My customer experience – Complaint and warning
Two days ago my computer became infected with malware that I could not repair. I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows 7. I installed avast Free for protection. I ran into a problem with a webpage I go to for checking work messages. The webpage would not load until I disabled avast If I re-enabled avast the webpage would freeze. Adding the webpage to the list of URL to not scan did not help.
I went to
www.avast.com/en-us/support and called the 1-866-951-7679 helpline. The fellow on the other end said he could help, just click on the headphone icon on a webpage he directed me to. Next thing I know he is controlling my computer. He opens a windows event log and says avast is not functioning correctly because of driver conflicts, and that if I want to be able to open the webpage without disabling avast I have to fix the problems in the log. He says for $179 he can fix everything right up. I say no thanks. He lowers the price to $119. I say I think I’ll just ask in the forums how to get avast to ignore the webpage. He says it won’t work until I have my drivers fixed. I’ve just spent a day failing to remove malware and another day doing a fresh windows installation and I need to check my work messages so I say go ahead. The only reason I agreed is I thought someone hired to do avast’s support would be trustworthy.
He transfers me to a Bomgar engineer who takes over my computer. I tell him what the salesman said. The engineer takes hours of messing with my machine but I try to watch everything he does. He reverts windows updates, he installs 3rd party software from HP and Dell, he changes my settings. Eventually he gets to an avast menu on bootup where he uninstalls webshield. ***My copy of avast no longer has webshield*** This does allow my work message webpage to load, but hardly seems like a solution. I mean, webshield is the most important component of avast, isn’t it?
In any case he never addresses any of the issues in the windows event log the salesman pointed to. All he did was permanently turn off avast webshield. Plus revert a bunch of windows updates (which I reinstalled), plus install third party programs (which I think I was able to remove), plus change customized settings (which I have restored.)
***The only difference in my machine after paying $119 to the avast support tech is that webshield is no longer part of my avast install.***
I want my money back. I want my time back. I want webshield re-installed and the ability to open my work message webpage without turning it off. I want advice on a better antivirus software package; paid or unpaid, with a small footprint for a 6 year old machine. I also wish I didn’t feel embarrassed for having recommended avast to friends and family members over the years. Avast used to be good, right?