SupportBuddy Inc.

In reference to this complaint filed by Ms. [redacted].   Our internal investigation revealed that the last contact with her from SupportBuddy was on Jan 7, 2017, post which, no contact was established with her.   SupportBuddy does not call the customers to offer any pro-active refunds. Unless...

for a refund it is definitely issued to the customer. This seems to us that someone called her and took SupportBuddy’s in order to do this act.   We wanted to investigate this further and sent Ms. [redacted] emails for the same post the Revdex.com complaint, However, we did not get any response from her.   SupportBuddy believes in 100% customer satisfaction, we would gladly issue her refund full refund, if that is what she desires, she has been sent another email for her to furnish her bank details so that we could start the refund process. We would deeply regret to lose her as our customer.   Thank you Team SupportBuddy

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/06/26) */
Thank You for the grievance notification, we would like to inform Ms. [redacted] that SupportBuddy is an independent 3rd party remote tech service provider. We are not associated to Apple or any software or hardware company.
We take customer's...

feedbacks strongly and work on them to enhance customer's experience, our quality team will be auditing this call for any non-adherence to internal processes or false expectations, and will action accordingly.
We apologize that her experience with us was not satisfactory. We respect her decision and would like to inform that the customer service has initiated the refund for the amount of $219.99, on 23rd June 2015, it will reflect in her next billing cycle.

We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.

Regards,
Customer Service Team
SupportBuddy

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 11[redacted]4, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/18) */
Thank You for the grievance notification, We would like to inform Ms. [redacted] that Supportbuddy is an independent 3rd party remote tech service provider. We are in no way, or form related to Apple or any software or hardware company. We take...

feedbacks strongly and work on them, our quality team will audit the call for any non-adherence to internal processes or false expectations, we will action as per the findings.
As far as Ms. [redacted]'s concern about virus being fed to her computer. SupportBuddy does not and cannot send any malicious message/program to anyone's computer. We have strong systems in place to check integrity and dedication to customer satisfaction which has been the sole reason for our growth.
On 10th May, 2015 Our customer service team contacted her wherein she had raised dis-satisfaction and for the same we had raised a refund aswell on the same day.

We apologize that her experience with us was not satisfactory.
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.
Regards,
Customer Service Team,
SupportBuddy

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/03/14) */
With regards to this case we would first like to inform [redacted] that SupportBuddy is an independent third party remote tech service provider. We are in no way, or form related to Microsoft or any software or hardware company. At...

SupportBuddy, we do not indulge into any activities which are related to hacking or any other activity that jeopardizes the customer's information. We have strong systems in place to check integrity and are dedication to customer satisfaction which has been the sole reason for our growth.
As per our records our last conversation with you was on Dec 9, 2015. On this date our technician helped you to update and fix free version of Avast antivirus which was already installed in your computer. The issue was successfully resolved as confirmed by you. Post which no further contacts was done by SupportBuddy with you.
We do not have any employee by the name of "[redacted]" and the number from which call was made to you also does not belong to SupportBuddy. We have sent this case to our audit team for a special investigation.
SupportBuddy strongly believes in customer satisfaction, as you mentioned that you desire a refund we have initiated a complete refund of $179.99 on Mar 14, 2016 and it should reflect in your next billing cycle and we will continue our investigation further about this incident.
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.

Regards,
Customer Service Team
SupportBuddy

On July 29, 2016 Ms Katherine Keola [redacted] called SupportBuddy looking for support with virus pop ups. SupportBuddy technicians diagnosed the issue and found that the computer was infected with viruses; which usually happens because of unsafe browsing and lack of security in the system. [redacted]...

did not have a security program to stop viruses.
 
Post the discussions [redacted] agreed to opt for 1 Year Unlimited support services for a charge of $299.99. The issues were resolved and [redacted] agreed for the same. Looking at her browsing habits and status of system security SupportBuddy technicians recommended security software “Bulwark Anti-Malware” for an amount of $ 149.99 for lifetime validity. The application was installed and confirmed to be working good.
 
We would like to state that SupportBuddy has no association with any computer manufacturer or Microsoft and we are an independent technical support organization. We are one of the leading technical support companies offering support for all kinds of software related issues. This information is available on the emails sent to [redacted] with the details of the subscription.
 
We apologize for the inconvenience which [redacted] had to face and we would like to inform [redacted] that the amount of time required for troubleshooting depends on various factors (internet speed, system configuration and amount of Junks/infections found during scan). Also we would like to inform Ms Sunter that we recommend our customers to stay on call so that we can share all the steps been performed and this also insures that customer’s personal information is safe. We have stringent quality measures to ensure we deliver timely resolution to our customers. We have forwarded this case to Quality control department for further investigation.
 
We value customer satisfaction above all, hence we have refunded the complete amount charged 449.98($299.99+$149.99) and the refund should reflect in next billing cycle. We would like to assure [redacted] that SupportBuddy strongly discourages any unethical business practice and have very high quality standards in place because of which we have a customer base of more than one million satisfied customers. We would like to assure you that No Data was gathered from your computer any time which would harm you financially during the course of troubleshooting
 
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face. Thanks, SupportBuddy Team

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/03/02) */
Mr. [redacted]'s reported concern is a generic internet issue caused by various reasons and internet activities, SupportBuddy assisted him to get rid of it and helped him optimise his computer to the best possible extent. We adhere to stringent and...

strict business ethics which have helped us to be in business for more than three years and a customer base of more than a million satisfied customers, which is only possible with trust and integrity; hence we assure him that he was with a legit company.
At SupportBuddy, we go great lengths to ensure 100% customer satisfaction. Since he is not comfortable and has lost trust in us, we have refunded the complete amount of $360.48 (this excludes the previous refund of $179.99) which was remaining with us on 29th Feb 2016, in short all the charges have been refunded back to his card. A confirmation email has also been sent to him for the same.
As a gesture of goodwill the Panda anti-virus sold to him would remain active and he can use it till its expiry.
We thank Revdex.com for making us aware of the issues that our customers face.
Thanks,
SupportBuddy Team
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2016/03/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Supportbuddy handled this very professionally and I hope my suspicions were wrong.
Unfortunately my "guru"s (not available on weekends) informed me that the message on the computer screen appeared to be a "scam". The high pressure to sign up for the service (both short-term and long-term) was tremendous and made me suspicious; but what could I do when I thought by machine was going to "die".
Possibly Supportbuddy could change the message that appears, if a virus infects a computer.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/08/10) */
Regarding Mr. [redacted]'s concern, we are sorry to hear that his experience with us was not satisfactory, He was transferred the same day to our customer service team, and when he cited his concern the customer service agent initiated a complete...

refund for his payment to us on 25th July.
As far as accessing the computers concerned, we would like to assure Mr. [redacted] that the technician disconnected the remote right away post you were transferred to customer service.
Regards,
Supportbuddy Team
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 9, 2015/08/11) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I checked with my credit card company and there does not appear to be a charge from this company. I Changed my account number just in case. The reason I do not accept their reply is that they do not admit guilt. I believe they hacked into my system and perpetrated this fraud. When I was using my computer, a message appeared that said my system as locked and then another message appeared saying to call a phone number. I did so reluctantly, since I was frozen out of my system. Of course, they wanted to sell me protection. How did they know about my problem? How did they know I was locked out? I later went to The Geek Squad ay Best Buy where they agreed that SupportBuddy was a scam company. If they ever try this again I shall contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 13, 2015/08/25) */
In regards to Mr. [redacted]'s concern, we apologize again that his experience with us was not satisfactory. However we would like to assure him that Supportbuddy does not indulge in any malpractices, we have been in business from more than 3 years and have loyal customer base of more than two hundred thousand, with a customer satisfaction rate of 95%, this cannot be achieved if we indulge into any malpractices. We deeply regret that you lost faith in us, and assure you that we go to great lengths for customer satisfaction.
Regards,
Supportbuddy
Customer Service Team
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 15, 2015/08/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I never want to hear of them again.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2016/01/07) */
With regards to this case we would first like to inform Ms. [redacted] that SupportBuddy is an independent third party remote tech service provider. We are in no way, or form related to [redacted] or any software or hardware company....


SupportBuddy does not and cannot send any malicious message/program to anyone's computer. We have strong systems in place to check integrity and are dedication to customer satisfaction which has been the sole reason for our growth.
We would like to assure Ms. [redacted] that no harm was done to her computer in any manner by SupportBuddy or its Technicians. No malicious activity was performed on it. All her active programs and applications should be working in the same way as they were before.
We regret for her dis-satisfied experience with SupportBuddy for which we will get our quality team to further investigate into the service experience. Also, that we have refunded the amount back to her card, since she was not satisfied with the overall experience.
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.

Customer Service Team
SupportBuddy

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/07/21) */
On July 12, 2016 Ms [redacted] called SupportBuddy looking for support however we could not locate her account with us. Post checking with contact details of Ms [redacted] we found that she is not registered with us and she has never called...

SupportBuddy post or prior to July 12, 2016.
As per the telephonic conversation with SupportBuddy representative, Ms [redacted] had reported to be charged by a company named "online tech support" which she confirmed post checking her bank statement. The contact numbers shared by the customer "XXXXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXXXX" do not belong to SupportBuddy. Also we have no employee named "[redacted]".
We can be reached at "[redacted](for technical support) and 1 [redacted](for billing queries)". For more information Ms [redacted] can visit our website http://www.supportbuddy.net/.
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.

Thanks,
SupportBuddy Team
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2016/07/21) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Initial Business Response /* (12210, 8, 2015/05/15) */
Thank You for the grievance notification, in regards to this case we would first of all like to inform Ms. [redacted] that Supportbuddy is an independent 3rd party remote tech service provider. We are in no way, or form related to Apple or any...

software or hardware company. We take feedbacks seriously, our quality team will audit the call for any non-adherence to internal processes or false expectations, we will action as per the findings.
As far as Ms. [redacted] worries about the tech accessing her computer through remote, we would like to inform her that it's completely safe and within our guidelines. The remote tool which is used for troubleshooting issues is a secured and is under continues monitoring to safeguard our customers. The tech accesses the computer remotely in order to diagnose the problem better. The tech would not delete of remove anything from any customer's computer without their permission (if required be). Additionally the customer has the option to disconnect the remote session if she gets suspicious about anything.
We would like to assure Ms. [redacted] that no harm was done to her computer in any manner by the technician who helped her fix her issue. No activity was performed on it which would result in deleting any information.
Furthermore Ms. [redacted] called back and our customer service representative confirmed the primary issue resolution where MS. [redacted] informed us that her computer was running slow. The representative offered her assistance from Escalation team to resolve the issue but MS. [redacted] was not around her computer so she informed that she will be calling back.
We apologize that her experience with us was not satisfactory. We have initiated the complete refund in the amount of $299.99. Please allow approximately 7-10 business days for the refund processing.
We are committed to resolve all our customer queries to their satisfaction and for all future communications related to this concern.
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.
Final Business Response /* (1000, 16, 2015/05/25) */
We apologize to Ms. [redacted] for any inconvenience; we have already put her number on Do Not Call List. And she would not receive any further call from us in future.
We would also like to offer Ms. [redacted] free assistance to help her check any missing data, however she would have to contact us on Customer Service phone number (XXXX-XXX-XXXX) as we have now put her number on "do not call".
We thank Revdex.com for sharing the customer's concern.
Regards,
Customer Service Team
SupportBuddy

This is in reference to the complaint filed by Ms. [redacted]. We would like to appraise Ms. [redacted] that SupportBuddy is a third party technical support and is not associated with any OEM. We already have passed your case for internal investigation to our quality team, which will take action to any false...

commitments made. SupportBuddy has been in business for more than 4 year and have successfully served millions of satisfied customers. We regret that Ms. [redacted]’s experience with us was not satisfactory. We would also like to appraise her that all the amount on her card was refunded back to her card and her phone number has been put to DNC from SupportBuddy as per her request. We thank Revdex.com for highlighting the issues that our customers face. Team SupportBuddy

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/07/13) */
On July 04, 2016 we received a call where Ms. [redacted] reported virus pop up that generally comes if the computer is not secured or because of unsafe browsing. It was found during diagnosis that the computer was infected with adware and...

required a clean-up. Post diagnosis Ms. [redacted] was offered services provided by SupportBuddy and she willingly agreed for a onetime technical support for an amount of $179.99, and the issue was fixed per her satisfaction.
Ms. [redacted] also wanted to purchase antivirus as she did not have any security program installed in her computer. SupportBuddy executive helped the customer to buy "AVG Internet Security XXXX - X-Year / 1-Seat" for an amount of $121. The application was installed and confirmed to be working fine by Ms. [redacted].
On July 06, 2016 Mr [redacted] called us on behalf of the account holder(Ms. [redacted] ) and showed dissatisfaction and demanded refund. SupportBuddy executive asked to speak to the account holder but he was not allowed to.
We at SupportBuddy value customer satisfaction above all hence we have initiated complete refund for $309.99($179.99+$121) on 7th July 2016. The refund should reflect on her card in next billing cycle. We have also forwarded the case to our quality control department for further investigation.
We would also like to convey Ms. [redacted] that we strongly discourage any unethical means of acquiring business. We follow strict quality standards and thrive for customer satisfaction which is one of the key reasons of our successful corporate history and a database of more than 1 million satisfied customers.
We appreciate Revdex.com for keeping us informed for issues that our customers face.

Thanks,
SupportBuddy Team
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/07/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I did call Support Buddy's after leaving this Revdex.com complaint and they were quick to refund the two charges, as they say. That was very good. Presumably it is not worth their risk to defend against complaints, which would seem odd if their services are 100% legitimate as they claim. Can you imagine Windows or any legitimate support company refunding a $180 charge for tech support services already rendered without argument? They clearly are trying to fly under the radar and when they hit a mark that fights back, they drop it and hope nobody pursues it.
I also take issue with the last part of their claim - that their ways of acquiring business are completely ethical. I cannot believe this to be true. We (and many other negative reviewers around the Internet) got the phone number for Support Buddy from malicious pop-ups that had infected the computer and claimed to be a legitimate warning message. The Support Buddy representative that I spoke to (1) confirmed that they are not affiliated with Microsoft and that Windows would never ship with a built in message recommending users to call Support Buddy, (2) said that the phone number in question was a "generic support number that routes to a number of different companies," and (3) that she didn't know how that phone number would have gotten onto our computer. It is obvious that the malware our computer was infected with came with that number and that phony error message and that Support Buddy (and sure, perhaps other companies) are behind it. What unaffiliated hacker would write a virus that sends business to a legitimate company that he/she has no stake in? It wouldn't happen.
Support Buddy is an impressive scam - a business that seems very legitimate but that has unethical practices at its base. I don't even doubt that the support representative I spoke to believes everything she told me to be true - probably Support Buddy staffs a bunch of employees that believe their company is all legitimate. But somebody at the top (or in sales or customer acquisition) is sending out malware to infect computers and gain business.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 8, 2016/07/14) */

I am rejecting this response because: They did get a hold of me and that's how all this started.  Yes they are offering to refund my money, which I will take since its rightfully mine.  But because of the fraudulent information that has happened. I'm now needing to fix my computer from their actions. That is going to cost me money to repair if it is able to be fixed.  I therefore am requesting reimbursement of a new computer of my choice. At the cost of support buddy. I feel that after the stress and turmoil that they have inflicted on me and my family that's the least they can do. Thank you [redacted]