Why I Dislike Symantec

So, I just got off the phone (a little while ago now) with Symantec Technical Support, and I sit here in front of my computer with a renewed dislike for everything the company does. I don't want to say hate, because I don't really feel like ranting today. I am however, extremely disappointed at the whole mess I went through today.

It basically started because one of my clients' wife installed Norton Internet Security 2004 on her home computer. She bought the product at the “upgrade” price, but the product did not in fact upgrade the software. It just uninstalled MIS 2002 and installed NIS 2004. So it asks her for a “Supervisor” password, and she types in what she wants the password to be. So the software installs. The firewall works great... so great in fact that it won't let ANYTHING in or out. She's not much of a computer person, but smart enough to get by for everyday tasks. So she tries to log in under the “Supervisor” account to see what's going on. Guess what? Password doesn't work.

This is where I come in. So basically, at this point Symantec has hijacked her computer. The only support they have where I talk to a human being is fee-based support. So I call in, wait on hold for twenty minutes, while listening to different tips on how to solve really basic problems, that obviously a lot of people are having. So I get support guy on the phone, and he's like, “Yeah, we've been having issues with the Supervisor password on installation..... can I get your credit card number please?” Does anyone else have a problem with this?

So, I get an e-mail sent to me with the steps that I have to take. While I'm waiting for this e-mail, I go back over to the computer, and I'm like.... “Hmm, I wonder...” and I try logging in with a blank password. Well guess what? The system that is supposed to increase security has the most insecure default password option on earth. So I called back to say that we fixed the problem and I didn't want to get charged for it, and I basically got a 15 minute story about how they get lots of calls because people don't know what they're doing with the application. Users install the program, skipping basic steps because they don't understand what they're doing (and the program does not make it crystal clear), so then it's the user's fault when they don't do it right, because the steps are (poorly) documented.

That really burns me up. As a business person, I've very angry by that comment. Why? Because, if people are having problems with the software, it's obviously not their fault.... it's the fault of the software. So if so many people are having problems, why the heck are they charging people to fix their own screw ups? Why have they made software that is supposed to keep computers secure so difficult to use? And people wonder why the average user doesn't want to deal with these issues.

Did I mention that I really dislike Symantec?

3 Comments

  • Join the club :( I was having problems with XP blue-screening all the time. On avg at least once a day. So I turned on Driver Verifier and guess what. Blue-Screen within 15 seconds of boot. After several hours of safe boots and blue-screens gradually removing drivers from Driver Verification I found that once I removed an unsigned driver installed as part of Norton AV, all my problems went away. I ditched AV and went with onother vender. Havn't had a blue screen since. You would 'think' a company with the stature of Symantec would at least sign their drivers, to say nothing of running them under Driver Verifier before release.

  • Not to play pile-on, but what the heck, it is Norton (aka Symantec): Norton AV has been the enemy of developers since the dawn of time.

    Get in the time machine and go back to, say, 1999. Just try to install software on a machine with NAV. Go ahead. Now, count how many times you swear as the strange error messages come up... Run out of fingers yet?

    Good to know that some things never change. That's why I'm a McAfee guy.

  • I have the fix to the massive range of problems that other people and myself are having with NIS 2004. Like every body else I too have had to put up with the Symantec support personell that are not trained in IT but can read from a script, sometimes.



    It took 2 months (longer than the refund time) of e-mails and 20 re-installs but I finally got this Crappy Application Fixed.



    1. First you must read the manual that comes with the disk.

    2. Whilst reading the manual let the dog chew the CD.

    3. Put the CD in the bin

    4. Shred the manual

    5. Download and use zone alarm.

    6. Problem fixed. Its only cost you the cost of the software and you still have a PC that works because no Symantec Product was ever installed.

Comments have been disabled for this content.