Compensation For False-positive Of Trojan.fakealert.5?

Note to specific Bitdefender team that created the mistake: There are some of us who forgive you for what has happened. Learn and move on.

Ah, I see that the 'litigation happy' sense an opportunity. Makes me sick. I say go ahead and try. You'll end up looking like fools.

Kieran

I will not be renewing my subscription when it expires, not because I think the product is rubbish, not because the developers don't test their code, not because I spent a couple of hours sorting out a mess their product caused, but because they couldn't be bothered to come clean sincerely. They have shown total disregard and disrespect to the users of their product in handing this "issue". If they actually cared, they would remove the advert on the home page and put a big apology there, not hide it in some article to be accessed with a link that says "Trojan.FakeAlert.5 Update issue".

Oh well, I suppose the unethical and unprofessional also need to work somewhere. Guess we all know where they do now.

I agree with the sentiment there. The service has been shoddy. I have said this many times. Why isn't the team keeping the user 'L.o.D' in check? is he an employee? Why don't you people understand that this particular member is denting your credibility even further? He is belittling your customers. What a tragedy. What everyone needs is a genuine concern from your side for the customers' agony.

Well people have pretty much said what I've thought, but the quarrantining files back to normal doesn't work for me...

It says that it can't find the file path for some reason, and I can't seem to find a way around it, and with 5000+ files in the quarrantine, I surely am not going to select the filepath for each file. Any help?

Dorilas, they said to fire off an email with compensation as the subject to Bitsy@Bitdefender.com

Also add the email used for the BD account & cd key for it.

Thank You, L.o.D.

It says that it can't find the file path for some reason, and I can't seem to find a way around it, and with 5000+ files in the quarrantine, I surely am not going to select the filepath for each file. Any help?

Does it first say that the file already exists?

Hey, BitDefender. I just registered to tell you all thank you very much for deleting all of my application files and ###### up almost everything imaginable on my computer. Thanks!

I have to say that I feel lucky that I was able to catch the problem in time to stop it, before I encountered some of the problems I've read that others are experiencing (I've lost data and drives before - so I can understand their pain). I had hundreds of quarantined files before I figured out that BD was causing the problem ( I suspected that something was amiss in BD, but thought it might have been some type of self replicating virus and gave BD the benefit of my doubt). Then I went to the BD forum and confirmed that BD was the issue, and immediately turned off real-time virus protection. Then, before the fix came out, I did a system restore and shut the laptop down (I had to leave and didn't want the machine left unattended). After booting up today, I seem to be running OK - all applications appear to function normally. Whew!

Now I don't write code, but I do work in an IT oriented field, and I feel that some of the comments made by others in this forum are spot-on:

1) The update was obviously not tested (something this problematic surely would have been caught). This is a cardinal sin.

2) No timely (read ASAP) communication blast from BD (emails, posts on BD's home page, etc) regarding this problem telling people to turn off real-time protection. Another major omission.

Regarding compensation - which this thread is about - I feel that there have been several reasonable suggestions posted. To biuld upon a few of them, I suggest:

1) For those that wish to remain a user of BD, 1 to 3 free years license for those impacted by this issue.

2) For those that wish to move to another provider of anti-virus software, a pro-rated refund.

3) For those that required paid assistance to resolve the issue, a refund of those costs (with a valid, detailed invoice of those costs), perhaps up to some dollar limit.

Of course, when you ask thousands of people for their input, you will get thousands of different responses, and this is but another to add to that pile. Personally, I have not yet decided if I am going to stay with BD. Everyone, hopefully, learns from their mistakes, but this one really should never have happened. Enough said.

I had to buy a brand new copy of Windows-7 64 bit (I previously had Windows Vista 64, which worked fine, until you ****** screwed up my computer)

Since my computer was bought with Vista already installed, Best Buy said they would charge me to re-install the OS and I had to buy the disks, 200$ to pop a disk in a computer? I don't think so.

I went out and bought a Windows-7 64 copy, costing 220$

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Windows+7+Ulti...;st=windows%207

And I had to do this, because a program I PAID FOR screwed my computer over.

Am I going to get compensation for this? The ###### I want your program EVER again on my computer, I don't even want to see your ICON or IMAGE on the internet! I want the 220$ back I had to paid to repair my ###### computer.

I want the 4500$+ project I was working on, that I had to inform my client I could not finish/continue because of a irreversable file deletion that took place on my computer BY MY ANTI-VIRUS

I've currently made information papers, and have them posted around my town, and small/large businesses around my city to warn any users of your ###### product ruining many months of my work.

I've also contacted my local news station about this, and they contacted me asking me information about it, and you can be ###### well I said everything about this product there was to tell -- Including your ###### screw up.

I had to buy a brand new copy of Windows-7 64 bit (I previously had Windows Vista 64, which worked fine, until you ****** screwed up my computer)

Since my computer was bought with Vista already installed, Best Buy said they would charge me to re-install the OS and I had to buy the disks, 200$ to pop a disk in a computer? I don't think so.

I went out and bought a Windows-7 64 copy, costing 220$

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Windows+7+Ulti...;st=windows%207

Ok wait. You thought spending 200 was bad but you went out & spent more anyways?????

On a side note, I never understood why stores do that when selling laptops, as in not to include any recovery cds etc.

I want the 4500$+ project I was working on, that I had to inform my client I could not finish/continue because of a irreversable file deletion that took place on my computer BY MY ANTI-VIRUS

If you had that expensive of working being done, why did you not make any backups which is the logical thing to do when that much money is involved???

I for one have made-up my mind and WILL NOT be using bit defender any longer. I just purchased the 2010 version a couple of weeks ago, and now I have to figure out a way to fix the mess that BD created in both my computer and mi wife's computer (we both might have lost access to lots of important work-related files). At the very least, I demand a full refund of the money I paid for this product. I would very much appreciate it if someone from BD could contact me and let me know what should I do to get my money back.

Ok wait. You thought spending 200 was bad but you went out & spent more anyways?????

On a side note, I never understood why stores do that when selling laptops, as in not to include any recovery cds etc.

If you had that expensive of working being done, why did you not make any backups which is the logical thing to do when that much money is involved???

I did have them backed up, on a drive, which was hooked to my computer at the time, which was also deleted by BitDeleter.

And about your first question.

It would have cost them 420$ to do my computer, they told me it was 200$ to do it, and I needed the disk (Which I had to buy)

I had to buy a brand new copy of Windows-7 64 bit (I previously had Windows Vista 64, which worked fine, until you ****** screwed up my computer)

Since my computer was bought with Vista already installed, Best Buy said they would charge me to re-install the OS and I had to buy the disks, 200$ to pop a disk in a computer? I don't think so.

I went out and bought a Windows-7 64 copy, costing 220$

And I had to do this, because a program I PAID FOR screwed my computer over.

I want the 220$ back I had to paid to repair my ###### computer.

Right. I also got infected and I couldn't use the computer. Therefore, I went out and bought a 3000$ Mac. BD, I want my 3000$ back!

The only thing about the email and website news flash is that those that could not load windows would never see/get them.

Not saying it's an excuse.

Just sayin....

Got to love all the crybaby's. Lets see, when you buy a laptop there is A. another drive that has the original software or B. the directions says to make backups first thing when you buy your laptop. As far as running out and buying windows 7 thats on you. Why you didn't have backups of your $4500+ project. ROOKIE mistake. glad you spent money posting flyers around town instead of dealing with your problem.

Everyone here expects to be paid money for this. Hate to say it but ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. I can see them giving a free year or more. Maybe refund a prorated portion of your service not used at the most. For all the posts saying I want 3200, or 4500. Now think about it. If I was bitdefender and say by chance 1000 people won lawsuits or some big class action lawsuit. I would just declare bankruptcy. I am sure every ###### out there will jump on. Back up BACKUP BACKUP. you figure people would learn by now. My computer went down. I just used windows 7cd to restore my last configuration from that morning. Got back in and restored my files from the quarantine folder. It restores everything except BD or windows system files. So the 1000 plus files was put back. Im not defending BD for what happened. They really messed up and I am sure the one is no longer working for them.

As far as everyone complaining about not getting reply's HOLLY COW GET A CLUE. Thousands of post, thousands of e-mails. I bet they called in everyone on deck saturday afternoon. I bet as soon as I finish this reply about 200 messages have been posted. Bet no company can keep up.

LOL now that is not going to happen however i do want what you said and any small things that i might have to purchase to do a restore.

My case is slightly different and hope it works

I originally had vista on this comp

went and installed win 7 home prem on it thru twin rivers (more on this to come)

Then used upgrade advisor to upgrade it to professional when i realized that I needed a program after I purchased that was not allowed with home prem editons and needed it for school.

Luckily i was able to talk twin rivers to allow me to actually download it again (policy that you can only use it after 30 days but they relented on that one) and I hope that works but not confident it will or not .

After using bit defender for many years and recommending it to every person that brought their computer to me to fix I have become very disappointed in the quality of this AV program. This latest version seems to randomly crash and require a restart to get it working again every once in a while. Back in the early 90's I was a huge Nortons fan until they got bloated and resource hungry with useless junk addons and sub par AV protection. After that I moved on to McAfee and they ended up going down the same road, I love a simple AV program that just works all the time and a few years ago you have just that. This company has to me shown themselves to be an excellent team but seem to be losing sight of what the people want from them. We want solid AV protection that we can count on, I praise you every time one is caught trying to slip between windows cracks.

As for compensation I would like you to once again offer a simple and effective AV program that just works, you guys had it right but then you meddled with your recipe and upset alot of people. I am a very experienced with repairing computers so it wasn't hard to get back up and running just frustrating to have to fix everything and reinstalling all the programs effected. An extended license would keep me some what content but what would make me happy is if you would release slim down versions of your AV software. Seriously all of us that have a brain either have automatic updates on or know to check regularly and we know that 1234 is a crap password, we don't need some AV program telling us this. I don't need to encrypt IM chats on my home PC I don't need help managing my network and I think I can control my own identity lol.

I hope you guys have seen the light we all make mistakes and that's how we learn I have a business myself and I will tell you like I tell all my guys. You get one mistake excused and this was your one now learn from it and don't do it again.

Thank you for your years of protection and I hope many more to come.

Putting aside the matter of compensation for the moment, what I most want to see is a BitDefender director to be upfront and absolutely clear in admitting they made a mistake, and specifying the changes they are going to make to ensure that this does not happen again.

We all make mistakes. How we respond to them is the critical issue.

The biggest issue in BitDefenders response over the weekend was the terrible lack of communication. Very early in the crisis it became clear that the citical issues were to: 1. Switch off real time virus scanning, and 2. Not to reboot. Communication of this should have been top priority - via email and a large, unmissable, notice on the home page of the web site. Doing that may well have saved many, many customers greater troubles. That was not done and represented a terrible failure and misjudgement.

BitDefender served me well until Saturday morning. How they respond in the next day or so will determine whether they have a hope of rebuilding my trust.

I think MikeA is spot on. The terrible lack of communication is what exacerbated an already terrible situation.

If there is no communication from BD about what happened, why it happened, and what BD will do to prevent this from happening in the future then I plan on switching to a new AV provider and telling all my colleagues to do likewise.

I'll be happy with a "I survived Trojan.FakeAlert.5" t-shirt. XXL organic cotton, please.

What about compensating BD for each of the other 364 days of each year when ###### does not happen?

Let's count ourselves lucky we didn't get any of the 4 previous internal FakeAlert test releases, if that's what they were.

I like this idea Just so happens to be my size too!

I don't think that a specific email format was required initially. However, from the perspective of identifying the customer it is better to provide as much information as possible: for instance where you purchased from, email address, license key, the regular process.

With all do respect, but I am NOT going to e-mail my license key just like that.

There has to be some form of validation, call me paranoid, but then again, you gave us a _good_ reason to be paranoid, didn't you.

Thank You, L.o.D.

Many people here don't seem to be conscious of the fact that, I'm sure, millions of people like me did not understand that it was a Bitdefender problem when our computers went nuts with virus alerts. I thought my Bitdefender was working properly by detecting a trojan virus detection and moving files to quarantine. Given that i had two PCs not working because of this and that I didn't suspect that it was BD's fault, it wasn't until about 11:00 pm EST that I found, via a laptop, that BD tiny little news alert off to the right of their webpage on virus stuff that said something about "false alerts" for 64 bit operating systems. I clicked it out of curiousity, never really expecting that it would reveal that the reason for my supposed trojan infestation was Bitdefender. Come on - this should have been in neon flashing lights on their main webpage, not hidden in weird language like that. They didn't even issue anything at all until hours after I was furiously trying to figure out what happened and unknowingly, making it worse because I thought I had to delete the quarantined files that could not be disinfected. I really thought it was a real virus.

Those who blame the customers for the damages are way out of line. I should not have to be a software expert to keep my virus program from wiping out one hard drive and screwing up another. I have a right to be mad, and boy, am I mad. The last thing I want is an extension of this product as recompense. I'm out a weekend, a night of good sleep, a hard drive and everything on it and a whole lot of additional time to reload tons of crap after a professional re-installs Vista. Not to mention, about a month's worth of data, at minimum. I'm still thinking of files I lost. There is no excuse for this. Those of you who want to forgive are welcome to. I don't much care about BD's salvation. I care about my fried computer and all my lost data and time. Also the bill from the technician, which I haven't received yet.

There's a lot of stuff here, and, of course, everyone's got an opinion. So here's my one. As a software developer of many many years experience, I think, without any pretence of modesty, that I am confident enough to comment, and not really worry about what people think of my comments! In other words, this isn't an ego thing for me.

Ok, BitDefender (or any other AV) should never quarantine itself, or critical Windows components. Some intelligence on the part of the software is required, other than a simplistic "It's infected, off to quarantine it goes" approach. I don't believe that this undermines the rationale behind the AV in any way, as, clearly, the computer is buried if parts of BitDefender or Windows go AWOL

A BitDefender instance should be able to analyse it's own actions, and have enough stats compiled on it's own behaviour to recognise that, for some reason, it's suddenly bulk quarantining whole chunks of the computer, and 'raise a flag' to the user, providing a confirm or rollback option. There is nothing wrong with the AV spotting an unusual trend in it's own behaviour, and asking for human input. This is a failsafe.

Anyone with some IT experience knows that personal data, be it documents, audio, images, databases, source code, is more valuable than the computer it sits on. Reinstalling Windows, Office etc takes a few hours, and it's a tedious task, but losing your documents permanently is far more punishing, and there is no way back. Yes, a backup methodology will protect you from this, but how many domestic users who load their computer with their digicam pictures take regular backups? And, for those who may comment on this saying "I do", then that's fine, but you're sitting here reading this forum, and most users won't have that level of interest. My point here is that BitDefender is not responsible for media failure, but it should have a means of identifying files that have 'special interest' to the user, and should not be carted off to quarantine without some second thought. At it's most basic level this would mean the contents of "My Documents" have a special status, and yes, I know, what if they are really infected? So, some work required there.

Finally, communication needs to be part of the AV 'experience'. BitDefender should have a broadcast system built into it. So, when BitDefender loads, it checks with a BitDefender corporate server for any current broadcast message, and the status of this message (ie information only, or action required etc), if one exists. The message is then displayed to the user, and the BitDefender client adapts according to the status of the message. So, for the recent problem, the message might be of the type "BitDefender is experiencing a problem, and has disabled itself. It will re-enable itself when the problem is resolved. No user action is required". Simple stuff really, but probably requires a fair amount of working through as regards user policy "Hey, you're turning my AV off remotely?" etc...

An obvious response to all of the above if that "we do not need any of this complexity". Clearly you do, as sh** happens. It's all about contingency. Besides which, it would constitute a positive response to the recent problems, and also, no doubt, be some extra feature ticks for the product.

Kieran

They most likely will never state WHY it happened but they have stated how.

http://ow.ly/1p6j9 << that is a BD website.

Some people are claiming no communication & yet, their tech support, mods & labs staff have all been posting in my original now 74 page long thread for the last 2 days. A lot of their posts were missed due to people being irate & posting that they are leaving BD etc, thus flooding the thread & causing needed info to be buried.

But for people to claim lack of communication is absurd.

Why doesn't the Bitdefender team look into this guy's posts. He is now calling the customers' queries absurd. This is unbelievable. There was lack of communication, that is very clear. People posting in panic in a thread is obvious and that should be no excuse for the Tech support not posting. What the support team should have done is sticky a thread with all the queries in this particular thread answered in that, only the support team should have been granted the permission to post in that sticky. It is not that difficult. This 'L.o.D.' has irritated and insulted most of the people here by squaring the blame on the user and yet he is allowed to continue having fun here

The only thing about the email and website news flash is that those that could not load windows would never see/get them.

Not saying it's an excuse.

Just sayin....

Again, what a pathetic excuse. You guys deleted my post, why don't you just look into this guys ridicules here?

Don't forget to add that you don't make use of backup programs to save your progress.

mneira, you need to email them at Bitsy@Bitdefender.com with compensation as the subject.

He didn't have a backup for whatever reasons, his choice. So that clears Bitdefender of the attrocities it has committed? What you can do is to blame the customers for installing your product

I would imagine you will find that the BitDefender licensing terms and conditions exclude responsibility for any damage to your PC and software loaded on it. I haven't bothered reading the legal stuff, because that's exactly what I would specify under the same circumstances. So, you have no legal grounds for complaint.

As regards the user understanding the importance of making backups of data, and having the knowledge and capacity to make such backups, then that's a different issue. It would be great to imagine that running a PC is a strictly 'hands off' thing, but it isn't. Let's face it, nowadays you don't even need to know how to perform a backup by way of an OS or third-party program. You just stick a USB flash memory drive and drag-and-drop. If you lose data because you did no backups, then hopefully it's a lesson learned. The customer does have responsibility for maintaining their computer, and taking an *active* interest in what is loaded on the computer, and how it works.

Kieran

I'd say it's the same as if a virus infected your PC that Bitdefender did not catch. They would still say they are not to blame.

I would imagine you will find that the BitDefender licensing terms and conditions exclude responsibility for any damage to your PC and software loaded on it. I haven't bothered reading the legal stuff, because that's exactly what I would specify under the same circumstances. So, you have no legal grounds for complaint.

As regards the user understanding the importance of making backups of data, and having the knowledge and capacity to make such backups, then that's a different issue. It would be great to imagine that running a PC is a strictly 'hands off' thing, but it isn't. Let's face it, nowadays you don't even need to know how to perform a backup by way of an OS or third-party program. You just stick a USB flash memory drive and drag-and-drop. If you lose data because you did no backups, then hopefully it's a lesson learned. The customer does have responsibility for maintaining their computer, and taking an *active* interest in what is loaded on the computer, and how it works.

Kieran

I request you to read my post carefully. I did not say that there are legal grounds for this. Backup or no backup there has been a mistake from Bitdefender and expect people to have moral responsibility at least. I also acknowledge that this is a human error and it could happen to any software or product but it should not be made an excuse to not respond to the customer panic. Do you mean to say that Bitdefender can get away from after sales service by saying , 'You do not have a backup, therefore we won't help you even though our product has made your Windows unusable?'. You may not be able to take legal action against Bitdefender for malfunctioning but surely there should be some law in place so that one can take action against shoddy service especially in a crisis as important as this.

Let us take a scenario, I had forced my friend to install Bitdefender, luckily she had a 32 bit Vista. She takes online tuition and most of her students are attending exams and if she has missed a session with them it would have been a huge blow to her credibility and also to her students scores. What sort of backup would you expect her to have? It is not only about money. This goes beyond that.

I know that Bitdefender team, though late, has acknowledged this and has promised action. I was in particular responding to L.o.D posts. They say that he is not an insider but it is as if he speaks on their behalf. I was just requesting the team to control this guy because he is doing more damage than the bug itself.