Avast WEBforum
Other => General Topics => Topic started by: russia on March 09, 2008, 10:41:23 AM
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We purchsed and up grade least November to find that it was a fake being sold as profesional edition, so now we have paid yet again to Avast distributon fo r the Uk for Avast profesional, we got them to verify our system and that was all ok , Now as from the 8 march 2008 we get a red pop up message from Avast saying our trial period is about to expire.
Concidering the professional was only purchased 25 January 2008 43 days ago direct with the Avast distributor we can only assume that yet again this is another FRAUD copy, We tried contacting there support immediatly over 24 hours have passed with no reply,
As of 10th March we place the matter with the UK Trading Standards Goverment Dept to investigate !!!
I am really dfed up with this and have been an Avast user since 2003 but thge last 3 months having had 2 upgrade purchased and now a repeat again of having PAID to get a FAKE INSTALLATION from Avast yet again! for our Company usage!
So other users be aware !!!!!!
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Did you receive an email with your Licence/Registration key and did you enter that key?
If you bought it directly via the avast.com site and the on-line payment processing, share*it then you didn't buy a fake.
Though you say you bought it through avast distribution for the UK, distribution is the same you either bought it via the avast/share*it on-line payment processing or you bought it through a distributor, which was it ?
If via a distributor you should also contact them, but also contact sales @ avast.com (without the spaces) and give them the full details, dates, email address used, etc.
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Its was installed by AV Outsource Ltd Unit 2 2 Thayers farm Road beckingham kent Uk and with a licence key!! ( They publish being the OFFICIAL UK distributor!!
We even have a VAT receipt, but we still have the red Avast notice just the same as the previous situation in January.
we have contacted them and there support service , unfortunatly and if you view our blogs to this forum in January you will see the previous situation that we as a company have suffered in try to use and authentic Avast product !
It is really time that Avast management in Czech took control of there distrubution channels properly !!
But having phoned Cezch in january and got a person who took the details and we still await that resultion .
have to say if it was my staff they would be looking for new jobs today !!
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The company web site is
www.avastuk.com
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Post a screenshot of your avast! About box, please (with the Registration key section expanded).
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AV Outsource is indeed an avast distributor in the UK, http://www.avast.com/eng/resellers_uk.html (http://www.avast.com/eng/resellers_uk.html).
Did you enter the license key (as I asked) and receive acknowledgement that it had been accepted (screenshot as Igor requested should confirm also) ?
Contacting the sales email I gave would be better as they are in a position to do something about it and are likely to have information about licence purchases.
There are several other UK distributors if you aren't happy about AV Outsource, for any future purchase.
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Theyhad access to our system to install activate the lot , all we had to do was Pay!
we see avast script blocker s come up as per the prop programe.
There should be absolutly NO reason why we are get a a red notice again.
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As I wrote - please post a screenshot of the avast! About box (on the machine where the problem appears, of course).
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Posting the screenshot as Igor (Alwil Software) asked may be the only way to confirm if they did activate it.
There is a 60 trial if you (or they) haven't entered the license key, it would then start alerting you (red notice) I think it is 21 days before the end of the period. This may coincide with when you had it installed.
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Hello
From what you have written it would appear as an outsider that they have not activated the program when Avastuk installed it !!
I have phoned after receiving the following e.mail from a Emma in sales:
I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems with avast! but I can assure you that we have not sold you a false copy.
I have forward your email onto the MD as it would have been him that had the remote access to your computer; he is currently out of the office but is checking his email and will respond as soon as he can.
______________________________________________
My telephone to support = I still await for problem to be corrected !!
I will see idf can get a photo of the item you request as we have already tried to copy it , but that does not work,
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I will see idf can get a photo of the item you request as we have already tried to copy it , but that does not work,
I am not sure how are you trying to take that screenshot, but hitting PRINT SCREEN key on your keyboard should work without any problems. It will copy everything you see on the screen into the clipboard, and then just open some image editing tool like for example Paint and Paste it from clipboard (CTRL+V). Save it as JPG or PNG or BMP or any other image format, and post it here.
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Well we have had to get some one in our costs to look at the mess caused !!
They confirm that the Professional payed for on the 2 nd occasion is in fact in demo format with a licence key S9999999T9939A1106 expirying 14days.
So they tried to add the licensce key that is attached to the receiept :
W8501153R5100A1106 start date 25 january 2008
That registration come up with a message of invalid.
I am still waiting now on to my 4th day for customer services AVASTUK to reply other than the email as a bove early published.
Now patience is coming to an end with this !! I give notice that I will as of 9am Uk time place this with the UK Trading Standards to investigate !!
As a customer i have been quite happy with the product but the back up and support is Crap !!
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They confirm that the Professional payed for on the 2 nd occasion is in fact in demo format with a licence key S9999999T9939A1106 expirying 14days.
How many times did you try to install the demo version in the same computer?
So they tried to add the licensce key that is attached to the receiept :
I would not post the entire license key here, just the public part.
As a customer i have been quite happy with the product but the back up and support is Crap !!
I won't say you don't have support... but you could be in direct contact with sales@avast.com
Here, in forums, we're supporting and helping for free.
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firstly i did not install it the MD of AVASTUK did !! and verified it after we were sold a fraud copy in November of the Professional.
As for sales avast we phoned them as stated previously and spoke to a Czech national who spoke english the matter was never resolved and that was after repeated e mails tto sales in December 07 , with NO answers and that is why the MD of Avast UK checked and verified our system and corrected it and that the november professional avast was a fraud !.
He installed the new profesional , and Avast UK ( billed us with a copy of the registration key ) we have had to do nothing all has been carried out by AvasT distributors !
The only time we find out is when we get the RED box telling us its expiring in so many days.
As an international business it is correct that other user's of Avast see the potential problems and the sort of support supplied to companies by the Avast network!!
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You were not sold a fraud copy.
The second key you mentioned (W8...) is valid - it's an ordinary key which expires on April 1st 2009.
Is your system time set correctly? Were you logged on as administrator when entering the key?
As the last resort - did you try to uninstall avast!, install it again and then enter the key?
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then as your company installed it VERIFIED IT we would not be having this problem then would WE !!!!!
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OK, that was enough for me. You don't seem to be really interested in any help, so I'm not gonna try.
Don't know why you waste your time posting here though.
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Well we have tried again with the key through 2 different methods to try register it but the screen comes up with the answer key invalid!
It is your system not mine !! I am actually happy with the product when it working !! and that is all I am trying for the last 4 days now to get support to get it to work !!!
After I have PAYED for this 28Jan 2008
Well Igor i understand your frustration , I as a Director have paid your company for a product in good faith 2 times now ; I can not get assistance from customer support or sales a@ avast etc , so that is why i am using the blog
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You purchased the product from Av-Outsource (our UK distributor). These guys do provide customer support.
I'll bring this thread to their attention and hopefully, they'll resolve the issue asap.
Thanks
Vlk
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Can you please check system time and date?
Please, post the last 200-250 lines of avast log: C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\log\Setup.log
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Hi russia,
You have yet to post any of the information that was requested here on the forum. We can only help when the requested information is supplied from you.
Hopefully, as Vlk posted, a Av-Outsource support person will post in this thread also.
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Hello well I have just phoned Av-Outsource and spoken to sales there answer is
1. Refund the money
I said why as i am happy with avast since 2003 and all i try do is get it to work.
2. When I ask well when is UK support contacting then I alm told that they are overseas do an instalation,
So where now is UK support in this case ( answer there iss none!!) thats why they say they refund the fees.
The lady in sales is trying to contact James again .
But the bottom line is we just want the the program activated as it should have been in January,
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So where now is UK support in this case ( answer there iss none!!)
we just want the the program activated as it should have been in January
There are support@avast.com and the forums.
Please, answer the questions I've done before or we can't further help.
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I have sent the file complet to support as still nothing in Uk
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Ok
The state of play is having sent the 910page report to support@avast
I had e mail this morning the 5th day since the problem stated saying that I had not put the key in , obviously I had not put key in as Avastuk and installed and tested all!
After all the key was perminently rejected as inValid for 4 days. Only after sending the 910 pages do i get a message from sale in Avastuk to try again , and yes then it worked so someone in avast had to have corrected somethink in there system!!!
As for the Avastuk support well they are all in INDA doing a job , so there is NO support in the UK at all !! which is obligatory part of being an Avast distributor !!
I also then had email from India saying to check a BIO battery what ever that is , as i have no idea !!
But so far it is working now , and I am grateful for that having been an Avast customer since 2003. But I have to say as a Company Director myself that Avast and its network needs a better management structure than they have !!!
Any way thank you to those who tried to help
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I also then had email from India saying to check a BIO battery what ever that is , as i have no idea !!
Then you need to pay a computer technician to come and look at your computer: if the BIOS battery is dead, the computer clock won't work, and your avast! installation is likely to have problems again.
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hi russia
Good to see you've got it working.
Not saying this what happened to you, but one of the things that will cause that error, is if you used the copy and paste method of inserting the key, a blank space can be acidently copied. The interface interpets the blank as too many characters.
Anyway, hope that's the end of your problems. :)
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OFFICIAL RESPONSE from AV-Outsource
We sold an "ORIGINAL" License to the customer. We notified him that his bios clock battery may require replacement. The customer has entered the "ORIGINAL" license key we sent him and rang to thank us.
I would like to point out that we do provide support and the customer had been told him system was screwy! And we don't sell PC hardware support and new bios batteries!!! So it wasn't an avast or our problem.
AV-OUTSOURCE
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Exactly, and nothing wrong with this situation at all. No one can expect that avast! license will work properly if your CMOS battery is dying. We all know that if your battery power is weak, your system clock will start messing your time because system clock is powered by CMOS battery. If your clock is not showing proper time, of course avast! will start complaining about the expiration of the license. That's the only logical thing in here.
This particular customer should not blame avast!, Alwil or av-outsource for that matter... he should have contacted his hardware service department to solve this problem at the root level. Once he replaces his CMOS battery, avast! registration will go flawlessly even if he uses this same key av-outsource have sent him.
I guess he didn't know much about CMOS battery problem, so he started panicking. It would help in the first place if he just posted a screenshot and have checked his system clock like someone else already suggested in this same thread.
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My CMOS battery is dead in my 5+ years old emachines. I have no problems with my avast! license or clock. Evidently my system resets correctly itself at start up. If I set a BIOS password, when I boot up the password is gone because there is no battery power for the BIOS to hold memory.
Different systems behave differently. russia's needs a battery where mine doesn't.
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Golden rule in forums: - help us to help you!
No one can possibly know what kind of system/BIOS he has on his end. That's why people asked him about the status of his system clock so they can find out some more info.
I have to admit that it sounds so strange that your CMOS battery is dead and your clock is working fine. I have never heard that before. The only thing that powers your system clock is exactly the CMOS battery. That's why we have them, to keep those settings in, even when your computer is turned off for longer period of time. Even if your system "resets itself" at start-up, what happens after your computer is turned off for longer period of time ? There is absolutely nothing to power your system clock and keep it accurate.
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rdmaloyjr
That's kind of interesting. Are you using any type of time sync program?
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Batteries go flat plain and simple just like a glass of beer. I normally drink my flat beer coz, coz well coz I like my beer.
but heck even I knew when it was time to replace my CMOS battery. I threw my beer clock out of kilter ;)
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Maybe I'm wrong. Because the BIOS wont hold a password after shutdown, I thought it was because the CMOS battery was "flat". I figured the clock reset itself from a signal from the internet or my ISP. My emachines desktop is always plugged in (but not always on) & my ISP is "always on" cable internet.
I'm not using any time-sync program that I know. I do use alfaclock.
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Thanks for trying to help this customer and agreeing on the diagnosis, we do provide support for single users via email and since i use a Blackberry if he had emailed me in India he would have got an instant response. Telephone support isn't cheap from the otherside of the world :-)
Anyway issue is closed now. Thanks again!
av-outsource
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Hi rdmaloyjr
I took a quick peek at alfaclock, It does seem to syncronize with an atomic clock server. So you are probably right, the battery is dead. I would expect any tweaks to the bios, besides a password, would also revert to default.
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I took a quick peek at alfaclock, It does seem to syncronize with an atomic clock server.
It does not work (synchronize) on Vista as user should be asked by UAC to update the clock and he/she isn't.