From: "Rich Gauszka" 

http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2007/3/20/01946/0177

It all started in early 2006 when I first purchased the Backup Exec
products and was sent their certificates," the reader wrote a few
weeks ago. "I received eight pages of certificates, each with
different serial numbers, license number, VSNs and whatever else Symantec
likes to call these numbers. But, when trying to enter the license code
into my software, none of these numbers worked. I had to take these numbers
to a website, type them in and then be given the number that would actually
let me use the product that I'd purchased. I began thinking that Symantec
needs a training seminar for their customers to actually activate the
software they have already purchased." Fast forward to December of
2006. "I installed the Continuous Protection Server software on a
Windows 2003 server that already had Backup Exec on it with licenses
purchased earlier in the year, and I deployed the Continuous Protection
Server Agent to a remote server. Earlier this month, the 'demo' license
timed out and I had to purchase a license for the Continuous Protection
Server Agent. No problem, I thought. But, it turns out that since I'd
purchased my server licenses for version 10d, version 11d has come out. I
was assured that this wouldn't be a problem and that the 11d license would
work with 10d. So, I ordered the license and waited. I phoned Symantec
twice asking if I could get an extension on the 'demo' license since I'd
already purchased a license for the server but was just awaiting licensing
keys. I was told that there was no way to produce a demo extension license
for 10d, and I couldn't use an 11d demo extension to get my license to
work. By the way, is it just me, or is it nearly impossible to actually
find a support phone number on a website these days? But, that's another
gripe altogether. So, no luck getting a demo extension, I've just got to
sit and wait for the paperwork to go through."

"Well, this morning I received my emails with the paperwork and was
actually surprised it only took 4 days to get it," the reader
continued. "But, then the real problems started. After 2-1/2 hours on
the phone, I am now told that Symantec salespeople will tell you that you
can use an 11d CPS Agent license with a 10d CPS server, but tech support
knows that it won't work. The tech support rep told me that I needed to
contact sales and get a license for 10d. I told him that sales already told
me that I can't buy a license for the 10d CPS agent. The support rep said
he would fix this and call a salesman. When he got back on the phone with
me, he said that I was right, you can't buy 10d and that the sales guy said
to use 11d because it was backward compatible. Note, we're not talking
about the software actually working with different versions, we're just
talking about licenses. So, here I sit now, with no backup on my server for
the last four days because Symantec can't get me a license that I've
already purchased to work with the software. Their solution is to upgrade
everything to 11d which I really don't mind except that an 11d install
requires restarts on all the servers -- production file servers, of course
-- and that means another weekend at the office."

A week later the reader wrote me back that he had finally gotten the
problem straightened out. "After talking with tech support for about
an hour and a half on Monday, I was told there was nothing more he could
do. I needed to upgrade to 11d. But of course, that meant I needed 11d
'upgrade' keys. I looked through everything I had with the support guy and
we agreed that I indeed had purchased 11d, but didn't have the keys to
install it. He couldn't find anything I had that would give me the 11d
upgrade keys. Keep in mind also, that I've had my CDW rep working on this
since last Monday. I give him credit for trying, but he wasn't any help at
all. Once the support guy couldn't get me any 11d keys that worked, he
recommended that I call licensing again. I did so. Once I explained the
initial problem to her, she said that it would be no problem and promptly
gave me the Continuous Protection Server Agent 10d key that I started
asking for last Monday. I typed in the key and everything started working
just fine."

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5