A resident of New York State is suing Symantec for billing is credit card for a renewal of his Norton Anti-Virus without informing him first. The funny thing is, Symantec agreed that they would stop doing just that:
Many antivirus vendors enroll customers in automatic renewal programs when they purchase or activate the software, claiming that it’s the only way to guarantee that users stay protected against new threats. Symantec started doing so in 2005, while rival McAfee began four years earlier.
But last June, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that his office had reached a settlement with Symantec and McAfee over consumer charges that the companies didn’t get users’ approval to automatically bill them, and had made it difficult for customers to opt out or obtain refunds. Symantec and McAfee paid $375,000 each in penalties, and said they would clarify subscription renewal costs, and refund fees to consumers who asked for them within 60 days of being charged.
Symantec and McAfee also agreed to “provide electronic notification to consumers before and after renewal of the subscription,” Cuomo’s office said at the time.
Expect this to play out in court for a bit before being settled.
As an aside, I’ve always wondered why people pay for anti-virus protection when there’s many good if not better products that are available for free. So rather than spring for an anti-virus package at your local Best Buy, try AVG which is on my list of free products that help to secure your PC. Or you can try Microsoft Security Essentials which I’ve written about in the past as that is free as well being good at what it does. In my mind, there’s really very little reason why anyone should have to pay for anti-virus protection.

So I Take My Toyota Matrix In To Get The Pedal Fixed…. [UPDATED x2]
Posted in Commentary with tags Toyota on February 9, 2010 by itnerd… And I have to admit, I’m wondering if this fix that Toyota has come up with will do the job. I’ve got a picture of what Toyota is doing to modify the “sticky” gas pedals here. I also found a video of the actual process here. I have to admit that it doesn’t inspire confidence as this seems sort of like “ghetto engineering” rather than something that a major car company should be doing. But in Toyota’s defense, there are people who report that the fix actually makes the cars perform better. I’ll let you know what I think when I get the car back tonight.
As an aside, I was going over my series of posts about the problems I’ve had with my Matrix and I noted this sentence from this post:
“The car would now rev to 6000 RPM and surge forward randomly. My wife almost rear ended a E class Mercedes Benz the first time it happened.”
That makes me think that the core issue is electronics rather than mechanical. Given that the Toyota Matrix along with the other cars that were recalled use a “drive by wire” system, that wouldn’t be a shock if that were the case. So one has to wonder if this is the last of this issue.
Of course, after I drop off the car I get the news that Toyota has recalled 437,000 Prius and other hybrid cars because of issues with the brakes that appear to be software related. Lovely. This is just another hit to their image.
Toyota really has some explaining to do. The explaining starts with the US Congress this week when Yoshimi Inaba who runs Toyota North America is in the hot seat. One wonders how he can explain all of this to a bunch of bloodthirsty regulators who are out to score political points in an election year, and still sell cars in North America.
UPDATE: Just when you think it couldn’t get worse for Toyota, it got worse. The US is now investigating steering problems with the 2009/2010 Toyota Corolla. A Corolla driver going by the name of “Will Austin” posted a comment about this issue last year. Another recall perhaps?
UPDATE #2: I got the car back a couple of hours ago and I’ve driven it in the city and on the highway. The spring tension on the pedal has increased for sure. The pedal feel is much more linear and smooth too. Perhaps this will do something, although I still have my concerns. As an aside, I found a Toyota grocery bag inside my car and I got a free lunch from the dealership I went to. I guess that’s Toyota’s way of saying sorry. They could have of course just said that a whole lot faster with a lot more meaning than they did. It might mean more to Toyota owners.
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