service.

Symantec Norton Internet Security, Microsoft Windows One Care, McAfee and Zone Alarm all do variations, always with some sort of vague reference in the 6,708-word (Microsoft) EULA. There is a bare possibly, down one of the never-clicked options, that you might find a clickbox that might allow you to find out how to stop the automatic renewal.

Some don’t even give the option to remove the automatic renewal.

So how do you make the choice of whether you even want to do business with the vendor?

A general pattern can be to use a variation of the following GOOGLE-search:
[ Symantec automatic renewal ]
Substitute your intended vendor for Symantec. Hint: To find the depth of the problem, search using the suggestion above. Very informative.

In the case of Microsoft Windows Live One-Care, you have no choice but to make a phone call to 866-663-2273. Good luck with the lottery about when they will answer the phone. Have your original license and transaction numbers handy that you received a year ago in addition to product serial number and email address. Hint: Create a mailbox called “Subscriptions” and copy everything associated with a transaction/subscription into the box.

McAfee buries similar wording in its 3280-word EULA but with a twist: the renewal will be at full list price and specifically excludes promotional and discount pricing.

Heck, when I am already a customer of a company and both of us have invested time and money in the signup process, I expect a bit of a rake off because the renewal is cheaper. Indeed, I sometimes will purchase a license though Ebay just to get the 1/3 cost licenses available so that I can enjoy the knowledge that I am satisfied with the product and thus can continue. Each year the advisability of renewing a given product is reassessed at renewal time. Automatic renewal eliminates that evaluation.

Which of the reasons below would you suspect is the true reason there is automatic renewal:
· To assure that inattention does not leave the user vulnerable;
· Users felt renewal procedures were too intrusive;
· Automatic renewal makes more money for the vendor.

Further, many of the companies will ‘forget’ that automatic renewal was turned off at purchase time and it takes an act of Congress to get your money refunded.

Usually one will receive a 30-day notice of renewal that might give one the option of opting out – but don’t miss the message when it comes in the spam deluge.