A year ago I purchased ZoneAlarm Pro 7 online and have been using it since. A few weeks ago I got a subscription expiration popup. The next day I clicked on "Renew" which took me to their subscription renewal website. I put in all the pertinent information but the page kept returning with a message saying my license had expired. (Duh, no kidding).

I contacted support and they only stated that I would also have to purchase a new license because my old license had expired.

So I popped the question to them, "Do I have to purchase the software AND a subcription fee every year?" Over the next 8 to 10 days I got 3 more emails from them, but none of them answered the question.

I finally got snitty with them and told them it was a pretty simple "Yes or No" answer and asked them to explain.

They wrote back telling me that if you don't renew your license (not your subscription mind you) every year, then the license goes away and you have to pay an extra $10.00 for a new software license!!!

I told them that this was a total rip-off, especially since I had only just got a subscription notice.

I told them in capital letters; Feel free to pass this information on to your upper management "YOU HAVE LOST ANOTHER CUSTOMER!

It seems to me that this type thing should be illegal. I already know it's immoral. There was nothing saying that I had to re-purchase the software, nor was there anything saying you had to renew your license every year. The only thing I saw was you have to renew your subscription for updates every year, which I already knew about.

I don't even know what the procedure is or how it is even accomplished. There's nothing in the software that tells you, and I've been all through ZoneAlarm to configure it.