What a slimy company. I like the SM Ultimate Defense product and have used it for years. Unfortunately, when I renewed last month, I missed the part buried in the terms of service, where they're going to auto-charge $20 a month for phone support. Since I extended my expiration date twice last month, since they were running a special, they decided to charge me $40 instead of 20. I like their product but they are a sleazy company out to steal your money. You can't trust them. Reading others' reviews, they do this as standard operating procedure.
Recommendation: Good product but watch your bank account for bogus and recurring fees.
Classic dark pattern design — bury an optional $20/month phone support fee in the terms of service, auto-charge it, and double-charge when someone extends twice. That’s not a mistake, that’s a system engineered to extract money from inattention. I’d bet 90% of users never call phone support anyway. You like the product, not the scam wrapper. Here’s a logical fix: call your credit card company and dispute the $40 as “unauthorized recurring charge not clearly disclosed.” Then re-purchase the software without the buried support add-on using a virtual one-time card number. Vote with your payment method. They’ll keep doing this until it costs them more in chargebacks than it makes. Sleazy is right.