For those IT pros out there who are smart enough to read support messageboards before purchasing a product, lets take a minute to discuss the kind of support you'll receive from Symantec.
We purchased BackupExec a while back, and due to IT transitions did not install it for a few months. When we finally went to install the program, we had some issues. We contacted support and were told that Symantec does not provide installation support. Yes, read that again. In attempting to use their product for the first time after purchase, we were told that we could not get installation support without paying for it.
Ok, whatever. We spent hours on our own and solved the problem. We also decided that it might be a good time to upgrade to 11d since it was available. We installed the software and had some issues with the remote agents.
Thinking perhaps we had reached the wrong tech on the wrong day, we decided to give Symantec the benefit of the doubt and contacted support again. We were told that Symantec does not support the product during the evaluation period.
I'm sorry, what?
I have several years of experience in managing corporate IT, and in all my experience I have never come across a company marketing what purport's to be a high-end corporate product and have such a lack of support. This is not support for hardware changes post-installation or support for a product that's been deprecated for years - Symantec is actually refusing to help people install their program to evaluate it. The tech's suggestion? I should purchase the full product. So Symantec's position seems to be that yes, our product doesn't appear to be working with your system but no, we won't help you figure it out. So buy our product without trying it!
Are you kidding me?
I'm replacing BackupExec as our disaster recovery solution. I refuse to buy Symantec products even for home use from this point forward. I'm discouraging everyone I talk to from purchasing Symantec products. I'd love to hear other people's take on this, specifically a Symantec rep.
Or maybe I have to purchase the product for my message board posts to be visible...
Message Edited by MC on
01-17-2008 07:20 AM