My wife’s AVAST pro last week quit working and she got a virus she called phone support and one phone# is disconnected which is the paid license so she called the other # the TECH took control of her computer and never mentioned payment until after taking control of computer ??? Then tried to sell a 300. to 600 dollar program to her. What kind of company is this??? She had to completely reload windows and all updates. and now My coputer is doing the same.So I Called same phone number and tech tried to take control of MY computer, but first I told him I want to resolve my avast problem not to have him try to sell me some kind of EXTRA SERVICE after he takes control of my computer. HE HANGS UP ??? is this the way things are done now?? GOD HELP US !!
Adam Riley, riley (at) avast (dot) com Avast Third-party Support Manager, has requested info about iYogi, so if you have time to recount your experience (copy and paste your post, etc.), give the link to this topic.
You can try to resolve your wife’s system problem in the forums if it isn’t resolved.
I have done as you asked ,but no reply yet??
I have also PM’d Adam with a link to this topic, it is possible that given the time in Europe Adam won’t have been in work. Prague is 7 hours ahead of you I believe, so Adam won’t be on-line for some time.
Thanks for your help, I’ll wait till tomorrow
Good morning,
Thank you for contacting avast! software via our forum.
I would like to start by saying that I am of course sorry that you are unhappy and have had a bad experience with our call center.
The call center is ran by Avast partner iYogi; they offer totally free support for installation, inserting the license and basic troubleshooting, however beyond this, for example if your computer is crashed or has serious problems, or if the problem is not directly related to Avast, they are allowed to offer you their full support service which of course is fully optional.
I will email you directly now to explain this in more detail and to work with you to resolve the issue.
Best regards,
Adam Riley
Third Party Support Manager
Yes cover up time, 3rd party or not that was sucky service by the guy who picked the call. Avast don’t be affiliated with this iYogi guys if you have an option, why blame the company for a technicians mistake well its the manager who needs to take into account however or least set a standard. You have a great genuine product, don’t compromise it.
There is no cover up this is being conducted in the open as you can see, the OP was given the email address for Adam by me (and avast user not employee) and I also contacted Adam so that he could respond promptly and resolve the problem.
I could just as easily done this all by PM so it would have been completely outside of the topic.
Whilst I’m no fan of iYogi or 3rd party support in general, if avast didn’t have this then I don’t know if there would be any free telephone support (certainly not for the free product as well) other than the support.avast.com support tickets or these forums.
It certainly isn’t perfect which is why Adam asked us (senior avast users) to report any thing like this in the forums to him, so he could follow up on any such issues.
I understand your answer completely, BUT in no way should any one you or third party ,NO ONE should take control FIRST and THEN only after taking control request money to fix an AVAST update issue. and I have not received a personall email explaining anything. I DO thank any and all who have helped in this issue.
No one is condoning the action, my comments were squarely about vividcru’s comment “Yes cover up time”
Guys, on a different note. I was hit by trojan.tracur.gen 2 days back. This was unfortunately not detected by Avast Int Sec which I like very much. Malware bytes reported it constantly. Btw…my avast & malBy is both paid.
Anyways…in my time of grief 
I decided to give the number a try & was transfered to iyogi. After scanning my PC the quote to cleanup my PC came to 169 which I could not afford. So I graciously declined & took to myself to get out of the mess. I guess the 169 was being footed as it was not a issue with avast that the laptop was infected. What I could not understand is that is’nt the s/w supposed to ward of the trojans…maybe I am expecting too much. Anyone care to help if the avast Int Sec would help in warding of trojans or if they get into the system could be cleaned by Avast Int Sec…so that I am clear in my thinking & decide accordingly in the future.
anyways the guys at malby’s worked hard with me. I am amazed by the support received.
sorry to have asked these questions…but i thought it would be good to understand the support structure & correct any of my misconceptions.
You should contact Adam as mentioned above and make him aware of your experience.
It isn’t a backdoor, that would be compromising security. To be able to do it the user must allow remote desktop connections in windows and or use a remote service like logmein, etc.
That is done from control panel, system, see image of XP settings.
Good morning all,
To add to this… absolutely the customer must grant access, and physically visit a specific URL to create a remote session with iYogi. (This creates a 1-time unique access ID) Furthermore, as part of the ‘script’ (for want of a better word) the iYogi technician must immediately upon taking connection, show the customer the disconnect button on their screen, so that they have the option to end the session at any point.
As mentioned a few times on here, we are working very hard to ensure all Avast customers (free and paid) get telephone support on a toll-free number, and for the basic Avast issues, totally free of charge.
I am very happy to work with any of our customers who feel they have been treated incorrectly or received bad service from iYogi and they are always welcome to contact me directly.
Best regards,
Adam Riley
Third Party Support Manager
I sent an email to the email address you have linked to the account in this forum immediately after my post on here to you; please let me know if you didn’t get it and I will of course re-send it.
Thanks,
Adam
You’re welcome.
I had the same issue!!! Purchased the upgrade, and when I installed it my Laptop was infected with a Trojan Virus…called iyogi for a REFUND and they gave me another number to call and they said they could not give me one…cost me $200 to have the virus removed!!!
HOW DO I GET A REFUND???
I would start by contacting Adam in my first reply in this topic. I don’t know if he can directly help with a refund (from iYogi) as he is avast’s third party support manager.
I know you guys don’t think much of WOT but I think it is interesting that.
- WebRep has no rating on iYogi
- WOT rates it a “yellow”. WOT ratings of course are “community” created ratings based upon surfers input.
Out of five stars
a. Trustworthiness - 3 stars
b. Vendor Reliability - 4 stars
c. Privacy - 3 stars (probably because they take control of the caller’s computer)
d. Child safety - 5 stars
Also at Walmart there are 63 reviews of iYogi and it has a 63% rating or 3 stars out of 5.
http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/12574833/iyogi-new-pc-setup-support-reviews/reviews.htm
Overall just an average rating, which based upon my experience with avast! is below their normal standards.
@ Glazierman, Vividcru, Som, KIDGEO3.
FYI. You will get excellent support to remove any infection, and free in the places named below:
Our own Avast Viruses and worms Forum where Essexboy and others do an extraordinary job helping any one:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=4.0
Spywarehammer:
http://spywarehammer.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?board=10.0
Bleepingcomputer:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html
Malwareremoval:
http://www.malwareremoval.com/rules.php
MajorGeeks:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35
AumHa Malware Removal:
http://aumha.net/viewforum.php?f=30
Hope it helps.