Thursday, June 28, 2007

I bin workin' on the software, all the livelong day ...

Seldom do the technical support representatives at Symantec receive a surprise. They have, after all, seen most of what the world can set wrong with their software.

I confounded two of them, today. I tried to renew my Norton AV subscription by clicking the "renew" button in the automated reminder notice. Seemed logical.

The software offered me the option of paying for a renewal in Canadian Dollars or in Euros. Neither of these options seemed appropriate for a
native of the semi-tropics. I closed the box and started over.

NAV started its download ... without collecting any money or passing "go." My remaining days of subscription remained at zero, even after I had paid properly on the Symantic site and communicated with two different techs via "chat." I discovered that when one is really annoyed, one can type faster than the tech can.

Counting the original attempt that was sooo wrong, I have downloaded the software three times. I have generated
three different Symantec case numbers.

I decided to dispense with "chat" and located an 800 number buried deep in the menus. After waiting half an hour by the speakerphone, I spoke, realtime, with an unpronounceable name.

He had really paid attention in class.

I have a year before my sentence is up, again.

4 comments:

Zeta said...

Even though it took hours, your problem was solved in one day due to your determination. Now your computer is safe from the illnesses that creep in e-mails. "No, No, get away, I have virus protection."

Anonymous said...

I've started using AVG free virus protection. It updates regularly and the price is right. They changed the version late last year and it took a little figuring out before I found the right download but once I read the directions and followed them, it updated just fine. You get this loverly green scroll indicator across the window that shows how much you have left. I rather like it, now.

RANGER said...

I had a gold scroll indicator. It operated three times. The third time, it's not so cute.

Ad-Aware from LavaSoft is good freeware, too. It finds data miners and you hear a raspberry when it does.

And Zone Alarm. The three are compatible, at least so far.

Anonymous said...

Yers, I have ZA - but it's on a computer for which I've loaned the keyboard and mouse out. I expect they'll come home one day - but the ZA subscription is out of date and since the 'puter is just a paper weight now, I don't think I'll revisit the website in the near future. I run Ad-Aware and quite like it...