Although we know Symantec acquired the Norton brandname from Peter Norton, sometimes on the GripeLog you'd think it actually came from former heavyweight champ Ken Norton. That's if you're judging by the number of Symantec customers who feel like they've been on the receiving end of one big-time hammer blow after another.
My recent story about a reader who couldn't get Adobe Acrobat activation to work with his RAID array prompted many readers to report they had had the same problem, but with the Norton AntiVirus DRM instead. "Symantec told me exactly the same thing Adobe told him," wrote one reader. "If I want to use the RAID, I have to get Symantec's corporate version that doesn't have the activation ... The activation schemes are all just scams, anyway. After they make us struggle for a few days trying to get their product to work, they figure we'll be willing to pay anything for a DRM-free version."
As we've heard before, the activation bugs that plagued NAV 2004 don't seem to have gone away with NAV 2005. "I have tried every suggestion they have to install and activate and can't activate the program," wrote one reader. "After many, many tries to activate, I can only get as far as the 'click to activate your product' screen. It freezes, and I have to turn off the computer. I have tried their suggestions to activate by telephone. I get to the same screen and no way to activate by phone. Do they offer a website to check my CD to see if it is counterfeit? No, they do not seem to care. Ever try to talk with anyone at Symantec? They charge for calls, they do not answer e-mail. Symantec must think everyone is a crook with the same mindset they have."
Of course, many activation complaints are often support complaints in disguise, or maybe vice versa. "I purchased an online update to Norton AntiVirus in the fall and activated it at the time," wrote another reader. "Since then, I have had to reactivate it at least once a month, despite installing several of their 'fixes.' A few days ago I decided enough was enough and called their tech support. It was probably the worst experience that I have had with anyone's tech support. The person on the phone could apparently do nothing that was not on his cheat sheet and followed it religiously. I was instructed to download the "current version" of the fix four times -- double-click this, push this button, don't do anything until I tell you, run it, reboot, uninstall it, and do it over. After all that I was finally allowed to reactivate my software. After being treated like a complete idiot for an hour and a half, I was so frustrated that I felt like throwing Norton Antivirus in the shredder. By the way, I've been in tech support myself for 20 years, so I've got a pretty good idea of not only what to do but how a customer should be treated. This isn't it."
When activation doesn't seem to be the problem, Symantec customers may still feel like the jabs are coming out of nowhere. "Since installing Norton Systemworks 2005, something keeps disabling the antivirus program," another reader wrote. "I followed all the Norton recommendations to correct this, but none of them work. My own solution is to keep restarting my computer until it is enabled. Sometimes it enables on the first startup sometimes on the second and sometimes on the third. If it becomes enabled on some startups, why not on all of them? My real gripe, however, is that something seems to have gone wrong with Norton's business ethics. Has the only goal become to make money? Whatever the reason, we the buyers are consistently being taken advantage of by an immoral business."
Even having the corporate version and corporate support does not necessarily protect the customer from the blows. "On contacting support when an update would not load, I was told in no uncertain terms that I had mixed products and was in violation of the Symantec license agreement," wrote one corporate customer. "Further, I was told that the update would detect this and shut my system down. I asked what to do to fix this problem. The answer: Buy the right number of licenses for the correct product. Money spent on the incorrect product is, well, just lost. OK, I say, please tell me which SKU to buy so that I get it right this time. Answer: Oh, we can't do that, you'll have to go to your dealer -- the same one from whom I bought the 'wrong' product. Please let me talk to supervisor. Three days later, I get a call back. That's THREE days in a corporate environment. Supervisor: Sorry, but we don't have access to the SKUs, call your dealer. To QWEX^% with you -- I purchased the McAfee product."
Understandable, although McAfee's been known to occasionally hit below the belt as well. Keep in mind that readers have recommended many other alternatives for antivirus protection. And, hey, it's said that a certain Redmond-based firm is going to be climbing into the ring soon. Who knows, we may discover that Norton was really a lightweight all along.
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