Volcy PC Support

If there were –5 stars, that is what these delitants, charlatans, thugs masquerading as expert pc support deserve. I paid $ 500 for one year tech support not knwing Best Buys provide much better service for $ 100 per year. Every time I needed tech support, I had been disappointed. They don’t speak English well enough to talk in a comprehensible manner, they do not listen or do not understand a problem, they repeat the same steps over and over without solving a problem. I usually figure out the problem and solution myself. They are like little robots trained to use free software to analyze common pc problems and fix them. In short, they have no personal analytical skills, imagination or familiarity with the rules of logic to help. If you want to avoid excessive frustration, anger, and waste of time/​money, go somewhere else. Any stars above zero may be from their own employees, their families and friends.
It is shocking the US AG. TX AG, BBB, is allowing such «businesses» continue goring customers year after year. I wish those organizations contact us to get the facts and shut them up. It’s a free country but we must cut snake oil salesmen out of the business world so honest people with integrity succeed.

Volcy PC Support contacted my 86-​year old partially disabled aunt and represented themselves as AVG. They told her that they had detected there were Russian hackers trying to break into her computer and that they could install AVG and clean up her system.
The thing is, her system was already clean. I personally had installed Windows and all her software on a brand new hard drive less than a month before Volcy called. She has had a paid account with AVG for years, and she had recently renewed her AVG licenses 2 weeks before Volcy called.
Volcy offered her a 1-​year technical support package for $ 355. They asked for her credit card information and charged that amount to her card. In the weeks previous to contacting my aunt and unbeknownst to her, someone from Volcy purchased 5 separate 1-​year AVG licenses to be used for her AVG account. When they connected to her account, they reinstalled AVG and told her that day that she now had 2 years of AVG coverage. After getting off the phone with her, they requested and received refunds for all 5 licenses that they had previously purchased.
A week later she got another phone call from Volcy claiming that she had more problems (the Russian hackers?) and that they again needed to connect to her computer. They offered her another support package, a lifetime package that would cover up to 10 devices (she only has one computer) for the bargain price of $ 799 (more than the computer cost her, she is elderly and lives on a very limited income).
They wanted her to send a check this time to a PO Box in San Leandro CA, made out to Avangatee Services LLC. They told her that when they received the check that they would refund the $ 355 she had originally paid. She had the check all made out and ready to mail when I discovered what had happened.
While they were on her computer, they rendered it unbootable. They set a startup password, one that prompts for password before Windows starts and that also requires a password to be able to go into the BIOS. She called them back to find out about when she would get the refund and if they would provide her the startup password to attempt to regain control of her machine but they wanted to wait until they received her check.
They deleted all her system restore points and they deleted the Administrator account on her machine, so there is no way to refresh or reset her Windows installation, she now has to completely reinstall Windows from scratch.
When I contacted Volcy to try and get a refund, originally they flatly refused, they said that the $ 355 was for work they had done and for her AVG licenses and that they were legitimately owed that money.
After that she called her credit card company to dispute the charge and I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Volcy responded to the BBB complaint and tried to contact my aunt. She refused to speak with them so they requested that she call them. I called Volcy on her behalf and reiterated my request for a full refund. They offered a $ 200 refund but said the extra $ 155 was money for the AVG licenses they purchased. I told them she already had a license and did not need those licenses. AVG referred me to her email where she should be able to find refunds for the licenses she’d already had, and that the licenses they installed on her machine were valid.
This was a blatant lie as I checked all the license numbers, and the refunds were for the licenses that Volcy had purchased and then cancelled, not for her licenses. I said that if they wanted $ 155 for an AVG license, then I wanted them to give me the license number so that I could verify with AVG what the license was for and if it was valid.
They emailed me a license number. I called AVG and explained what happened and asked about the refunds and the license number that Volcy had emailed me.
AVG reiterated that Volcy has no partnership or relationship of any kind to AVG. They said that Volcy is well-​known to them and that what they do is to purchase licenses on behalf of other AVG customers, install software on their machines and charge the customers, then they cancel the licenses and get a refund. I gave them the license number that Volcy had emailed to me and they said it was a recently purchased license that had been refunded (a different license than the 5 licenses purchased by Volcy earlier in the month) and that it had also been refunded and was thus invalid.
This is more than bad customer service, this is extortion, they are holding her computer hostage pending receipt of the ransom ($ 799). It is next to impossible to believe that Volcy is permitted to be in business, how is this not blatantly illegal?
The agreed to the $ 355 refund but it has yet to show up. It’s only been a day so we’ll give them some time.

I did not have the same experience as John N. had. I have had my Toshiba computer for going on 6 years now and it was certainly time for an update and cleaning. I am not that tech savvy so Volcy was recommended by Norton Security. During the online repair with Volcy I saw several European sites that tried to attack my computer over time and several important things had been turned off and I don’t know how or why. iTunes had stopped working. My computer would not let me uninstall not to mention a reinstall iTunes. The computer was slow. There were several issues. The tech, «bruce» was very knowledgeable and patient and actually worked on my computer for about 8 hours. He may have been working on other computers as well but it takes times to clean the computer, uninstall, reinstall, update etc. All I know now is my computer is faster, iTunes is reinstalled and up to date and I am pleased with the result. I spent less than half of what John spent and I have a year of anytime service with Volcy. They will update, trouble shoot, answer questions every month and recommend doing so. Thus far I am pleased with the service and would recommend them for all the computer knuckleheads out there that frankly do not know what they are doing, me included.

Don’t go near these folks! They are a scan preying on technically unsophisticated computer users. I sought this company’s services for malware disruption of my computer after an internet search. On their webpage ad there were banners of the Better Business Bureau and Microsoft Windows. They are not registered with either but misleading showed these. (I confirmed this with both) After contact, they preyed on your anxiety with cautions: «don’t do any banking or purchases online with this computer as you are at risk», and giving false praise: «oh, your voice sounds so young for your age». Then the scam starts. They connect to your computer online, and point out foreign I.P.A. placed on your server and then reassure that they will erase all your problems after an scan and repair of your computer. They show you Microsoft’s service rates which in your now fanned anxiety you don’t notice that these are «professional» service rates for large companies. Then they show you their rate which is $$ less. I PAID THE PRICE OF A NEW COMPUTER FOR THEIR FRAUDULENT SERVICES.
Before doing so, they have you sign a disclaimer that you will hold them harmless if they repair even one of the complaints of which you seek relief. in short, after supposing scanning and «repairing» your computer for more than 2 hours, they call back and review the problems. Not one had been addressed! As I voiced disappointment, they then dealt with two of the three problems I sought relief. It was too late for me. My credit card charge had gone through and their contractual disclaimer with a electronic signature was signed. With access to my computer they could have uploaded my financially sensitive data such as social security data, banking information, etc. I was short $ 475 and compromised. I have replaced credit cards, changed passwords, felt like a fool and learned and expensive lesson. Don’t make the same mistake.