Certain Manufacturers of anti-virus programs seem to increasingly resort to conning its existing customers. A current example seems to be Norton, the manufacturer of the anti-virus software of the same name.
Norton doesn’t appear to care about legal requirements
Some time ago I installed Norton AntiVirus for my girlfriend. A few months ago I noticed that the completely adequate product „Norton AntiVirus“ was no longer installed on her computer, but that she seems to have been tricked into buying the „Norton™ 360 Premium“ product for 10 computers, at twice the price when she renewed her subscription. In my opinion completely unnecessary – like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Unfortunately, the email from Norton about the renewal seems to either have been lost or it may have ended up in the spam folder. So, the easy option of cancellation was gone.
Fortunately there is the option of making use of the right of cancellation. According to Norton’s website, the customer has 14 days after receipt of the invoice to cancel the order and to request a refund of the purchase price.
Two days after receiving the invoice, we informed Norton in Ireland by registered mail that we were exercising our right of withdrawal and requesting a refund.
After a month, Norton sent us an email response, requesting information that had already been provided in the registered letter. The first doubts about Norton’s seriousness arose and the suspicion of delaying tactics grew. Nevertheless, the requested information was provided again. Then there was no further action by Norton. There was no reply to my email inquiries about the status of the matter.
After a while I then exchanged unsuccessful messages with Norton employees via X, formerly Twitter. Here, as well, the employees seemed to stall the customers and make them look foolish.
They seem to surmise – or perhaps have good reason to believe – that hardly anyone takes legal action.
The nasty scam of luring customers into an higher-priced product when renewing subscriptions
When renewing a subscription, the customer is intrusively lured into a higher-priced subscription. You have to look for the option to extend the original product and be careful not to fall into the trap.
But if you are a little distracted or in a hurry, it can happen quickly. Although Norton knows exactly, as in this case, that the user only needs to protect a single computer, he/she ends with a product for 10 devices and functions not needed. Classic con artistry, in my opinion.
Norton is also extremely pushy in other ways. After each virus scan, an overview is given at the end. This scares the user by pointing out that they are being tracked and should react. With an additional offer at a price of almost 50 Swiss francs, which would then be added to the existing subscription of 114 Swiss francs. This is simply a rip-off.
I used to recommend Norton to my customers with a clear conscience. Today I no longer do that and refer them to other products such as Bitdefender. You may also resort to the now good anti-virus program from Windows. This is a standard inclusion and automatically activated if no other anti-virus program is installed.