Today was the culmination (at least I hope there is no more of this to deal with) of over two weeks of dealing with notebook computer hell…created through a combination of wireless woes (I just got wireless in May, but after a computer crash it was not been working correctly) and computer woes (got the "old" computer fixed to use as a backup and bought a new one…a LEMON…which I just exchanged for a brand new one out of the box this morning).
I was elated with how well my new computer was running today…so fast…so quietly…so good I did a happy dance with my sons. All was well…Internet access…email service…until…I installed Norton Internet Security Center and viola…I could no longer send or receive email, even after many Norton setting changes…I could no longer get to some Internet sites, or some sites just loaded the HTML code, even after many Norton setting changes.
Okay, fine, I’ll disable Norton. Gee, did that help? *NO*!!! Well, then I’ll uninstall it…gee did that help? *NO*!!!! According to both my ISP and my hardware/software support service the error codes I was receiving on Outlook indicated that it was Norton still interfering with my computer’s communications with the outside world. Apparently once Norton is installing it just does not want to go away. Hmm…doesn’t that make it a type of malicious code itself?
Without going into minute details, suffice it to say that one of the MANY actions I took was calling Symantec’s "SUPPORT" line, and I found myself in a automated phone response nightmare. What really ticked me off was that the Symantec computer voice indicated that I should get a priority number to be able to be helped most quickly. It then rattled off the URL so quickly I had to listen to it 3 times to get the URL correct. But, guess what? *I COULD NOT GET OUT TO THE INTERNET TO GET THE D*MN PRIORITY CODE BECAUSE OF WHAT THEIR SOFTWARE DID!!!*
Okay, fine, then I called them back…and after another 45 – 60 minutes of being the virtual silver ball in the Symantec customer support pinball phone system, I hung up. I have never experienced such poor customer service…not even getting a real human…ever before.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
There are literally millions of small to medium sized businesses in the U.S….including sole proprietors such as myself. Most do not have dedicated tech personnel on staff…we are OUR OWN tech support. We spend enough time doing our own daily tech support activities without being pushed through a maze of "press number 1" for this and "number 2" for that when we need some technical support for huge problems a vendor’s software causes, making us spend inordinate and valuable amounts of our business time trying to figure out and fix the mess their software…bundled in with my computer and which launched itself automatically…causes.
Okay…thanks for letting me vent. I also found out today that there *ARE* some vendors with very good customer service skills. From my own experience today, I am very happy with CompUSA (at least the folks in the Clive, Iowa store), and I’m very thankful for being able to use and connect quickly with their software support partner, Dial-A-Tech, who helped me to finally get rid of all the claws Norton left imbedded in my system…I think I am finally working okay.
And yes, I have installed a different security package…I’ll not comment about it until I see how well it works for at least a week or two.
The lessons of this tale (besides allowing me to vent)?
- Vendors need to make sure their software doesn’t screw up a computer to an unusable state. Yes, I know this is nothing new…but it is still worth beating the drum about.
- Vendors, particularly software vendors, and very critically security software vendors, need to establish GOOD customer service capabilities! It would be nice if they had GREAT customer service…but you know, I’m starkly realistic right now, and I think just asking for good would be a huge improvement.
- Small and medium sized businesses often have no dedicated tech staff have to deal with all these tech problems themselves. If security vendors continue to allow their products to screw up the ability for the businesses to function, most will likely not install security software. I wrote about data breaches in small businesses in this blog in March; the use of security software would likely increase if less buggy, overzealously agressive and downright disruptive security software were not so heavily marketed and forced upon the businesses purchasing their computing equipment.
I think my ordeal is not unique. There are probably thousands of small and medium sized businesses losing days of work and income while trying to address the technical problems caused by security software that does not work like it should. Security vendors, if you really want to help improve security, improve your security products and improve your customer service.
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