Beware Symantec

the-bullet · Mar 8, 2007, 08:21 AM

Hello all. Very very long post here guys, please bear with me. Even though I am extremely angry regarding my recent experience with Symantec, I must point out that I am relating this case as a fore-warning to anyone who may buy any Symantec products in the future, and not as a Venge-fest

. OK - I bought NIS 2007 from PC World (a major UK retailer) in mid January. I installed it on my XP Home PC and activated it without any problems. It ran great. Much snappier than previous versions etc. Then I upgraded to Vista. I followed Symantec's instructions to the letter and everything went well. NIS was running fine. This continued for 3 weeks, until an error message poped up saying I had "0" days left on my subscription. I checked my Norton account page which confirmed that my subscription didn't actually run out until Jan 2008. So I go to reactivate NIS and I get a connection error message. I reboot, try again and I am still getting the same error. I uninstall, reinstall and try activating again -success. A few minutes later The red x is back in the notification area. I open up Norton IS and am told I need to activate. OK, I try to activate, and am told I have exceeded the maximum nuber of installations

. Phone support for Symantec is not free (at least here in the UK), so I log on the Symantec web chat help service. After being taken round and round in a script dance I am told to set my system clock back 4 days ( system clock was correct btw), and to try to activate, it works and I reset my clock back. The next day the red x is back, and I am informed that I need to activate my product. I do so with apparent success, however, a few hours later the red x is back and I get the activate message again. After another round of scripted text bs I am told someone senior will e-mail me. Well the e-mail comes and I am told I have violated the EULA by installing the software on more than 1 PC . Now I know this to be untrue, so I let them know in no uncertain terms. After 3 more back and forths with them saying exactly the same thing I finally get a changed response. Apparently now they aren't saying I have installed this on more than 1 PC, but that I have activated it more than the maximum 3 times on this PC. As you can see from above, with a product sold before the Vista release, quoted as Vista ready, and with the subscription error message as well, I have had no option but to activate it several times. Yet they can't see this simple fact. I wonder if these guys could pass the Turin test ?
Thank you for reading, go have a lie down. I know I will

Erroneus · Mar 8, 2007, 09:03 AM

Activation of products are a pain in the arse and the real looser is the legal user caught in the middle, especially when dealing with moron companies like Symantec.

But sorry to hear about your problems, I can recommend Avast, which is free and does a good job, all though it's only an anti virus program and not a spywaer/firewall/spam/antivirus app like NIS.

kris23 · Mar 8, 2007, 09:06 AM

that happened to me with norton 06 on XP, i was working on my system then the clock was set back to 2005 or something and my subscription died......... so 07 is better? it seems to be the only vista compatible software out currently

GutterPunk · Mar 8, 2007, 09:14 AM

nod32 works no problem on vista.
nuff said

the-bullet · Mar 8, 2007, 09:16 AM

Well, it's tough to recommend

, but I would say 2007 is better, at least in terms of speed, but I will never buy it again. You can't treat customers like that, and surely the 3 activation thing will bite many more than me. I think I may give NOD32 a try for anti virus, and rely on my router and Windows firewall.

kris23 · Mar 8, 2007, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GutterPunk

nod32 works no problem on vista.
nuff said

sweet

Sandok · Mar 8, 2007, 10:08 AM

Kaspersky is the way to go imho... I love it!

Erroneus · Mar 8, 2007, 10:50 AM

If you are going to buy an anti-virus, I would defiently also go with Kaspersky or F-Secure. Those guys really make some of the best anti-virus out there, but if you wanna save some money, Avast home comes pretty damn close in terms of quality and it's also really lightweight.

the-bullet · Mar 8, 2007, 10:54 AM

Just read this in the EULA -
"4. Sixty (60) Day Money Back Guarantee:If You are the original licensee of this copy of the Software and are not completely satisfied with it for any reason, please contact Symantec Customer Service for a refund of the money You paid for the Software (less shipping, handling, and any applicable taxes) at any time during the sixty (60) day period following the date of purchase."
Is this worth my while, or will the "shipping, handling, and any applicable taxes" take the refund down to zilch ?

I'm going to try to return it to PC world with hard copies of all the e-mails and web chats also to try to get e refund. I think I'll be p***ing in the wind on that one too

Mousey · Mar 8, 2007, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erroneus

Activation of products are a pain in the arse and the real looser is the legal user caught in the middle, especially when dealing with moron companies like Symantec.

But sorry to hear about your problems, I can recommend Avast, which is free and does a good job, all though it's only an anti virus program and not a spywaer/firewall/spam/antivirus app like NIS.

I use AVG, quality products and free if you get the right versions

i tried to install NIS 2006 before on my computer and it worked fine, but it stopped
protecting me from new threats i'd read about when the subscription ran out and dad wouldn't renew it, we were using it on both our computers fine, i had installed it literally hundreds of times on my own machine since i format a lot and we've never had activation issues.

The only problem is norton uninstallers DO NOT WORK, i tried to UNINSTALL NIS 2006 and it didn't f*cking well work! i had to get a patch off the symantec website for christ sake!

and btw bullet, don't hold back with PC World.
those bunch of retards wouldn't replace my grandmother's printer, i'm only 14 but getting angry (minus abusive)
gets you places, i know that already....

Judas · Mar 8, 2007, 04:09 PM

AVG is working great on vista here... 7.5's free version.... works great with zero installation issues.

GutterPunk · Mar 8, 2007, 05:33 PM

I was talking to my buddy who works at Best Buy, and he said about 99% of the vista comps wouldn't take NIS 2k7. how unfortunate

The_Neon_Cowboy · Mar 9, 2007, 02:54 PM

funny thing is it's to thrwart piracy, yet the pirates are the ones with no problems.
Activation is the most retarded protection theme ever... it only targeted at the end
user NOT pirates! as they often claim., it's prevent users from installing 1 copy on
more then 1 pc plain and simple. so it's to conrol the end user, to make more money...

technonerd · Mar 9, 2007, 03:29 PM

At the place where I work, we hardly recommend Norton because it's a peice of crap. Sadly I have to fix Norton situation when people buy it from Bestbuy or Costco. We sell Kaspersky and planning to sell F-secure, if the customer rather have free Anti-virus we recommend AVG :P

Have you tried to download an update version of NIS2007 for Vista.
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoff...patibility.jsp

I had problem using NIS2007 Cd, so I download/Installed the program from the site and it seems to work like charmed.

Dyre Straits · Mar 10, 2007, 04:21 AM

Quite frankly, nothing with "Norton" in the name gets installed on any of my PCs....not since the days of Windows 95.