Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Will not uninstall and will most likely crash your system. , June 11, 2005
Worse antivirus software I've ever used. No hyperbole. I'm a long-time user of McAfee and decided to see if this could beat McAfee. On my system McAfee 9 usually takes about an hour to scan my 80-GB drive. Panda was running for over 4 hours before I figured out it was either looping or froze. Shut it off and rebooted. Figured if the thing messed up after one time, it wasn't worth the investment. So I went to uninstall and forget it. This thing wouldn't uninstall. I even tried specialized software made for uninstalling applications. Nothing worked. The Panda site was worthless in having anything in support to get rid of it. And now, I couldn't reinstall McAfee because it would conflict with Panda, and on top of that, every time I rebooted or tuned on the computer, there's this annoying picture of a Panda on the side of the Widow's splash screen. I did a Google search and found others with the same problem. One wound up reformatting his drive just to get rid of it. Then I tripped over some forum and found something from some guy who contacted Panda, paid them and got the supposed solution, which included a procedure of installing to small files, extracting one, going to safe mode, then the registry, then back to the desktop, into Windows Explorer to delete more files. And all the while I'm asking myself why didn't they just put in a working uninstaller with the program. Even kid games come with uninstallers. Only thing I could come up with is it was made to give you such a headache that you'd gladly pay the $29 tech support to try and get rid of it.
Well, they're procedure didn't work and next thing you know, I couldn't access the Net through my DSL. And there I was on the phone with Verizon then Linksys for a combined 2 hours and still unable to fix it. All in all, it was a weekend of pain thanks to Panda's junk.
Well good news. I long ago installed a second hard drive for backup purposes and use Acronis TrueImage. If you don't own TrueImage, buy it. It'll save your life; and no, I don't work for the company, just happen to love the product. I do a weekly image backup and fortunately the most recent backup I had was less than 3 days before I installed that Panda junk. I used to use Norton Ghost, but I don't find any of Norton's software of value anymore and they also will drain you in tech support fees. Besides, Acronis makes restoring a backup a breeze. An hour later my backup's restored and all is back to normal and I didn't have to reinstall Windows and go through the hassle of putting in all the divers and the whole nine yards that goes with it.
Avoid Panda like the plague. I'd rather use that free AVG antivirus, which I've heard is far superior and can actually be uninstalled without crippling your system.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Slowed computer and BAD customer support, December 24, 2004
I bought this Panda product after it was recommended by a computer supply store. I had always had McAfee, and was very happy with it, but they said it would catch more. I received the product from the download, and ran it. It caught one or two things, but didn't get as much as I thought it would. After that, all my problems started. My computer began to get very very slow, especially in startup, but also during normal operation (and I have a very good computer with a very fast processor, video card, and tons of memory). I checked the programs running, and there were about 3 AV programs (all from panda) that were using a huge amount of processing power. Then suddenly, a "drwtsn32" file appeared, which I later learned is Window's error logger, so if you get a system error, you can see what caused it. I opened up my drwtsn file and sure enough, Panda was listed numerous times. I then started a dialogue with Panda letting them know that I was getting this error, and my computer was very slow, and they asked me about my previous Antivirus. I told them it was McAfee, and they told me I didn't uninstall it completely. I assured them I did (since I went thought the McAfee website to make sure it was completely uninstalled), and they seemed to forget what my question was, and asked me to tell them my error again. This whole process has taken about a week, and I am still waiting for their response. If only they could refund my money so I could go back to McAfee! What a huge mistake this was! I'm warning you, go with Norton or McAfee, don't waste your money on a product that provides poor customer support, and slows down your computer!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
very poor customer service, December 31, 2004
Panda might do a good job of catching viruses but their customer service sucks. You get a limited time of support . . . free for 3 minutes and then 20 bucks after that. They they cut you off and it is all pay over the phone. They don't have a toll free number so they are charging you while you wait in que- at times very long waits exist. Dealing with their support on line is even worse. Not very logical web site for tech support and before you get anywhere you must first fill out lots of forms and then hope for a reply.
They boast of daily updates but many days you don't need this, so why tie up your resources?! I'm asking for my money back!
So if you have any installation problems like I did, expect a large investment of your time and possibly your money.
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