Frustrations with online chat - updates to Norton Family

I've lost patience with the staff on the online chat.

 

I appreciate they are trying to help me, but they have misunderstood, misinterpreted or simply ignored the requests I have made for help.

 

My (free - yes, I know you get what you pay for!) Norton Online Family icon in the system tray recently showed a red x as part of the icon.  When I hovered over this, the tool tip came up with the helpful message "Parent action is required".  Now, at the time, I was logged into the main desktop PC in my home, with full administrator rights.  There was no indication of what parent action I needed to take.

 

I logged onto Norton Online Family web portal, assuming that there would be some indication as to the action I needed to take... nothing.  The children's user accounts looked fine and there was no error message or reason that the red icon had appeared.  I contacted the online chat team and brought this to their attention (I don't know why I got in touch with them as I know the default answer is to uninstall/reinstall).  I gave the representative details of the operating system (Win XP SP3) and the version of NOF and N360 (2.6.0.73 and 20.3.1.22).  He initially suggested that I right-click on the icon, click "Update House Rules" and log in to the resulting log in screen to check that the rules had been updated correctly.  Of course, when you click "Update House Rules" you don't get a log in screen coming up, so my confidence was already dwindling.  Indeed after pointing this out, the uninstall/reinstall option for ALL NORTON PRODUCTS was suggested as the best course of action!  Now, a few years back, I completed a full uninstall and reinstallation of all Norton products and this really screwed up a lot of the firewall settings, the organisation of usernames and password in the vault and my subscription details, generally causing more trouble that it was worth - so I was extremely reluctant to go down this route.  I had to go out anyway, so couldn't commit to completing the uninstall/reinstall at that point.

 

The following day, I noticed that the red cross had disappeared.  I checked the program and all still seemed to be in order.  The version had automatically updated to 2.8.0.5 (I wonder what happened to the 2.7.*.* versions?)  Following a prompt from the telephone call I received from Norton, I reinitiated the chat session to specifically check four things:

 

  • Should I be receiving a prompt to log in to Norton Online Family when I click on "Update House Rules" (as per the previous chat session instructions)?
  • Is there a page on the Norton website showing the version number of the latest version of the Norton Family product (thinking about the jump from 2.6.*.* to 2.8.*.*)?
  • How does a customer know that there is an update available?
  • Where can a manual update for Norton Family be found?

For the first question, I received an apology that I had been misinformed the previous session.  The "Update House Rules" does not automatically open a log in screen to access Norton Online Family portal.

 

Neither the chat representative, nor a subsequent telephone representative has been able to tell me if the latest version number is shown somewhere on any Norton website.

 

The chat representative suggested that everyone receives an email from Norton when an update to Norton Family is available (news to me, I've NEVER received one - and yes, I've checked the spam filters, etc.)

 

Finally, manual updates can be found by logging in to:

  1. http://norton.com/nuc
  2. http://onlinefamily.norton.com
  3. http://safteyminder.norton.com

Now option 1 gives you access to N360, Norton IS and Norton AV updates (no sign of Norton Online Family updates).  Option 2 takes you to the login for the online portal which gives you access to the settings, but not to any updates.  Option 3 doesn't work anymore!

 

From this, I hope you can see why I am exasperated!  I would appreciate any feedback from the customer service team to answer what ought to be three simple questions.  I asked the telephone representative to email me with his solution, when he had found answers to these questions that work - I must admit, I found it hilarious that he then told me that he didn't have access to email!  A world leading company in internet security don't have access to email - what a joke!  My subscription is coming to an end in about three months, I have been a satisfied customer of Norton/Symantec for over ten years, but this has really dented my confidence in the products and support to back them up and I will be reassessing my requirements and the range of providers before the subscription expires.  I would not be surprised if I find a new provider as a direct result of this unacceptably poor service.

Hi zangler,

 

Thanks for taking the time to write us the valuable feedback.  We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

 

You asked "Should I be receiving a prompt to log in to Norton Online Family when I click on "Update House Rules" ?

 

Nope.  You will be asked to log onto Norton Family if you click on "Edit Accounts" from Norton Family icon.  These two functions ("Update House Rules" and "Edit Accounts") listed closely to each other after selecting Norton Family icon.

 

You asked "Is there a page on the Norton website showing the version number of the latest version of the Norton Family product (thinking about the jump from 2.6.*.* to 2.8.*.*)?"

 

To find the version, please click the Norton Family icon in the system tray and select “About Norton Family."  The latest version Norton Family is 2.8.0.5.

 

You asked "How does a customer know that there is an update available?"

 

Norton Family update will be downloaded through Automatic LiveUpdate.   When an update is available, we post the announcement and float it to the top of the Norton Family Forum.  For this update, http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Family/May-16-Update-from-Norton-Family-Team/td-p/958835 

 

 

You asked " Where can a manual update for Norton Family be found?"

 

To install (or reinstall) Norton Family on the computer, please follow the steps below.

 

  • Start your browser.
  • Connect to the Norton Family site (https://onlinefamily.norton.com)
  • Click on ‘Sign in’ button.
  • Enter your Norton Family account Email address and Password
  • Click ‘Sign In’
  • In the bottom left corner of the website (near the footer) Click on ‘Download Norton Family’  
  • In the next page loaded, Click on ‘Download’ button.
  • Follow the on-screen instructions and install the Norton Family client.

 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

 

Thanks,

Katie

 

Thank you for your help, KatieQ.

 

Your colleagues told me that there should be a log in prompt after clicking "Update House Rules".  Thank you for confirming this does not happen.  How can we trust your colleagues if they ask us to complete a process that does not exist and then suggest that to resolve the new problem (that the "Update House Rules" doesn't result in a request to log in), spend ages uninstalling and reinstalling all Norton products?

 

You have told me how to find MY current version (the process I used to get the version numbers in my original post).  How do I know what the latest version is, is it shown on a Norton website?  (And what happened to version 2.7.*.*?)  Perhaps it would be a good idea to show the latest version number on the portal website, so customers can quickly assess whether they have the latest version.

 

Given that I did not receive any updates between 2.6.0.73 and 2.8.0.5, I am now reluctant to trust the automatic update process.  Your colleagues told me that I would receive an email with notification that an update had been released.  Does this mean that there is an email list to which I ought to subscribe?  You suggest that the only way to know there has been a new releaase is to regularly check this forum for your posts - is that right?

 

Thank you for explaining that a manual update can be obtained by one of the three options your colleague gave me (why he volunteered the other two, I will never know!)

 

I am grateful for your assistance.

Like you, I have received the 'Parental action required' notification, and you are correct in that there is no explanation of what parental action is required, neither from the Norton Family client nor from the online configuration website. This situation has been around for a long time, and so far no explanation has been provided.

 

Norton Family certainly has its quirks - the above is only one of several quirks I have experienced. The nonsense messages are alarming (I received one today that my son had used up his entire 4 hour daily allowance by 2:40 AM. Check the math on that.) 

 

Despite all that, in my experience, Norton Family works where It really counts: it effectively filters the internet and it effectively controls the time my child spends on his computer. It also allows me to see what videos my child has watched. As long as those key features work for me, I'll cut Symantec some slack. I have confidence that they will eventually get around to fixing the quirks.

 

I can confirm your experience with Symantec on-line 'chat' support. They are polite and sympathetic, but the only solution they know is uninstall and reinstall. I've been a user of Norton products for several years, and I can tell you that chat sessions with other Norton products have been much more productive. If they aren't so good with Norton Family, that's a sign to me that this product is still being actively developed.

 

I'm sticking with Norton Family. I've tried lots of other parental control solutions, and Norton Family tops them all. Plus, no other solution I've tried offers so many ways to find help.

Hi Bulldoggy,

 

When "zangler" sees the "Parent action is required" message, there is a red x on the icon when he hovers over it.  Do you see the red x on the Norton Family icon?

 

I'll report the issue to the team.

 

Thanks,

Katie

Hi Katie:

 

The last time my son saw the 'parental action required' notification was a few daysago, and he does not remember whether there was an 'X'. Despite the notification, Norton Family worked just fine so we didn't give it another thought.

Bulldoggy,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

 

 

Thanks,

Katie