Lack of Support

After Symantec revamped from its clean, no-frills corporate AV to its bloated, buggy, all-in-one product, I went searching for a new AV and bought NOD32 for one of clients, primarily for its superb virus detection rates. However, I have found several viruses which both Symantec and even the free ClamAV detect but NOD32 doesn't. Hmmm...that's disquieting, but I'll let that slide. (For the record, at least one of the files is now detected by NOD32.)

However, what I can't let slide is ESET's horrible support. The purchase of NOD32 didn't go smoothly--we got an email containing our username/password, but it only let us download the old Exchange product, not the Business Edition for our desktops. When I tried to contact ESET, I found to my dismay there were no support phone numbers. The only way I could get support was via a web form--I couldn't even email ESET so I'd at least have a record of my submission.

So I fill out the form.

Two days later, I get a response back saying that my e-mail address I used on the support form didn't match the registered email address. Even though I included the username and password (which no one except the registered user should know) and the whole NOD32 system info from our Exchange server as requested by the stupid form, they didn't believe that I was legit because on their web form I used our tech email address instead of our accountant's. I was told to reply with "Company name, email address used at time of purchase, address (including city, state, and zip code), phone number, and primary email ESET should have on record."

So I reply with all the requested info.

Two days after that, I finally get a second username and password for the Business Edition, which were never sent originally. It took four days to get a username and password that could have been resolved in 5 minutes on the phone (after the usual half hour of navigating the auto-attendant and waiting on hold, of course).

Now I'm in the same boat. This time my NOD32 username and password mysteriously stopped working, even though I have made absolutely no changes to NOD32 or our ESET account and our license doesn't expire until late next year. Consequently, my Exchange server hasn't been downloading AV updates for over two months. What are my support options? Support > Contact > stupid web form. Again, no phone number, not even an email address. Now what? Wait another four days? That's not the kind of support I want from a company providing a mission-critical application.

Looks like its time to shop for another AV product.

 

Hello. Sorry for your troubles.

Are you in the U.S.?

if so, then you missed the entire "contact us" page. It has phone numbers for Business users, Home users, etc..
http://www.eset.com/company/contact.php

Plus, at the bottom of the page, it has the phone number for all the other HQ's around the world and even the addresses, just in case you aren't in the US.


This isn't just a canned response, but keep in mind, no AV solution is perfect. There are always going to be malware out there that some detect and others don't. You have a couple of examples, but we could list dozens and dozens of threats that NOD caught before anybody else knew anything about them. That does not indicate one is automatically better than the other. NOD has the highest detection rate amongst it's competitors, this is proven over and over again. But occasionally, you will find one that gets by.

I am sorry to hear about your troubles getting a hold of someone at customer service. Did you purchase your license through Eset directly or go through a local reseller?

Question, if your Exchange server hasn't updated for 2 months, why haven't you posted a question here before or contacted support already? That just seems like a long time to wait to seek help if it's not working.

Also, we are always willing to help here on the forums when we can, but we need as much info as possible to diagnose the problem. Can you tell us what systems that are having problems (what OS, SP#, etc..)
When you say they "stopped working", are you getting an error or other message?
What version of NOD32 are you using? What Exchange version are you using.

 

You can also ask ESET's mods here and PM them your username/password so that they can check if everything's alright with your license.

 

Ah ha. Well, I swear this page wasn't there when I first had problems 6 months ago. Regardless, that's a ridiculous place to put the support contact information. When I need support from the company of a malfunctioning product, I think Company website > Support > Contact. Viola! ESET has that exact page except it's a just web form with no other contact information at all and no links to where the "real" support contact information is hidden. The last thing I'm thinking when I'm at client's site with them looking over my shoulder as I burn through their money trying to troubleshoot a product I recommended is to go to an About page that usually contains the company history, some press releases, and the bios of the company's officers next to pictures of old guys in suits. Sorry, I don't have time to read propaganda about how great the company is that made this broken product--I just need the product fixed now. Maybe you think different, but the Support > Contact page is where I expect to find contact information for technical support!

Yes, yes, yes, I know no AV solution is perfect. I stated that as part of a series of disappointing first impressions that all happened within the first week of our purchase: ESET screws up our order, then there's no support contact information (or at best it's illogically buried), it takes 4 days to get a simple username and password, and right away I find viruses NOD32 can't detect, despite its numerous VB100 awards. That doesn't just reflect poorly on ESET, it makes me look bad for recommending you.

Yes, we purchased direct from ESET, which is why I was trying to contact ESET because I don't have any other option.

This particular client of mine doesn't have a full-time IT person. I'm it, I'm hourly for them, and so they generally only call me when there's a problem. I just happened to be out there to fix a desktop and checked out their server while I was there and found find this problem. So off to the ESET website, Support > Contact > stupid web form (with no other contact information...have I mentioned that before?). But hey, there's forums (hosted by a third-party, which doesn't bode well either for ESET, all due respect to Wilders), so after submitting my problem on the stupid web form, I came here to vent my frustrations.

And BTW, ESET isn't the only AV I have on Exchange--I'm also using ASSP (email proxy) that includes ClamAV, so most email viruses, malware, spam, etc., get blocked at the proxy before they ever get to Exchange. Good in case one AV detects a virus the other misses or one AV just quits working.

Well, if you can help, all the better. By "username and password mysteriously stopped working" I mean when I go to NOD32 Control Center > Update > Update > Update Now, I get a prompt for username & password, even though they're already filled in. Retyping or cutting/pasting from the original email just prompts again ad nauseam until I give up and hit cancel, at which point I get a message box that says "Incorrect username or password." If I'm logged in when the auto-update fires off, I see the same message box. I have since turned on email notification, and the auto-update also generates an email saying: "During execution of Update on the computer XXXX, the following warning occurred: Update attempt failed (Incorrect username or password.)"

I have gone to the download section on the ESET website and this same username and password allows me to download NOD32 for Exchange. So the username and password are [partially] working, they just won't let me update the virus signatures.

Configuration is Windows Small Business Server 2003 SP2, running Exchange 2003 SP2 with NOD32 for Exchange v2.71.9.

 

I don't see an ESET phone number for Canada. Is there one?

 

For the username/password problem, one thing that has worked for me in the past is:

Don't copy/paste your username/password into the pop-up window that comes up when trying to update. Go into the Update Settings and re-paste it in there and then try to update.
I had this happen to me quite awhile back, same exact symptoms.
Worth a shot anyway.

 

http://nod32.smartantivirus.ca/contact.php

 

Just wanted to follow up on my experience.

After 2 days of no reply from ESET concerning my web form submission, I called the business support phone number erroneously placed in the About section instead of Support > Contact. (Yes, I'm going to keep commenting about this stupid placement until ESET corrects it.)

I sat patiently on hold for half an hour at my expense because the number isn't toll-free. Finally, I get someone and low and behold he doesn't know why my account isn't working either. But we did find a work-around--use the password for our desktops on the Exchange server. So there's the solution for anyone who is similarly afflicted and goes to Support > Contact to find your only means of contacting support is via a stupid web form because ESET doesn't include their real support contact information on that page (Hello! It's the Contact page of the Support section of your website! Put your technical support contact information there!) and instead chooses to to bury it illogically in their About section.

But I have to ask...so why did I have to have two usernames and passwords in the first place if my desktop one works for both? And why did ESET decide after months of my Exchange username/password working to suddenly disable its ability to download vital updates without warning? And if its disabled, why is it still able to download the Exchange AV app? Whatever. Thanks for wasting my time, ESET.

 

make sure you use the same email you used to register your eset product for your support form requests.

and I use this link

http://www.eset.com/support/lost_license.php

when i forget what my u/p is.

But yeah on a larger scale and to address your point. Maybe RMuffler can help by looking into it directly with the folks at ESET.

 

This is too much.

Today, FIVE DAYS after I submitted my trouble ticket via the stupid web form (because the Support > Contact page has no other way to actually contact support--have I mentioned that?), I finally got a response asking me for my username and password. What??!?

To fully grasp the insanity of this, you should know that the username is a required field on the web form, and I filled in the optional password field, too. And it took 5 days for ESET support to ask me for them again. I'd rather they just completely ignored me rather than show their sheer incompetence like this.

And sorry to any ESET moderators or employees who think I'm being one-sided, but this is the very definition of my title, "Lack of Support". At this point I don't even give a crap about fixing my problem (I consider using the desktop username/password a stopgap)--ESET needs to fix their entire support system.

And, by the way, I did see the lost password form. I thought about using it, except I didn't forget my username/password. I know what they are. They used to work. I didn't change anything. Now they don't work. I was afraid filling out the lost password form might generate a new password, which would only add to the confusion. I'd hate to get a new password that doesn't work either, and have it cost an extra 10 days in time--5 days for ESET to respond telling me whichever password I put in the web form is not the correct password, and another 5 days to respond to my other password with whatever excuse they come up with next.

 

Hello,

But I can't use that number because I bought NOD32 from the ESET website, not directly from SmartAntivirus.

I have never had any serious issues with NOD32 (but I'm using v3, not v4) and when I did e-mail them about something small, they e-mailed me back the same day.

Regards,

Mark.

 

I would agree on the lack of support.

I bought a 2 computer license a year ago, and since my renewal time is coming up, I tried to type in my user name/email several times over past week, and it does not recognize me so I can not renew (I still have original email they sent me)...and eset phone and written support has so far been useless.

If eset can not keep track of email/user names then they need better support. I have used them for a while, never had to try support, never thought I would need support. But failure of user name/password is not acceptable if support is poor.

Though I am better off then you, since I am at the end of mine, I can easily just find an AV that has fewer problems retaining accurate records or has better support.

 

I'm in the same boat as you. I've just bought 2 x 2 year licences and for the first time needed support and just like you it's been noticeable by it's absence. I don't know whether my pcs are protected or not. Really not good enough Eset. No reply to the email sent at the beginning of last week and phone people are hopeless.
Very disappointed customer, I've been with them for years and I agree with BennTech that such a critical piece of software means support is crucial.

 

If you send me your username via PM. We will attempt to fix the username as soon as possible.

 

OK, here's the end of my story. Yesterday, I finally got a reply from ESET support. Their response was "we have personally tested your username/password, and they are functioning properly for both downloading the product and updating the virus signature database" and included a link "for illustrated instructions on entering your username and password" (a*holes). It took a full 2 weeks to get this response after I submitted my support request via that stupid web form on Support > Contact (the primary page for contacting ESET support, which has absolutely no contact information for ESET support except a stupid web form...I might have mentioned something about that in earlier posts).

Now, to be fair, our username/password has been working for at least the past 5 days. I know, because I was fed up with ESET not replying and was in the midst of writing a nasty email to them demanding our money back when I decided to check ESET on our Exchange server. Low and behold our ESET Exchange username worked for updating ESET. Skeptical, I thought perhaps our ESET Business username that was entered previously was still cached somewhere, so I rebooted and afterwards our ESET Exchange username still worked. Weird, because it wasn't working for 2 months (and I have the emails and logs to prove it), then it suddenly starts working after I contact ESET support, but no one is taking credit for it.

My only guess is that after I finally found and called the ESET Support phone number (thanks Capp, and no thanks to ESET), the ESET tech who also confirmed that he couldn't get our username/password to work (just so you know it wasn't only me and my inability to correctly enter a username and password) must have followed up and fixed it. Either that, or someone monitoring the stupid web form requests fixed it, but didn't update the ticket.

At least, I sure hope one of these is the case. I'd hate to think our ESET username/password magically broke themselves and later magically fixed themselves. Makes me think the whole ESET product might magically break, let assorted malware through, then magically fix itself after the damage is done. Meanwhile, one of my other clients who is using the bloated Symantec Endpoint v11 can't get their expired licenses updated to the new ones they just bought because despite that Symantec monstrosity requiring 2 CDs to install, they don't include a way to update licenses. Jeez...this whole AV market is just going to crap.

 

I can't understand that one - www.eset.co.uk has a nice UK phone number for support purposes but, www.eset.com and www.eset.eu both have web forms. You would have thought all websites would have offered local phone numbers!

For once, it appears to pay to be a UK customer

~M

 

So far my support cases all end up with "This is a known defect in the product" "We are aware of the issue, but do not have a fix" or "Don't use that feature."

We have products installed network wide, which make us a heavy INI environment. Eset 3 and 4 kill INI performance. This is a known issue. We have problems with repeated scans, where the computers scan the entire hard drive upon each boot. The only "fix" is to set the scan to "do not run if could not be ran at scheduled time." which means PC's powered off never get in depth scanned. When creating a config or policy to remove a real time exception, it instead adds it as an exception.

I've tried to work with support to get these issues fixed, but they have no interest. They suggest a configuration which doesn't bring out the bugs. Meaning I can't use various features. I'm looking at ESS. I see others with problems, but in my environment it's been good so far. I've purchased licenses to migrate 1/5th my network over and have many PCs on ESS now.

 

Ah ha! Look at that! The European ESET doesn't have a phone number anywhere! No tech support phone number, no sales phone number, no company phone number. I swear that's how the US website was back in September 2008 when I first purchased ESET and my username/password wouldn't let me download the desktop 3.0 version. Can't guarantee I looked in About for at least a company phone number (although I swear I would have), but that doesn't change the fact that the Support > Contact page should contain the Technical Support phone number!

Here's the deal for ESET proponents and the whole reason for griping. ESET AV is time-limited software, and every second it doesn't work is time that I paid for and have lost. If I buy a $30 software product that I can use forever from some little company, like UltraEdit, Beyond Compare, WinRAR, etc., I don't expect them to have a tech support phone number. However, if I shell out $600+ to a multi-national company for a product that is worthless when the one- or two-year subscription runs out, I DO expect good, immediate technical support for the limited time that I can use the product. Furthermore, I expect that support to be available 24/7, especially when it's a mission critical piece of software like AV. The US, which at least has a tech support phone number, is a toll call (you pay to stay on hold), and even worse, is only available 12 hours a day, Monday through Friday--so be sure to plan all your crashes during normal business hours. Of course, that web form is always available so I guess you can fill that out any time and wait 2 weeks like I did.

Also, nice that the European web site has absolutely no way to contact ESET except a web form, sales and marketing emails, and a snailmail address, and yet they did manage to fill their About pages with photos of their expensive luxurious headquarters, complete with atrium and foosball table. So that's where all the money is going...to eyecandy and creature comforts so their employees can "relax" instead of answering support requests. Granted, it is is only one foosball table for the entire headquarters, but they managed to slap three photos of it (3!) on their website, and yet they can't be bothered to include a technical support phone number? When your product is broken and I can't find any way to contact technical support except some stupid web form, the last thing I want to see is your employees goofing off playing foosball! (Yes, they are actually playing foosball.)

That pretty much does it for me. No more ESET products for me or my clients. Ever.

 

866-343-ESET.

Turns out they only list toll numbers in the main body of the Contacts page. But scroll to the bottom, and whaddaya know, you don't actually have to pay to listen to that NOD song repeat and repeat and repeat... Not that support tries to keep the toll-free number a secret; they offered it up to me before I later noticed it was hiding there at the bottom of the Contacts page.

FWIW, my only other comparison point for the last five years is BitDefender, and for them I could only find a toll number for the US (don't know how Canada scores toll-free). And the last time I called I hung up after about 90 minutes on hold in the middle of the day. That makes my 20-30 minute ESET holds seem short. But this is all based on home use...I don't know if they offered different support for business. But they did have 24/7 chat, which was reachable within 5 minutes most of the time, although they didn't usually seem very helpful.

I can't imagine enterprise customers would accept a security provider that doesn't offer 24/7 support.

 

Just for the record as an aside to the support concern, i am seeing an upsurge of potential viruses that some evade the Guard but they rarely, unless repacked, reformed, or morphined and whatever cropping up consistently are clearly identified on a SCAN run. This is always been the norm for these viruses heads and they seem to be trying to (compile) walk a fine line between antispyware as a cover for embedded viruses. It's a juggling act for any AV to try to keep pace with this scrambling of mixing and matching variants as well as their form of evading practices but i think you'll be pleased to know ESET is very aware of different tactics and make every effort to identify these more stealthy builds as they become more numerous. I know i am.

EASTER