Hi Andy
You live in Australia. So you will understand when I say that Microsoft had nil support for users of their product until very recently - since about November 2008 I would say. And still not great. Basically you would have to go to a reseller and/or work through a third party agency, who would most likely end up doing all yr tech stuff. Often you would also have to mesh an MS product range with the software program that yr parent company says that you have to use, because it facilitates their accounting process and physical distribution management, and so on, and we all know those programs are down all the time. And yr tech team have to struggle to keep abreast of these things. So often what it boils down to is how good is yr tech team, or on the other hand, how bad is yr tech team. And you should really measure their performance over time because expenditure on technology is marked by high entry cost, and gains on marginal costs over time (that is, once the cost of a computer is put to work, you may get exceptional performance over time at very little additional cost). Maintenance can be expensive but again you're back to good team / bad team. But anyway, the main point is that Microsoft have had virtually no support service at all until very recently. They have only started setting up their own shops in the US. Until recently, you could only go third party. And still have to. State of the whole software industry worldwide actually.
Now there will be loads of exceptions, but every exception will have a good team not a bad team. You have to speak for yrself, not for 'commercial users of the product all over the world'. You also omit to mention that Symantec products are exorbitantly priced and, outside large corporations (like the public libraries, for example) who can afford to run economies of scale, there is large proportion of users that only run the trial product. But if you've got a good tech team, then anything is possible for yr business. There are some real hotshot teams working out of NZ and will be same in Australia, so you will know about that as well. Good tech team, and you can make use of the cost advantages that are available through using avast product range.
You've been through the thread so you will have read Vince Steckler's post. He is aware of what you are talking about, and absolute certainty they will be working to improve their reception service for customers, because that is what he does (used do for Symantec). Now about the forum, some people come here and searchfindlearn, all good, most times they end up telling you how they fix their problem. Others want you to do it for them, which is okay too, because there are a lot of good people here that can help. Many have not even made an appearance lately. You will know these things if you know this forum. And the forum is monitored by the team at avast so they can provide some help, which they do. However, lately things have been a bit strained at times and I think mieko's post brought that to a bit of a head. Part of this strain is due to the growth of the product. That was already underway well before the new product was released. Then the new product was released. So the forum was inundated with queries, and still is, but nothing like out of control. The kind of people we respond to are still being fixed up, with much the same fall off rate as I’ve always noticed. And still the same old problem, the average user forgets that the problem is on their computer, and expects that the problem is also on our computer, which it is for a little while, until we fix it for them. But if there is nothing we can do, then we are wasting time so we get very short with people. I think I can say fairly that mieko did not suffer anywhere near the full venom that could have unleashed, if fact he suffered only a few scratches, and IMHO came out of it better than he should have. But some glitches in the system came to surface that may not have otherwise. And they obviously thought that was a good outcome at avast. Which it was. They were almost grateful really, which is sign of good marketing skills as you will know. And you may receive a similar response. I don’t know I haven’t read all through the info you provided. I have only so much time in a day (and you can say the same to me), and I have got to go answer queries to users of avast who mainly exist ‘in the wild’ and who have chosen to do their own tech work, and often come to the forum to learn (mostly the queries I answer). Something of a picture of what avast used to be really, an alt product (alternative) that has grown very quickly recently. Once upon a time it compared to and I think performed as an open source product, so a lot people still come to avast expecting free. Well you can still get that, and you’ve still got forum members that like to help people sort their computers for free. The free product is a good product – the best free antivirus by far – but you have to be prepared to do some of the work yrself, show some initiative, and so the user may find they are more competent than they first thought. I’m not sure what’s waiting for me on the forum, I may have got hot and abused half the world – and some of the forum members I think, I can’t remember, I answered yr query first – but I know once I pick up the first call, I will have forgotten most of this post, and be thinking about what is in front of me. Unless, of course, you keep coming back without a broken computer. Then all hell may break loose - or maybe it wont, its very hard to tell. I think avast tends to come out these situations very well, certainly I receive lots of heads up to go with the time I put in. But I would do it anyway because avast has been very good to me, a truly wonderful product, that is most appreciated on this forum. You will notice how easily we migrated to the new product range, and how keen is the intent to find bugs and glitches that may arise in the running of the new products. We don’t come here just to read the words. Anyway, its been quite an effort, and my attention is lapsing - so I head off now do some tech work. Better put in disclaimer.
None the above comments is authorized or sanctioned by the makers or distributors of avast! antivirus product range. Or by avast user forum, for that matter.