A better Rogister than the Register - Adamson Rust
|
|
|
Symantec sued over subscription charge
INSECURITY FIRM Symantec has been sued by a New Yorker annoyed at having had his Norton Antivirus subscription automatically renewed.
According to a report, Kenneth Elan signed up to use the Symantec Norton Antivirus tool in 2007. However, when his subscription ran out in November 2009 he discovered that that it had been automatically renewed for another year. This and the resulting $76 charge lead him to take the case to court.
Elan was annoyed because he had not been notified of the charge, a practice for which Symantec has already been fined. At that time, in a case that was also heard in New York, the firm was fined $375,000 and ordered to give users notice of any renewals.
At that time Attorney General Cuomo said, "Companies cannot play hide the ball when it comes to the fees consumers are being charged. Consumers have a right to know what they are paying, especially when they are unwittingly agreeing to renewal fees that will not appear on their credit card bill for months. Symantec and McAfee - two of the nation's largest vendors of computer security software - will now have to be clear and up-front with their customers when it comes to renewal fees. In other words, no more hide the ball with renewal fees."
In his summary he added, "The companies will provide electronic notification to consumers before and after renewal of the subscription and will provide refunds to consumers who request them within 60 days of being charged."
PC Advisor reports that the lawsuit claims that Symantec has not abided by these rules, adding, "Prior to the automatic renewal, defendant failed to offer plaintiff an opportunity to decline to renew the licence for another year. If plaintiff had notice of an opportunity to decline the automatic renewal, plaintiff would not have renewed the licence."
The New York Attorney General's Office is looking into the case. µ
Share this:
Share
I hope they are sued out of business (obviously this is highly unlikely). As a technician, I am sick and tired of this crappy software screwing up my clients PCs. Then again..... I guess it's easy money.
That I only use free "security" software. Screw Symantec and McAfee!
I won't buy subscription software. It's an insidious model. My memory is fuzzy, but when antivirus software first it came out, wasn't it set up that you could just buy it and OWN it, rather than RENT it? If you wanted to be able to upgrade to new virus definitions beyond a year, you had to buy the new one. But you could still use the OLD one as long as you wanted. You could pull it out 40 years after a nuclear holocaust and install it on an old machine without having to ask permission from anybody to do it!
you mean people pay for a virus killer?
hahahahahahaha
no wonder they are scammed by bloat makers such as symantec
..poor fools....
was it ever decided whether norton is a trojan? or maybe it was a rootkit.
... that if you type "norton" into Google, the first result returned by Google Suggest is "norton removal tool"; and likewise, if you type "mcafee" into Google, the first result returned by Google Suggest is "mcafee removal tool".
Tells me all I need to know, anyway.
I've often joked to customers that i'd rather a virus on my computer than Norton AV... I've also heard multiple times about Norton automatically charging credit cards to renew licences. When people call up to complain Norton will always refund the money claiming there has been a mistake... Of course how many people never bother to complain..?