Symantec customer service??

I know I still got a chemistry science practical assessment tomorrow, but I don't think that posting a short post here, watching anime, doing some project work stuff, won't really affect my practical tomorrow. Or rather, would it?

But heck, here's a bunch of good news (or bad news to those of you who wants to see me distressed, sad, angry, sick... basically the bad stuff in life). The good news is that my computer is back up and running, fully operational and everything is going smoothly. This is for the record, and for anyone who happens to run into this problem as well...

The problem occurred after usage of Symantec Ghost 2003. What happened was that I tried to use ghost to do a full backup of my computer. The operation was fine and it asked me to restart my computer. After that, it attempted to execute ghost in DOS to execute the image creation process. The screen then became stuck with an hourglass in the middle. Thinking that it was just processing, I left it running for about half an hour as I tried to revise some of my homework.

After deciding that it is not going to do me any good to wait any longer, I decided to restart my computer and then I realised that it just gets stuck in the same place all over again. I tried the other option which gives me the chance to go back to window, but it just stuck there for a much longer time...

After analysing the system after miraculously locating a command prompt, we realised that the entire master boot record of windows xp has been wiped. Ghost prompted that we can use the ghreboot.exe file to get back to windows, but it was to no avail, as it just result in another hanged screen.

In the end, after trying almost all the methods posted on the symantec website, we were on the verge of giving up. We then decided to try to use a diskette to boot into ms-dos and then execute the ghreboot.exe. It finally worked, and I was back to windows in pretty much no time after that. I would like to thank my floppy disk drive that did not fail on me even though I kept it in the drawer for the last 3 years...

Anyway, just a major note: Symantec services suck...
Imagine this highly possible scenario:

After trying out a lot of the DIY methods listed on the symantec website, we decided to call their technical support services and see whether or not there is a chance that they can help us. What we got instead was this reply:

"I'm sorry, we no longer support Ghost 2003. Please either buy our newest ghost software or update your ghost 2003"

[Excuse me, YOUR ghost has wiped out my master boot record, severed my connections with thousands of bytes of data on my computer, destroyed part of my life, and oh yea, made me highly focused for my promotional exams, but I don't need to thank you for that]

"There's no other way, we no longer support Ghost 2003. Please buy the newest version and then try to back up your computer again"

[*coughs* My computer has crashed because of your software. Why would I want to buy a new version of the same software, try to backup another computer and see it crash in front of my eyes? Why? You have made me lost don't know how much amount of data, and now you ask me to buy another one of your software?! So that you can crash it again?! NEVER!!]

Did I mention that after that they also sent an e-mail to us with the slogan:
"We value excellence in customer service"
asking us to rate their customer service...

Did I mention "excellence in customer service"?

I was highly tempted to delete my whole symantec software off my computer and replace it with other software companies anti-virus software after this incident...

Yes, I know that a lot of company policies nowadays is to stop supporting their old software, old system, even old OS, but then again, at least you can look into it somehow, rather then telling me that there is no other option then to say too bad, and move on. This is especially when the fault is directly caused by the software that has been developed...

Customer service is more then just letting your customer hear your smile through the phone, it is about the service that you provide. What you have provided is as good as a phone jail that is depicted in The Sketch Show.

Fastforward to 3:27 left and you'll know what I mean...



Discmon