Wednesday, June 25. 2008

Off topic: Why can't I remove my account?

The social networking sites have been accused of making it difficult for members to "remove themselves." Many are working to make that easier. Not so for Symantec. I've been a loyal user for years and found the products and support to be top notch. I used the "automatic renewal" feature to insure that the company annual took my money to insure I continued to get new virus definitions.

I received the notice that the annual money taking would commence next month. But, not I don't need the anti-virus protection because I use a Mac. (My Windows XP desktop is now using Free AVG.) So I logged in to my account and told Symantec not to auto-update. But then I realized that I no longer wish to have a relationship with the company. Could I find out how to remove my account and become invisible in Symantec's eyes? No, apparently that information is not provided in the many knowledgebases on the website for business and home users.

I did contact customer support, where a representative did, in snappy fashion I must admit, reply that my account was removed. If I open the account myself why can't I close it myself?

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Symantec is notorious for how hard they make it for customers to terminate the relationship. Not sure if you know this, but they are the only (as far as I know) AV (or any other, for that matter) software vendor who requires a password to uninstall their software. Talk about clingy. Or insecure (pun intended).

#1 Atanas Entchev (Link) on 2008-06-25 07:37 (Reply)

Any company that has revenue based on the subscription model (such as Symantec AV) needs to make it hard to cancel. If it was easy to cancel, they'd lose out on revenue.

Not consumer friendly, but...

#2 James Fee (Link) on 2008-06-25 08:03 (Reply)

There are exceptions. A variety of subscription based services I have paid into and then abandoned made the process easy because angering customers is ultimately a losing prospect - especially since word of mouth now potentially includes everyone on the internet. I find this zero-hassle experience is more common for services that include a lot of recidivism.

Symantec probably goes with this tactic because they are trash antivirus compared to freeware like AVG or low maintenance, low resource commercial alternatives like NOD32.

#2.1 Ben R. (Link) on 2008-06-25 10:00 (Reply)

There's always the passive method for account termination ... try to hang on until your credit card expiration date passes. Then, when the company contacts you for renewal and asks for your updated card info, you're finally back in the driver's seat!

#3 Stephen on 2008-06-25 13:35 (Reply)

Or your credit card can expire and you want to continue your subscription through auto update. So they submit it to your bank without a valid expiration date and it is denied. Then the bank calls you. You ask them to let the charge through. Then you get charged after the magic auto update day, but your subscription does not update. Then your husband gets to talk to a nice man in India for over an hour while they straighten it out. Where can I send the check to next time???

#4 Cindy on 2008-06-26 11:35 (Reply)

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In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Atanas Entchev on 2008-06-25 07:37 #2: James Fee on 2008-06-25 08:03   #2.1: Ben R. on 2008-06-25 10:00 #3: Stephen on 2008-06-25 13:35 #4: Cindy on 2008-06-26 11:35
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