Forum Discussion

gilgamesh-aus's avatar
gilgamesh-aus
Level 4
9 years ago

Anyone else having issues with 3 year software renewals

Back in March 2015 (when it was still Symantec) I renewed my licence for System Recovery for 3 years.

In March this year I was notified by Veritas that it was due for renewal. As this was an obvious error I raised a problem case and supplied all purchase details.I was also told by the support person I spoke to that this was happening with multiple people so I was not alone.

Fast forward four months, it still has not been resolved and I'm being asked for purchase details again.

I had previously raised support cases when the company was still Symantec and got call backs within hours, but waiting for four months to fix a simple clerical error is ridiculous.

The upshot of this is that I have been without entitlements for 3 months and obviously can't download the latest version with SP6.

Is anyone else on the forums getting a similar runaround from Veritas?

I paid with Amex so I'm thinking of contacting them to raise a disputed payment case.

SSR 2013
Windows 8
  • weff's avatar
    weff
    Level 4
    9 years ago

    Not exactly, but I have had repeated problem with trying to extend an existing maintenance contract with Veritas.

    Ignoring the problem with initially trying to find a vendor who would sell retail for 1 copy not the $5000 minimum order most wanted I eventually found an online supplier who could help (only after the order was processed and fulfilled they then decided Veritas was too much bother so cancelled access to all Veritas product). I have since found 2 online suppliers (one UK, one AU) plus an AU computer company who doesn't mind small orders so I am set for a company to deal with a while yet.

    However - I originally had an SSR contract for 2 years from Aug 2015 through Aug 2017.

    I order the 1 year SSR extension 13880-M1-23 - only for the certificate to be wrongly supplied as Aug 2016 through Aug 2017 instead of Aug 2017 through Aug 2018 that I needed.

    So I raise a Customer Care docket - only to later be advised that you are actually meant to deal directly with ordertocash@veritas.com and they will fix the problems.

    So, after reciving the new certificate I checked online and it was correct - 2 weeks later I received yet another certificate .. which I ignored as it was identical to previous.

    Tonight when i check the existing 3 year  entitlement meant to be from Aug 2015 through Aug 2018 I now find the contract is just for 1 year from Aug 2015 through Aug 2016 - not only had the original 2 year entitlement been part deleted - the additional year extension has been lost as well !

    Unfortunately the entitlement ends in 2 weeks now - so I need ordertocash@veritas.com to undo their latest incorrect alterations and return the Entitlement coverage to be from Aug 2015 through Aug 2018 again.

    Symantec was so much easier - you could order extensions online - why Veritas insists on thir "Partner" scheme I am unsure - however the distinct lack or retail outlets in their "Partner" listings might indicate a certain lack of enthusiasm in dealing with small 1 user orders in future.

    First Symantec push Ghost users to just use SSR - then sell SSR to Veritas whose focus is Corporates not previous Ghost users. (Understandable in a way - but at least support here is even handed it might just be some of the Veritas Management Policies in how renewals should be made that are the issue.)

    I also recently ordered 2 new 2 year contracts with the new AU computer company - and that worked out correctly - it is just one of the original contracts I raised that I am now having the issues with Veritas initiated changes that should not have occurred.

    The other frustrating thing is that if the contract has expired for too long there is a cost penalty in arranging a new contract with them as you have to start afresh and pay the overhead penalty - even when the reason you hadn't renewed was due to Symantec/Veritas not sending the renewal warnings while it was in transition from Symantec to Veritas. Their stuff-up - but we end up paying for their error.

     Oh yeah - as to waiting 4 months - not likely. 4 Days at most is what it took them the first time to fix a contract.

    If you have the Certificates for each order then you should be able to write up an email with them attached and send them to ordertocash@veritas.com for a fairly quick response and restoration of them. The certificates are proof - they should be able to reinstate the Entitlements very quickly.

    If you never received the contract extension certificates then that would be much harder to deal with as proof of payment with a 3rd party company is a lot more difficult to substantiate. But from what you have described that is not the case - you should have the certificate(s) as proof - can be activated online quite quickly if Veritas has incorrectly cancelled it.

    You are way more patient than I would be. Symantec were tops for responding to issues - sounds like you are being given the run around.

    Geoff

     

    • gilgamesh-aus's avatar
      gilgamesh-aus
      Level 4
      9 years ago

      Well now it's 5 months and I received another e-mail where they said they were "working on this case on high priority, Please allow us some more time to get this issue fixed."

      I've gone back to The Renewal Center and they resolved it within a few days.

      While I still believe the software is good I will never recommend it to anyone again based upon this debacle.

      • weff's avatar
        weff
        Level 4
        9 years ago

        I suspect that the problems we are seeing with Support renewals may be as a result of Veritas having to suddenly handle the licensing mechanisms for all the absorbed Symantec products and then while that is still being resolved also  try and handle the renewals process.

        Subsequent to my above post -  in late August, just after it had already been fixed once - the expiry date for one of my licenses reverted back from Aug 2018 to Aug 2015 yet again.

        The correct way to handle this problem I have found is to send a new clean email to ordertocash@veritas.com which includes the relevant certificates for that license, a brief mention of any past history as well as any previous OrderToCash case numbers - with a request for an increased priority if it is a repeat occurrence and causes the system to be out of support.

        By sending a clean email with the needed details again will cause O2C group system to generate a new Case number for the fault as once an O2C problem is resolved the  case is closed and all future emails sent for that case then appear to be ignored once it has been closed. (Otherwise any previous case sequence numbers in the body of old emails in that forwarding of an old email which may describe the problem will  route the new email to the old closed Case and will be ignored.)

        O2C group will then assign a priority relevent to the fault impact & your requested priority and then work on it when they have worked through the backlog of any higher priority faults. In my case that took 2 weeks+ before I heard anything back and was also advised that there is also a recurring problem in the Veritas licensing system they are trying to resolve where some changes to License expiry dates do not always "stick" - and may revert after 2 days. This is why my License expiry had reverted back from 2018 back to 2015 due to some of the later license data post 2015 after having been entered in the system were then somehow lost.

        This fault with my license appears to have finally been fixed so shouldn't have that expiry date revert back to 2015 again I hope. I also had requested that O2C wait for my confirmation before closing the O2C docket as their usual practice is to send an email to say it is fixed and close that case at the same time. If the license expiry Date then reverts a day later you have to establish a new O2C Case and start the wait for reply again. Better to delay closing the case to prevent that issue occurring.

        I also had to separately raise a Customer Support case requesting access to that new O2C Case so that I could add comments to the Case - although I couldn't see the O2C team comments (by design) which meant the file wasn't very informative. It did though allow me to add comments  directly as well as also close the case once i had waited a few days to confirm the license Expiry date was still correct.

        I agree wth you though that a 4 month delay in trying to resolve this is way too long- whether or not there were teething problems is no real excuse.

        It also doesn't help that Veritas doesn't publish the OrderToCash@veritas.com email address for issues with licensing - the formal method apparently is still to log a Customer Support case and for them to transfer it across to an O2C case number - I don't know whether doing that is faster or not.

         

        I agree that this instance would be incredibly frustrating - but ultimately it is the quality of the software (and the existence of the Support areas) that are the reasons why I will stay with Veritas - the transition annoyance notwithstanding.

        Having used Ghost software for too many years  - being able to continue with that same functionality as well as knowing that there is at least a mechanism to report faults to as well as get assistance here are reasons enough to continue with SSR 2013 R2 software. Yes there were issues in the past with the addition of support for Windows 10 - but that happening at the same times as the move from Symantec to Veritas didn't help and there is no real point re-hashing those past events now that they have been resolved.