Customer Reviews

Panda Global Protection 2010 3 User

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Had used Panda for many years and raved about it to friends and family. I fully understood their product and the way their company worked - or so I thought. I ALWAYS buy DISC for software and admit I was disappointed I did not receive any reduced upgrade promotion from Panda. Instead for weeks I had to endure a super annoying pop up counting down the days I had left on GP09. I discovered if I bought from Panda direct GP10 would cost me full retail PLUS an additional $12 for the DISK, close to a hundred dollars! So, I shopped for Panda Global Protection 2010 and bought the "newest" GP10 version here at Amazon for best price and free two day shipping! Normally I don't buy software from Amazon because should the product prove to be defective, Amazon will only refund you 1/2 of what you paid. They only provide full refunds for software never opened. BUT, in this case, I KNEW PANDA backed their product with a 30 day money back guarantee. It is printed right on the box and on their website!

GP10 arrived a week before my old version expired. Deinstall of GP09 went flawlessly. Installed GP10 immediately.

1st problem- THERE are DIFFERNT VERSIONS OF THEIR PRODUCT and their website and the box doesn't tell you what you are buying. I bought in late Feb. 2010 and received a version on the disk dated 6/2009, 3.00.00. So if you are like me and expect a DISK, think again. I learned the newer version, 3.01.00 can ONLY be downloaded from their website and by doing so, I actually went from one defective program to a newer defective program! When I mentioned this to Panda staff, they were totally apathetic. From where I sit, it feels like false advertising.

2nd problem - When installing the program (disk version) refused to activate smoothly. Claimed it couldn't find internet network multiple times. Last yr had the same problem. Called Tech Support resolved in one call taking less than 5 minutes. The second reason I bought Panda initally was their 24/7 USA operated phone tech support.

3nd problem -Panda is making their phone support a pay to use premium. (for the record, they also have moved their headquarters from CA to FL and are "not available to customers" per their customer service department). Their email TECH SUPPORT is their default system now and I received over the course of a week almost a dozen automated email replies from Panda. They would create and open a new case and then in forty-eight hours CLOSE the case without really trying to solve it! The emails I received were by and large repetitive and did not acknowledge the speicific problems I was battling. A collosial waste of time for both of us. And from my end, I began to lose confidence not only in their product but also their company!

4rd problem - Once you install the DISK version, you get an email alerting you to a NEWER version and providing a link to their website to download FOR FREE. Well, I attempted over and over to SECURE A DISK, even offering to pay for it, they refused! Of note, inside the box was a survey which claimed to extend your service contract by 30 days if you participate. I did. After filling it out, I went to the CLIENT section of their site only to learn they had NOT extended the service contract at all. I saw two patches there for Global Protection 2010 at that time. I never dreamed one of those patches was actually the FULL PROGRAM! Also of note - the NEWEST VERSION installs like NO OTHER PANDA I have ever owned. You don't de-install before you install. There is no de-install for the 3.00.00 at all. This 3.010.00, NEWEST VERSION, applies itself in piecemeal fashion ove the 3.00.00 as best as I could see. I firmly believe the problems after installing could have quite possibly been avoided IF PANDA had sent me the DISK and allowed me to do a CLEAN INSTALL of the newest version. They refused. And the problems multipled with their product.

Panda Global Protection 2010 deteriorated quickly over a matter of days - the Panda ICON on the task bar failed, updates failed. It was a dangerous and stressful hamster wheel. One expects confidence from their computer security programs! Panda would not update correctly - most curiously the dates varied as to when my last update occurred. Two separate times Panda claimed I updated my system the FOLLOWING DAY! What a feat!

When I opened the program from the start menu, Panda would claim I had no firewall, antivirus, or ... protection at all but there would be zero notification from the task bar. It was very unnerving to see ALL of the buttons d suddenly RED instead of green. And there was NO WAY TO FIX THIS WITHIN PANDA so I would fire down my system and when I fired it up, the program would claim all was fine with the date of my update resetting itself to the day before. The Panda ICON in the task bar would disappear or the ICON was there but was STATIC, no menus were available when I clicked on it. The program would intermittently drop my internet connection. I have a terrific relationship with my ISP and determined it was clearly PANDA causing me this grief. My attempts to resolve were many and quite time consuming. I found only resistence, apathy, and ignorance from Panda.

I was ultimately told the problem was a virus and I had to download a separate program from Panda to resolve the virus. This made ZERO sense to me and the END USER AGREEMENT for this program Pscan stated Panda does not warrant the program will not fail, it may harm other programs on my computer, and it contained a hold harmless for THEM and if I accepted, forced me to be liable for any harm I suffered AND remarkably GAVE THEM THE RIGHT TO SUE ME! What sort of IDIOT did they think I was? BEWARE of their END USER AGREEMENTS! I finally was told an email had been sent to me for me to receive a refund. I simply had to fill it out. I did. I filled it out weeks ago and I AM STILL WAITING. It supposedly is sitting on Kathy's desk in FL waiting to be processed. It has been there for TOO LONG in my opinion. I actually skip traced this person- pitiful - and she refused to acknowledge receipt of the paperwork or provide any real concrete information. At no junction or any level have I reached anyone professional. Customer service claimed the refund would take up to two weeks. That has lapsed. Ironically, I have been given TWO case numbers for the REFUND!

If I don't receive the refund by the end of March I intend to file complaints with the Attorney Generals in several states. I have never dealt with any company who behaved like Panda and I hope I never do again! I love to write positive reviews and usually believe it is best to say nothing when there is a problem. But with times being what they are and this whole thing being so unexpected and Panda making it so much worse at every step than it had to be, I have felt burdened to write this review. THE LESSON I LEARNED - DON'T BUY A COMPUTER SECURITY SUITE UNLESS THE MANUFACTURER TELLS YOU THE VERSION YOU ARE RECEIVING!

For the record, I purchased a DIFFERENT Security suite. I received the VERSION I expected. GP10 deinstalled without incident, my new suite found NO VIRUS - so much for Panda's claim I had a VIRUS instead of accepting responsibility for their flawed product - and I have not experienced any problem with my ISP connection or updates with this new suite.

In hindsight, I have wondered if Panda tries to push folks toward that Pscan to prevent THEM from having to refund folks? In any case, I didn't fall for it and I hope no one else does either! I fully expect Panda to honor the 30 day money back guarantee on the box of the product I bought!

I am an IT Professional with a background in security. I always suggest this application over the OTHER resource hogs that are ineffective. I have used this and recommended this for over 7 years and will say that it gets better + more featured with time. Is it perfect? No, but no security app is. They are MEANT to be inconvenient. This is a very flexible app. In recent months I have had to repair or reimage PC's with up to date Macafee products on them. Norton 360 is way to complex for home users and is a resource hog also. Not to mention expensive. Kapersky is good, but the price has continued to go up. An application must not hinder your performance, although it should hinder your activity. Or at least make you aware that an activity is ocurring.

Now lets talk price. Hey everything comes down to price. When you consider you can get protection for 3 PC's for less than the price of 1 of the other products you are really getting a good deal!

Lets talk upgrades. According to a different post I should get a free upgrade to the new version if my subscription is still valid. This is not the way ANY software company does business that I know of. Why should you get a new version of something when you paid for the version you have? Think about it it doesn't make sense.

Will it stop you from playing some games if you dont configure properly? Probably, but in the overall scheme of things this is a small thing. My brother had a DVD app that was java based that would get slammed by Panda, but this is really a app issue. He purchased the full version and had no problem. Also I will say that renewal fees are not as discounted as they should be. So I end up buying a OEM version every year rather than renew my existing subscription.

NONE of my machines or others I have placed on this app have been infected or compromised. This is the determining factor and true test. A product that just keep getting better + better.

I've been using this product for about five years and have been happy with the product itself. In that period, I've had no virus infections on any of the 10 PCs it protects. It does have infrequent issues with some online games, but nothing that could not be quickly resolved by altering its firewall settings.

However, I have noticed a steep decline in the quality of their support services over the past year or so. That decline in support has caused me to cancel my 3-year subscription with them (which, by the way, they refuse to refund the remaining term). I will not be using Panda in the future. If you purchase it, use it at your own risk. Technical and customer support is like calling to Mars.

After years of using Norton, I finally wised up and decided to try something else. I bought Panda Global Protection mainly because of a study by one of the PC magazines that showed that it received good marks in terms of being effective against viruses (good, but not the best by the way).

In terms of getting rid of viruses, it's difficult for me to judge that. I guess I don't have any complaints there, but it's everything *else* that I have gripes about.

Fist, like other packages, when you buy global panda, what you are really buying is a one-year subscription. But unlike other packages, the way that they handle that is completely bogus. Not one month after I bought it, they sent me email (and popup spam!) that they had realeased a "new version". Now normally with a subscription, it just updates you to the new version. It automatically downloads, and you just have it. Not Panda! You get a link to their website where you can *buy* it (not even upgrade) for a bunch more money. Bogus!

Secondly, like many people, I enjoy MMO games. Panda seems to be particularly bad with those. Typically I will launch my game, the game will come up full screen, then behind that screen panda will bring up a window asking you if you want to block the game's access. It gives you an option to "always allow it", which I always hit, but a few days later the same darn window will come up. It seems to have an extremely short memory for such things.

The other thing is that when it *does* find a virus, the way it handles that is extremely annoying too. It proudly parades that in front of you, giving you a little popup spam box on your desktop asking you if you want to "disinfect and restore" the infected files that found. The only options you have are "yes" or "cancel". Mainly what I want in this case is for it to discard the offending file. I don't want it to do anything with it other than get rid of it, but that is not an option. And by selecting "cancel" you doom yourself to more popup spam in another day or two. UGH!

It also has problems with some very common websites, like Amazon for example. It presents you with popup after popup saying there the website is possibly fraudulent (it seems to object to doubleclick's ads) and even though you tell it to remember that they are ok, it doesn't, and keeps warning you over and over and over.

Anyway, I think my next antivirus will probably be MacAfee. It seems to be the least annoying and safest of the bunch. Maybe someday Panda will fix these problems and I'll try it again, but until then I can't recommend it.

That's all I care about. When it comes to products like these, you take every review with a grain of salt. Everyone has their own favorite program to use. I've had spyware and viruses earlier in the year, and neither Norton or MacAfee where much help. Panda so far has removed the spyware and any potential viruses. Like any of these packages they share many things in common. Anyhow, my brother bought this at Fry's Electronics. We were pleased to learn that there was a rebate for this, so we got this program for almost nothing. Regardless of that the question is whether it performed. It has. It recognized spyware and viruses and removes them, it has tool for protecting your privacy, a firewall, an anti-spam filter, and etc. The most important thing here is that this program loads quickly, it's not a big hog on resources, and I could leave it running in the background as I run games, videos, and so forth without any slowdowns. I would recommend it.

Nowadays, you have to have something like Panda to surf online. Panda does have credible reputation. All in all not a bad product.

DO NOT get this software as you can not get it off your computer. The renew pop-up would not go away for 3 months. I tried calling and could only leave a message and they never call you back. It has screwed up mu computer and had to take it to be repaired and get someone to remove it.

I am computer challenged. This was a breeze to install! I followed the steps and voila, it was installed! I ran another antivirus software on my computer before installing Panda. When I installed the Panda antivirus software, it caught 27 additional malwares that the previous antivirus software did not.

Pros: This product does a nice job as far as protecting your computer from virus and spy-ware. Panda also offers more services from their website for more in depth scans. As far as support, I have never experienced lack of support. I have been using Panda products for more than 4 years and I have had good communications both by phone and email. I even had a load problem fixed by remote access from a very knowledgeable English speaking technician who solved my within a matter of minutes.(about a year ago.)
Cons: May be a con for some. For the windows 7 users. Even though the box said "windows seven ready", the key word is "ready",it's not actually on the CD, instead you get a message stating software is not compatible with your OS so you are redirected (well click on more info) to their website to download it and use your product activation # to load it. It appears that you need to purchase it, you don't just download it. this isfor ones who down have the latest CD.
Other Thoughts: I have been using this product with Windows 7-32 bit, for 4 months now with absolutely now problems.

put panda global protection on my computers and no longer have issues with computers doing strange things. panda global cleaned up some very wicked viruses on one machine and some lesser ones on the other two. you cant go it alone now a days without antivirus so you might as well have the best. panda global protection 2010.

Panda is the best for me. Easy to use. Excellent protection with great customer service. I've used them all and Panda is very good.