Unpleasant Surprise

[popcorngal]

Couldn’t find a place on the site where I could lodge a direct complaint to the company, which is why I’m posting in this forum. So, I apologize if this topic is too out of place here. Would like to add that I've happily used Avast for many years without needing to contact tech support; probably wouldn't have stayed if the Avast tech support has always been as awful as what I experienced yesterday.

I use Avast Internet Security with WinXp SP3. Got an 'unsupported' error so had tech service do a remote check. Was told that my system was extremely corrupt, which it isn't true, and was strongly pushed to pay $169 to have an Avast 'engineer' clean up my registry. Also was told I had a bad version of XP, which isn't true, and was encouraged to change to Win7 or Linux because otherwise Avast would never work on my ‘extremely corrupt’ system. Oh and was told if I didn't have the 'engineer' take care of all the 'terrible problems,' my hard drive would be crashing at any moment.

Ultimately I received no help with my problem and my questions were never answered. Lastly, was told I couldn’t get a refund because my system is “too corrupt,” so will probably stick with Avast until my license expires. However, I will no longer recommend this company/product and will find a replacement.

By the way, all I needed to do was uninstall and reinstall to take care of the issue I was having.

[Asyn]

1. Was told that my system was extremely corrupt, which it isn't true, and was strongly pushed to pay $169 to have an Avast 'engineer' clean up my registry. Also was told I had a bad version of XP, which isn't true, and was encouraged to change to Win7 or Linux because otherwise Avast would never work on my ‘extremely corrupt’ system. Oh and was told if I didn't have the 'engineer' take care of all the 'terrible problems,' my hard drive would be crashing at any moment.

2. By the way, all I needed to do was uninstall and reinstall to take care of the issue I was having.

1. Who told you that..?? Where did you ask for help..??
2. So, is your problem solved now..??

[popcorngal]

Asyn,

I talked to 'Joe' in technical support, using the number at this link: http://www.avast.com/en-us/support

I took care of the problem myself after hanging up on him, by simply uninstalling Avast and then reinstalling it. And yeah, I was very surprised at how ridiculous the 'advice' was that I was being given. I know my computer doesn't have anything wrong with the registry, nor my OS and told the guy a number of times that if my system was that corrupt, I didn't need an Avast engineer since I could easily reformat my hard drive myself. His reply to that was to insist that unless an Avast engineer took care of my computer's 'problem,' that I was running a risk of having damage done to my hard drive and it seemed to me he was talking actual physical damage to the hardware. 

[DavidR]

It is 3rd party support service and I have reported this to an avast Team member.

[Asyn]

1. I talked to 'Joe' in technical support, using the number at this link: http://www.avast.com/en-us/support
2. I took care of the problem myself after hanging up on him, by simply uninstalling Avast and then reinstalling it.

1. OK, Dave did forward your complaint already.
2. Glad you could solve it yourself, next time just ask at the forum. It's free.

[popcorngal]

Asyn, thanks for your interest and I'll take your advice and post on the forum if any other problems crop up.  Let's hope no one goes through the same thing, especially someone that goes along with the spiel and coughs up their hard earned money.

David, thanks for passing on the information. Was hoping someone from Avast would be alerted and I appreciate your assistance.

[Asyn]

1. Asyn, thanks for your interest and I'll take your advice and post on the forum if any other problems crop up.
2. Let's hope no one goes through the same thing, especially someone that goes along with the spiel and coughs up their hard earned money.

1. You're welcome.
2. Yes, it certainly isn't supposed to work this way.

[DavidR]

<snip>
David, thanks for passing on the information. Was hoping someone from Avast would be alerted and I appreciate your assistance.

You're welcome.

Unfortunately with 3rd party support, some support staff may be driven to offer other paid services if there are any commission incentives (which I don't know). What I do know is that avast don't take this lightly and have terminated a previous 3rd party support contract.

That said I'm a firm believer in using the avast support forums where advice and assistance is given freely.

[popcorngal]

David,

I've utilized a lot of forums, some good and some bad and while I also firmly believe they can be an invaluable asset for any company/game/product, I strongly believe in a company having a solid customer service department.

Forums have one limitation and that is people who aren’t comfortable using them lose out. And, while I find it difficult to believe there is a large base of consumers who aren't familiar with what forums are and what they have to offer, I do think they would be the people who could be easily manipulated out of their hard earned cash by unscrupulous 3rd party support.

I'm curious to know how many people have already been bilked out of hundreds of dollars because they weren't computer savvy and believed what they were told, thinking the advice they were getting was coming from a reputable source. I personally thought Avast to be a reputable company, which is why I called tech support and why I was so unpleasantly surprised by the 'help' I received.

My faith in Avast is somewhat restored to find out they did terminate another third party support contract, but I believe a reputable company should better monitor something as important as technical support. After all, the whole point of an anti-virus program is to help a person keep their computers safe and I have to say that after talking with that guy, I felt very uncomfortable knowing he had access to my computer, even though it was only for a short time.

Anyway, this was a long-winded post to get across a short point… I wish Avast were able to offer in-house tech support. 

[VojtaN]

Couldn’t find a place on the site where I could lodge a direct complaint to the company, which is why I’m posting in this forum. So, I apologize if this topic is too out of place here. Would like to add that I've happily ......
Ultimately I received no help with my problem and my questions were never answered. Lastly, was told I couldn’t get a refund because my system is “too corrupt,” so will probably stick with Avast until my license expires. However, I will no longer recommend this company/product and will find a replacement.

By the way, all I needed to do was uninstall and reinstall to take care of the issue I was having.

Hello,
I am sorry for your bad experience with avast 3rd party support.
Current situation with avast support is that you have two options:

• Go to http://support.avast.com and request free help over the support ticket
• Call our 3rd phone support team where you can get limited free support over the phone or in case of more complex issue you will be offered premium support

If you have bad experience with our phone support, please write brief description of the problem to customerservice@avast.com and don´t forget to add

• description of the problem
• your phone number
• time and date when you called

We will escalate the problem to our call center and do necessary steps.

Thank you

Vojta Nekvapil
3rd Party support Manager

[popcorngal]

Hello,
I am sorry for your bad experience with avast 3rd party support.
Current situation with avast support is that you have two options:

• Go to http://support.avast.com and request free help over the support ticket
• Call our 3rd phone support team where you can get limited free support over the phone or in case of more complex issue you will be offered premium support

If you have bad experience with our phone support, please write brief description of the problem to customerservice@avast.com and don´t forget to add

• description of the problem
• your phone number
• time and date when you called

We will escalate the problem to our call center and do necessary steps.

Thank you

Vojta Nekvapil
3rd Party support Manager

Thank you for the response and I will go ahead and contact customerservice@avast.com. My 'unpleasant surprise' experience was enough to sour me on wanting to continue using Avast, but after learning about the third party support and the subsequent responses I've received here on the forum, my faith in the company is beginning to be restored.

Having been using Avast for so many years without needing support also says something about how well both the free version and the Internet Security version I'm now using, do work. Once I hear back from customer service, I'll post their response here, for those that might be interested.

Sincerely,
popcorngal

[popcorngal]

Nothing earth shattering, but received the following information in an email today. I'll post any further correspondence...

"Thank you for contacting avast! software and letting us know about the event. I would like to express my sincere apologies for that kind of behaviour of our third-party support. We will initiate an investigation about the matter in question and find out who is responsible for that.
Please again my apologies.


Best Regards,
Andrew Sestak
Customer service department"

[Squabble]

If you are happy with Avast don't let someone who was in a bad mood ruin your opinion. 

[bob3160]

If you are happy with Avast don't let someone who was in a bad mood ruin your opinion. 

This problem could actually have been avoided by simply using this forum for any problem related with avast! AV and many other computer related problems.

[popcorngal]

If you are happy with Avast don't let someone who was in a bad mood ruin your opinion. 

I agree with your statement, but...

Having  an encounter with a person who is in a bad mood or being rude is much different than having someone in technical support trying to convince me my hard drive was going to crash unless I shelled out $169.00.  The guy wasn't being rude. He was trying to convince me I needed to cough up money to fix something that wasn't broken, which IMHO is something much more unpleasant and a good reason to lose confidence in a company. 

Of course in retrospect, I probably wouldn't have been quite so disillusioned with Avast if I'd known I was dealing with someone from third party support help. Also, with the subsequent responses I received from customer service, I will be renewing my Avast license, instead of going with another company.