Symantec Corporation ripoff Internet

I have been a subscriber of Symantec Corp.'s Norton Internet Security and Anti-virus software for 4 years. Every year, Symantec offers upgrades and renewals for their programs and every year, we have have no problems with the renewals...until this year.

I purchased my renewal in March 2005 but in November, my computer crashed and I had to completely reload my NIS/NAV...upon doing so, I kept getting a pop-up that my subscription had expired and my virus definitions were outdated. I tried to contact Symantec but kept being told that my version was no longer supported and I needed to upgrade my program...because I had already "paid" for my subscription renewal, they would be happy to upgrade me for a discount...meaning, not only was I being screwed out of the rest of my current subscription (which cost $39.95), it was going to cost another $49.95 for the "latest" version.

I also found out that Symantec discontinued support for all versions prior to 2005, so anyone who bought a renewal for their 2004 or prior version was now without the proper protection. I finally spoke with a live customer service rep...if you can call him that...I am disgusted that all 6 reps I spoke with over the course of nearly 2 weeks had Middle Eastern names and the live body had such a deep accent I could barely understand him...I guess Symantec has shipped all its support services outside the US...

According to Raj, he assured me he updated my subscription...however, my live update will not load the new virus definitions and I am still getting an "unsupported" program error...

Symantec has made it a habit, from what I have been researching on the internet, to go ahead and offer subscription renewals, but they refuse to support the programs, all in an effort to force people to pay more to upgrade to their latest software.

Carol
Lake Stevens, Washington
U.S.A.