Disappointed... expensive mistake... twice! (Panda Antivirus Platinum 6.0)

Member Name: GoFigure

Product:	Panda Antivirus Platinum 6.0
Date:	03/02/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to install and works great for a few weeks.

Disadvantages: Loads of glitches.

First of all, there is a saying that goes something like this: "Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me".

At the moment, I am suffering from a SHAME ON ME...

A few years back, annoyed that I kept getting viruses regardless that I was fully protected with a Symantec program, I went online in search of the top programs available on the market and came up with Panda Antivirus... so great, I purchased the product directly from their website... if I remember correctly it set me out-of-pocket approx. £40.00. Fine, I understand the importance of a good antivirus and am willing to pay for something which is downloaded off a site without being given a hard copy of the program (which I still consider a bit of a rip off)... anyways, following very clear instructions from Panda, I downloaded the program, which literally installed itself, and all I had to do was open up the program, type in my username and passcode, and voila... all done... working great... no problems whatsoever... for exactly 3 months!

The glitches started slowly... a few times I would go online, and glance down at the bottom toolbar of my screeen and notice... YIKES!... Panda is off! You then quickly go offline, and just as quickly turn Panda back on... at this point I used to get the infernal... INTERNAL ERROR message, and have to shut down. This happened, in general, once or twice a week... nothing totally drastic, but then, during one such occasion when I failed to notice that Panda was off, my pc was infected with a virus, and some nasty trojan had made its way into my pc. Taking a deep breath, I contacted Panda and was told (they responded 2 days later), that I should go back onto their website and re-download the software... and click on repair instead of install. This I did... immediately. Everything seemed to go well for a few weeks, and then the glitches started again. Again I contacted Panda, and again they advised me to re-download the program in order to fix it... when I wrote to them stating that something was obviously wrong with their program and that it was ridiculous to make their customers download the program time and again in order to repair it... they stopped responding to my e-mails. Needless to say that I gave up on them, repaired the program a few times afterwards, and then went in search of a GOOD antivirus program... this before my initial 1 year membership was up. Enough was enough!

So, going online, I came across The Shield... which all things considered, price and ease of use being a priority, I paid £29.00 (they were having a sale at the time) for and downloaded off their site. I won't go into my experiences with this company, it will take an entire review just for that... anyways, the viruses and trojans were coming in faster than I could get rid of them... and everytime I opened The Shield, it kept telling me I was properly protected. Finally, after a particularly nasty trojan attack, I lost everything on my hard drive and ended up crying on my husband's shoulder.

It took a few days, but my husband finally fixed the whole thing and I was back in business... with the admonition that I should find a GOOD antivirus program. Duh... as if I hadn't already tried that... anyways, what did I do... I went back to Panda! Hey... what could I do... absolutely EVERYONE was telling me to give it another chance, that they were the best, that my problems with them were obviously a one-off thing... and so I allowed myself to be hooked (or suckered into it... you decide)...

So I paid the £40.00 odd amount requested (give or take a few pounds and pence), pleased that they were also giving away a free firewall... I downloaded the program, waited patiently while it installed itself... but this time it didn't install itself... I kept getting an error message telling me The Shield was still on my computer, somewhere... grrrr.... went into the uninstall programs section on my pc, but The Shield was nowhere to be found. I then did a thorough search, and still nothing. A friend then gave me (she says I borrowed it, but trust me, it ain't going back) a privately written disc that allows you to bring up all programs and files loaded on your pc, as well as all directory links, signatures, etc... etc... Well, this handly little program brought up a link to The Shield, and I promptly deleted it. And then I tried again to install Panda... and this time the error message stated I had a previous copy of Panda on my pc... and did they wish for it to be removed. I clicked on 'yes' and waited... minutes later, another error message stating it could not be removed. At this point, I was shouting at my pc... "Why the hell not... you wrote the darned program!"

Anyways, I slid that gem of a disc (the one my friend is NEVER getting back) into my pc, found the link for the old Panda program and deleted it.

Again I tried to install... hoorah... this time it worked! As usual, the installation is a snip, no hassle, no need to be computer literate, the program installs itself, and apart from you having to type in your username and password, everything is pre-programmed to make your life as easy as possible. You simply forget about the program, and it works in the background for you, downloading newer versions and updating itself on a regular daily basis. I was chuffed... everything seemed to be going really well... a virus scan got rid of all those nasty advertising links, and a few suspicious files, and I was in 7th heaven!

But then, a few months later, everytime I went online Panda would come up with a warning message (this new version of Panda does have a warning message if something goes wrong when you are online... a definite plus from earlier versions) which stated that the protection against unknown threats was not turned on. Okay... so who turned it off... dunno! Anyways, at first I would simply click on the 'turn on protection against unknown threats' button... but then one day, after this became a daily occurence, I decided to open up Panda and see if anything else was turning itself off. Sure enough, the special anti-hacking tool and the anti-joke tool were off, as well as the protection against unknown threats. I turned everything back on, and continued on my way. Next day, the same thing happened when I turned on the pc... the 3 above mentioned tools did not turn themselves on. So I contacted Panda... guess what I was told... yep... I downloaded the program again, ticked the repair only button, and the problem appeared to go away for a few days... but it kept coming back... so I got fed up, downloaded the program again, this time I ticked install instead of repair. Of course, I had to uninstall the entire program first, as well as all the directory links and what not... and then I was ready to install.

Believe it or not... the same problem returned, and absolutely no one at Panda could tell me why certain important tools kept turning themselves off. This has obviously always been a fault, seeing as the new version had a built-in warning that came up on screen if you were not adequately protected when you went online. When programmers come up with these on screen warnings, it's usually because they are necessary... so if this warning was necessary, why not simply go to the root of the problem and FIX IT!

I am just so fed up of throwing my money away... twice on Panda (yes, shame on me for being twice the fool). In the past two years, I have gone through 3 anti-virus programs... not once finishing the year membership!

I have to say, my honest opinion on this product, is that it is extremely easy to use. The little Panda appears in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, on the toolbar, and all you have to do is click on it twice, and the program will open. The program itself is easy to understand and work through, and it is relatively easy to make changes in the settings if need be. The price is relatively good... although a bit high, if like me, you only use it for 3 - 6 months! Panda's customer service isn't bad... on average it takes 1 - 2 days to receive a reply from your e-mail (though you may not like what they've got to say)... and then there is the online support... this being 3 areas targeted to answering all your questions. The first is the Interactive troubleshooter... this type of help is simple to use... basically, the troubleshooter will hold you by the hand and drag you through a series of questions with possible responses which you choose by ticking off the correct response, this allows the troubleshooter to narrow down the problem you are having with their product. Basically, you are going through a FAQ section made to look like it's a troubleshooter section... what the heck. The second area of assistance is what they call the Knowledge Base... it is what it says, a database where you will need to type in keywords until you can find the topic you are searching for. It is, in truth, a sophisticated search engine. The third area is the Hot Topics area... this area is crammed with the most recent problems Panda customers are faced with, with possible solutions. Again, another FAQ-style area... Too much for you, then simply e-mail them with your question or problem... and wait.

I know I am not unique in having this problem with this Panda product, because my husband installed the program on 2 of his computers (work and home), and both computers have started getting those warning messages whenever he goes online. The tools keep shutting down!!

I have foresaken Panda, and installed Kaspersky... fingers crossed.

Summary: Steer clear of this antivirus...

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