Just got an email from Norton saying that they're going to Automatically renew my subscription, for a price of £44.99
That seemed expensive, so I checked on the Norton website, and found that I could buy it for £35.99. Then I checked on Amazon.co.uk, and found that I could buy the complete product (i.e. not a renewal or upgrade) for £22.50 !!
Then I checked to see what would happen if I chose "Renew" from www.mynortonaccount.com - it too wants to charge me £44.99 !!
I wonder how many thousands of Norton customers are paying more than they need to for their renewals?
I hope you bought the Amazon deal and will wait until a couple of days before your subscription runs out to enter the new KEY and get the additonal time. Note that a new KEY wipes out any unexpired time and does not add to it as a Renewal does.
When you buy make sure you buy the same version (Standard or Premier in the case of N360 -- and don't ask me about GOLD which is an odd-ball available in certain markets and from certain stores, like Curry's and PCWorld in the UK and can have activation rules of its own) but you do not have to match the year subject to below.
Note that for the moment there is a glitch and the keys for the current 2013 / V20 products may not be backwards compatible if you have an earlier version installed -- if you run into that and want to stay on 2012 / V19/V6 for N360 contact Norton OnLine Support via the CHAT link and they will provide a compatible key
You don't have to uninstall / reinstall.
PS Make sure you cancel your AutoRenewal or you will be billed and since you have had the first message it is best to contact Customer Support right away and get them to make sure the billing has not taken place -- if it has they can arrange a refund.
Charging double the price of a full new product is not "quite a bit" - it's a huge amount.
Regarding the multiple regions, channels, and resellers...
I don't expect to get the best price worldwide. I don't even expect to get the best price available from partners and resellers, but I do expect to get the best price available from the Norton.co.uk website. What's so hard about that?
Do you warn customers, when they sign up to Automatic Renewal, that the renewal price will not take account of any discounts that might be available, and so they will always have to pay the full price? I certainly don't recall seeing any such warning.
Just got an email from Norton saying that they're going to Automatically renew my subscription, for a price of £44.99
That seemed expensive, so I checked on the Norton website, and found that I could buy it for £35.99. Then I checked on Amazon.co.uk, and found that I could buy the complete product (i.e. not a renewal or upgrade) for £22.50 !!
Then I checked to see what would happen if I chose "Renew" from www.mynortonaccount.com - it too wants to charge me £44.99 !!
I wonder how many thousands of Norton customers are paying more than they need to for their renewals?
Some users report and I've seen a Norton Staffer suggest it that if you see irrational prices like that and contact the Norton OnLine Customer Support that they will honor the lowest price on the Norton Website ..... Most user recommend the CHAT service via your computer keybboard.
I do agree with the OP. It doesn't matter the reasoning, it is wrong. Everything should be straightforward. The cheapest I found NIS 2013 is $22 free shipping. Do I care about wiping out 10 days of subscription time? No... Do I care about typing in another key and spending 5 mins of my time to save $30+ dollars for a number? Sure! I do understand it is a business, but someone one day will come along and show compition towards Norton by having a more 'straightforward' model and comparable product. Should this force Symantec to lower its prices? Probably, but they should have thought of doing so earlier...
Anyhow, I would use auto renew if the prices were in a similiar price range. I still enjoy their product, but wish some things that are obvious would be ironed out to make it a 'perfect' antivirus.
I like the automatic renewal system. I keep everything updated, daily. I watch and know when the automatic renewal is going tokick in. I just plain like the automatic renewal system and it is especially good for us older then dirt guys, can't remember stuff.