Q: iYogi, scam? Relationship with Apple?

i couldnt log on to my mac cos of keyboard change and i panicked because i had experiences losing essays/ assignments on apple products, so search for 'apple customer service' and iyogi came up as the first link, but indicating as THE apple customer service. i called them up and they were friendly and being really helpful and offered remote help at first. i was still panicking and didn't doubt if they were the real apple technicians. i thought i was actually paying for the apple care plan but afterwards just realised this is a complete different company. i paid £110 for a year's subcription and felt this is extremely overpriced. chances are, i'm never gonna have to use this service again. i've used my mac for 5 years and no had a single problem. but i was pressured into believing that they are the apple people. they have NOT mentioned the name iyogi until the very last minute before i hang up after getting the help. VERY DECEPTING i'd have to say...

What a disgusting company.

They are NOT "very clear" about who they are, certainly not here in Australia. My mother just called them after Googling who knows what (instead of going to the Apple website directly) and thought she was talking to Apple. I called the number myself and they DID NOT say who they are.

My mother just paid $120 for them to show her how to turn her iPad off by holding down both buttons (because swipe wasn't working), and fortunately at least didn't give in to the pressure they were applying for her to sign up to some other scam offering for "clearing out old files monthly from her PC"... That's actually what made me look into who the **** she was talking to...

No doubt they are operating barely inside the law but it's disgusting and CLEARLY ripping off older people who are an easy target.

I called them with a problem changing my Apple ID.  The person asked to remotely work in my account and I, stupidly, let him.  He ended up switching me to Apple on the phone, but I did not notice him leaving my computer.  A few days later $4,000 was taken from my bank account!  I saw it while it was still pending (an electronic debit) and managed to stop this from happening!  It was a new account and no one knew about it and it hadn't been used.  I had opened it with money that I received from trading in my car.  No one had the numbers for that account.  I am convinced it had something to do withletting that guy having remote access to my account!!!!  No other explanation.

Mark, I have had an experience with iYogi and will never call them again. They tried to convince me that I needed to pay them $200 to fix my issue. After hanging up with them, I was able to figure the problem out on my own and it ended up being a very simple fix. They made it seem as if my computer had been compromized and needed to have all kinds of software installed to ensure its security. Mind you, I have an Apple computer.

The tech was very rude and annoyingly arrogant. I can see how they would easily convince a non-savvy person to give them money to fix a simple problem.

He also told me that he worked as a representative of Google and other large-name companies. I know that's not true. If it is, Google needs to seriously consider who they hire to represent them.

I called apple care concerning an issue that occurred when I installed Maverick. My scanner stopped working.

The apple care agent said I should check with the scanner company for help. She then asked me if I wanted her to give me the  support number. Blindly trusting apple because I have had flawless support for my years and totally count on apple care. I took the number without question. It was to IYogi... I let them take over my computer again based on the trust I have for apple care and there referral.  I shut it down as soon as that started asking for money. Am I in trouble here? Does apple recommend IYogi? why would they give me that number if they are not in support of that company?

The conclusion,

I researched a number myself, got a fix in about 10 minutes.

IS MY MAC IN DANGER?

Apple Support does not recommend any specific third-party company, and I have difficulty believing that any Apple employee would give you the number of iYogi, at least as a company policy.  What support number did you call that you believe put you in touch with Apple Support?

If you allowed iYogi or anyone else to take control of your computer, then yes, it is most certainly at risk. I would strongly suggest backing up your documents and other data, erasing your hard drive, and reinstalling your operaing system and applications, either from the original disks or from a clone or Time Machine backup made before you allowed iYogi into your system. That's the only way you can be sure that some other person does not have a back door into your computer.

Regards.

Wondering as a computer engineering major how is it that my mother paid $400.00 for iyogi and she gets great tech support but they had here download a bunch of other ******** programs.  Example, they had her download a windows 7 start menu.  As well as, there is no way now for her to defrag her computer anymore.  Not allowed to use the defrag due to iyogi.  My mother and I was on hold with these indians for over three hours and all they did was delete all temp files, clean up the computer and tell my how my mother paid for the tech service but if she is experencing problems she can not fix them.  She has to contact iyogi.  This really sounds like a scam.  I have contacted several colleges and spoke to professors as well as spoke to Microsoft.  Either nobody has heard of them or like Microsoft said; they stongly recommend people find another company to handle their tech support.  they charge outrages prices for something that can be done for free.  iyogi is a scam and all they do it take advantage of uneducated people.

While having a PC problem installing McAfee software on multiple machines with a 3 license package (only because we must have PC for some uses), I ran into iYogi!  I got a message that the product key had already been used.  I was told that the reason I could not install a 2nd license of the software was because my registry was infected after they did a remote in on the machine  They installed and ran some sort of file scanning software suppposedly.  They said this is a problem that "must be fixed immediately." After that, they would be able to help me with my installation problem.  They wanted $199.00 to do this.  I said no way and hung up.  Minutes later I got a chat session with McAfee and found out that the second and third software installations did not require using the product key, but simply logging into my McAfee account and downloading the software on the other 2 machines.  iYogi is a scam!  Any company doing business with them should be ashamed!

IYOGI is a scam!!!

They remotely connect to your computer, snoop around, place cookies on your machine and then tell you that you need to pay around &170 to fix your problem! The problem was fixed by TP-Link very professional support FREE of charge!

Don't trust them!!!

I just encountered iYogi, and while he had access to my screen, he copied my Ethernet ID.  As far as I could see he didn't have any other access, other than that I had to enter my password, which showed on the screen as encrypted -- could he have captured my keyboard strokes?  I have cleared the caches in both Safari & Chrome; do I need to do anything else (short of the drastic steps outlined above); are they likely to have some sort of access to my computer now?

It's a guy called Partik Bhatia. He's in India at a hired desk. Be warned this guy will try to mount your machine  and once he's done you'll feel like you've been gang raped. I say this because he'll asked for your root password to be input and of course he will get that via a data logging tool, he has your MAC address and can then tunnel into your machine any times it's on. I called this line by accident and quickly realised the guy knew nothing about mac osx. I told him where to go. He's as persistent as an Indian beggar though. Be warned.

Time Warner told me to call apple and gave me the phone #.  I was not told it was iyogi.  My question was how to reset an Airport Extreme.  It had nothing to do with any other apple device I own.  We have multiple apple devices in our house.  The iyogi rep told i needed to give him my credit card # and the cost was over $500 to cover the tech support for all of our devices.  THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH OUR DEVICES and the rep kept telling me it would cost alot if I called anyone else.  This has to be a scam...crooked...or deceiptful at best!!!

I hung up and was able to figure out the problem on my own.

iyogi is a problem!!!

So, Time Warner gave you the wrong number for Apple.

Go to getsupport.apple.com and you can set up a call or chat with Apple directly.

Yes, Time Warner told me they were giving me the # for Apple but it was for iyogi.  The iyogi rep was pushy, deceitful, demanding...I would not have called iyogi directly.  And after my experience would NEVER recommend anyone else calling them!  They are horrible.

Have you contacted Time Warner to complain that one of their reps misrouted you to iYogi instead of Apple?