Good day to all!
I live in Israel, & have used Norton products since about 1985, and' till last year, found them functional, user-friendly and properly programmed. I m a computer engineer with almost 40 years' experience, and hope that this show I am not a complete idiot, but the last 2 years have proved to me that Norton has changed its policy to one that, like Microsoft, has little or no interest in its customers. I reached this conclusion after 2 years of total frustration - even anger - that Norton Internet Security is the worst-designed and implemented piece of software that the company has put out. My reasons are as follows:
1. This year's version does not let you know for how long the programme is valid, as did all the older versions of NAV. This is supposedly an improvement, I suppose.
2. Multi-user licences are impossible to install, as the Norton validation system tells you, after entering the product code, that the licence has been validated, and after the install, it is impossible to activate, and has expired.
3. A re-install is almost impossible to effect, as, after downloading the Norton Removal and Reinstallation tool, you get the message that the tool has "expired", and are redirected to another download. You should not be surprised to receive the same error message!
4. A complete removal of every reference to "Norton" or "Symantec" from both the registry & the computer [don't forget to check in my documents for old serial numbers that could cause a problem] makes no difference.
5. The local support people of Norton are patient & logical workers, but even then, it can take up to 2 hours to install one user properly, as the first 1-2 attempts don't work.
6. Totally frustrated, I decided to try to get international support, so on Thursday evening I logged in to a chat, and a very pleasant support guy, after over 2 hours, succeeded in installing the licence. The only problem was that he or the programme damaged the O/S [Win10] & I had to reinstall it. This morning I tried another installation on the pristine computer: this time the Norton system didn't recognize my account, so I created it again. Once again - with a new account & a new O/S, the same S**t!
7. I contacted customer support about an hour ago, & was told very politely that my product code did not exist, and should be 25 digits [Mine is about 11]. She suggested I contact the retailer - I had already done thiss, & he said only Norton's responsibility, as he ells a sealed box, which is fair enough to my mind. I typed into the support person that I have been asked for 13-, 17, and 24-digit codes at various times by the Norton system, but to no avail.
8. Not wanting to trouble her further, I suggested she go to the beach.
That's the background. My reason for opening this thread is to caution potential users of NIS multi-user licences, that they are definitely bad for your health and mental well-being. The programme is not informative, the errors you get are only after the installation, and the support, while polite, is not always effective. After 30 years of satisfaction with Norton products, last year I was so exhausted after taking 20 attempts to install 4 of a 5 user multi-licence, that I just let the last one slip.
Either I'm stupid or too trusting, but I was certain that this year Norton would have fixed the problems. They did, but what I didn't realise, was that they made them insurmountable this year: I have wasted over 40 hours trying to install only 8 multi-user licences, and still have 3 to go. Not every programming house can register such a resounding success. The only pity is that this programme is a total reversal of 3 decades of dedication to the user.
Has anyone else had asimilar experience? I sincerely hope not, and wish you mny more years of equanimity and mental health.