I had Norton Internet Security (including Norton Anti Virus) on my computer. They offered an upgrade to the 2007 version cheaper than the annual subscription, so that is what I did. Big mistake! When I contacted their tech support people (in India), they said the software they sent me on CD caused the kind of problems I was having and they said I should download more recent versions. I did that and installed it per the instructions. The install process said the previous version was being uninstalled before the new version would be installed. Those alarm flags should have been sufficient to make me abandon Norton, but I tried anyway.

When the new version worked worse than the version it replaced, tech support said I should uninstall all Symantec software, remove all files with Symantec in the name, clean the registry of Symantec files that weren’t removed during uninstall, and start over with a new download and install, following their special procedures. After working a whole day to uninstall everything and reinstall the software (twice because they forgot to specify the correct sequence), I got it to work but I could hardly use the computer because Live Update was constantly on line and when it was on line my computer was essentially not useable. The setting to turn off Automatic Live Update was effective only in running Live Update in the background instead of foreground, which took almost all the computer resources and left the computer almost useless.

At this point, the tech support people stopped responding to my emails or otherwise communicating with me. I finally got the message and uninstalled all Symantec software and removed most of the Symantec garbage, and there were an amazing number of very large files scattered in all corners of the hard-drive.

I requested a refund from Symantec and they denied it on the basis that it had been 70 days since I ordered the product and their refund policy stops at 60 days. The fact that I had been working with their tech support for more than 60 days trying to get their product to work had no effect on their position. They seem to be satisfied keeping my $69.84 now, and never having me as a customer again.

I installed free virus protection software from AVG. It works very well, and the computer works better than it has for a couple years. I now realize that most of the performance problems I have had with my computer were caused by Norton/Symantec. I strongly recommend staying far away from any Norton/Symantec product and if you have some, it should be dumped soon before it can cause problems. I discovered that there are many folks out there with similar or worse experiences with Symantec. Some are proposing a class action lawsuit; I wish them luck.

I am writing this with the hope that it may help some avoid the nightmare I have been through.

Hello TR Smith,
Thanks you very much for sharing your unplesant experience with all of us. I also hope it prevents someone else from falling into the Norton trap.

Thanks for the comments. Ron

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI had mentioned in several previous articles about some of the issues with Norton products and have even posted a removal tool from Symantec, to TRY and get Norton off your system. And being a kind and gentle soul, I normally steer … [...]

Help me i want to uninstall Nortons because it is ruining my computer even though it expired months ago. it is blocking my msn! i cannot uninstall it becuase i do not know the password and it will nto let me access symantec pages!!! HELP!!!

Hi Meridiana,
Download this program.
http://www.gtopala.com/
Look under Software - Secrets. Your Norton password should be there.

If the problem still persists may I recommend you post the problem in the LG forums. I’m am sure one of the resident experts will be able to help you.

http:/www.help.lockergnome.com

Regards, Ron

HOW DO I GET A REFUN ON THIS NORTON 360?

Hello Lester,
This is the phone number Symantec lists on their site:
(800) 591-9334

I would also look through your documentation, if you have any, to see if there may be another support number to call. Good luck on getting a refund. I hope it works out OK for you.

More support options:
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/support/productdetail/contact_ts.jsp?pvid=n360

I just used the norton removal tool to try and get all of Norton off my system. When I rebooted the computer I got a blue screen saying a problem has been detected and windows has shut down. I also got these error messages OXOOOOOO7E (OXCOOOOO5, OX8O4T37EE, OXF89E181C AND OXF89E1618) and I can only start my computer in safe mode. I need help.

Hi Carolyn,
Try running the CHKDSK command using the r switch as described by Symantec:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/powerquest.nsf/docid/2004066687571562

If this doesn’t correct the problem you may wish to try a reg cleaner such as CCleaner here:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

And if you are still having problems I would post your problem at the LG form here:

http://help.lockergnome.com/

I hope this helps, Ron

I uninstalled and removed all of Norton files and now I cannot use system restore, any help buttons and java scripting and applets do not work on web pages. I have tried reinstalling java didn’t help. Any suggestions on how to restore the various things I no longer have because of the Norton Antivirus removal?

Hello Brady,
You didn’t mention which version of Windows you are using. If it is XP you can try a repair install. Procedure is herehttp://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XP…

You will have to reinstall and service packs and updates if you do this.

Ron :

To PC users and IT professionals everywhere.

Here are 25 reasons to avoid using or dealing with Symantec.

1. visa billed 3x and no product provided.
2. ONLINE FRAUD!!!
3. Symantec online renewal automatically added items to purchase I did not order nor want.
4. Symantec tries to invade your privacy by sneaking in spy ware to its products.
5. SYMANTEC denies there is spy ware in its products, yet when pressed the knowledgeable people admit that this is routinely done!
6. even when you do not want the spy ware, Symantec states it is imperative that they access your computer via active x-control, and their hidden spyware
7. active x-control - Symantec tries to sneak this in via their downloads. They should know better, but they make huge efforts to hide this
8. there are no viable contact phone numbers on their products nor web site to speak to a person who will provide any sort of help
9. after Symantec takes your money, the best that they offer is to charge more money to your credit card to PAY for customer service which is easily one of the worst in the corporate world – anywhere. The whole concept is that the customer service would not be necessary of Symantec were honest and above board.
10. Symantec makes huge efforts to take your money and NOT deliver a product or service.
11. the only way I found a valid phone number was in the yellow pages.
12. customer service at Symantec head quarters, was a private security guard answering phones. He very clearly expressed is frustration at having to field similar calls all day long from other clients who have also been ripped off, then treated poorly, dishonestly and shoved aside.
13. Symantec knowingly and deceptively takes your money and then blocks all attempts at getting a refund or service for their sloppy or is it fraudulent products service offerings
14. in trying to sort this out I have been transferred and put on hold 19 times.
15. if you are lucky enough to get a customer service rep. they act real stupid and pretend that they have never heard of this problem before , and they state that they are the supervisor, or even dept. manager.
16. Symantec customer service reps refuse to identify themselves, their bosses, and most important any form of reference for follow up.
17. Typically after holding 30 minutes or more ‘due to unexpected call volume” - which seems to be the case as far back in time anyone I spoke to, about the severe service shortcomings at Symantec, you get transferred to a deadline or they simply just hang up.
18. typical answer from call center. ‘not my job’,,, never heard of that’, someone will get back to you . and always they want your credit card number to charge at their leisure, not guarantees, just blatantly phoney promises and more sales pressure.
19. promises from Symantec staff claiming to be supervisors and dept managers have been found to be 100% false. Symantec had ever followed through on a customer service promise to solve a problem and call back within the 15 minutes to 48 hours range they state.
20. Symantec cannot be trusted.
21. after being transferred to 7 different numbers, and 17 different people, and put on hold for up to 2 hours and 52 minutes, I finally got a person on the phone who refused to identify himself.
22. Most of the staff were in a far off country. they had extremely poor communication skills. Sloppy English, thick accents, and to the person – very poor listeners. They sounded like a sweat ship full of used car salespersons knowninlgy flogging products and services that are not as advertised, substandard, or simply non-existent (customer service, refunds, tech help etc)
23. typical answer summed as follows; after several hours of denials, transfers, and out right lies, you get a person who can barely communicate. They will only talk to you if you give them more money first.
24. They always refuse to escalate any issue. To the person they have provided only broken promises and in many cases outright lies about the products and services.
25. the over paid executives at Symantec or ‘never available’ do not have names, are always in hiding, You cannot find a person at Symantec willing to commit their job to keeping a promise. They take your money anonymously and hide behind huge bureaucratic barriers to avoid having to take any responsibility for the false advertising, broken promises and outrageous lies made by their staff.

is there soomeone who wants to start a class action. i’ll be frist ti sign up.

symantec is crooked to the core. those responsible shoudl be jailed.

Right on! Symantec has screwed me out of $$$.
Their Email support is a monkey sending form Emails.
Their Final Solution to their problems is “REINSTALL YOUR YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM”!!!!
And of course you have to install a third party app to uninstall the crap they call software.

Hi Peter thanks for the comments.

Goege,
I posted your comments as an article to get better exposure.

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/2007/09/22/outraged-reader-sounds-off-against-symantec/

Symantec is repeatly popping up the box showing that it’s scanning an email message when I’m not sending any email. Then occasionally I get an error saying that “your email message was unable to be sent because you email server rejected the recipient” It then refers me to the Symantec website which asks if I’m actually sending email or not. If I say that I’m not, it directs me to download and run Symadataweb which doesn’t seem to do anything. Symantec tech support was no help. They said it is working as expected because it was continuing to scan emails even after I disabled email scanning. They didn’t acknowledge that it was scanning when I wasn’t sending emails. Could someone have hacked in to my PC to use it as a host to send spam?

Hi Bobbie,
I posted your problem. Let us see what kind of a response we get. You may wish to post your problem in the lockergnome forum as well.

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/2007/10/03/norton-rears-its-ugly-head-once-again-a-reader-posts-a-problem

Ron

Ok so im running XP and my NAV 05 subscription ran out…I then wanted to get rid of nav all together so i downloaded the symantec removal tool and ran it. (Im wondering now if i should have just uninstalled it the ‘normal’ way through windows.)
After this ‘tool’ removed all the norton antivirus software, it needed a reboot. I rebooted but now it’s stuck at the boot sequence and says “Boot from CD!” I can’t even access safemode by pressing F8!
Searching the net this morning at work gave me an idea to try the windows xp cd recovery console and using fixboot, fixmbr and chkdsk /r?

It’s like this is symantec punishment for removing their software!!! :/

Thanks for your help in advance.

Hello Paul,
Fixmbr should repair the problem.

Ron,
See my blog about the tribulations I had with 360

http://www.lockergnome.com/darksentinel/

HORRIBLE!!! Company all around sucks- BEWARE!!! Service is bad, can’t get anyone on the line, and messed up whole pc. Many stores told me to get rid of Norton that they recently have become problems for many people. Slows computer, shuts them down, uses crazy amount of memory, and charges an arm and leg! I only purchased b/c of reputation, but now that I look up online and see others with same exact problems and see how terrible their customer support is- I have bought another and have no problems with it on laptop. DON’T buy Norton if you haven’t yet! Their customer service number tells you to speak your answers and they don’t acknowledge voices and other options are just as bad. Can’;t get anyone on the phone.

Sadly, I have Norton 360. I read all the bad reports too late. Norton has let in the DOWNLOADER virus onto my machine. Restore replicates it. Norton want me to pay again to get them to remove it. Online Norton (ex) customers’ reports say they can’t get rid of it! Norton online instructions to remove DOWNLOADER are impenetrable to a novice like me and other reports say their instructions don’t work anyway. How do I get rid of DOWNLOADER? How do I get rid of Norton without crashing my machine? What is the best Antivirus to upload that updates itself?

Hello Barrie,
I posted an article with recommendations here:
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/02/09/symantec-norton-360-reader-needs-help/

Hope this helps. Ron

Help! I installed Norton’s and now I can’t print anything from the internet. When I called support they wanted to charge me $69.95 to fix the problem. I told them I would cancel rather then pay it and they tried to send to a site that would charge me the fee.
Help!
Valerie

Hello Valeria,
There are many flavors of Norton - which do you have?
If it has a built-in firewall aka: a suite, try turning off the firewall and see if it prints.
Also, uninstall Norton - can you now print from the web?
Reinstall and see what happens.
I searched around Norton and did a Google but there wasn’t any info for this problem that I could find.

1/3 problems with clients computers are a result of a norton based issues -ie connection problems spped issues etc . the only cure to the problem is to get rid of the norton as it has so many issues it is remarkable that norton is still used. shame years ago it was ok - just so bloated now . ANC

I bought Noton Antivirus 2004 five years ago and have been renewing my subscription every year since. However, this year, I found that my credit card had been billed twice for the amount involved (around £25). I found it very difficult to make contact with their customer support service and, having done so, they asked me twice to send all sorts of information including a copy of my credit card statement. Naturally, I refused to do this and I had to threaten to take the matter to a higher authority before they agreed to refund my overpayment.
This situation has caused me to browse to see whether others have had a similar experience and I found this correspondence chain. I have now started wondering whether my own computer’s abysmal performance during the last year or two is in any way related to live update etc.