Symantec NIS 2007 Bait & Switch Licensing

Now we know the true reason why they deactivated my already paid for & valid license and have asked me to purchase another

 

$9,999.99!!! That's insane man!

 

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/custserv.nsf/docid/2005110410120146

Error: "You have exceeded the number of allowable installations for this product key . . . " when activating a Norton productProduct activation protects you from pirated and counterfeit software. You must enter a product key to activate your Norton product. This ensures that your product is legitimate. This error message appears when the product key has been used too many times.

If you see this error message, contact Customer Service for a solution.


Contact Customer Service
Call 1 800 441-7234
Send an email

 

Thanks, I have tried every option with them so far except phone since they are only there m-f 8-6 and it was the weekend. I had to wait till I got home from work today and will try calling them shortly and see how that goes. If this doesn't work then I am off to start my aggressive reporting to all authorities on the actions, starting with my credit card company. Keeping my fingers crossed and we will see what they say next.......

 

I wish you the best of luck!

 

I have called a couple times in the past about this issue, and they gave me no problems at all about re-activation. As long as your code is legitimate, you should be up and running again.

 

Thanks to everyone here and their input on this crazy situation in where a honest paying customer was be treated as a criminal or something just because I installed my license too many times according to them even though there is no set number of times expressed within the eula nor would they tell me that elusive number when I spoke to them.

Well, here is the final chapter of my scamantec saga... I called them on the phone this evening and went through the whole spiel as I had been doing with them the past few days already. The first support person acted strangely when I told him the story and said let me look into this, put me on hod for awhile, then came back and said there is nothing he can do for me as my license key had been permanantly blocked from their servers. Of course at that point I demanded a clear reason why they would not honor my 2 year license and asked where in the eula does it say the exact amount of times the product can be re-installed. He was a bit sympathetic but just kept saying it is their policy and nothing can be done. I demanded to speak to his supervisor which he passed me to after a few minutes of debating. The next person was the same story as the first and I asked for the next higher up in line. He was reluctant to pass me on but also could not answer my challenges to the eula nor prove that I had done anything wrong. The next one was a real arrogant person who smugly kept saying nothing can be done as I have already told you. This went on for quite awhile with me accusing them of illegal practices. He then said that is it nothing I can do. I then said I want to speak to your next higher up, he smugly told me that he was the manager of the center. I questioned his authority as being the top person and even said are you the ceo of symantec or something? He didn't know what to say for a long minute so I said give me your higher up immediately I want to speak to that person. He tried to say that even if I did speak to his supervisor, there would be no power for him to do anything either. I said well then let me hear that from him. He finally said ok I will pass you on but he will not do anything more, he put me on hold for a long time maybe 10 minutes and then the same guy cam back on and quietly said, well my supervisor has decided that scamantec will be refunding your purchase to your credit card. He then added but your key will remain blocked as I told you already. I gleefully said that is perfectly acceptable to me as I will be using my refund to purchase another brand product anyway. He gave me the transaction# and then asked me is there anything else I can do for you? I quickly thought well yes, can you maybe answer some more questions while I have you on the phone about the activation scheme and the elusive secret number of times a product can be installed? I would like to know what is in store for my other products that I may decide to reload in the future. He would not give me that number and explained that scamantec says you should buy a license for that one and only one computer. If you get a new computer you need to buy another license even if you remove it from the old one. He said it is tied to that literal pc in which you first installed it on. He further said that save & restore also works that way. He again would not give me the number of times it can be installed. I accused them of unfair practices which he did not nor any of them dispute, just kept rattling off it is their company policy.

Well in the end I can absolutely guarantee I will NEVER buy another darned thing from them ever. I know you should never say never but in this case I am quite sure of what I am saying. ANYONE who buys a scamantec product while their management is practicing these scam activities against their paying customers can be locked out of their licese key at scamantec's whim. It does not matter whether you did nothing wrong, only what they decide. My guess when the need more license sales. Anyhow, as I said before the NIS is a decent product IMO and I liked it but the company is nothing short of unethical and blatent about it as well.

Please be warned that while I ultimately got my issue resolved with a refund, others may not be so lucky, nor would it be worth the amount of time I invested to do it. I did it for the sheer principal in that I knew they were just trying to sell me more licenses and I challenged them to show me where their sophisticated systems can show I did anything wrong. They could not of course as I did nothing wrong in the first place.

So while the products are not bad the grief in dealing with an unscroupulous company like this is probably somthing most people would not want to encounter.

In the end as I said before, I feel they will ultimately reap the rewards of their actions when eventually a majority of their customers jump ship and never look back.

Ok, enough of that I am tired of even thinking about what they are doing. Now on to what suite I should replace it with... Suggestions are welcome and I already took a quick look at the bullguard website some here gave me and it sounds like a cool idea of having the suite of products put together as all the best of breed various items. I could not however find out what the AV engine was that is in it. Anyone know more about this bullguard? Also I am considering Kaspersky as an option. I have always wanted to try it but just never did. Any thoughts on the new version of the suite? I have ran Mcafee before and while I liked certain aspects of it, some were just terrible IMO. I think I liked the personal firewall the best.

Thanks

 

I just installed the McAfee Total security I got for free from Buy.com and I really like it so far. I didn't install a couple of modules like wireless security and parental controls. It installs quite a few items in the task manager but it runs very light so far. It is by far the best version of McAfee I have ever ran. You might want to give it a try.

bigc

 

Thanks for the input, what is the difference between the Internet Security Suite and this Total Security? What do you like better thus far about it? How would you compare it to KIS or Bullguard?

BTW.. I just received an email from scamantec that they posted my credit on the refund already! They gave me the whole amount I originally paid for it in Dec -05.

Thanks....

 

The honest to gosh truth is I like This one better. Here is a screen shot of what is installed, just remember I didn't install everything. But it is no problem to install them at any time.

 

the security center which is very to use

 

on this one I opened the firewall module settings

 

Wow, it does look alot better than the one I ran last which I think was ver 8. Thanks so much for the screenshots. How would you rate it light or heavy compared to NIS 2006 / 2007? Is the firewall still decent and still have the visual trace in it?

 

I like Norton IS but this one is noticably lighter. I read that it has visual trace, but I have not seen it yet. Every time I open it and look around I find something new. If I run across it I will post a screenie. and the firewall is still a good feature it seems to be a good one and it can be configured but I haven't played with that to much yet.

 

Here is the link to the info on Total protection on the McAfee site http://us.mcafee.com/root/package.asp?pkgid=274

 

Thanks again for the info. You are always so helpful on here and I appreciate that. I will be purchasing a new solution probably this week. I really like the look of your new Mcafee suite from what I can see and it appears it may just be what I am looking for. One last question on it though if you don't mind. The old version was lacking something I felt very important in the Av component. That was it did not have a log for previous activity. I couldn't believe it one day when my wife's pc had mcafee on it and somehow got some type of nasty, which mcafee detected and removed, but I could not find the log to examine what had occured. After researching it I found they did not include one in the product. So my bug question is, does this new suite have an activity log for av activity and such?

Thanks again...

 

I will post two more screen shots, the first is the recent events. These stay until you delete them and the second is more options with the log. Itis pretty comprehensive.

 

more options

 

Looks good and thanks again for the screenshots.

I think at this point I will most likely just get this new Mcafee your talking about. I know you got yours free which is totally cool, but I just took a look at their site and it looks like they want $99.00 for the 3 user license. I want to dump all my scamantec products so I am thinking about getting the 3 user. Do you know if there is a better deal anywhere than on their site store? I know in the past I have purchased their products for alot less at other sites but I can't seem to find any now. Maybe it is because it is new version out. Anyhow if not I will probably just grab it from them tomorrow as long as they don't just have the self renewing option. They used to sell the download version too but I don't see that on their site anywhere anymore. Also to be sure, Mcafee doesn't use activation do they?

Thanks.....

 

http://www.amazon.com/McAfee-MTP07EMB1RUA-Total-Protection-2007/dp/B000HE80NS pretty good deal here. I don't really like rebates but they work. you might check here also http://www.nextag.com/mcafee-total-protection-2007-3-users-minibox/search-html

 

The current version of BullGuard uses BitDefender AV engine, Sygate Firewall engine, their own AntiSpam and Online Backup services. You can use a single license of BullGuard on 3 computers.

Version 7 of BullGuard, which is due to release soon, will feature BitDefender AntiVirus and AntiSpyware engines, Outpost Pro Firewall engine (since Sygate is no longer supported), improved AntiSpam and Online Backup services.

I would highly recommend BullGuard, their support services are excellent. BullGuard also allows for free upgrade to the latest version as it is released.

As for McAfee, I have tried it and it is nice, but I always have trouble renewing or upgrading my subscription for McAfee.

BitDefender Internet Security allows for installation on two computers and offers all the features of BullGuard plus Parental Control features. But it is still a bit rough around the edges IMO.

Steganos Internet Security is basically Kaspersky products with Stegano's own interface.

If you need a really, really cheap Kaspersky clone, then you can buy Defender Pro AntiVirus+Firewall for $29.95 which covers one year of updates for 3 computers. You can get it at http://www.defender-pro.com

But I do not recommend Defender Pro simply because their support services are not so good and their renewal policy is not very clear at this point.

 

Thanks, do you also know what the the other 2 compnents I see in the total over the 8 in 1 packages are? I see one has to do with wireless security and the other network optimizer or something but could not find too much detail on them. I guess I am wondering if I even need these two if the 8 in 1 is the same with those exceptions.

 

Well haven't had a chance yet to buy another package, been working late all week. Tonight I will probably get something new.

The Mcafee looks pretty nice and I am leaning that way. Anyone else have any experience with it yet? I am really not thrilled about the only options of package or subscription on their store site. I usually buy the digital donwloads of products and then just burn them off to cd myself. The subscription seems to have pro & con in that it gives you whatever new versions come out while your subscription is active, but also I hear they renew you automatically 1 month prior to expiration. I do not like having my cc info at any store site like that nor do I know if I will even want to continue on automatically.

So any input from anyone that has used their subscription service would be great.

 

You have to set up your account at mcafee to auto renew before it will do it.

 

Thanks, but is that because you have the boxed retail product or would it be the same if I purchased the subscription from their store directly? If it is a toggle option in the account settings then thats cool.