AVAST behaving like Spyware

[wesmacc]

My paid subscription to Avast is running out and I have chosen not to renew. Now Avast is behaving exactly like the spyware I purchased it to prevent. A popup appears daily telling me to send money. There appears to be no way to remove this unwanted pop-up without sending money, which to me is the direct explanation of spyware. Now I'm in to the last two weeks and a new popup has been appearing even more often, this one shows the price to stop these popups and contains a direct link to the payment sites.

I paid in good faith for one years service, not 11 months and I am now faced with having to shut Avast down early so as to not have my focus grabbed from within games and movies and ruining my enjoyable use of my computer.

So, other than sending money as other spyware demands or shutting your service off, how can I stop these popups. Silent/Gaming and Do Not Report options have no effects on this.

[AdrianH]

1) Spyware is something that silently collects private information from your machine without your knowledge.

2) The popup is advising you that you are about to lose your protection. Let's face it if you were not reminded and something attacked your system as a result you would be here complaining about that, avast can't win either way.

[Para-Noid]

1) Renew your subscription.
Or
2) Uninstall then install the free version.

Like AdrianH stated if you didn't renew then you would be complaining about an infection.
If I were in your position I would be happy to see the reminder. As I would not like to lose the protection. 

It's not spyware it's a simple reminder built into the software. 

[AdrianH]

Just to add that over the years I have used Eset,AVG,Norton,Kaspersky and many others and all have had reminder popups on their paid versions.

[Monster_user]

I'm also going to chime in and say, sounds like a desirable feature to me.

If I were paying for Avast, I'd like to have some kind of notice before it stopped working, rather than find it didn't stop any viruses.

[Reikki]

I'm also going to chime in and say, sounds like a desirable feature to me.

If I were paying for Avast, I'd like to have some kind of notice before it stopped working, rather than find it didn't stop any viruses.

You seem to have misunderstood. The pop-up itself is how it notifies you that your subscription is nearing its end. Until the end of the subscription, at which point you may renew or switch to free protection, the antivirus behaves otherwise normally. In short, you're not losing protection, you're merely gaining a notification which can be gotten rid of by either renewing your subscription, or changing to the free version.

[Monster_user]

You seem to have misunderstood.

...at which point you may renew or switch to free protection, the antivirus behaves otherwise normally.

I didn't misunderstand. I just didn't think it through. My apologies.

The Pro version has more protection, the free version has less protection. If your paying for the Pro version, I would assume you are in need of its extra protection.

That protection will stop functioning once the subscription expires.

SafeZone: Secures shopping & banking    
Sandbox: Lets you surf the web virtually
Sandbox: Runs risky programs virtually
Firewall: Blocks hacker attacks
Firewall: Secures personal data
Firewall: Secures your identity
Anti-spam: Stops annoying SPAM
Anti-spam: Blocks phishing scams

So your hacker blocker will revert to the Windows default, slightly lower level of protection.
You will be left with whatever browser security your preferred browser has.
Your programs will be left to run in whatever security level your operating system offers.
You will be left to your own to avoid phishing and identity theft scams, and SPAM. (No protection)

[DavidR]

If you choose to renew through the avast user interface, then the renewal would also take into account the remaining period, so you don't lose any time by not waiting until the very last day. Though you would continue to get reminders.

If you decide you aren't going to renew the license at the end of the period, then can use the free program version. That however, would mean that you still get the reminders up to the point that you install the free version.

[wesmacc]

I'm sorry. My fault.

This undesired popup that is now appearing less than hourly DEMANDING that I send it money even though I am still a paid customer for 5 more days is my fault. I should renew the program that I paid for not stole like 90% of the internet even though IT IS NOT EXPIRED or I should uninstall the program that I paid for and not stole like 90% of the internet and install a lesser program. Sorry folks, my bad.

Guess Skyrim has to wait 5 more days. Oops, no netflix tonight... popup won't like that unless I send it some money.

I don't give a shit what spyware DOES. What spyware IS, is something that causes your system to function improperly and tends to offer a fix if you buy their 'solution'. Read the frggin manual, Avast even brags that it prevents/stop attacks like this.

And those of you that consider this a service....  well good for you, I come home after a 12 hour shift to horse around on the computer a bit. Everything on this computer is a fully licensed paid for version, no trials, no 'free', nothing. Obviously that isn't wanted here, stealing or leeching free versions seems to be preferred.

3 popups during the writing of this message, all of which stole focus even though Windows 7 is set to not lose focus....   I think 50 popups would be sufficient, if I was on 24/7 I suspect I would have received thousands this month because I have closed over 100. I personally think that is a bit excessive and I would send a couple emails, maybe even 3 to customers but a blatant focus stealing popup when Avast brags that the professional version stops that particular nuisance. One of the functions I looked for before paying.

I won't use the free version. I believe in supporting the companies and I sure don't want some silly 'help' bar to magically appear on my browser during an update because I didn't check every single line on every single page.

Bottom line, I am uninstalling it after this message. 4 popups now.....  even you koolaid drinkers have to admit that's a bit excessive and to tell me to remove something I bought because I won't buy it again. Stupid.