EDIT
– So after reading the 2 replies to this, it turns out the only time I actually talked to Avast support was when I requested the refund. I’ve adjusted my rating to reflect this.
MORAL OF THE STORY – Use the online ticket system, don’t call 3rd party support.
END EDIT
If you don’t want to read all about me and JUST want to hear about Grimefighter, skip the stuff in blue.
If you can’t bother with that – TL;DR: Didn’t work on 2/3 computers, customer support stunk, so I got a refund.
Avast Antivirus - 10/10 (Does the job, is super simple for end users. Is easy to configure, works hard)
Avast Grimefighter - 5/10 (when it works, it doesn’t do a bad job. Good luck getting it to work.)
‘Avast’ 3rd party paid Support - 2/10 (Doesn’t do the job, super complex to end users. Hard to get anywhere without paying money, didn’t work hard)
Just some background first – I’ve been using Avast since September of '08, I know because I told EVERYONE I could about it, because it just blew the competition away (Still does).
In 2012 I completed my Certification course and was immediately hired by a company that handles IT for several small-medium size businesses. In my role, I manage everything from servers to workstations, modems, routers, and managed switches.
Since the official referral system has come out, I’ve referred 50+ home users, and 2 small businesses to Avast Endpoint Protection, and 1 in the cloud.
According to the Avast Recommendation system, I’m ranked as #387 WORLDWIDE. I have moved a TON of people to Avast, many of them now paying customers.
Suffice it to say, I’ve seen a TON of problems over the past 3 years, and I have dealt with Customer Support for applications countless times.
I fell like I’m qualified to say: I know my stuff, and Avast should care about my business with them.
So I’ve been with Avast for a while, and I decide ‘What the heck, my computer is running somewhat slow. Let’s give Avast Grimefighter a shot.’
I buy a 3 computer license from within the UI because I have a Desktop, a Laptop, and an All-In-One that is for work only.
I download it and it asks me to login to verify the license, and then asks me to restart (because Grimefighter runs a special operating system to perform the cleanup)
So I restart, and see some progress bars, then a flashing cursor. By this time it’s 11:30pm and I’m tired, so I figure I’ll just check it in the morning. Still a flashing cursor (like at a blank terminal / command prompt)
I try it on my Laptop, and it works just fine, so I go to the All In One, but can’t find the Grimefigher tab anywhere in Avast. I try to login to the Account area, and it crashes – I assume Avast has gotten corrupted so I uninstall it, then use the cleanup tool from Avast to make sure it’s clean. I reinstall, making sure Grimefighter is checked. Still nothing. I go to the Grimefigher page online, and this is the FIRST place I see that it’s not yet Windows 8 ready. My fault for not researching enough, so I shrug it off.
I call Avast support for the Grimefigher issue, and they claim it’s due to an issue with my system being messed up in one form or another. They say this because I was testing an application for work 8 months ago and so it caused a few bluescreens while we were troubleshooting the issue, but that program had since been removed and Windows had been checked (via SFC) for damage (there wasn’t any).
They tell me that I have to pay them $100 if I want additional support fixing my computer because it works on all other machines, so it’s got to be an end user problem.
I’d like to say here that I built my own computer, making sure that all of the hardware was compatible to the best of my knowledge and research. I feel like a program that attempts to run an OS other than the one the rig was built for could have issues. I say as much, but there is no budging.
Thankfully this has a less than terrible ending – I request a refund - The system says something to the effect of ‘This is a high priority ticket, you’ll hear back from us within a day’
I waited 9 days for my refund to be approved.
I got my money back, but I WILL be telling my clients about this incident.
In my personal experience, a product is generally measured in two aspects by the public – Its quality and support.
Avast – I give you a 10/10 for your Antivirus, a 5/10 for your Grimefigher, but a 2/10 for your support.
Telling me it’s my fault your product doesn’t after trying several times to find ANY possible issue and asking me to pay to let you fix your product is sickening.
Worse yet, the tech wouldn’t go beyond basic in-windows troubleshooting, and didn’t access a single Grimefighter log from what I can tell.
I’ll stay with your Antivirus, but I will avoid your other products like the plague until I see better support in place.
