Dear Symantec: You suck.

From: Barry Campbell
To: [Symantec CEO, COO, CIO]
cc: [Clueless Indian Outsourcing Company]
Subject: Technical Support Woes

On Saturday, March 5, 2005, I opened up a case with Symantec's web/e-mail based tech support, regarding my sudden inability to use Live Update with Norton Internet Security 2005. The case was assigned as number [redacted].

I was contacted by a representative of Iseva, where Symantec has apparently outsourced its technical support. The entire e-mail trail is reproduced below my signature [blog readers: I have spared you this - bc], but in essence, what happened was this:

-- I used the web form on the Symantec site to describe my difficulties using Live Update in Internet Security 2005. In the web form submission, I indicated that I had already tried all the relevant troubleshooting procedures in the Knowledgebase, with no success.

-- The Iseva rep wanted to walk me through a troubleshooting procedure I had already performed, based on a document in the Knowledgebase that I had already found.

-- When I informed the Iseva rep that I had already tried everything he was asking me to do, I heard nothing further from him. My last communication from the Iseva rep was on Sunday, March 6, almost one week ago; I wrote on March 8th to ask what was happening with my case, and there was no reply.

I have several questions.

-- Does Symantec feel that this is an adequate level of technical support for a paying customer? (I don't.)

-- Does Iseva feel that they are doing a good job for Symantec? (I don't.)

-- Is abandoning the customer once the first-level support script is exhausted an official Symantec and/or Iseva policy? (It appears to be.)

Frankly, I think that this has been an absolutely disgraceful performance on Iseva's part, and by extension, Symantec's.

I am stuck with disabled software on my desktop machine, and am at the point of removing it, demanding a refund from Symantec, and installing AVG Anti-Virus and ZoneAlarm.

Please give me a reason--any reason--to reconsider.