Not Standing Behind Refund Policy - Unbelievable Useless Customer Service

system · 2017-01-21T21:17:54.000Z

I used Avast for two years on my laptop. At first it seemed to be great. Then started to slow my computer down. Every morning I had to let the computer update the Avast settings before use. I purchased a new laptop in April of 2016 with Webroot anti-virus software. I forgot my old laptop (which I have not turned on) had an auto renew setup for Avast. Since I purchased the new laptop I did not get the full value of my Avast license for the rest of 2016. On January 6, 2017 I was charged the renewal of $89.95. I have sent two separate email requests via the Avast website with request to refund the charge for 2017. I received a canned form response email for both requests that they were working on the issue. There policy clearly states you can ask for refund within 30 days. No refund, and no response for two weeks and counting. If you are having issues refunding just say so! Don’t let me feel like my request is not being heard.

I will be talking with a family lawyer to see what other options I have to get my money back. A letter will be going to the US Attorney General office about the poor level of customer service. I have started leaving reviews of this horrible service on review sites and will not stop until I have my money back.

Ticket ID: [#669102]
Ticket ID: [#677335]

David

Pondus · 2017-01-21T21:20:47.000Z

I will be talking with a family lawyer to see what other options I have to get my money back. A letter will be going to the US Attorney General office about the poor level of customer service. I have started leaving reviews of this horrible service on review sites and will not stop until I have my money back.

First step should be this post, and then it is probably solved on monday ;)

DavidR · 2017-01-21T21:29:13.000Z

Refund requests have go through the support ticket function, there is no email to shortcut the system. The support ticket system operates a first in first out (FIFO), submitting multiple tickets could actually slowing the process.

So long as you submit your refund request within the 30 days it is valid, you aren’t limited to it having to be processed within 30 days.

Would it not have been better to post here as you now have to try and get help.

What dates were these tickets submitted (and I will try to push it from this end) ?

Eddy · 2017-01-21T21:40:50.000Z

Every morning I had to let the computer update the Avast settings before use

What do you mean with this ?

I forgot my old laptop (which I have not turned on) had an auto renew setup for Avast.

The subscription will auto-renew if you have chosen that when buying it. You could have/can disable it anytime you want through your avast account.

Since I purchased the new laptop I did not get the full value of my Avast license for the rest of 2016.

Yes you did. A license is valid for the time you purchased it. Only thing you had to do was remove avast from the old system. Remove the old system from your avast account. Install avast on the new system and apply the license file.

I have sent two separate email requests via the Avast website with request to refund the charge for 2017.

That was a mistake on your part. avast is using a FiFo system, which means every time you submit a new ticket shortly after the previous one will put you back to the bottom of the stack which means you need to start to count the waiting time from scratch.

There policy clearly states you can ask for refund within 30 days

That is correct. If you ask for a refund and are entitled to it, you will get it. Asking once for it is enough. After asking, you just need to have some patience. avast is handling tickets within 1-5 business days (time depends if there are holidays, how busy it is and such)

I have started leaving reviews of this horrible service on review sites and will not stop until I have my money back.

Please be honest and also mention that most things are only to blame on yourself.

system · 2017-01-21T22:00:17.000Z

Here is when the requests were made.
Ticket ID: [#669102] 1/12/17
Ticket ID: [#677335] 1/18/2017

Let me give some more feedback to some responses:

As I said the software worked great for a year. I even recommended this to friends and family. Then it started to slow down my computer and lock it up that I could not use the computer. The mouse and keyboard would not work. The only fix was to power it off and on. So I knew it was best to start my computer, then go take a shower, or do something else until the Avast software had updated and would allow me to use the computer.

I had no idea you use the FIFO system. To be honest the response I received did not note a time frame I should allow to get my request done…the response.

"This is just a friendly confirmation that we have received your support request and one of our dedicated team members will get back to you as soon as possible.

We are currently experiencing an unusually high volume of incoming messages, while we strive to resolve your issue as quickly as possible, unfortunately this may take a little longer than usual.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we politely ask for your patience while we try to resolve the current situation we are facing, your email is extremely important to us and we will have a dedicated specialist respond to you as soon as possible. "

If I had known it would take 7-10 days to process I would have left it alone. If it takes more than X many days then perhaps a follow up email should be sent to reassure customers that it is still being worked on.

DavidR · 2017-01-21T22:16:48.000Z

Your best course of action would have come to these support forums first and we could have given you the information and saved you a lot of grief.

For the most part the people helping here are avast users just like yourself, just trying to help other avast users.

I have reported this to try and bring attention to your issue.

Eddy · 2017-01-21T23:49:36.000Z

Ok, so your last ticked is dated 20170119 which is 3 business days ago.
Just have some patience.
Refund requests are handled by humans, not machines.
As I said, if you ask for a refund and are entitled to it, you will get it.

As for the slowdown,
every software that is running will cause slowdowns.
It is using system resources.
That is just the way it is and there is nothing that can be done to prevent it other than completely removing all software.

What you could (and should) have done is finding out why your system got slower.
Either by yourself or with help of others.

Unless there is a (huge?) bug and/or conflict with other software (e.g. drivers), avast doesn’t prevent your mouse and/or keyboard from working.

As I said the software worked great for a year

In a year a huge amount of things will have changed on your system. Ofcourse there are the updates to avast (for the tool as well as for the vps and other things), but also Windows updates, driver updates, software you have installed/removed etc.

I would say what is it you want ?
Just stop the auto-renewal, get a refund and use a product from another company (either free or paid) ?
If so, disable the auto renewal (https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB24) and wait for avast to reply to your ticket.

If you still want to use avast and reduce/stop the (as you call it) slowdowns to be gone (if possible ofcourse).
Let us know and we will do our best to help you by finding out what is causing the slow downs and give (possible) solutions for it.

system · 2017-01-23T17:13:37.000Z

Thanks everyone for your advice and help. I received my refund today.

Pondus · 2017-01-23T17:15:13.000Z

as i said, solved on monday

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