Losing a customer...

[alexpgp]

Symantec just lost a customer. Me.

It started innocently enough. It turns out my virus-scanner is up for renewal, so I agree to renew. I am shown a window that asks for my "subscription key." If I don't have one, I can call a Symantec office to get one (how 20th century is that?).

I call and have fun (not!) with an automated voice system that, in the end, never tells me what button to push to get a subscription key. I press a button at random. I explain my situation to the voice that eventually comes on the phone, after stepping through a couple of lines of his "capture customer information" script. Eventually, he vectors me to a web site that will give me a subscription key. His accompanying instructions, of course, have nothing to with what I find when I pull up the page.

I end up ordering an upgrade. Despite having collected all of my information last year (and having given me an account number, for crying out loud), Symantec decides its never heard of me (moi, who renewed this software last year) and asks for my billing information all over again. Once I click on the button to complete my order, the system goes away for several minutes, eventually coming back with a timeout error.

I attempt to resubmit my order, but am informed I already have a completed order, and that I may click 'New Order' to start a new order, or go to Symantec's Customer Service (now there's an oxymoron) to see the status of my existing order.

Existing order? Hmmm. With raised eyebrows, I click to Customer Service. As I have no order number, I enter my email and the last few digits of my credit card. The result?

Sorry, We could not find your order.
The error message is incomplete. They should have added: "Please purchase your virus protection software elsewhere. We're a bunch of incompetent ninkompoops."

Ye gods. It's a good thing I didn't wait until the last minute.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I gave up on McAfee very quickly. There are too many good free ones out there now to put up with high-priced agrevation.

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

What are you using? I'm getting fed up with McAfee.bb

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

AVG Anti Virus (http://www.grisoft.com/). It's a free anti virus recommended by a number of columnists.

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I like the "doesn't hog computer memory or speed" part.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I don't run it in the background - just once every two weeks or so, as I've managed to never pick up a virus thanks to email virus checking by my ISP and the ZoneAlarm firewall.