faintdreams (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
faintdreams) wrote2010-03-26 03:17 pm
faintdreams) wrote2010-03-26 03:17 pm
Entry tags:
On Being An Irate Customer
Dear Western Digital,
Your inexplicable bundled software practices just lost you a customer - me.
Western Digital 'Smartware' came bundled with my new @Tb MyBook Studio drive and I was most perturbed to find there was no easy way to prevent it from auto-mounting, or delete it from the purchased drive.
This is not good enough. I Bough the drive, I should be able to utilise it anyway I please. Imagine my extreme displeasure on discovering that a full Drive format did not remove the 'Smartware' because it is embedded in the Drives Firmware. After some research I was refereed to your own support pages where instructions on how to 'disable' the Virtual CD state:
<em>If you don't wish to run WD 'SmartWare' or use the security features, you can disable the VCD following the steps below.<em>
Resigned to the truth that DISABLING was my only option (note not deletion, just disabling which is akin to simply 'hiding' the software), I attempted the outlined steps. After several failed attempts I discovered that as well as insisting on a USB only connection, the current firmware (for both Mac and Windows users) does not register connection of the newer Western Digital Drives. This means that unless I want to resort to hacking the firmware (which I most certainly do NOT), I am left with no choice, but to keep the so called 'Smartware'.
Through trial and error I did manage to get the Virtual CD manager to 'disable' (hide) the 'Smartware', but that is not good enough.
I used to heartily recommend your products to everyone who enquired, as well as preciously purchasing several Western Digital drives for my personal storage needs.
No More.
I will NEVER recommend another Western Digital product and I will NEVER purchase one because I will never give my heard earned money to a company who consider it good business practise to foist what amounts to a rootkit onto their customers.
I and many others on your own support forums (http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Demand-fix-for-Smartware-Rootkit/td-p/2719) deem the software a rootkit for four pertinent reasons:
1. We didn't ask for it
2. We expressly don't want it
3. We know it's sitting on our systems and we have no control over it
4. Despite repeated requests from your customer base for a number of years, you keep shipping your devices with this software, with the one concession being that we can 'disable' it.
I can think of no other simpler way to put it than this. We (your customers) do not want to disable the bundled software. We want to delete it. From our own hardware. Which which we PAID for.
At no point in the expansive promotional material (which I have read through prior to purchase) is it stated that the bundled software is compulsory and cannot be deleted.
So I repeat - your inexplicable bundled software practices just lost you a customer - me.
Regards
--------------------------------
The above is going to posted here, to my other wordpress blog, and myLJ. I shall post and repost on every forum I am a member of AND I AM GOING TO SEND IT AS MY AMAZON REVIEW, and my PLAY REVIEW.
I never review on Amazon.
I am Pissed OFF.
Your inexplicable bundled software practices just lost you a customer - me.
Western Digital 'Smartware' came bundled with my new @Tb MyBook Studio drive and I was most perturbed to find there was no easy way to prevent it from auto-mounting, or delete it from the purchased drive.
This is not good enough. I Bough the drive, I should be able to utilise it anyway I please. Imagine my extreme displeasure on discovering that a full Drive format did not remove the 'Smartware' because it is embedded in the Drives Firmware. After some research I was refereed to your own support pages where instructions on how to 'disable' the Virtual CD state:
<em>If you don't wish to run WD 'SmartWare' or use the security features, you can disable the VCD following the steps below.<em>
Resigned to the truth that DISABLING was my only option (note not deletion, just disabling which is akin to simply 'hiding' the software), I attempted the outlined steps. After several failed attempts I discovered that as well as insisting on a USB only connection, the current firmware (for both Mac and Windows users) does not register connection of the newer Western Digital Drives. This means that unless I want to resort to hacking the firmware (which I most certainly do NOT), I am left with no choice, but to keep the so called 'Smartware'.
Through trial and error I did manage to get the Virtual CD manager to 'disable' (hide) the 'Smartware', but that is not good enough.
I used to heartily recommend your products to everyone who enquired, as well as preciously purchasing several Western Digital drives for my personal storage needs.
No More.
I will NEVER recommend another Western Digital product and I will NEVER purchase one because I will never give my heard earned money to a company who consider it good business practise to foist what amounts to a rootkit onto their customers.
I and many others on your own support forums (http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Smartware/Demand-fix-for-Smartware-Rootkit/td-p/2719) deem the software a rootkit for four pertinent reasons:
1. We didn't ask for it
2. We expressly don't want it
3. We know it's sitting on our systems and we have no control over it
4. Despite repeated requests from your customer base for a number of years, you keep shipping your devices with this software, with the one concession being that we can 'disable' it.
I can think of no other simpler way to put it than this. We (your customers) do not want to disable the bundled software. We want to delete it. From our own hardware. Which which we PAID for.
At no point in the expansive promotional material (which I have read through prior to purchase) is it stated that the bundled software is compulsory and cannot be deleted.
So I repeat - your inexplicable bundled software practices just lost you a customer - me.
Regards
--------------------------------
The above is going to posted here, to my other wordpress blog, and myLJ. I shall post and repost on every forum I am a member of AND I AM GOING TO SEND IT AS MY AMAZON REVIEW, and my PLAY REVIEW.
I never review on Amazon.
I am Pissed OFF.
no subject
This seems to be the way that IT manufacturers are going - saying that you can buy our product, but we will dictate to you how you use it and what you can do with it. c.f. Kindles and the George Orwell book debacle, and the severe limitations on what can be done with an iPhone without rooting it.