And years later the Avast phone scam continues. Come on Avast. Do something about it. Been reported too many times here over the years.
They already have a bad reputation... plenty of complaints on BBB
Yes, and the purportedly "quick" forum response time is up to five and a half hours and counting.
I sometimes do service calls for clients that are a two to three hour drive away and who can not afford to be without their computers for two days. If this was for such a client rather than for myself my entire day would be shot, the client would be getting stuck with a huge bill for me sitting around and twiddling my thumbs, I would likely have to go home and drive back to the site the following day burning additional fuel, and at some point I would have to call the other clients I had scheduled for that day and tell them I am not coming till at least late the next day. In reality I would likely eat the lost hours and the extra fuel costs (because I'm not a bastard to my clients) and end up giving a discount to at least some of those who were forced to wait... I doubt I would make a dime for the entire mess.
Needless to say... that's absurdly unacceptable. Which is why if I ever needed support for an Avast product (or any other product) on behalf of a client I would only consider asking on forums if the client wasn't in a hurry and the clients location was very close. I can't reasonably expect an immediate response from volunteers (and I don't)... but sometimes I need an immediate response.
But even all that aside. I find it unsettling that a software
security company would use a call center whose practices mirror the behavior of the very mal-ware their products are intended to protect against. I understand not to expect high levels of quality from free support for a free product... but I do expect honest and integrity
especially, again, as the company in question here specializes in software
security.
That the main alternative to being lied to and manipulated out of money is to come to forums where these dishonest practices are responded to with dismissal and the wait time for help can top five hours... it doesn't look good, to say the least.