Goodbye Symantec

In response to the Perspectives column written by Charlie Cooper, "Why does PC support stink?":

If I'm not mistaken, Symantec no longer wants retail customers such as you or me. They see the profits--and reduced support costs--in the corporate market. Indeed, I largely suspect Symantec wishes its retail business would go away.

I, too, had an amusing situation with Symantec and their antivirus software. In my case, an attempt to pay for the renewal of my antivirus subscription produced a problem. (I couldn't get the subscription renewal process to recognize that I had a computer rather than a PDA.)

When I contacted Symantec via e-mail for help, I was told that my 2-year-old product was no longer supported, and that the "solution" was to buy a more current Symantec product. Of course I could reduce the cost of the purchase by filling out one of Symantec's labyrinthine and punctilious rebate forms; having tried and failed in the past to actually receive a rebate, I found that prospect wholly unappealing.

So I did buy a new product--Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security 2005. Goodbye Symantec. Which as best I can tell is what the company wants anyhow.

Riley VanDyke
San Francisco

 

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