Curiously unfair pricing arrangement?

markg2 · ‎07-12-2009

I'm posting this message here for general viewing given how annoyed at what I perceive as an instance of Symantec taking $ advantage of loyal, longtime customers.

My automatic renewal failed due to an expired card date. When I clicked on the warning dialogue box that appeared on the desktop and was taken to the website there (from memory) were three product options.

To renew my current N360 product for 1 year the cost was ~79. However, if I 'purchased' the N360 Premier offering including 25GB of storage vs. my 5, the cost was $10 LESS?

I closed the page and did a quick Amazon check for N360 v6 Premier 3 PC. The price for a new product is ~$40.

How is it that a new v6 premium on the Symantec site is $10 less than my renewal for a less comprehensive product?

How is that the Symantec existing customer upgrade price is ~double the cost of a new product on the open market?

huwyngr · ‎04-13-2008

mark,

Officially we only deal with technical problems here but here goes:

<< How is it that a new v6 premium on the Symantec site is $10 less than my renewal for a less comprehensive product? >>

That's probably a short term offer -- see also below:

<< How is that the Symantec existing customer upgrade price is ~double the cost of a new product on the open market? >>

Norton does not control the open market and itself cannot undercut it's official distributors or it would not retain them ....

Many of us "renew" by buying the best legitimate deal we can find and then use the key at the end of the current subscription since it wipes out unexpired time although the Norton OnLine Customer Support are good at adding back in if this happens to you.

And finally .... who knows why marketing does what it does ?????

Hugh

elspeth · ‎10-20-2011

Hello markg2.

May I be as bold as to suggest that you e-mail the CEO of Symantec, Enrique Salem , with your question and keep those of us who are following the outcome with deep interest , informed using this thread?

markg2 · ‎07-12-2009

I totally understand the purpose of this forum so I appreciate the thoughtful response Hugh.

Understand that I go back to Norton when it was really Norton in the DOS days. Upgrades were indeed substantially lower for existing customers than market new--so my surprise upon realization (that I've been wasting $ for so many recent years with automatic upgrades), annoyance and posting.

The result of today's chat with customer service. No relief on price (I really did want to give the company a last shot). However, they confirmed that if I uninstalled my current software, installed the new (premium) software and entered the new key, that then entering my account information would cause all my existing online and local data and settings to remain in tact--with 23 GB > space. They provided a case number in the event something goes sideways.

Thanks,

Mark

huwyngr · ‎04-13-2008

Mark,

We both go back a ways then although my DOS was called Windows 3 ......

And yes I remember when renewal prices were visibly different -- you are not the only one who has noticed and remarked upon the discrepency.

Make sure you have a backup of your data that you can access.

Is your present installation of N360 Standard or Premier? I know you bought a boxed Premier but what's actually on the PC now?

If it is Premier then you should not have to uninstall; if it is Standard then you should since there are physical diferences in the software -- it's not just that the KEY determines the status although they KEYs are not interchangeable.

Your existing installation, from which you have made online backups that you want to be able to access, is of N 360 V6, the current 2012 version and not an earlier one?

I ask all this because I gather -- I don't deal with N360 technicalities myself -- that there can be some incompatiblity between Versions; this may apply to backups of Identity Safe data also.

If there's any doubt then there are others here who do know N 360 in detail.

Hugh

markg2 · ‎07-12-2009

Thanks for the follow-up Hugh. My current version is the standard N360 and customer service said since I purchased the Premier it would not be compatible and I do have to uninstall, use the new key and current account credentials.

I have duplicate backups, apart from image, on a local machine and external drive (from painful long ago experience<g>).

Mark

huwyngr · ‎04-13-2008

Just double-checking ....

So a simple Windows Uninstall followed by a reboot should do the job but you may like to download this file and install it since it will be more uptodate than the disk you bought and it will save you a bit of updating:

You can download the Premier version of N 360 V6 in a single file that you can save to a thumbdrive and use to install on your netbook as below:

Download N 360 V6 Premier 25GB edition

Save (Not Run) to a safe place on your hard drive where you can find it again and if you do this on your other computer copy it afterwards to a thumbdrive.

When you are ready to install I recommend, if you are using VISTA or WIndows 7, to Right Mouse click on the file and select Run as Administrator.

When it's completed run the LiveUpdate a few times with a restart inbetween until it says you are fully uptodate.

Please let us know how you get on.

Hugh

markg2 · ‎07-12-2009

Will do-

markg2 · ‎07-12-2009

All worked precisely according to customer service's plan Hugh. The new key is now installed on both machines and both are accessing the increased storage with existing data intact per the account.

I used the disk and the process was painless. The update was fairly short and only required 1 follow up update to grab the Firefox compatibility.

Mark