Tuesday, March 20, 2007

I Give Up

Since our major PC meltdown two weeks ago, I have successfully reinstalled Windows XP, Webroot Spysweeper, Microsoft Office, and a half dozen or so other programs, twice. I have added a router for an extra level of security. I have reconfigured my wireless connection to my laptop. The only thing that continues to give me crap is Norton Antivirus.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled it, easily, seven or eight times. I'm through. I think it's all twisted up because our PC was preloaded with Norton Internet Security 2005, but I subsequently bought Antivirus 2006. I still have that CD and a valid product key. In January, I upgraded to 2007, running off the same product key.

Well, now, I get an error every time I try to reload the CD. The "help" scripts tell me to go ahead and download 2007, which is exactly what I want. I did, but then when I go to activate the product, it tells me the product key is invalid, even though it clearly shows on my account that it is valid through June 2008. Frankly, I think I have just tried too many times and have run out of chances.

Customer service (in India) tells me that I must have downloaded "wrong". They suggest I uninstall everything (again), reload 2006 from the CD (again), and download 2007 from an email link they sent me. I've done that repeatedly.

I have no doubt that the average customer service worker in India has a far greater education that most any of us here in the U.S. I bet those people trying to help me reinstall Norton Antivirus have well beyond my simple Bachelor's degree. I'm sure they can program me under the table. But have you ever tried to communicate a random 25 character product key to someone halfway around the globe, who has a fine grasp of the English language, but a very, very different manner of pronouncing it? It is exhausting.

When talking to a gentleman from Bangalore, we both had to resort to Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc, to communicate the letters of the alphabet. Well, I don't know all those terms, and I couldn't understand all that he was saying. I was saying "C, as in Corn Cob" and "R, as in Radish", because I didn't know any better, and he was just starting to talk louder. Finally, we both ended up laughing about it, and he put me on hold for 20 minutes to "check my account".

When he returned, he suggested I try again, and if it didn't work, I could always send an email, or call back and ask for a manager.

For crying out loud . . .

I'm finished. I'll milk the next five days out of this product until it shuts itself off, and then I'm going with McAfee.

2 comments:

RoanokeFound said...

Clamwin, it's free - open source, and has a massive database that it draws from.

search around, you'll find it

dsbowers said...

Thanks for the tip! I'll give it a whirl.