Norton AntiVirus and Tax Time
drt on Feb 18 2007 at 3:51 am | Filed under: Miscellaneous
My subscription to Norton AntiVirus (NAV) expired last week, and I was surprised to find that the subscription renewal fee was the same as the price of NAV 2007. I have used NAV since it was still distributed in diskette(s). As far as I could remember, the subscription fee was ~$6 at that time, and if I bought any other Norton products at that time, the subscription fee would be waived.
After my laptop’s hard disk crashed last October I also bought Norton Save and Restore with my new hard disk. I was expecting that my subscription fee would automatically be extended for another year like in the old days. Well, I was wrong. Dang! Why should I pay the new price while what I’d need is only an upgrade?
I was a little mad and started to think of switching to other antivirus software. I then tried to call Symantec Service Support, and was forced to listen to that never ending recording, saying ‘you’re call are very important, blah, blah, blah…’ Finally a guy with heavy accent (like me) picked up the phone, then told me that my “Save and Restore” had nothing to do with the anti virus software. There would be no other solution unless I extended my subscription for another year. Full price!
One thing I notice though, Symantec mentioned in their website that we could save $40 if we buy their Internet Security software together with a Tax Preparation (TP) software from either one of the two TP software vendors. I have already bought one of these Tax Software early this month, but I haven’t installed it in my computer.
This afternoon I went back to Staple and I saw that Norton Antivirus would only cost me $9.99 if I bought it with either one of these TP software. Last year actually I did the same thing, i.e., buying the TP software without looking at the rebate offer from Norton. However, the store manager was so kind to let me returned my software and asked for a refund. He then let me bought it again together with Norton Antivirus so I could claim my rebate.I didn’t see the same promotion on the TP Software box again this year, and that was the reason why I have bought the TP software without buying Norton Antivirus software. When I looked at the Symantec software rack in the store, I saw the small print at the frame of the rack, saying that it would only cost me $9.99 if I bought the Symantec product with either one of the TP software. I then went to this friendly store manager. I showed him the receipt for my TP software and explained the situation. He agreed to repeat what he did early last year around tax time. I then went to my car, picked up the TP Software, asked for a refund at the cashier, then went to pick up a box of NAV 2007, and let the cashier rang them up together. Now I got my rebate forms for both the TP software and NAV 2007.
Extra $10 added to the TP software to renew my subscription of Norton Antivirus was not a bad idea. I just hope that they are going to keep doing this, so at the tax time next year, I would be able to renew my Norton Antivirus again at a price much lower than its retail price.
I don’t know if John Chow or our friends from up north in Canada get the same offer from Symantec or not. But if you live in the U.S. like me and you happen to use NAV or Norton Security product, then Tax Time like this definitely is a good time to buy/renew the NAV or other Symantec software that are tying to the TP software.
But please remember! Don’t misplace and don’t forget to send out those rebate forms before their expiration date. 
Popularity: 2% [?]
