Do Some Registry Cleaners Sell Unethically?

Registry cleaners are usually looked for at a time when a computer user has a serious problem. Is it ethical or unethical to use this time to encourage them to take some course of action to fix their problem? Then when they do, after waiting to have their registry scanned to find out what the problem actually is, to then hold them to “ransom” to get the problem fixed?

When a computer doesn’t work properly and you can almost feel some virus ripping out your hard done work, to say to a computer owner “if you want this fixed, I can do it but it’s going to cost “X” amount of dollars first?  Personally, this leaves me feeling abused.

These registry cleaners promise they will scan and clean your registry. So the reader believes them and takes them at their word, has their computer scanned and the scan comes up with ’10,000’ infections found. Then to clean these out, we will do it but first you have to pay “$X.XX” to do so.

Many of us feel as if they have us over a barrel, bite the bullet and buy the product. This is precisely the buying position these registry cleaner suppliers want us to be in. Is this selling ethically though?  I say no. Why?

Breaking someone’s arm to buy something can hardly be considered an ethical sale.  By breaking someone’s arm, well, in this case their computer, to get a sale can hardly be considered as an ethical way of doing business and making the sale.  Their lack of integrity in the first place is definitely questionable but then to find my computer held to ransom makes me feel not only annoyed but disgusted.

Often this unethical behavior is compounded by seeing that the numbers don’t match up.

Prior to purchasing the product under extreme duress, the original scan that showed ’10,000’ infections found, suddenly get downsized to ‘2000’ infections cleaned and removed. So not only has the registry cleaner provider held you over a barrel to buy their product, they have outright lied to you about the number of problems that your computer actually had. By this time though, your computer is working again and you do feel extreme relief. Until twelve months later, anyway.

The next reminder of this incident comes when you check your monthly credit card statement. There you see a payment made to “ABC Registry Cleaner”. When you go back to the registry cleaner’s site, you then get to read the small print that clearly says there is an annual fee associated with buying the product.

So the purchase that you were ‘forced’ to make isn’t an outright buy. You are only buying the product for one year’s usage but why couldn’t that be clearly stated at the time of being ‘forced’ to purchase? We all understand that constantly upgrading the virus base is required.

Good ethics in business is essential. Integrity is part of being ethical and if customers feel that they have not been treated fairly, they will simply walk away and be sure to” bad mouth” your business to anyone who is likely to listen. You may have made the sale but by doing it unethically you lost more than you may ever know.