In PR Faux Pas, Symantec Shifts Blame, Pisses Off Customers

In what is turning out to be a major PR faux pas, a whole lot of people are really miffed about the way Symantec , seller of Norton Anti-Virus Software, handled a recent problem that they are blaming on VeriSign. The glitch caused Word and Excel to run slowly or freeze on the computers of tens of thousands of Norton Anti-Virus Microsoft customers.

Normally, when there is a major threat to its customers, Norton sends an email to its registered users. This time they didn't bother and I would guess that a lot of computer consultants made out very well as a result. Their fault or not, the right thing to do would have been to notify customers with the fix that Norton came up with.

According to CNET News, the problems caused a flurry of angry posts to the Symantec area of support forums from users saying they would ditch Symantec's Norton AntiVirus.