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Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-15 | 06:09 · 10 Replies · · Traduction:

I spent time with Norton support yesterday trying to determine why Norton Utilities Premium (NUP) was disabled on my account.  Norton provided NUP free of charge on 6/1/2020 as a gift while being actively enrolled in an automatically billed subscription.  Here is a link to that info on the Norton Website https://secure.norton.com/pub/sf/FormLink?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DAQpglLjHJlTQGtezg8av8qB2afLktEgzczbNwdJ75YT0gLsmzgG2bzeREu7A3TsLwjgmgVXMtX%3DAQpglLjHJlTQGh0CANHvoeOyl4yzawcPsbXXH7buAzchUu3vEAzgdzaWzc5zfGJAIjzftmza&_ei_=Et5S065P6dxbOH4m38vSgfe4IvBHsdGyBKy1s5hSLoxmZMD_p00z0QM08nwXH9L9pbVAzP9kjLtb8LFTCPxEq2_hh0DBPXwiPC9nB3d5VVf9yFV8epVabiWtqv2xnrlKrv3mvi4huRFcNeo4GpePY1lm8g3X-YxZrTTWY9jFApTpdbxbpGLwqPmTNr34GoacNW7hezWDBMv8AfgHy4TFIiaJRPifpggcK9np-oS5J03UqC6ojYnvLsfqt6wU8wa1k21pL4n9m1e6VpQpEcFbcRV9xw4kwlLHNUD48iv-Fds5PuQ.&_di_=15j2psmuk7e6s1dsqf9bo7lb0uh45lsccd1ule132d46nm6q0bfg

What support confirmed is Norton disabled NUP without notification to it's clients and or customers, effectively breaching their agreement as I am still in an automatically billed subscription.  This action certainly breaches any trust customers have with Norton  If they can breach this agreement, how are customers supposed to have any confidence that Norton Lifelock will live up to their commitments on any of their other products including Lifelock!  Answer is, they can't and nor should they.

I am starting this post so the Norton community understands the actions taken by Norton Management and Executives without any forethought on what it means and how it affects the trust customers should or should not have in Norton.  I will now turn off auto renew billing in response to Norton actions. 

Pièce Jointe: 
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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-16 | 07:46 · Édité: 2022-10-16 | 07:50 · Permalien

They did that to me as well after canceling auto-renewal, so I am considering dropping Norton after using it for decades.  Their marketing tactics stink.  I really do not need Norton Utilities Premium, but it in nice to have.  With the 2.6 times increase in renewal cost for 360+LifeLock I think I'll wait until a few days before my subscription runs out then install a new subscription from Amazon or other source at a lower cost. It seems to me the wrong tactic for Norton to charge long time users 2 to 3 times the rate that a new subscriber is charged.  Something not right about such distorted marketing.  Maybe Norton went "woke"? Are others thinking along the same lines?

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-16 | 18:17 · Permalien

I believe the issues with Norton started when Symantec separated from NortonLifelock in 2019.   Symantec joined Broadcom and NortonLifelock now run Norton.  Their policies of increased badgering with ads, putting sw in their code trying to sell new products as Smartscan started showing up.  They appear to be interested in growing their revenue (not a bad idea) at the expense of their current customers (this is always a bad idea) has led to pretty poor decisions like you have stated.  This is unfortunately turning out a business case study on what not to do and what happens to a company when it loses it's adult leadership.  Trying to lure new customers with promotions is nothing new but raising the prices and removing content for those same services to existing customers show the desperation of poor management and their policies.  I like Norton 360 but Norton is starting to permeate it with ads.  Every new release comes with more ways they try to push you into their new products.  As I said on my original post, they are losing the support and more importantly the trust of their current customer base.  You can't run a security company when you're don't trust you or feel they are being treated poorly by the company.  It is time to look for alternatives. 

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-17 | 06:42 · Permalien

I was first introduced to Norton Utilities back in the 1970's via a phone connect o another phone line.  Then, later in the 1980's, Norton grew into a great anti-virus company and so on.  After they were bought out recently the ads and marketing trick were just irritating but did not make me feel like dropping them for another software package.  Now I am thinking of just doing that.  I am not against them making a profit, but sometimes it is too much for us inflation victims and fixed income dudes.

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-17 | 10:54 · Permalien

Agree.  By posting an "Active" date of 2050, Norton made a statement of the app's availability.  By cancelling availability, Norton made an ethical faux pas which implies you can believe little of what it says.

Unfortunately, there are few other programs that: 1) can compete with NU (Norton Utilities) ease of use; 2) long-time users of NU are willing to learn how to use; 3) promote as aggressively as Norton does.

There's also the problem of NUP users who believe they're getting shafted, simply capitulating.  It would probably help if more of us took the position of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” as declared by the longtime news anchor Howard Beale in the 1975 film classic Network.  If you don't like their rules, take your business elsewhere.

As a user of NU since the late 70s, I don't see much big difference in the functionality of the apps as newer versions were released.  When I lost use of NUP, I started using old version 14.  Norton says that will work for 30 days, then be ended.  That will keep me going into the holiday season and perhaps better prices for NUU.

Finally, I suspect most non-business users have little use for an app that's available for 10 devices.  I'd be more willing to consider it for 3-5 devices.  After Chatting with a support agent, I found I can 'give' the unused licenses to others but would have to share my Norton logon credentials for them to access it.  As that could lead to uncontrolled use of any other Norton subscriptions I haven't maxed out, I'm unwilling to go there.  An option would be for me to personally install the app on another user's machine.  Complications.

I think I'll wait for Black Friday & later sales to see if the price drops.  Today, Amazon is $5 below Norton's list price.

Toyman

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-19 | 03:32 · Permalien

In light of their willingness to breech their own contract I obviously will not be purchasing any new options provided. I will be looking for other vendors products. Even though the main Norton 360 software is excellent I will be sure to spread the word that they have no problems changing contracts they have already provided, without notice.

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-19 | 04:40 · Permalien

I am considering Amazon 5-devices, Norton 360 and forgetting Lifelock at a lower price.  Not sure what benefit LifeLock renders me.  It seems like we, the long-time Norton users, would be the first to get a price break.   Thier marketing dept must be "woksters."

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-19 | 06:34 · Permalien

Re 'Not sure what benefit LifeLock renders me . . .', you may want to look at this review from PC Mag:

What Does LifeLock Include

And about 'long-time Norton users would be the first to get a price break', marketing logic says 'give the price breaks to the newbies to bring them in.  Once in the door, only a bad experience will cause them to leave - they're hooked'.  I used to be a quasi-expert on Lotus 1-2-3 Suite until my company opted for the MSoft stand-alone apps which eventually coalesced into Office.  That change was difficult but necessary for me, due to my job responsibilities of being the app go-to guy for training/troubleshooting.  Then, due to MS's marketing, they became the app leaders and Lotus went the way of the Unicorn.

Toyman

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-21 | 09:34 · Permalien

I agree with all the others and will also not renew !!! “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-10-21 | 20:07 · Permalien

I've been using Norton for years. Unfortunately I just automatically renewed recently before discovering the they had disabled my Norton Utilities. I have since disabled auto renew, and will be shopping for a new antivirus when my current subscription expires. My take on this is, if Norton wants to screw me, then I say "Screw you too, Norton. You just lost another customer". There are better options out there which don't cost as much.

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Re: Norton Utilities Premium Disabled

Envoyé le: 2022-11-03 | 15:37 · Permalien

I'd commented above (10/17/22) about losing access to the 'bonus' version of NUP.  Here's an update that may save someone a buck or two.

After being dumped from the 'free' NUP about a month ago, I continued to do daily scans using an old Version 14 I still had.  But that was with a warning from Norton, that the app was obsolete (my words, not theirs) and would be unusable after 30 days.  Apparently that 30-day limit was today - it wouldn't run unless activated and though I had the Product Key, Norton wouldn't recognize it.

So, I went searching for a free version of anything (e.g. CCleaner, PC Cleaner, etc.) that would tide me over until Black Friday or later into the shopping/discount season when NU Ultimate might be cheaper.  I found a promo offering NU Ultimate for $29.99/one year with auto renewal ($10 off the current Amazon retail price of $39.99).  I bit the bullet and signed up and am now the not-necessarily proud owner of the product for 10 devices.  As I can only use 5 max, I figure I paid twice as much as I should have.  If I find it even cheaper later, maybe I'll pick up a few copies for XMAS gifts for my kids.

If interested, look at this:  Norton Utilities Ultimate Promo

Toyman

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