Beware Symantec

the-bullet · Mar 8, 2007, 01:21 PM

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, 02:03 PM

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, 02:06 PM

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, 02:14 PM

nod32 works no problem on vista.
nuff said

the-bullet · Mar 8, 2007, 02:16 PM

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, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GutterPunk

nod32 works no problem on vista.
nuff said

sweet

Sandok · Mar 8, 2007, 03:08 PM

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

Erroneus · Mar 8, 2007, 03:50 PM

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, 03:54 PM

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, 07:57 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, 09:09 PM

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

GutterPunk · Mar 8, 2007, 10:33 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, 07:54 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, 08:29 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, 09:21 AM

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

cozumel · Mar 10, 2007, 12:09 PM

I've still got NIS and ghost in my collection of CDs but they are not installed. I think Norton software was great in the days when I was still using MSDOS but now just sells on past glories and rep.

I'm not intending to go back to Norton.

Jeremy of Many · Mar 10, 2007, 08:02 PM

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?...dpost&p=383999

H3X4D3C1M4L · Mar 12, 2007, 07:08 AM

I keep old versions of Norton and just get the subscription renewals.. haven't had problems thus far

Not to spark debate but there is always Linux or Mac's OSX which are far better in terms of virus resistance, negating the need to even use antivirus software

BlueMak · Mar 12, 2007, 09:14 AM

OR Atari ST.

willy2 · Mar 17, 2007, 05:49 PM

I have been running NAV 2007 since vista came out without any problems at all. I am using Vista Ultimate

Mar 8, 2007, 01:21 PM	#1
the-bullet Come on you Spurs! Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 21 Rep Power: 0	Beware Symantec 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

Mar 8, 2007, 02:03 PM	#2
Erroneus Get off my lawn! Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 13,415 Rep Power: 119 System Specs	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. __________________

Mar 8, 2007, 02:06 PM	#3
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,017 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	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 __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Mar 8, 2007, 02:14 PM	#4
GutterPunk I = Greatest Dood Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Nebraska Posts: 5,949 Rep Power: 71	nod32 works no problem on vista. nuff said __________________ Rock On \m/ Thank you Mousey for the Sig! --------------- Intel Core2Duo E6660 (3.4GHZ) ~ Tuniq Tower 120 ~ Enermax Galaxy 1000W ~ Corsair Dominator @ 1090MHZ 5-5-5-15 (OCZ XTC Modded Cooler)~ EVGA 8800GTX W/ HR-03 Plus 120MM ~ Asus DVD-RW LiteScribe ~ LG DVD-RW ~ Corsair Voyager 2GB ReadyBoost Drive ~ Vantec Nexus Fan Controller ~ ThermalTake Armor 25CM fan ~ Personal Finance Blog: Dent Your Debt

Mar 8, 2007, 03:50 PM	#8
Erroneus Get off my lawn! Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 13,415 Rep Power: 119 System Specs	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. __________________

Mar 8, 2007, 02:16 PM	Thread Starter #5
the-bullet Come on you Spurs! Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 21 Rep Power: 0	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.

Mar 8, 2007, 03:08 PM	#7
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	Kaspersky is the way to go imho... I love it!

Mar 8, 2007, 03:54 PM	Thread Starter #9
the-bullet Come on you Spurs! Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 21 Rep Power: 0	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

Mar 8, 2007, 10:33 PM	#12
GutterPunk I = Greatest Dood Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Nebraska Posts: 5,949 Rep Power: 71	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 __________________ Rock On \m/ Thank you Mousey for the Sig! --------------- Intel Core2Duo E6660 (3.4GHZ) ~ Tuniq Tower 120 ~ Enermax Galaxy 1000W ~ Corsair Dominator @ 1090MHZ 5-5-5-15 (OCZ XTC Modded Cooler)~ EVGA 8800GTX W/ HR-03 Plus 120MM ~ Asus DVD-RW LiteScribe ~ LG DVD-RW ~ Corsair Voyager 2GB ReadyBoost Drive ~ Vantec Nexus Fan Controller ~ ThermalTake Armor 25CM fan ~ Personal Finance Blog: Dent Your Debt

Mar 9, 2007, 07:54 PM	#13
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	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... __________________

Mar 9, 2007, 08:29 PM	#14
technonerd DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Posts: 594 Rep Power: 0	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.

Mar 10, 2007, 12:09 PM	#16
cozumel I'm dangerous but cute... Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Under the waves... Posts: 3,577 Rep Power: 60 System Specs	I've still got NIS and ghost in my collection of CDs but they are not installed. I think Norton software was great in the days when I was still using MSDOS but now just sells on past glories and rep. I'm not intending to go back to Norton. __________________ Don't worry about money - Be a beach bum! Scuba Rocks

Mar 10, 2007, 08:02 PM	#17
Jeremy of Many DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Nova Scotia, Canada Posts: 42 Rep Power: 0	http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?...dpost&p=383999 __________________ [b]Antec P180 \| OCZ PowerStream 520W \| DFI LanParty NF4 Ultra-D \| AMD X2 3800+ @ 2.4 GHz \| 160GBx2 + 500GB Seagate SATA2 NCQ 8MB & 32MB \| 2GB OCZ PC3200 DC (2.5-3-2-5) \| GeForce 6800GS 256MB \| Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 \| Razer Copperhead Laser Mouse \| Standard M$ 101/102 Keyboard \| Windows XP Pro SP2

Mar 12, 2007, 07:08 AM	#18
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	I keep old versions of Norton and just get the subscription renewals.. haven't had problems thus far Not to spark debate but there is always Linux or Mac's OSX which are far better in terms of virus resistance, negating the need to even use antivirus software

Mar 12, 2007, 09:14 AM	#19
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,459 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	OR Atari ST. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Mar 17, 2007, 05:49 PM	#20
willy2 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	I have been running NAV 2007 since vista came out without any problems at all. I am using Vista Ultimate