Norton 360 is a service that advertises heavily on TV and the internet. I actually have used antivirus products from Norton but you have to be careful with them. Some of my Norton products were up for renewal and I had over a month to deal with it. They actually gave me a bit more time to renew for some reason probably because I called off auto renewal. Nevertheless, I saw a good price for another Norton 360 antivirus product and the services I wanted, but had a few pre-sale questions so I called them.
They offered another product. The representative told me the features included. So I was prepared to install the new product. The only reason for my call was because I didn’t know if I had to uninstall the old one first and then get the new one. She said I would not have to do that. So I then asked if I had to rush to buy it at that time or could I just wait to buy until Friday, December 31 to do this since I have another 34 days of service left for my current Norton 360 antivirus? I asked would the price be the same. She confirmed it would be the same. In fact, she went further and said if I checked and it was not the same to just call the customer service line and they would give me the same price. This morning, merely 24 hours since I called her, the price went up a lot.
My reason in waiting until December 31 was because I wanted to know when this product is expired. I hate renewing stuff on weird days. I go through this with my internet service that expires in the middle of the year on an odd day of the month. I tried to aim for ordering that Norton 360 antivirus software on the last day of the year. In the future, I probably should walk into a Best Buy a month or two before it expires and buy a Key Card and then I am ready. The reason I wanted to do this is because with Norton’s product when you renew your term starts the day of the purchase and not the day you install it.
I called thinking ok I will just purchase it now if they would give me the price from yesterday. Well the first representative today wanted to charge me $30 more for the same product from yesterday. I gave her the case or reference number from yesterday’s call and she was firm the price would be $30 more. I asked to speak to a supervisor and I gave him the case number from yesterday and the previous representative from yesterday never left any notes about the price quote. She wrote down in her notes about the product details and installation questions she answered but that was it. She wrote nothing about the price.
The supervisor then tells me he couldn’t do anything. He then tells me the price will go down in two days or he implied as much. He was referring to the product I have now. This was fine with me since I had that product in the first place. Truthfully some of their products have features I never use anyway. I will wait and see. Maybe the price will fall back, or maybe it won’t! But I have learned something really important in dealing with Norton’s phone representatives. And this goes for any phone support.
When you talk to a phone support person and they quote you a price will be a certain amount or if it changes, you need to get them to document it in the notes. Just remember, these representatives are foreign based anyway so there could be a communication problem. But you really can’t trust what a phone representative tells you. You need something in writing, either an email or something you know they are documenting in the notes on your account. This isn’t the end of the world here. My experience is just something that may help you in the future so I decided to pass it along.
For more online safety, you may also find it helpful to read an earlier post on how to prevent online identity theft.
