I uninstalled AVG
Yes, that is what you say. But the question is if you used the uninstall tool and then removed all leftovers manually. If not, it can lead to problems and that has nothing to do with avast.
How GrimeFighter did come into play... Read your own post.
This grimefighter stuff completely hosed my PC
The AVAST support lady
If that was on the phone, it was not someone from avast.
To answer further, majority of folks who are hosed up and need their files back. Do you think there is any other option than pay up?
Yes there is. It is called a backup, no need to pay anything at all.
If Avast has even checked this forum and looked at the symptoms they would have stepped up and offered free service in these specific cases, they didn't.
People from avast are active on this webboard and as I said, support for avast is free. There is no reason for avast to offer free help for software other than their own.