A letter to Symantec upon the renewal of Norton 360

A rare insight into the personal cyber world of DaithaiC

Dear Norton Subscriptions Team,

I like Norton 360 and would wish to renew as I think it is a good product which you have improved over the years.

However I really have a problem with your marketing which comes across as being somewhat "smart ass" on pricing and exploiting customer inertia - it in fact is so bad it is disrespectful to your customers and destroys customer loyalty. I had previously mentioned these points personally at the London Bloggers Meet up to Marie from Norton Customer Service.


Symantec World Headquarters. 350 Ellis Street Mountain View, CA 94043 - This is where square jawed marketing geniuses who little understand their customers but know what this year's bonus is think up wizzo scams to confuse customers with too many versions, charge them more, charge them early, intimidate them with daily reminders and farm their data. Don't these idiots realise their main competitors are FREE! Sack them now before they destroy your company!

Marie did respond to these issues at the time but I am now somewhat disappointed that Symantec have not availed of the "learning moment" in customer feedback as my renewal is a lot more than retailers are selling your product for. My issues are;

1. Pricing; You want to charge me, an existing customer who already has your product loaded and whose marginal cost is negligible, a PREMIUM price of £56.51. Now on YOUR OWN website Norton 360 is available to new customers at £41.99 and cheaper again from resellers. Why should I for a AUTOMATIC RENEWAL which cuts YOUR COSTS pay a premium of 35% over your own new customer price? Are you assuming I'm an idiot?



2. Timing; You want me to pay you this inflated price 2 WEEKS EARLIER and then claim this is for my convenience!! Well I am sure it is highly convenient for your cash flow and admin but the advantage for ME? Ditto to "Are you assuming I'm an idiot?" Would you go into Tesco if they asked you to pay them now and collect your groceries in two weeks time or would you take your business elsewhere on the grounds you were not a moron?

You really need to change the paradigm of your CRM to reward rather than penalise customer loyalty. Business is riddled with examples of failed companies which believed their own publicity and thought they were more important than their customers. Generally they failed because their customers disagreed!

I look forward to a real response which confirms you GET IT. Otherwise, this idiot walks.

regards,

DaithaiC



Blogistas, I don't presume Symantec are unique in treating loyal customers as mugs? I'll keep you posted! Well they did come back and offer an extra 3 months for the same price;

Dear DaithaiC

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with our services, in regards to being charged 2 weeks prior to your products expiry date I would just like to confirm that this will most likely never be changed due to the fact that we want to be able to insure that all of our customers are protected at all times. If we were to make our first payment attempt on the same day as your subscription expires and for some reason it wouldn't go through, you would be vulnerable.


I have as promised extended your subscription with an additional 3 months, due to this, your renewal is not scheduled until around the 25th of May. This will also give you some time to decide if you want to keep the annual renewal service or if you prefer to go to a local retail store in order to purchase a new product key.

Thank you and kind regards,

Marie Hagström
Norton Customer Service
Europe, Middle East and Africa

Chat support: www.norton.com/chat



Dear Marie,

I won't repeat what I have said to you in my original email and which I had said to you a year earlier at The London Bloggers MeetUp but there really needs to be a change of attitude by Symantec on its Norton sales model.

You cannot be charging your most loyal EXISTING customers who renew online and are cheapest for you to service the HIGHEST price. Not only are you squandering customer loyalty but in the process you are losing important advocates for your rather good and much improving product. Furthermore it is NOT an advantage to ME to pay you two weeks early - it is a bit like a restaurant telling you they are rounding up the bill for YOUR convenience - you would simply make a note NEVER to go back there.



The American Barrow Boys who came up with this model should be told in no uncertain terms that they are idiots who do not respect their returning and renewing customers and that this high pressure sales approach has been redundant since they stopped selling encyclopaedias door-2-door.

For the sake of laziness, and through gritted teeth, because I would prefer you to drop your inflated headline I will accept, on this occasion only, your offer to extend the subscription by 3 months even though I could walk into PC World and buy it in a box for half the price? I hope the next time I come to renew Norton will have a pricing model that makes sense to customers and not to target driven Marketing Directors?

kind regards,

DaithaiC.