Avast WEBforum

Other => Viruses and worms => Topic started by: flypaper2222 on November 02, 2013, 11:20:33 PM

Title: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: flypaper2222 on November 02, 2013, 11:20:33 PM
Why would avast, after more then eight months on my pc start to block me from using parts of programs...and in one recent case actually remove the icon of a program that it said was a possible virus?

I called the free tech number which turned out to be noting but some poor girl trying to sell me a years tech support for $179.00.  That was the whole tech help I got from avast.

One program they constantly shut down on me was a Wacom tablet pen tools set. Avast picked on pen tool (the metalized) and refused to let me use it.

Personally I think this is just a way of duping people into the $179.00 plan

Thanks...I'll be looking at another plan

Flypaper
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: Pondus on November 02, 2013, 11:26:12 PM
Quote
Personally I think this is just a way of duping people into the $179.00 plan
The phone support is done by a external firm ..... and you are not the first to complain

Explain your problem here, forum help is free     ;)
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: Asyn on November 02, 2013, 11:34:18 PM
I called the free tech number which turned out to be noting but some poor girl trying to sell me a years tech support for $179.00.  That was the whole tech help I got from avast.

Please report it to Adam Riley: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?action=profile;u=16074
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: flypaper2222 on November 03, 2013, 12:25:24 AM
I called the free tech number which turned out to be noting but some poor girl trying to sell me a years tech support for $179.00.  That was the whole tech help I got from avast.

Please report it to Adam Riley: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?action=profile;u=16074

Funny....I tried to report to Mr. Riely via your http and was told I had no authority to be there.
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: DavidR on November 03, 2013, 12:32:38 AM
It may be a restriction to access the user profile of another user before you have x number of posts (or you weren't logged on the the forum at the time), I suspect that whilst you are still on the captcha validation (less than 3 posts) some restrictions may apply.

riley(at)avast(dot)com
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: flypaper2222 on November 03, 2013, 12:45:07 AM
As I ststed in the first post, Avast has gotten very agressive on what programs it will allow me to open and use. The lastest is my BenVista Photozoom program...when I tried to open it Avast reds warning  came up and said it had detected a possible virus, as I shifted my eyes from the warning to my Icon list I noticed the icon for that program was gone, and the program disabled.
Prior to that I would get opening warnings for some of the simplest programs Avast would not open them and said I should open in the sandbox....again these are programs I've had during my entire time with Avast and used with no problem, I keep my pc as virus free as humanly possible using Avast, and MSE. I also run Microsofts Malicious software removal tool which I up date evry 2/3 weeks.
When I called the free'TECH' help all I got was my problem "should be checked by one of Avast Tech's....that will be $179.00 please...."
Had no problem with Avast until the last 6 weeks or so...and as I said its more like HAL that Help.
Flypaper
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: Pondus on November 03, 2013, 12:52:20 AM
was the programs detected as  Win32:Evo-gen [Susp]  = suspicious  ?


You can upload files and report issues to avast  here : http://www.avast.com/contact-form.php  (select subject according to Your case)

You can use mail
send to virus@avast.com in a password protected zip file
mail subject:  False Positive / undetected sample (select subject according to your case)
zip password:  infected

or you can send files from avast chest
how to use the chest.    http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB21

Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: Pondus on November 03, 2013, 12:54:05 AM
Quote
I keep my pc as virus free as humanly possible using Avast, and MSE.
running Multiple AV will give you a slow machine, windows errors and false detections

Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: flypaper2222 on November 03, 2013, 02:45:23 AM
Quote
I keep my pc as virus free as humanly possible using Avast, and MSE.
running Multiple AV will give you a slow machine, windows errors and false detections

I've been running both since I got Avast with no problems.......until it started with the Wacom pen tool (which I ran through an Avast scan which found no virus) reguardless of the Avast scan being clean it would continue to disable the program no matter how many times I renewed it and filled out those "I know what I'm doing" forms. The part it denied was like a paint brush plug in in Photoshop all of 8k!

I seefrom the main forum pages a lot of people are having trouble with Avast and various  operations. To bad
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 08, 2013, 11:29:18 AM
Hi I am new...I had the Qone.8 virus and called avast tech support. they talked me into the total support package. It was middle of the night on a Friday and I new that I would be unable to take my computer in until Monday and who knew if my small town place could fix it for a decent price anyway...especially since they missed stuff the last time. The guy that helped me the first night for 3 hours was good and helped a ton. My computer was a mess...finally it ran faster, booted up, I could run more than one page at a time...etc. I thought well for the year it was worth it. Well I called back another night and asked for some help in changing my settings to a different search engine since the first guy changed it on me without asking and I do not like Bing. No help. So I called tonight, the guy was a jerk. When he answered he never gave his name...he just said phone number, no please even. I gave it and told him that I had an order number, he said nothing. He never ever asked my name, confirmed anything AT ALL! I asked his name and he said Oshi?? but he came up as Jose? so I am guessing that was his name. I asked for his help in trying to get rid of the pictures of half naked girls on sites with ads and he said that was impossible and that any site that has ads like that is a virus. Which is totally untrue. Then I asked help in changing the Bing.com back to my ask.com which I have always had as my default search engine and it said it is not a valid search engine after he saw that he could not "x" out the bing.com default and never even tried. So then I finally asked about the anti-virus license key, because I was told when I bought that total support package that my "free" anti-virus would be updated Premier which was one of the reasons I finally agreed to purchase this package, I thought well this would be worth my money with the support and upgraded anti-virus. However, now after tonight...I am thoroughly disgusted with their contracted out tech support, as when I asked to speak with a manager he said they would contact me within 5-7 business days.

So, to sum up...spent the big bucks...computer virus is gone!...contracted out tech support is proving to be both unreliable and plain rude...and now I don't get the upgraded anti-virus, according to tonight's guy.

And I can not find anything out about this total support package on Avast's website anywhere...I am feeling pretty low about the whole thing right now.

Well I guess I better get the new license key for the free Avast...
From the person Fed up in Michigan!
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: Pondus on November 08, 2013, 11:44:12 AM
Quote
Hi I am new...I had the Qone.8 virus and called avast tech support.
we remove virus for free here in the forum..... done by trained and certified malware removers   ;)

do you want a check of what they have done?.....




Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 11, 2013, 02:38:59 AM
Okay, I have never been on a forum before so I have no idea if I am even following the correct protocol. I believe that you are supposed to Quote the person that you want to reply to? Is that correct?

So, Pondus...

"Quote
Hi I am new...I had the Qone.8 virus and called avast tech support.
we remove virus for free here in the forum..... done by trained and certified malware removers   ;)

do you want a check of what they have done?....."

Yes I would like to have it checked out. Because after they worked on it Saturday morning and it seemed to be running fine, now I can barely get a page to load. I don't understand what is going on and why they keep finding more stuff every other day when I call Avast total support to fix my computer. Plus the fact that they lied to me about having better protection than just the free avast. What do you reccomend? Should I stick with the free avast or purchase the upgrade? Right now I can not even get my email to come up...oh, just did, but now it won't refresh to even give me the free avast license key...

HELP! I am so confused...And thank you!!
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: essexboy on November 11, 2013, 03:15:01 PM
Hi stick with free unless you need the extra bells and whistles with the paid for packages

Download OTL (http://oldtimer.geekstogo.com/OTL.exe)  to your Desktop
Secondary link (http://www.itxassociates.com/OT-Tools/OTL.exe)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/OTL_Main_Tutorial.gif)

netsvcs
BASESERVICES
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
c:\program files (x86)\Google\Desktop
c:\program files\Google\Desktop
dir "%systemdrive%\*" /S /A:L /C
CREATERESTOREPOINT


Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 14, 2013, 12:03:33 PM
Hi stick with free unless you need the extra bells and whistles with the paid for packages

Download OTL (http://oldtimer.geekstogo.com/OTL.exe)  to your Desktop
Secondary link (http://www.itxassociates.com/OT-Tools/OTL.exe)
  • Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/OTL_Main_Tutorial.gif)

  • Select All Users
  • Select LOP and Purity
  • Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
netsvcs
BASESERVICES
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
c:\program files (x86)\Google\Desktop
c:\program files\Google\Desktop
dir "%systemdrive%\*" /S /A:L /C
CREATERESTOREPOINT


  • Click the Run Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
    • When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.
    • Attach  both logs
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 14, 2013, 12:08:48 PM
I just saw a new post you all did so I am a little confused where I need to post stuff. I tried to attach the txt files and I have no idea if it worked. I will keep checking
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 14, 2013, 12:12:43 PM
I just saw a new post you all did so I am a little confused where I need to post stuff. I tried to attach the txt files and I have no idea if it worked. I will keep checking

Hi stick with free unless you need the extra bells and whistles with the paid for packages

Download OTL (http://oldtimer.geekstogo.com/OTL.exe)  to your Desktop
Secondary link (http://www.itxassociates.com/OT-Tools/OTL.exe)
  • Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/OTL_Main_Tutorial.gif)

  • Select All Users
  • Select LOP and Purity
  • Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
netsvcs
BASESERVICES
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
c:\program files (x86)\Google\Desktop
c:\program files\Google\Desktop
dir "%systemdrive%\*" /S /A:L /C
CREATERESTOREPOINT


  • Click the Run Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
    • When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.
    • Attach  both logs
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 14, 2013, 12:19:21 PM
Essexboy or Pondus will one of you be able to contact me when it is safe for me to come out of safe mode?




I just saw a new post you all did so I am a little confused where I need to post stuff. I tried to attach the txt files and I have no idea if it worked. I will keep checking

Hi stick with free unless you need the extra bells and whistles with the paid for packages

Download OTL (http://oldtimer.geekstogo.com/OTL.exe)  to your Desktop
Secondary link (http://www.itxassociates.com/OT-Tools/OTL.exe)
  • Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/OTL_Main_Tutorial.gif)

  • Select All Users
  • Select LOP and Purity
  • Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
netsvcs
BASESERVICES
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.exe
c:\program files (x86)\Google\Desktop
c:\program files\Google\Desktop
dir "%systemdrive%\*" /S /A:L /C
CREATERESTOREPOINT


  • Click the Run Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
    • When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.
    • Attach  both logs
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: Pondus on November 14, 2013, 12:54:02 PM
Logs are attached. Essexboy will be online later today
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 14, 2013, 01:43:07 PM
Logs are attached. Essexboy will be online later today

Do you know an aprox time so I can log on in safe mode then? Or is there some other way I should go about this? Sorry for being such a pain I am just so confused and VERY angry with AVAST! I have had no problems per say with my laptop up until I let them talk me into selling me that total support for $179 and no it seems like my computer crashes every other day! EEKK!
Thanks for all your help you all!
You are great!!
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: essexboy on November 14, 2013, 03:09:35 PM
Hi if you are able then go to normal mode, it looks like they may have messed the system slightly.  So first I will do a few quick cleans and then go from there

Once these two have run could you let me know what the current problems are 

 Warning This fix is only relevant for this system and no other, using on another computer may cause problems

Be advised that when the fix commences it will shut down all running processes and you may lose the desktop and icons, they will return on reboot

Run OTL
Code: [Select]
:Commands
[CREATERESTOREPOINT]

:OTL
O4 - HKLM..\Run: [SMessaging] C:\Documents and Settings\Amy\Local Settings\Application Data\Strongvault Online Backup\SMessaging.exe (Stronghold Online Backup)
O33 - MountPoints2\{0a959d6a-d556-11df-bb23-0015c53ddc78}\Shell\AutoRun\command - "" = C:\WINDOWS\system32\RunDLL32.EXE Shell32.DLL,ShellExec_RunDLL Info.exe folder.htt 480 480

:Files
C:\Documents and Settings\Amy\Local Settings\Application Data\Strongvault Online Backup

:Commands
[resethosts]
[emptytemp]
[Reboot]
THEN

Please download Junkware Removal Tool (http://thisisudax.org/downloads/JRT.exe) to your desktop.
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: abmetzy1 on November 15, 2013, 05:10:29 AM
I thought I would have other docs to attach, but apparently this is the only one I found that still opens. Let me know how to proceed. Thanks!
Hi if you are able then go to normal mode, it looks like they may have messed the system slightly.  So first I will do a few quick cleans and then go from there

Once these two have run could you let me know what the current problems are 

 Warning This fix is only relevant for this system and no other, using on another computer may cause problems

Be advised that when the fix commences it will shut down all running processes and you may lose the desktop and icons, they will return on reboot

Run OTL
  • Under the Custom Scans/Fixes box at the bottom, paste in the following
    (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/73555776/OTL_Fix.GIF)

Code: [Select]
:Commands
[CREATERESTOREPOINT]

:OTL
O4 - HKLM..\Run: [SMessaging] C:\Documents and Settings\Amy\Local Settings\Application Data\Strongvault Online Backup\SMessaging.exe (Stronghold Online Backup)
O33 - MountPoints2\{0a959d6a-d556-11df-bb23-0015c53ddc78}\Shell\AutoRun\command - "" = C:\WINDOWS\system32\RunDLL32.EXE Shell32.DLL,ShellExec_RunDLL Info.exe folder.htt 480 480

:Files
C:\Documents and Settings\Amy\Local Settings\Application Data\Strongvault Online Backup

:Commands
[resethosts]
[emptytemp]
[Reboot]
  • Then click the Run Fix button at the top
  • Let the program run unhindered, reboot the PC when it is done
  • Open OTL again and click the Quick Scan button. Post the log it produces in your next reply.
THEN

Please download Junkware Removal Tool (http://thisisudax.org/downloads/JRT.exe) to your desktop.
  • Right-mouse click JRT.exe and select "Run as Administrator" the tool will open and start scanning your system
  • please be patient as this can take a while to complete depending on your system's specifications
  • On completion, a log (JRT.txt) is saved to your desktop and will automatically open.
  • post the contents of JRT.txt into your next message.
Title: Re: TOTAL-Lack of help From AVAST free TECH support
Post by: essexboy on November 15, 2013, 02:48:57 PM
OK what are the current problem so we can try to resolve them