The downward (dog) spiral: iYogi exposed

The iYogi story has had more dramatic twists and turns than a Spanish soap opera, and the end is nowhere in sight.

Last week I wrote about a controversy surrounding iYogi, an India-based firm that sells remote support services to consumers and provides white-label support for major vendors.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Find out how this iYogi mess started in Cringely’s own words with “Tech support or extortion? You be the judge.” | For a humorous take on the tech industry’s shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld’s Tech Watch blog. ]

The problem? iYogi’s less than savory sales tactics. People who called support lines thinking they were getting free — or at least under-warranty — support from their vendors were in fact talking to iYogi, which then attempted to upsell them on annual subscriptions for $170 a year. Worse, many people were told their computers had severe problems that did not actually exist.

Brian Krebs, a former Washington Post writer who now operates his own blog, Krebs on Security, tested iYogi himself and discovered that the company was indeed using scare tactics to coerce users into signing up. He wasn’t alone.

After that post ran, I immediately heard from a half-dozen Cringesters, all of whom said it happened to them, too. Take this note from I.C., who describes himself as a 62-year-old computer novice, as well as a disabled veteran on a fixed income:

A couple of months ago I went to renew my Webroot anti-virus and -spyware software. When I called, an Indian answered and [said] they would take care of my renewal … but they [had] tools that were more effective. [T]hey asked me if it was OK if they took control of my computer to do a full scan and stupidly I said yes.

That night I couldn’t sleep thinking about what just happened to me, so the next morning I called my credit card company to dispute these charges … then immediately went into my control panel and deleted what [iYogi] put on my computer … I wish those investigative shows on TV would get a hold of these stories to let everyone know what to look out for.

But the story gets more interesting. Over at the Krebs on Security blog, reader comments continue to pile up, and not just from users. Take for example this response from Dave Mello, VP of support and services for Kaspersky Lab’s North America division. He wrote, in part:

To support their business model, iYogi has purchased key search-engine terms, which causes their links to display prominently in search-engine queries for Kaspersky Lab support. … Kaspersky Lab has never engaged in any sort of formal business relationship with iYogi … but we regularly encounter customers who have expressed frustration with iYogi. In most cases these customers were under the impression that they were receiving support from a Kaspersky Lab employee or an authorized Kaspersky Lab representative. The impression we are given from customer claims is that they were asked to pay very expensive fees without obtaining a positive result.

A current iYogi employee weighed in to defend his company’s tactics, but I’m not sure he did his own cause much good:

We are working on customer experience-based selling model. The term “scare tactics” in abovementioned comments and blog are misleading to an extent because there is a very thin line between customer education and scare tactics. If a call landed in iYogi, despite the mode of acquisition, it only means that customer is seeking support, and support is provided by iYogi because we are skilled and efficient enough to help our customer. We are providing support dock, an amazing tool that actually helps our customer to get the maximum out of their PC, we are providing 24/7 support 365 days a year … for just $169.99, this is one-time technician charge.

… iYogi has gone through a lot, it has best people from the industry now, and we will ensure that nobody from the whole world would point out finger on us because we know how to learn from mistakes. We will excel again. We believe in GOOD KARMA, and we know a good deed will never get wasted.

Yesterday, someone claiming to be a former employee of iYogi says the real story is much worse than what has been reported so far:

I am an ex-iYogi employee. I agree to the fact that “scare tactics” and “iYogi” are synonyms. iYogi basically runs multiple campaigns for customer acquisition. … All of these processes/campaigns are sales-driven and are very aggressive on their sales numbers. There is no rigor in meeting customers’ satisfaction level or resolution to customers’ issue. Unethical sales has always existed in iYogi, and the company is making a lot of money from it.

The tech support and sales executives go through regular classroom training where they are trained to show invalid and incorrect infections on customer’s computers. And apart from all of this, there have been multiple instances where customer’s credit card information has been misused by employees.

He (or she) goes on to make other claims that are probably libelous, so I won’t repeat them here. Even if those are just the anonymous mutterings of a disgruntled former employee, much of what he or she says is highly consistent with what others have reported. How iYogi managed to secure partnerships with some of the biggest names in tech, though, is beyond me. Did no one do any checking at all?

My recommendation: If you happen to run into this soap opera, change the channel — before you get sucked in too.

Have more tech support horror stories? Share them below or email me: cringe@infoworld.com.

This article, “The downward (dog) spiral: iYogi exposed,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the crazy twists and turns of the tech industry with Robert X. Cringely’s Notes from the Field blog, and subscribe to Cringely’s Notes from the Underground newsletter.