A major international corporation with annual revenues of $3.5 billion USD and 6,500 employees gets caught with its pants down when the developer of a program used by millions of its customers publishes an update that breaks a temporary fix to its top dog security product that had to be hot fixed the first time this mega company got caught with its pants down for a simialr reason.
Meanwhile, while its customers are kept in the dark, a sole, independent, heroic customer of the mega company single-handedly DISCOVERS through his own initiative what appears to be a simple fix for this latest problem and that is ADDING A SINGLE DIGIT TO A LINE IN THE MEGA COMPANY'S PROGRAM.
And those customers unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the process of adding a single digit to the program and having been warned by a respected member of the Norton Community about the potential risk of executing this change in the program through self-help sit and scratch their heads wondering and waiting for one or more of the mega company's 6.500 employees to figure out a quality-controlled method of adding a single digit in its own program. All the while, having to forego the increased protection from critiical security and other bugs in the third-party program fixed by its update they can't use without compromising the functionality of the security program they have liscened from the mega corporation that apparently has gotten into the habit of getting caught with its pants down..
A major international corporation with annual revenues of $3.5 billion USD and 6,500 employees gets caught with its pants down when the developer of a program used by millions of its customers publishes an update that breaks a temporary fix to its top dog security product that had to be hot fixed the first time this mega company got caught with its pants down for a simialr reason.
Meanwhile, while its customers are kept in the dark, a sole, independent, heroic customer of the mega company single-handedly DISCOVERS through his own initiative what appears to be a simple fix for this latest problem and that is ADDING A SINGLE DIGIT TO A LINE IN THE MEGA COMPANY'S PROGRAM.
And those customers unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the process of adding a single digit to the program and having been warned by a respected member of the Norton Community about the potential risk of executing this change in the program through self-help sit and scratch their heads wondering and waiting for one or more of the mega company's 6.500 employees to figure out a quality-controlled method of adding a single digit in its own program. All the while, having to forego the increased protection from critiical security and other bugs in the third-party program fixed by its update they can't use without compromising the functionality of the security program they have liscened from the mega corporation that apparently has gotten into the habit of getting caught with its pants down..
It would certainly appear hok has nailed it. Unfortunately Symantec isn't the only company with this type of management/customer service problems.
See....I'm ONE of those "scratching their heads" trying to decide whether to forgoe the FF SECURITY fix or my PAID FOR Norton SECURITY product's feature. With no amount of sarcasm I truly am at a crossroads of what to do and am having a hard time trying to decide which is more important
whats the big deal just wait until the norton toolbar upgrade then install the ff 4.1... i have about at least 60 idenity safe logins and passwords im not going to upgrade ff and losse all those logins im waiting until norton update first..
TO EVERYONE It seems that the firefox 4.0.1 toolbar problem has been fixed I just updated to firefox 4.0.1 using the builtin updater in firefox 4.0 and after noting the three pop up windows including the warning about the combatibity of the norton toolbar and so far the only problem that I have found is the sign in on bank of america that is already known problem. Using windows vista sp1 32 bit. To who fixed the problem. THANKS!!!! ALF60.
Don’t waste your time upsetting yourself over this matter. Symantec have PROVEN time & time again that they are hopeless at keeping up with FF updates. I have one suggestion for you, UNINSTALL NORTON & USE ANOTHER Internet Security Suite. Norton is by no way any better than any of the other suites out there & at least other companies do not make the same stupid mistake time & time again.
I'm surprised more people aren't concerned with the security concerns involved in manually modifying their Norton product. That's a very risky operation, with serious security issues.
I wouldn't modify a file either. I just use the Firefox Add-On called Add Compatibility Reporter 0.8.3. Which simply prevents Firefox from checking the compatibility of Add-Ons.
SO I did it i.e. I applied the firefox fix and lost my Norton toolbar. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't have some sort of class action to recoup money for a bogus product i.e. we were promised Norton toolbar...we don't have it i.e. give me back some money!! Maybe a loss is what Symantec needs to get off their A&^%$!
I’m quite disappointed. This is inexcusable. Mr. Tony Weiss can you please provide an update as to when customers should expect this to be fixed? Thank you.
I'm sorry, I don't have an update right now. Our team is working to get this issue fixed and released. I know some of you are very upset about the problem, and i'm truly sorry.
I opened a ticket with Symantec. Here is part of the reply I received … “I am really sorry, we have not got a time frame for the release . There are some that needs to be updated with Mozilla. We have already checked with our engineering department and once the files are updated with Mozilla we will be releasing it automatically with live update.” Some points I made when opening my ticket … * Symantec needs to work with Mozilla to address problems like this BEFORE Firefox updates are released. * This particular problem has been open for at least 36 hours. * A work-around has been discussed here for at least 24 hours. * A previous Symantec hot fix already existed for compatibility with Firefox 4.0 (which was a major version change to FF) … after 36 hours Symantec should have been able to come up with a hot fix for compatibility with the latest “dot release” of FF 4.0.1 (or at least a sanctioned work-around). Based on the principle of “the squeaky wheel gets oiled”, I suggest that we all open tickets with Symantec. Do not let Symantec Tech Support close your ticket after giving you a response like the one above … insist that the ticket remain open until a fix for Firefox 4.0.1 compatibility is released.
Opening extra tickets isn't going to solve the problem or expedite a fix for the issue since Symantec is already aware of it. The frustration is shared but hopefully a fix is available soon.
Since Symantec is aware of the issue and is actively working on a solution, how would users benefit by following your suggestion to open a ticket? I'm sure the fix will be announced here the minute it is ready.
Please see Abhay's latest post that explains why these issues are occuring and when to expect an update. I recommend that you read the links in that post as well. Thanks for your patience.
I think we all tend to be a little more careful and cautious when we are trying to fix a computer that belongs to a friend, rather than one that belongs to us. If I had to engineer a toolbar while making absolutely certain that it did not break other software on millions and millions of PCs all over the world I think I would be extremely careful.
In answer to your question: "how would users benefit by following your suggestion to open a ticket?"
Companies often allocate resources to a problem based on the perceived "worth" or the perceived "benefit" or "loss" of quickly solving the problem (or not quickly solving it).
Symantec can choose to assign their best and most experienced software engineers to solve this problem, or they can choose to assign rookies (who might solve it faster than the experienced engineers, but the probability is against it).
I do not know if Symantec's senior management pays attention to complaints here in this forum .... but I suspect they do get reports on the support cases that remain open after xx days.
If many many customers open supporrt cases, and those support cases remain open after xx days, then I suspect Symantec's management will inquire, and perhaps even allocate more resources (both in number and in level of expertise) to solving this problem.
It's not enough for Symantec to be aware of this problem ... in order to get it resolved quickly, we need Symantec to choose to put their best resources on solving it. Clearly this has not yet been done .... had Symantec's best resources been quickly assigned to this issue, then (after 36 hours) the problem would have been resolved. How much could Mozilla have changed Firefox (going from 4.0 to 4.0.1)? This was not a major change to Firefox, and 36 hours should have been enough time to fix the problem (or at least publish a sanctioned work-around). Yet, after 36 hours we get nothing but promises.
We just might help convince Symantec to put more experienced resources on this problem if each of us (impacted by this problem) opens a support case. Doing so is not any more effort than posting a message here .... what have we got to loose?
Perhaps I'm wrong; I hope so ... perhaps a fix will be pushed out momentarily. Time will tell. I'm just offering a possible action that might help.
Oh, I think Symantec is fully cognizant of the need for a quick fix, here, without the added overhead that unnecessary trouble tickets would create. You've gotten their attention - now let them get on with working on a solution.
Please see Abhay's latest post that explains why these issues are occuring and when to expect an update. I recommend that you read the links in that post as well. Thanks for your patience.
Hi Tony,
Thank you for the info. I've read Abhay's post and the links there too, all of which I found very interesting and informative. I'll look forward to getting the update as soon as it's available. Thanks to all who are working on behalf of all of us to resolve this problem.
