Why I'm leaving Norton

You want to charge me more to Renew than a first time user can buy it for ? Not going to happen. Yea I know all vendors do it but not going to happen.

 

just_me1:

 But, Apple users are almost like a cult.

Oh my.

I'm actually traveling soon to Guyana for an Apple Lover's Conference.

They are introducing a new Apple Kool-Aid.

It will be an event to die for.. 

 

I didn't associate Jobs with "loyalty pricing". I said that Jobs understood growth through providing “innovative” (game changing) products to a loyal base. With regard to Jobs pricing for his “innovative” products, I don't know what to compare them to. When he introduced the Apple 1 his competition was an IBM Selectric or an IBM System/370. When he introduced the iPod and iTunes his competition was a Sony Walkman and full albums. When he introduced the iPhone his completion were phones like The BlackBerry Curve, Motorola Q and the Nokia N95. The iPhone blew them out of the water. At that time, regardless of Apple's pricing, there was nothing like these products on the market. Unfortunately, that degree of game changing innovation died with Jobs. Today, you are right Apple exploits their loyal base. But, Apple users are almost like a cult.

any users have complained about pricing practices, but the best way is to shop around reputable retail and online stores for much better pricing.

 

Exactly.  To me, all this renewal price criticism is misdirected.  Some people are willing to look around and figure out ways to pay less, and some are willing to go with the fastest and most expedited way and pay more. 

At hotels, shopping clubs, gas stations, online retailers..... places where you have been a loyal customer for many years... they won't necessarily offer you a discount unless you go out and find it, or ask for it.

I've renewed Norton multiple times by purchasing the product at great prices in Amazon sales, and then just added it to my subscription.  

I remember people here in the past leaving in a huff... saying they are now going to go and use McAfee.  That's like a self-directed denial-of-service attack.  You may pay a little less.... for an inferior product.    At least if you move to Bitdefender, that is a comparable product -- albeit more buggy on some systems.

just_me1:

You don't sustain growth by exploiting your existing customers. Steve Jobs understood.

Given the premium prices that Jobs consistently maintained for Apple products, I find it curious that you would cite him in defense of your argument for loyalty pricing.  Jobs priced his goods as high as the market would bear.  Apple did not accumulate their billions of dollars in cash laying around by giving their customers the lowest prices they could offer.  The difference with Symantec is that you don't have to purchase the products from the manufacturer at premium prices --  you CAN purchase their products from third-party retailers at discounted prices if you wish. 

Thanks.  The reason I didn't just rush to another vendor was to avoid technical conflicts in trying to remove Norton. By renewing I bought myself 15 months to migrate elsewhere.

Make sure you use the Norton Removal Tool, if you're looking at other AV providers.

Even then, you may end up with orphan files that need to be manually removed.

Many users have complained about pricing practices, but the best way is to shop around reputable retail and online stores for much better pricing.

My sincere apologies. I thought you worked for Symantec. When you said that the renewal pricing had been discussed hundreds of times here, I thought you meant at internal meetings. It is sad that most large companies can't get out of their own way. Success in business is very simple. Ask Amazon. You start out selling one product (books), build a loyal customer base, respect their loyalty and just keep offering them more and more quality product. Than one day you wake up and shazam!, you are one of the largest and most successful businesses in history. Symantec just doesn't get it. I'm checking out McAfee.

I did not say I agreed with this pricing model. I agree with your comments on happy/loyal customers being the biggest asset a company can have. I worked in retail for 36 years and tried my best to keep all my customers happy. Unfortunately, I see more and more examples of companies thinking that we consumers are a dime a dozen now. They just don't have the same caring outlook we did.

Just an FYI.  Most posters here are just users like you. Even the gurus are just users that volunteer our time to try to help others with issues with their Norton products from our experience.

 

Wow, you drank the Kool-Aid! However, they didn't tell you that it was spiked with “stupid”. You are clearly surrounded by too many “empty suits”. I heard the same margin arguments at most of the “failed” companies that I passed through. I spent 40 years in computer sales on Wall Street. I did very well and retired financially secure in my 50s. I was tutored by Andy Grove, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and a few others. Here is the nutshell version of what I learned. “Customers are like eggs and you can't unscramble an egg”. Nothing is more important to a business than customer retention. You must learn to, as Andy put it, “Eat your young”. Because if you don't you competition will. You don't sustain growth by exploiting your existing customers. Steve Jobs understood. You really grow by “innovation”. Find out what your customers “really want” and give it to them. A loyal customer base reduces the pain and expedites “crossing the chasm”. When you really understand what I have said, you will begin to unlock the real value of the LifeLock acquisition.

The renewal pricing has been discussed hundreds of time here. It is not unlike many other service offerings in that a new customer gets enticement offers to sign up. Then the 'regular' pricing kicks in. Cable and phone companies come to mind.

Be sure that you check out the forums for any other product you are looking at and ask if they also see the same kind of 'renewal behaviour'.

 

My subscription was expiring in 4 days. When I hit renew I learned that the renewal was $86. Norton sells the product retail for $49 and I can buy it from Amazon for $35. Clearly Norton tries to rip off their loyal long term customers (in my case over 20 years). Because I had only four days I called customer service. The rep apologized and gave me 15 months for the $49 retail price. I will spend the next 15 months researching whose software I will use in the future. I also want to warn everyone I can about how Norton treats their loyal long term customers.

For the love of God why is it so hard to remove this steaming pile of Malware called Norton ? I've gone back to using Bitdefender but there are Norton Files I can't delete even after using the Uninstall Tool. If this pops up again I'm going to lose it. I found it lurking in Public Downloads and it kept running at startup. So how does one remove the Quarantine Folder. It won't let me delete it and yes I have Admin privileges. Damn frustrating when your security software acts more like Malware.