Author Topic: Wake up avast !  (Read 22621 times)

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Offline Eddy

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Wake up avast !
« on: February 03, 2016, 04:50:41 PM »
Why avast is loosing customers rapidly :

1]
There where way to long response times to tickets especially when it came to refund requests.
There was a lot of improvement till Christmass last year.
Now the amount of compaints about it are rising again.
avast:  "There where hollidays. Our people where free and now we are trying to catch up again"
Get the clue avast, internet is 24/7 active and so are your users.
Have people work during hollidays and/or have extra people work on things right after them.

2]
avast says they are still supporting Windows XP.
That is not exactly true.
They only still support systems running Windows XP is the CPU is supporting the SSE2 (and later) instruction set(s).
The latest avast version 11.1.2245 only installs on systems that support the SSE2 instruction set.
avastclear will not run on systems that doesn't support the SSE2 instruction set.

3]
On 21 january version 2509 of the avast business for cloud was released.
No anouncement, no changelog, not even a single word from avast about it.

4]
Webboard login problems have been reported.
Amongst them the problem where people have stored their login details in their browser(s).
When trying to use those the automatic login, the webboard says "invalid name and password".
Many weeks after the first reports avast hasn't solved it nor has it even reacted in anyway.

5]
AMS 5
No firewall
No activity log
No root install
I would say it is a car that left the factory without a engine, without tires, without steering wheel.
It should never have been released.

6]
AMS 5 (free)
But with ads and no way to get a version (paid) without ads.
Lots of people don't want the ads and are willing to pay for a version without them.

7]
avast has abandonned the premium version of AMS.
AMS with the options premium has for free sounds good.
Well, it isn't.
People who have gotten the update to version 5 now have adds and they don't want them.
People who have paid for the premium version have never gotten a mail or where informed otherwise about the changes.
People who have paid for the premium will be missing certain options that they have now.
After +/- 2 months avast is finally saying something about it :
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=182216.msg1287428#msg1287428
They are given a SecureLine license as compensation.
Guess what avast... If people wanted to have SecureLine, they would have bought it alongside AMS premium !

8]
Disable the shields for x minutes/till the system is restarted/for ever.
After a few minutes they are enabled again, although the user had to confirm he really wanted to disable them.
And avast does not tell the user the shields are enabled again or that they will be enabled again after a few minutes.
Even when it puts a system at risk to infections, it still is the users choice and not up to avast to decide for the user.

Offline Secondmineboy

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2016, 05:08:40 PM »
Glad someone points this out :)

MartinZ was just watching this thread but didnt reply yet.

But Avast is going downhill right now.

WAKE UP AVAST: http://prntscr.com/9yjkpn

That looks bad for you.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 05:10:36 PM by Steven Winderlich »
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Offline Dwarden

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2016, 06:31:56 PM »
quite valid points there
https://twitter.com/FoltynD , Tech. Community, Online Services & Distribution manager of Bohemia Interactive

Offline Lord_Ami

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2016, 06:47:49 PM »
I could add points why I do not install avast anymore on PCs I maintain/repair etc:

* Sometimes too many ads/no way to turn it off. If I know person is not gonna upgrade, I'd like to turn it off.
* Install/upgrade installs additional stuff like Chrome... I often wondered why there was Chrome when people used Firefox...
* When I'd tell people to install avast themselves, they install all the extra features besides antivirus that they do not need. It has also a performance impact...
* People do not know how to enable PUP detection (it's not in the setup) and thus their PCs will be full of PUPs sooner or later.

//
Edit. Forgot the most difficult one: * Yearly renewal.


Just my 2 cents.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 11:49:59 PM by Lord_Ami »

Offline schmidthouse

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2016, 06:52:48 PM »
I agree with all the points and I won't repeat what has already been posted about for months.
Just absolute neglect or negligence, your choice!

Offline lukor

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2016, 09:42:46 PM »
Thanks Eddy for your comments.

Some of them are no-doubt valid and we are already working on a fix (such as 1), others are pretty hard - such as 2 -- this is a technical challenge for us to support non-SSE2 CPUs in the latest builds. Older builds are however still running and will get the latest VPS database - hence are supported to provide the antivirus protection.

I am also suprised to see so much of the Android related points.

Thanks, we'll definitely look at all the suggestions with MartinZ and others.

Offline Eddy

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2016, 10:02:06 PM »
Only thing I did was reading a lot of posts here as well as on other webboards and talk to people.
These points "bubbled up" to the top of reasons that people mentioned on why they left avast or are considering leaving.

Offline polonus

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2016, 10:11:18 PM »
@lukor,

Just to add one to the Android apps issues. I think Avast Mobile Security is really one of Avast's crown jewels and I am very fond to have it installed on my android Android 4.4 (KitKat). Now Android 1 TapBoost alerts me that I have to halt/stop Avast WifiFinder because it started 11 times in the background with a constant autostart (within 5 minutes).  It will slow-up functioning while I am constantly on one and the same Wifi connection to monitor at home (so there Avast WifiFinder does not have to run), so there really is no purpose for this activity. So there is a glitch and it tampers my 1Tap Boost app. This is one example where development rushes out a product that isn't completely ready to make it's alpha-launch unto the market. I posted this in the Android forums but I never saw a responce there: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=182215.0  (0 replies)

polonus
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 10:13:31 PM by polonus »
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Offline Secondmineboy

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2016, 11:41:35 PM »
This topic is even posted on MalwareTips now :)
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Offline polonus

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2016, 06:06:05 PM »
Google researcher finds up serious hole in "Avastium" aka "SafeZone" -> https://code.google.com/p/google-security-research/issues/detail?id=679
Avastium removed a check for dangerous schemes  :o and it seems this flaw has been fixed now:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=182468.0

Browserfestium : Chromodo, Avastium ... What's next? ... Securitynlium? Secuchronlity?

polonus

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Offline .: Mac :.

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2016, 03:42:17 AM »

2]
avast says they are still supporting Windows XP.
That is not exactly true.
They only still support systems running Windows XP is the CPU is supporting the SSE2 (and later) instruction set(s).
The latest avast version 11.1.2245 only installs on systems that support the SSE2 instruction set.
avastclear will not run on systems that doesn't support the SSE2 instruction set.


Which is why the Enterprise products are still on Avast 8.x engine, XP support is paramount in Enterprise. I guess the consumers are assumed to have long upgraded from XP since its main sticking point is Enterprise and Embedded systems
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Offline scythe944

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2016, 06:00:16 AM »
Quote
Which is why the Enterprise products are still on Avast 8.x engine, XP support is paramount in Enterprise. I guess the consumers are assumed to have long upgraded from XP since its main sticking point is Enterprise and Embedded systems

XP support? Please excuse me, but I believe that even Microsoft has given up on XP since April 2014.  What makes third-party vendors bad when they choose to not support the OS anymore?  It was released in 2001.
For generic computer (not avast) problems, you can also visit my forum for help: http://www.jacobytech.net/forum

Offline Eddy

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Re: Wake up avast !
« Reply #12 on: April 30, 2016, 09:22:52 AM »
You are missing thepoint here.
It doesn't matter if the OS is old or that MS is not supporting it anymore.
Avast said it will keep supporting it and that is what they should do as promissed.
Avast is saying that XP is supported,but that is not entirely true.
Only recently they added that a SSE2 supporting system is needed.
Many months after I reported the problem.

Another problem is that people don't know what SSE2 is and such.
They see "XP supported" and expect it to work on their system.
If it doesn't, they see it as deception/lying from avast.

Many non SSE2 supported systems also run Vista or Windows 7.
Not supporting that hardware anymore means avast (and other av vendors) don't reach millions of users.