I subscribed to Norton antivirus. My laptop was infected with “DOWNLOADER” virus.
I contacted Norton and was advised their experts would be glad to remove the virus for an additional $99.50.
So my annual subscription fee was for what?
I have contacted my State Attorney General with pertinent details.
Subscribe to anyone
Had same problem, but the program removed it automatically
Phil on February 11th, 2008 at 9:43 am | Link
Im curious, how long had you been using Norton?
Why didnt Norton remove the Virus?
Doug Woodall on February 11th, 2008 at 9:53 am | Link
even worse - when I downloaded Norton I wasn’t able to complete the process until I clicked a box allowing them to *charge my credit card* *automatically* for a renewal *every year* but they “reassure” you that you can go to their website afterwards to cancel this authorization. Easier said than done & the help screens are useless.
The last thing I’ll think of when I finally scrap this computer is to cancel my antivirus charges.
What a rip-off!
daborg on February 13th, 2008 at 5:11 pm | Link
I am begining to think that Norton Anti Virus is trying to con me now every time i put on my computer my Norton Auto Protect is turned off i paid hard earned money for this protection and i am not getting your full promise i will not be buying another copy of this program if this problem is not rectifide.
The computer is saying it can not find the file to my upgrade it is a Norton programm and should be able to upgrade its own files and then i am told that i can purchase an new updater but this one has not run out yet.
Further more i have recommended your product to some of my friends and but i shall be passing this info on.
I have gone through all the problem support but it does not work.
WHY DOES MY AUTO PROTECT KEEP TURNING OFF
David Smith on February 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm | Link
I have had Norton protection for one year, when the 359 days were up they renewed it, I am trying to cancel it from my credit card as I have a new provider now which covers it for free, please I have tried to email and call but with no help, I have gone through all your programs which is suppose to help but I never got any satisfaction, I do want my refund back as soon as possible, please give me some help!
Joan Parsons on February 17th, 2008 at 1:22 pm | Link
Norton is a huge rip-off! Their website is a deliberate nightmare designed to keep you from contacting them after they have your money! They are quick to charge your credit card for renewing a subscription, then send you a key code that doesn’t work, so that you cannot download what you paid for. If you call the 800 number, (good luck even finding it!) they say they will call you back and then don’t. But, if you are willing to shell out an additional $69.99!!! they will give you a “priority code” in order to call you back more quickly! (remember, this is an 800 “free” number!) I went through this same nightmare last year to renew, and swore I would never renew again. This year, I thought I would try to renew, naively thinking perhaps they had corrected the problems. Boy, was I wrong! The problems were worse! I have talked to my credit card company and they are willing to cancel the payment to Norton as soon as it clears. I hope NOBODY ever subscribes to this service again and that they go belly up. They should NOT be allowed to do business, anywhere!
Debbie J. on April 13th, 2008 at 11:38 am | Link
NORTON 360 is rip off
my laptop computer will not perform a “full scan”
or complete a full backup with NORTON 360
under any circumstances,
when I contacted the SYMANTEC help section I was given a variety of ” solutions” until finally they asked if I was using Vista ???
when I confirmed I am ..all contact IMMEDIATELY CEASED !!!
I cannot get any further responses from them
They are selling products under FALSE PRETENSE ..
NORTON 360 obviously cannot operate correctly with Vista
Why not just SAY so ??
and save us clients endless hassles
and a lot of money !!!
BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE warn all of your friends as well
BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE
Yottie John on May 12th, 2008 at 3:33 pm | Link
I don,t have Norton for along time but they are going to bill me again June 12th automaticly and I know longer want this how to you cancel they make it very hard to do. When it is put on my card I will disallow the payment. As I said I haven,t had this for years, RAY
Ray Tregoning on May 28th, 2008 at 4:05 pm | Link
Years ago my pc downloaded an update from McAfee that was incompatible with my operating system and I had to reinstall windows. I went to AVG as a result. Wish I’d stayed with them! I got Norton 360 with a new computer that’s coming up for renewal and I kept getting reminders. On renewing, and upgrading as recommended, they’ve done me out of the remaining time on my original licence, I can’t download to a second PC (they promise “up to three”), and the cancel renewal button (they say they take your credit card details and will renew automatically and just take your money) is not on the “My Account” page as it’s supposed to be. They are either crooks or incompetents, and either way I’m back to AVG as soon as I can get this mess sorted. I really do not understand how McAfee and Norton still survive when they are so naff - Google “norton rip off” and you’ll see I’m not alone, then buy AVG!
I’ve asked for my money back and told my creidt card company I want to stop payment. I’m also heading for Trading Standards if they don’t sort it quick.
Bob Hayes on July 1st, 2008 at 10:47 am | Link
I too was charged an automatic renewal on my credit card without my permission. I called the 800-number provided for Norton on my credit card statement, but was on hold for over an hour before I finally gave up. I went to the Symantec and Norton websites and it was a joke. There is nowhere on their sites to cancel subscriptions and they want to charge ADDITIONAL $ just for customer support. This should be criminal. Apparently they have it where it is automatically set up for annual renewal when you install the software, and if the consumer (like myself) doesn’t know how to override that, you will be automatically billed annually. I had to go through my credit card company to dispute the charges and cancel. SPREAD THE WORD… DO NOT USE A SYMANTEC OR NORTON PRODUCT!!!
Beth Halbach on August 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am | Link
HEY MY FREIND GOT NORTEN 360 SAID HE HAD 0 VIRUSES (NORTEN 360 IS 80 BUCKS)SO I GAVE HIM SPYWARE DOCTER IT FOUND MORE THEN A 1000 VIRUES WITH THE FREE PROGRAM THE WORST NORTEN COSTES LIKE 50 BUCKS WHEN THE BEST SPYWARE DOCTER COSTS ON LIKE 40 TO GET SPYWARE DOCTER GO TO GOOGLE AND DOWNLOAD THE TOOLBAR WITH SPYWARE DOCTER OR GO TO PC TOOLS BUT AT PC TOOLS IT ONLY TELLS U HOW THE VIRUSES U HAVE.SPYWARE DOCTER ALSO TELLS U IF U ARE ON A BAD WEBSITE WITH VIRUES.MY AUNT DOWNLOADED QUICKBOOK FROM THE INTERNET (LEGALLY) SHE GOT 4 KEEYLOGGERS SEPARTLY SPYWARE DOCTER DELETED THEM ALL BY ITSELF SINCE IT HAS GURDS WITH THESE GURDES I NEVER GET VIUSES I TURN THE GURD OFF I GET VIRUSES.GO TO PC TOOLS FOR MORE PRODUCTS THERE IS EVEN A SCANNER FOR MAC LEPORD ONLY. FOR COMPUTER HELP EMAIL ME AT HEGO556@yahoo.com pc tools rule
ashot nazaryan on September 21st, 2008 at 4:40 pm | Link
now one download this it gives the owner complete permisson of to override your computer
ashot nazaryan on September 21st, 2008 at 4:51 pm | Link
i mean no one download this program on the toop spyware docter is cool
ashot nazaryan on September 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm | Link
Hey Yottie,
Microsoft spelled backwards is VISTA!
Dell gave me the same response.
Doug Woodall on September 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am | Link
Norton Antivirus sucks big time! Norton itself is big virus! I uninstalled the application couple of months back and it auto renewed the annual subscription for 50 dollars.
Avg and avast are far superior to Norton
adapa lalith raghav on October 18th, 2008 at 11:22 pm | Link
Help” They have renewed the Norton onto my credit card without my permission. I have not had a computer for 1 year. How can I contact these people? Thanks!
Rita Hughbanks on November 19th, 2008 at 8:13 am | Link
my aunt had 4 elevated viruses and 1 traking cookie which spyware docter dound norten only found a traking cookie NORTEN STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ashot naZaryan on November 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm | Link
I wanted to upgrade my anti-virus and when I tried twice to download it, I called norton wanting my money back. The guy told me he would go into my computer via remote access and fix it. He then crashed my computer!!! I called Norton and they said that I would have to take it to get it fixed and they will not pay for it!!! They refunded my money for the norton and my computer is STILL not working!!!
anonymous on December 28th, 2008 at 7:17 pm | Link
6 hours on the phone with India. No offense to people in India but very hard to understand and they hung up on me 2 times because I wanted to talk to a supervisor. I paid for my some one to remote fix my pc after I had viruses on here and they never connected me!!! 3 times I was on the phone for an hour and 45 minutes which ended in me hanging up. They would never give their supervisor. I paid for Norton anti virus so why are they charging me to have someone take it off my PC remotely? Total ass***ls. I’m so fed up with these ************** I can even type. Do not support this company.
John on February 1st, 2009 at 12:33 am | Link
I have the same problem they have charged me for 3-4 years now annually i tried to cancel it last year but couldnt find anything on thier website to do it. In the end i found the following link from another website but they want so much info such as your original order number! otherwise they will not process my request, how am i suposed to remember the original order number, this is a con!https://lcwer.symantec.com/OngoingProtectionCancel/cancel.aspx
Josh on February 3rd, 2009 at 11:29 am | Link
I have managed to find a chat facility on Norton, it took a long time in the que about an hur but it was worth it talking to one of thier agents via chat. He has refunded me money for this year but said he couldnt refund last year. Though he said i will never be billed by them again and that i should get my refund in the next 3 days so i will be checking. If you want to chat to them via thier chat site facility the link is below: http://www.symantec.com/norton/support/contact/chat/chat_form.jsp?chatexp=cs&dept=cs&pvid=&pid=cs
Josh on February 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Link
symantec is a band of criminals. the other day i wrote their customer service, in very unfriendly terms, regarding how i was going to remove their software from my computers because i was sick and tired of “live update” coming up fourteen times a day and taking over my computer. this morning, i noticed that norton anti-virus and internet security is GONE from my computer. i did NOTHING to remove it. it’s just gone. now, i’ve had this on here for probably nine months. i didn’t uninstall, i did nothing. my icons are gone, the symantec program folder is almost entirely empty. wtf? the only explanation i have is that the a-holes at symantec customer service somehow pulled it via live update. i’m not paranoid, i’m not delusional. i’m a 43 year old businessman with all his screws well tightened. all i can say is that these are straight-up scumbag criminals. i’m switching to AVG and i hope everyone at symantec chokes on their own vomit.
bob on February 26th, 2009 at 7:29 am | Link
Norton 360 are a bunch of thiefs. I recently had a virus on my computer about 2 or 3 weeks ago. It was my fault as I clicked a window that I thought said norton 360 when it actually said 360 anti-virus and I (through my own mistake) had a virus. My problem is how did they get on my computer in the first place to tell me I had a bogus virus and to download? Anyway, I called norton360 and told them my situation and they fixed it for $100. When they fixed it they took remote control of my computer from their location and fixed the problem?? A (few weeks later) couple of days ago I got a window that said my computer has a worm and that I needed to download. I DID NOT download, but I started to get pop-ups every half hour and it is slowing down my computer. Again how did they invade my computer to give me these bogus messages? I called norton and spoke with a guy named David Sutton (an American!!!) and he told me that I had a threat NOT a virus and I could get free support at another number, because he was in the premuim dept that charges for support. So I call this number and the wait time is 7:00-8:00pm. Forget that, I went online and did a internet chat with a guy named Ponni. I gave him some info and he immediatley said I had a spyware virus. When I told him I spoke with somebody else from norton that said I had a threat not a virus, he started talking over me and said I needed to give them authorization to charge my card for $100 to fix the virus, so I told him I would not be renewing my agreement with them. I am wondering when they took remote control over my computer if they took out one virus and put in another one.
In any case I don’t think my computer is safe and wanted to know if anybody could recommend a good anti-virus software without spending a lot of money.
Thanks,
Dave
Dave on March 2nd, 2009 at 1:17 pm | Link
Had lots of faults with my pc about 6 months ago. (XP Pro + NORTON 360). Suspected a virus but “360″ said all ok. I then used an online checker and found a virus. Contacted nortons online free support and was told after three hours of questions & waffle it would cost me £69.99 for an engineer to come online and remove the virus. My solution was to uninstall Norton, buy a copy of the well reviewed Kaspersky security suite (£29.99), install it , delete the virus and swear never to buy a Norton prioduct again.
Six months later all is still ok & my PC runs better than ever, but i still feel cheated that a product that cost me £49.99 did not work and did not give me the free support that I thought I had paid for, shame on you Norton….. never again.
joe on March 14th, 2009 at 1:03 pm | Link
I purchased the Norton Internet security program less than 6 weeks ago. I now have a virus which this program was supposed to be able to detect and stop or remove- when I called them for help, they gladly told me that for an additional fee one of their techs would remove the virus. Isn’t that what I already paid thier company to do through my purchase? And now that thier program has failed miserably they want me to pay them MORE money to do a half-a@@ed job again? really? I am very disappointed with this company and thier product- and will never purchase another and will strongly advise anyone I know and all the companies I work with against this company and their deceptive practices. Nothing like being extorted in your own living room.
Dianna Ray on May 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm | Link
A week ago, on June 2, I had trouble with getting on the internet. I called my administrator which was Cox Communications and their tech and I spent almost an hour trying to figure out what was wrong; all we came up with was I lost my ISP. There was something blocking the signal from the modem to my computer. The next day I called in the Geek Squad. The guy reconfigured things but told me thought it was the Norton software I have. All was good until this morning - after I logged on and there was a little love not from Norton that they did security back up at 3:10am. And guess what??? No internet connection!! All my equipment was working fine and someone at work told me it most likely was Norton that caused the problems. And now that I have read all the comments here - that is getting disconnected as soon as I get home tonight! The Norton software has to be the problem.
Mandy on June 11th, 2009 at 12:55 pm | Link
For anyone who contacted Norton, where did you find that information? I’m concerned about the automatic renewal subscription O__O
Jess on August 5th, 2009 at 5:50 pm | Link
BTW, something’s fishing going on. For awhile my intrusion thing was turned off. I didn’t notice until I got a message from Norton. I’ve noticed that any time I run a scan it runs faster now, which it shouldn’t since I got lots of files it needs to scan. It just briefly looks through it and reports to 0. I’m suspicious. I wonder if my computer is already compromised by a virus that’s pretending to report 0. O__O
Jess on August 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pm | Link
Icontacted Norton and was advised their experts would be glad to remove the virus for an additional $99.50.
Martina Frechette on August 9th, 2009 at 2:44 pm | Link
iI bought norton 360 less than a week ago and can’t seem to get my money back. I WILLL GET A HOLD OF CONSUMER REPORTS AND REPORT THEM ,this is a scam I REMOVED IT BECAUSE IT DOES NOT WORK
Sandy Nilges on August 21st, 2009 at 7:02 pm | Link
I had bought my laptop w/Vista Premium with Norton 360. What a big mistake! I started to suspect that Norton was crashing my computer by the end of 2008 and got confirmation by June 2009 that Norton 360 was the problem. After reading this blog and other blogs, I will strongly recommend not to purchase Norton what so ever! And overall, Norton must be very desperate if they run “scare ware” for free to con people into buying their crap.
Steven Richer on August 26th, 2009 at 3:43 pm | Link
Hi, I am so suprised that with Norton, I can still experience spyware intrudding and seating in my system. The recent of it is “Cyber Security” a disguy security that makes trojan seat in your system, this almost crash my system but with the instulation of Anti-Malaware, I was able to battle this problem. Norton should make all updates and put the intrests of we their consumers into thought.
Adetyo S. A. on October 14th, 2009 at 2:55 am | Link
My husband bought norton online and after that they charged my card every year for renewal something we never asked for it, I called Norton for a refund and there is only one guy sounds like Indian that answers the phone calls and he says he will refund the money and you have to wait for 2 weeks and he does not refund the money he just buy time until you get mad goes to the bank and its too late..but I spoke with many people at the bank and finally I got my money back, this year he did the same and I went to the bank right away and I told the this was a FRAUD…and he starts doing something to the computer and says Norton needs to update your software and Im sure is this guy…that is the only thing I can not do…he freezes our computers…Who can help us with this problem??????
Nancy Muir on December 28th, 2009 at 9:37 am | Link
I tryed to download Norton anti virus 1 yr ago to no avail. Oh they charged my account $69.99 but the program never worked. I have tried to contact them for a year by phone and email. No response from email and eternal wait with no answer on phone. They have now drafted my bank account for a renewal charge. I want my money back for the orginial attempt to download and for the renewal fee. This company is a total rip off. Never use Norton. It is impossible to contact them.
Rita LaFollette on February 15th, 2010 at 2:08 pm | Link
Never, never never order Norton products to download online! You will wait on hold for ever for a voice to finish your purchase! While I was on hold, a customer service agent came on and sold me the on-line program to make your computer speed up. I bought it just so he would shut it, then regretted the purchase, which I called back the next day, after, again being on hold for over an hour, and cancelling. I still have not received a refund. I like the Norton anti-virus program, but I will purchase it retail the next time. It is just not worth the hassle to buy it over the internet.
Joyce Koppenheffer on March 3rd, 2010 at 9:18 pm | Link
Norton support is horrible. I paid $139.99 for Norton people to get rid of a virus, which Norton should have prevented in the first place. Then after four days of them working on my computer they formatted the computer back to factory specifications without me having saved most of my stuff. Then after tons of calls, it turns out you can’t get ONE American person. All the people are from India and the Phillipines. Majority of them speak very poor English where you have no clue what they’re saying. I could have put my computer back to factory specifications four days ago and not lost four days of work, four days of absolute frustration and paying $139.99. I’ll be searching now for a new company to get anti-virus software from. This has been a nightmare experience. I would like to prevent others from going through this same nightmare.
Debra Jones on April 20th, 2010 at 12:04 am | Link
My Windows 7 machine, with Norton Internet Security running, had been disconnected for several days while I was on vacation. When I started it up on my return, I got a little pop-up saying my anti-virus protection was out of date and I needed to run live update. So I did. After running normally for a few hours, the machine abruptly slowed to a crawl for everything. Task Manager showed that the CPU was being utilized 100% essentially all the time–just occasional drops down to 85-90%. I suspected a virus, so I tried to run a scan, but after almost 6 hours only about 10% of the hard drive had been scanned, the machine being so slow.
So I called Symantec tech support and described the situation. The customer service person told me that with the CPU pegged at 100% the only possible explanation was a virus, and he assured me that his technicians could remove it, for $99.99. I was a little miffed at having to pay $99.99 to remove a virus that their anti-virus software apparently failed to trap. But, then again, if you get pregnant while taking birth control pills, the doctor who prescribed the pills doesn’t pay for your labor and delivery. So I reluctantly agreed.
The technician worked on my computer for about 2 hours by remote control. At the end, she told me that she found no virus. She made a few settings changes, but the problem was not resolved, not even noticeably improved. She proposed that the problem might be with the operating system and suggested I try contacting Microsoft or Dell. When she asked if I wanted anything else, I said I wanted my money back. So she transfered me to a customer service manager.
He offered me not a refund, but a credit for a one-year extension of my anti-virus service (worth, I don’t know, maybe $60?). I said that was unsatisfactory. It wasn’t just that the technician didn’t solve my problem. It was that the initial customer service person had insisted that the only thing that could cause my computer to behave as it did was a virus. Yet the technician was absolutely insistent that there was no virus infection present. So one of them was wrong, and possibly deliberately lying. In light of that, I felt I was entitled to a complete refund. I argued with the customer service manager for about an hour. He insisted that by company policy the original charge was non-refundable (which, by the way, I was never told before I agreed to the charge). I then said that if the company didn’t give him authority to issue refunds I wanted to speak to someone with that authority. I asked to speak to his supervisor. He refused. I asked for the name and phone number of his supervisor and he again refused, this time saying that he has no supervisor! When I told him that I wasn’t born yesterday he then changed his story to say that company policy prohibited him from giving out the name of his supervisor. I ended up with just a general corporate phone number and no name of a person to go to. I’m anticipating nothing but a runaround from this.
Interestingly, today I learned that the problem I am experiencing is a well and frequently described problem with Windows 7. (So the tech was right and the customer service person was wrong.) Their customer service person shouldn’t be reacting to that description by saying it has to be a virus. It’s anybody’s guess whether he was lying to make a sale or just incompetent. Either way, though, Symantec refuses to take responsibility.
Until now I had been a loyal Symantec customer since the mid-90’s. Never again will I deal with them in anyway. This is just out-and-out fraudulent sales pitching followed by a complete abdication of responsibility. This corporation has turned into a giant racket. Boycott it and drive it out of business!
Clyde Schechter on July 3rd, 2010 at 6:23 pm | Link
About a week ago I tried to remove Norton 360 from my computer. It was slowing the computer down and wasn’t stopping the viruses, malware, etc. I was only able to remove the Norton part with my “Add/Remove Programs” function. The “Symantic Technical Support Web Controls” link would not go away! I was trying to replace Norton with Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, but it wouldn’t load because it detected another anti-virus program (Norton). I ended up calling Norton’s 800# for Customer Support. I was on hold for over an hour waiting for someone to answer. Finally a woman came on the line, took remote control of my PC, but was also unable to remove “Symantic.” She had to transfer me to a second level technican. I waiting another 15-20 minutes until I finally was connected to a man. He took control of my PC and worked for several hours until finally removing the “Symantic.” However, now my screen was black and had a message telling me that my PC could not reboot due to Program 32 being missing or corrupt and that I could repair it with a Windows XP Start-Up disk. I panicked at this point because the tech had lost remote control of my PC! I had no idea what to do. I had no Windows XP disk because my step-sn had given us the PC and he didn’t have one, either! I feared my computer had crashed and that I would have to take it to a professional repair person. However, the next day I was totally shocked when the Norton tech phoned me to let me know he had lost contact with my PC and he wanted to know what my screen said. I told him exactly what the message said. He then advised me to borrow a Windows XP start-up disk from a friend and that he would call me back the next day at 5 p.m. to help me repair the problem. The tech did call me back as promised and we were able to get my PC repaired. I was totally surprised that he even followed up with me when he had lost contact with the PC. I now have installed Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and I love it! It is so easy to install and to use! It detected over 3,000,000 threats, malware, spyware, trojans, etc. and destroyed them!!! Why did Norton not do that??? How did they even get into my PC??? The Norton products are a waste of money and totally useless! Kaspersky is a great product and I highly recommend it. By the way…Norton’s technicians were from the Philippines; however, I was able to understand them. DO NOT BUY ANY NORTON PRODUCTS!!!!! YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO CONTACT A LIVE SUPPORT PERSON IN ORDER TO REMOVE THIS SOFTWARE FROM YOUR COMPUTER!!!!
Kitty Katz on August 24th, 2010 at 5:33 pm | Link
Norton totally cons everyone. I got three viruses in the first year, each oneI had to pay them $100 to remove. I finally had to take my ‘puter to a repair tech who charged less and he says “Why are you paying them twice to remove a virus once?” Good point! He removed the Norton, installed Avast!, Malware bytes and Spybot- three FREE antiviruses. That was 4 years ago. My computer runs faster, I get no viruses I cant get rid of and the protection is FREE. Making you pay for antivirus protection then making you pay AGAIN when it doesnt work is a joke. Who falls for that?
bbrossett on August 30th, 2010 at 5:40 am | Link