How does Symantec stay in business?

Victor's anti-virus subscription appears to have expired some time in the last month. He didn't get any pop-ups from Norton informing him of the fact until today, when it told him that he had to uninstall and re-install because of a critical error in the Norton engine. After doing that, it finally got around to mentioning that he needed to re-subscribe in order to re-install.

Okay, that was pretty sleazy, but sure. I dug up my "online use only" credit card and we started navigating the Symantec website to get him re-subscribed. To no surprise at all, just like every previous year, the route to paying for the download is very straightforward and direct. You provide the basic info, select the download you want, provide your credit card number, and badda-bing, you're done.

And just like every other year, when it comes to actually receiving the product you've just paid for . . . it gets extra difficult.

We've paid, the invoice number is provided, along with a "Download Now" button. Simple. Just copy the access key to a separate file, then click the download button. Except that when you click the download button, it invites you to download a file called "pixel.GIF", of 1 byte in size.

Call me suspicious, but I don't think this is the file I just paid to download.

Click the button again, same result. Try downloading, and the browser goes off into a reverie, but never actually downloads anything useful. Try a different browser . . . same result.

Try finding a way to talk to a real human being . . . you might as well be searching for Amelia Earhart. They've invested huge amounts of time and money to prevent you ever finding a contact email or telephone number that might possibly lead to a real person. A few years ago, I had to actually get a friend who had high-level contacts at the firm to prize out a contact email for me to get the damned program to download.

After half an hour of wasted time, we cancelled the order and Victor downloaded Macafee instead. It took less than five minutes from deciding to switch Anti-virus vendors to having the Macafee software installed and running on his machine.

I'm thinking that I'll do the same for my own machine, when my subscription expires in the next month or so (assuming that Norton tells me in advance, that is).

Symantec may have a good software package to sell, but when I encounter difficulties every year when I try to renew my license, I have to assume that they don't really want my business. Macafee clearly does.