hollye44
- 89
Please take a few minutes to read. It is about Norton Internet security system and an upgrade that is causing serious problems, and includes a solution. Mike is a super-smart computer guy in California (software engineer with his own company) who is much more patient that anything I could ever dream to be.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Callen
Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 1:31 AM
Subject: [Fwd: the callen computer nightmare]
Hi:
My computer was down for the past three days... you may be thinking, "he must have gotten a virus, or lost a hard drive, or maybe his power supply went out..." Nope. None of those things. The problem?? Seemed rather innocuous at first, but Norton told me that there was an update available, so I went ahead and ran auto-update, downloaded the files and began to install. It installed for a minute or two and then error-ed, saying that the install could not be completed and that I should contact Norton (Symantec) support.
It was a little after 6:00 am, and I'm technically savvy, so I went to their website, navigated to the support page, and initiated a chat with a very nice person in India. This person said that he knew what the problem was, and provided me a link to a program that I should install so that he could log in to my machine and make the necessary corrections. In about thirty seconds he was in and clicking away on things... I watched as my mouse pointer moved across the screen by this unseen force. Minutes turned into an hour and I asked Alaine to take over while I went to work. At 9:30 she called me and told me that he was still working, and that she had to go pick up our daughter. I told her to type him a note and do what she had to do. He said that would be no problem and he would continue to work.
I got home at 6:00 pm and found my PC frozen. I rebooted the machine and never even saw any icons. I rebooted a few more times and got the icons to appear, but couldn't get the task bar or start menu to pop up. I was able to run the chat icon, so I contacted Symantec support and another nice person climbed aboard my machine. This person worked for another three hours while I watched until I could watch no more. I told him I was going to sleep, and he said, no problem. In the morning, I came in early to check out my machine. I found that it was in the same state as the evening before, which was unable to run any programs other than Symantec's chat program, but this time it was different. The tech had left me a message that said he had done all the he could do, and possibly a VIRUS had caused this problem. Hmmm.... I guess if you call a Norton upgrade a virus.
I contacted Symantec support a third time and asked the very nice person if they were able to restore my computer to its previous state, which was "running." He said that he could continue with the install of the upgrade, but there was no way he could get my computer back to the way it was. I kindly and gently opted out of the conversation... at least that's how I remember it anyway.
I contacted my friend Dean, who runs a site called Guaranteed PC FIX- computer service, computerservice ... I knew that he did repairs over the internet and that his package included an antivirus software, and now that I was permanently without Norton, I would need virus protection anyway. Dean told me that he would take care of it and went on to tell me that he had already fixed four computers the previous day with this same issue. It seemed that the Norton techs were his biggest source of business. Dean logged in to my computer, fixed the problem, installed his own program called CPU-LOCK that prevents viruses, spyware and rugrats living at your home from installing programs on your computer.
His service is a little more expensive than Norton ($120 a year), but its installed by Dean (or one of his employees) and -- guess what -- you can talk to them on the telephone if you want (toll free at 888-677-7777 or 916-677-7777) ... They serve customers all across the country, seven days a week, and way too many hours per day.
I cannot tell you how happy I am -- and relieved that this is taken care of. My computer is a "screamer" once again. It boots up more quickly and the programs seem to launch more quickly. The best part is this, though, if the computer gets a virus, they will log in and remove the infection for free at any time in the next 12 months.
I know this sounds like a commercial, and I'm sorry for that. But if you have been through the amazingly poor treatment given by Norton, or have ever suffered the indignity of having a crippling computer problem that you cannot solve yourself, you understand why I've taken the time to pass this information along to you. Feel free to forward this to anyone who may be hovering over the message that says it's time to upgrade your Norton software ... and hopefully they will contact Dean instead. If your computer is an important part of your work life, or an important means of communication for you, you should consider making the switch before you waste a day or two (or more) chasing this kind of thing down.
Best regards,
Mike
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Callen
Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 1:31 AM
Subject: [Fwd: the callen computer nightmare]
Hi:
My computer was down for the past three days... you may be thinking, "he must have gotten a virus, or lost a hard drive, or maybe his power supply went out..." Nope. None of those things. The problem?? Seemed rather innocuous at first, but Norton told me that there was an update available, so I went ahead and ran auto-update, downloaded the files and began to install. It installed for a minute or two and then error-ed, saying that the install could not be completed and that I should contact Norton (Symantec) support.
It was a little after 6:00 am, and I'm technically savvy, so I went to their website, navigated to the support page, and initiated a chat with a very nice person in India. This person said that he knew what the problem was, and provided me a link to a program that I should install so that he could log in to my machine and make the necessary corrections. In about thirty seconds he was in and clicking away on things... I watched as my mouse pointer moved across the screen by this unseen force. Minutes turned into an hour and I asked Alaine to take over while I went to work. At 9:30 she called me and told me that he was still working, and that she had to go pick up our daughter. I told her to type him a note and do what she had to do. He said that would be no problem and he would continue to work.
I got home at 6:00 pm and found my PC frozen. I rebooted the machine and never even saw any icons. I rebooted a few more times and got the icons to appear, but couldn't get the task bar or start menu to pop up. I was able to run the chat icon, so I contacted Symantec support and another nice person climbed aboard my machine. This person worked for another three hours while I watched until I could watch no more. I told him I was going to sleep, and he said, no problem. In the morning, I came in early to check out my machine. I found that it was in the same state as the evening before, which was unable to run any programs other than Symantec's chat program, but this time it was different. The tech had left me a message that said he had done all the he could do, and possibly a VIRUS had caused this problem. Hmmm.... I guess if you call a Norton upgrade a virus.
I contacted Symantec support a third time and asked the very nice person if they were able to restore my computer to its previous state, which was "running." He said that he could continue with the install of the upgrade, but there was no way he could get my computer back to the way it was. I kindly and gently opted out of the conversation... at least that's how I remember it anyway.
I contacted my friend Dean, who runs a site called Guaranteed PC FIX- computer service, computerservice ... I knew that he did repairs over the internet and that his package included an antivirus software, and now that I was permanently without Norton, I would need virus protection anyway. Dean told me that he would take care of it and went on to tell me that he had already fixed four computers the previous day with this same issue. It seemed that the Norton techs were his biggest source of business. Dean logged in to my computer, fixed the problem, installed his own program called CPU-LOCK that prevents viruses, spyware and rugrats living at your home from installing programs on your computer.
His service is a little more expensive than Norton ($120 a year), but its installed by Dean (or one of his employees) and -- guess what -- you can talk to them on the telephone if you want (toll free at 888-677-7777 or 916-677-7777) ... They serve customers all across the country, seven days a week, and way too many hours per day.
I cannot tell you how happy I am -- and relieved that this is taken care of. My computer is a "screamer" once again. It boots up more quickly and the programs seem to launch more quickly. The best part is this, though, if the computer gets a virus, they will log in and remove the infection for free at any time in the next 12 months.
I know this sounds like a commercial, and I'm sorry for that. But if you have been through the amazingly poor treatment given by Norton, or have ever suffered the indignity of having a crippling computer problem that you cannot solve yourself, you understand why I've taken the time to pass this information along to you. Feel free to forward this to anyone who may be hovering over the message that says it's time to upgrade your Norton software ... and hopefully they will contact Dean instead. If your computer is an important part of your work life, or an important means of communication for you, you should consider making the switch before you waste a day or two (or more) chasing this kind of thing down.
Best regards,
Mike
