symantecstore.com — I just downloaded Norton Internet Security 2006 and noticed that the fine print reveals that I will automatically be charged for a renewal next year. Why are so many companies sticking it to their customers with this kind of crap. I did not have an option to say yes or no to an automatic renewal.
Jun 10, 2006 View in Crawl 4
appleiicJun 11, 2006
Symantec on a Mac is like breasts on a boar, unnecessary. You can't even get any good viruses on mac. That's it! I'm going to switch back to windows. I'm tired of security and programs that just work. My friends talk about how much fun they have with their config.sys and autoexec.bat, heck I've never even gotten to diddle with a corrupt .dll file. Again, what a non-digg(sigh)
phpirateJun 11, 2006
AVG seems to be down... I'd hate to think its because of the comment I made up there. If so, I think it'd be the first time I saw a digg effect happen on a link in a comment.
chrono13Jun 11, 2006
seanbatemanI'm guessing you don't actually use RunAs much? Or that you do run as a Power User or Administrator on Windows?If you have tried to use RunAs for a full desktop, you'll find that some programs assumption that you are Admin quickly becomes a real problem. Further, RunAs is broken on several levels. Not the least of which is that I have to use it to run several applications including CD burning software, a media player, and a video game.The whole point of permissions is that standard applications should not need elevated privileges. This is the fault of the application developers, true. However, if XP came out of the gate with RunAs or a sudo as the default, you wouldn't see programmers abusing "assume user is admin". This is Microsoft's fault. The developers coded to their OS. Their OS sets up every user as an administrator. So if a third party developers the program with that in mind, who's fault is it?RunAs is a piss-poor attempt at a backward compatable fix for a broken security (complete lack of) model.
bsaitzJun 11, 2006
symantec sucks.. this is some lame idea on their part, i hope they get sued..
seanbatemanJun 11, 2006
chrono13There are plenty of problems w/ Win, no doubt, so we agree on that.And we also agree that there are many horrible programmers out there that do not seem to understand windows as a multi-user operating system. If you have to run a product as an admin, or are not given an option to make the prog available to non-privelaged users I would argue that program is a POS which is not using the structure that is in place. This is a real problem in a business setting where no basic users get admin-level access.I *do* run a non-admin account 9 logins out of 10 (exept on servers) both at home and at work. There are a few times that RunAs has not worked for me but it works the majority of the time.I use Linux also (SuSe, RH, Ubuntu) and agree that the security model there, and the useability of sudo completely blow Redmond's solution out of the water."The whole point of permissions is that standard applications should not need elevated privileges. This is the fault of the application developers, true. However, if XP came out of the gate with RunAs or a sudo as the default, you wouldn't see programmers abusing "assume user is admin". This is Microsoft's fault. The developers coded to their OS. Their OS sets up every user as an administrator. So if a third party developers the program with that in mind, who's fault is it?"Absolutely true, true, true. Dugg.
101diggOct 8, 2008
Here's the secret! Last year Symantec automatically 'renewed' three subscriptions going back two yeas on my computer! The links in the e-mails they sent me giving me the option to opt out didn't work - phone calls weren't answered and finally I resorted to e-mail chat on their web site where they acknowledged I didn't want the renewals and assured me I wouldn't be charged. Guess what - they charged me anyway. I paid all the bills and took it up with American Express who credited one of the charges but refused to credit the others. Eventually I gave up, and didn't renew any of the services the next year.This week I got another e-mail from Symantec saying they were going to charge me again! As before, the link didn't work to opt out and the phone numbers listed on their web site for assistance didn't work.Finally I called the service line and followed the prompts to "buy a product" to get a live person. I let them take down all the normal caller information until they registered the call and uttered those welcoming words "how can I help you?". That's when I said I was trying to opt out from the automatic renewal service but the links on their web page didn't work. The rep couldn't explain it and even asked for my password which I refused to give, then I asked for the supervisor. When she came on I agreed to download the program that let them take control of my computer, and watched as she navigated to the same page where the co called "opt out" button was supposed to be - no surprise, it wasn't there. Then the cursor flipped off the screen for a moment and, miraculously, the button for automatic renewal appeared on the menu! When I asked her how that was possible she said it was "disabled in my profile" and she had to "enable" it (if that was so how did I get the email saying they were going to charge me?). At that point I was able to see that they still had me down to renew programs up to three years old, and I unchecked all the boxes. Will it work? I'm hopeful but won't be surprised if they charge me again.And here's the best part - when I called American Express to warn them that Symantec was trying to issue automatic renewals again, they said they were just a "third party" and couldn't stop them. At that point I asked for a new credit card number and they said even if they did that, and Symantec charged the old number, they would still carry it over to my new account! So much for protecting their customer.If you're being victimized by Symantec with these automatic renewals (reverse marketing technique) try this method and it might work for you, persevere, call the service line and don't give up until they take you off this service. This kind of practice is shameful and should be outlawed. Buyer beware when it comes to dealing with Symantec (and don't' expect any help from American Express!) This arrangement is all too cozy - Symantec get your credit card number, sign you up for automatic renewals, make it almost impossible for you to opt out, and American Express just shovel through the charges, everybody waiting for the customer to try and reverse the charges and making it very difficult (if not impossible) to get away from them. Unbelievable. Tell 10 people.
hz0s5tJan 9, 2009
I just found out too! My subscription runs out in 14 days and while my computer was running LiveUpdate it automatically renewed my subscription! I only noticed because my Norton icon had been red for a couple of week because it said I needed to renew the subscription, and after LiveUpdate was finished the icon was back to green! Now I find out that I can cancel the renewal, but I need the order number from a year ago and the product serial number from the e-mail I received a year ago. Their documentation says they call this feature: "On-Going Protection". They state that it is on by default but you can turn it off. Unfortunately, they don't call it "On-Going Protection" anywhere on the menus! There is something called "Auto-Protect", but I'm not sure it is the same thing. I think Symantec is deceptive, and morally wrong in the way they force you to fight to undo what their software does automatically. Why not a simple question, Would you like to renew your subscription? Yes or No. I may have to jump through a dozen hoops to undo this, but I'm not going to accept their arrogance.
sherry1980Feb 6, 2009
Last Feb i bought and installed Norton anti-virus. It was terrible as it slowed my PC to a standstill so a month later i removed it (or at least i thought i had). To my shock this week over £70 was taken from my bank account by symantec for norton renewal. I tried to contact them however the number they give for refunds is never answered.I signed a decalration of card mis-use and my bank assure me they will chargeback the amount STOLEN from my account by this company. At no stage did i ever consent or agree to a recurring debit and the re-use of my card in these circumstances is a blatant mis-use of theri merchant status.
mchalresFeb 20, 2009
You haven't lived until you have spent a hour on the telephone waiting for a Symantec representative to address the auto-renewal of a product that has over a year left. You might think it could not get any better, until you are told by the tech person it was not for the current product but for expired products (which you let expire because they sucked). After being told the autorenewal would be canceled, you are still billed. Another call required. Don't deal with Symantec.