McAfee: Email is not intended for sending attachments….

January 7th, 2008 Drazen Drazic Posted in Bad Stuff, Dumb Security, Ford Falcon, To cool, WTF |

Yep, you heard that right. Background: one of few Windows systems we use cannot send any attachments with email. We try everything and narrow it down to McAfee’s product. Numerous emails to support were like talking to a brick wall…. but you got to love this comment from the McAfee dude (thanks Dec), who tells us that email is not intended for file attachments. Trust me, there’s no hidden context to this email. Gees….here’s me doing the wrong thing for the last 15 odd years. Check this out! (oh, and by the way, this is just one part of a large email trail to get the problem fixed…many more funny parts to it….Dec…you want to post them?)….BTW, we gave up in the end. :-)

Dear McAfee Customer,

Thank you for contacting McAfee Consumer Online Support. My name is XXXXX. I have reviewed your email and found that you are unable to send email with attachments.

I will be glad to assist you with this issue.

Email is not intended for exchange of files. Large messages can cause various problems such as
I) make mailboxes too large to handle
ii) block mail reading during transfer
iii) fill disk space

Therefore a maximum message size of 10 MB has been set by default in webmails (Yahoo, gmail, etc) and email clients (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc). That is why when we try to send attachments of more than 10 MB, we will generally receive error messages, as server will not be able to transfer the file size properly.

Files should be exchanged by protocols intended for file exchange like FTP.

I hope that I’ve answered your questions effectively. If not, feel free to contact support again. Please include all previous correspondence when replying.

You may receive a survey from McAfee in the next couple of days that will give you an opportunity to provide feedback on the support I’ve offered. This information will be used to further improve our support.

Thank you for visiting McAfee Support Center.

Regards,
XXXXX XXXXX
Technical Support Agent
McAfee Technical Support

3 Responses to “McAfee: Email is not intended for sending attachments….”

  1. Big Galoot Says:
    January 8th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    Is the world going crazy or something ?

    Off topic, but similar degree of frustration, a very annoying telephone call received by Big Galoot from Westpac last night:

    Westpac: Hello, is this Mr Craig Chapman ?
    Me: Whos this ?

    Westpac: My name is xxxx from Westpac. Do you live at xxxx ?
    Me: Why are you asking ?

    Westpac: Sir, I first need to confirm that you live at xxxx ?
    Me: Whats this about first ? You could be anybody as far as I’m concerned. And before we go any further, is this a marketing call ?

    Westpac: No sir. Its not marketing.
    Me: Ok, whats it about then ?

    Westpac: We sent you something in the mail. I need to ask you some questions about the material we sent you. Did you get it ?
    Me: I have no idea. What did you send me ?

    Westpac: Some useful information about income protection and life insurance.
    Me: Did I ask you to send me this information ?

    Westpac: No.
    Me: Sounds very much like this is a marketing call to me. Its now 7 o’clock at night. I’m in the middle of dinner with my family. And you’re interrupting my family dinner to ask me whether or not I received some unsolicited marketing rubbish in the mail ?

    Westpac: Its not rubbish, sir. Its very useful information about insurance you might be interested in.
    Me: I didn’t ask for it. I’m not interested in it. And do you realise we are listed on the “Do not call” register ?

    Westpac: Because of an existing business relationship relationship with us, we are permitted by law to call you and we don’t have to comply with the do not call register.

    Me: The relationship we have with you is in banking, not insurance. But since you’re using our existing banking relationship as an excuse to invade my privacy, I’ll be terminating that relationship first thing tomorrow. Good bye.

  2. Declan Ingram Says:
    January 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    @Big Galoot

    I suffered the same Westpac life insurance harassment - to the same end ! I’m no longer a westpac banking customer.

    I wonder how many others they have lost :)

    @DD Yeah McAfee are a bunch of idiots. They didn’t even read the contents of my support requests. >-|

  3. Big Galoot Says:
    January 11th, 2008 at 3:42 pm

    Dec,
    one has to wonder as to the culture and logic of any bank that;

    1. Aggressively slides itself through the murky grey areas within Privacy Laws to avoid the “Do not call register” - to the detriment and invasion of privacy of their own customers. And, in my case,

    2. Cynically attempts to mask and mislead its customers into thinking their phone call to us is something other than a direct marketing exercise, which was exactly what it was.

    But I’m sure Westpac thinks its being very clever by half.

    What the the slick, pin-striped marketing jocks at Westpac should remember is, aside from losing customers and really p1ssing them off, there’s some other important factors at play.

    Like for instance, when the Legislators wrote the Privacy Act, I’m confident the Laws weren’t intended as a means by which organisations could use it as a cynical tool to avoid the serious ramifications of invading a person’s privacy. To the contrary, this is what the gist of Privacy Laws are *all* about.

    BG.

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