I'm going to give you the total picture. I got hit with hijackware which had my machine in total chaos. Trojan.popuper had taken control when I realized that my virus protection software had not caught this malicious virus. It was pushing additional viruses at me at an amazing clip. My disaster lasted for almost a week. I selected Spyware Doctor based on reviews from the net. It appeared to have the best shot. The software worked great at getting rid of most of the problems, but didn't handle Trojan.popuper at all. It said it was fixed but it continued to come back. This is where customer service (which should also be a rating point) failed miserably. Only after about 5 or 6 request- first support, then sales, did I hear back from anyone. By this time, I had used quite a few other internet available tools to attack my problem. Would I purchase again, probably since it still seems to be finding the problems and I recognize spyware is an ever evolving problem. Was I happy with support, absolutely not.

Below I've attached my email to PC Tools with my assessment of their support-

Hi,

FREE AT LAST!!! THANK GOD, I'M FREE AT LAST!!!!

MLJ Jr, might have made that quote famous, but this morning, it was the first thing that came into my mind. This was the most intense battle I've fought in the computer world since the early eighties when I was in charge of programming and support of an IBM system 34 minicomputer that had loads of issues. I'll tell you now, I don't think a mere mortal could have handled this issue. I stopped my hands on support of PC's right before the major internet surge and networking in the early nineties, so my skills have erroded, but I'm a pretty skilled troubleshooter and not too bad at internet surfing. More on that later. First, I do need some information.

First, there is something wrong with your screen for access to open tickets. If you can get me into my tickets, I'll close them all up- I think there are four of them. It wouldn't take my email address and password to give me access into the system and it would take my email address and the forgot password option to see if I put the wrong password it. The only way I could access it was to put in another trouble report.

Second, I thought I was fine having virus protection on my PCs. Boy, did I find out that I was wrong!! I also found out how vicious these new attacks on, in my mind, the greatest change in the history of man, the internet. I think time will show that it was more important than the industrial age. I only bought one copy of your software due to the dire situation I was faced with early this week and not sure if you guys were as good as advertised (you weren't but you probably have the best available option at this point). How do I go about adding on to my subscription. I seem to remember that you had quotes for two machines and five machines. I would like to put Spyware Doctor on at least one and possible two additional machines. Could you quote me on the cost to do so and how I would do this now. I've certainly learned that it would be easier to deal with the issue before a major disaster rather than after- I guess you'd call that disaster planning.

Now, the evaluation- you guys suck at customer service. Did I get your attention?? I had a VP that I reported to when I was still working that was harsher than that with me and I was doing a good job. First, someone has an issue- it's a major issue in their world. I'm retired. I trade stocks and manage nearly $2M in assets via the PC I was having issues with. If I relate my usage to business, I was shut down for nearly a week as I tried to resove this issue. Fortunately it was a good week in the market and I wasn't losing money, but it could have been different.

The minimum I should have gotten was acknowledgement of my open ticket via Email. The minimum. I've worked the trenches and I've managed the guys in the trenches. I know how these guys are usually undermanned, overworked and underpaid. Been there and paid the price. However, your system should at least let your clients know that you recognize that they have an issue and some status on activity on the problem.

I had a lot of infections when I started running your software, I believe there were around 200 infections when I got started. I ran your software and fixed the problems, I got rid of most of them, but not the worst of them- the hijackware issues. I had the about:blank hijack that kept putting me into safetydefender.com along with the dnserror.com takeover, I suppose generated out of the Trojan.Popuper virus. This thing wasn't only there, it apparently opens the floodgates to bringing in other malicious sites. I was running your software 20 times a day for awhile because the machine would be fine and then it wouldn't. I can't possibly be the only person that has gotten this type attack. I probably wasn't the first (at least that is what I was seeing on my internet searches and a lot of them were recent incidence). Word from you that this was a known issue and that you were working on a resolution would have helped.

Now, if I were the first and only client to report this problem, you should have contacted me immediately. I could have provided you with the data that you would need to resolve the issue and place the code in to protect your other clients. It's too late now since I apparently have resolved the issue (or at least I'm hoping that I've done so. However, if I haven't I'll be in no better shape than I was at the start of the week and you'll be no closer to resolving the issue for me and anyone else that might have the same problem. Does that make sense?

I just wanted to give you my assessment of first impressions about your support. When I was evaluating what product to use to attack my problem, your software got high marks and your support extremely low ones in the different sites I visited to make my decision. I almost went with another vendor because of this factor. After selecting Spyware Doctor, I found other comment from your clients that made me more uneasy based on their experience. You've got the product, you just need to improve in the support area.

Enough on that. So how did I finally resolve the issue? Not exactly sure. I found more tools out there and I used every one I could find. Hijack this, SmitfraudFix, cwshredder.exe and others that I can't recall off the top of my head. Many of the tools I was running in safe mode and a number of them had me physically disconnect from the internet while I was using them. I found MVPS Hosts file and brough that into the mix to eliminate access to know bad sites. Plus, I kept running Spyware Doctor, as I said, constantly. Finnally I got down to a about:blank internet startup page that didn't bring in safetydefender and I was able to get rid of about:blank and put my own home page back in. For now.

I know this note is long, but I had to give my evaluation of your operation with hopes that it will improve over time. I am thankful that your softare is on the machine and maybe I can avoid going through this again. I like the software enough to want to put it on my other machines.