Tell Us Your Story

If you’ve experienced problems with Avast Software as described on this site, feel free to tell us and everyone else about it here.

233 thoughts on “Tell Us Your Story

  1. Well I read reviews online and said Avast was best antivirus pkg so I discontinued AVG and signed on for one year with Avast at $56 . Well they took the money and put me on the free trial . So now free trial is over and no email or phone number at AVAST to contact so guess what I got stiffed for 56 bucks . I did get to cancel automatic renewal in time and will contact my bank to keep AVAST from avasting more theft from me . I do hope all who read this take heed and don’t get ripped by this scam .

  2. Stopping Auto-Renewal Subscription will not work on their website. I was dubbed into paying for their service, and now I bring it to my bank to get my money back and hopefully block them from further subscription.

    • I had the same thing happen to me today. I still had two weeks left on my subscription, and was going to unsubscribe when it was time for renewal. Well Avast took it upon themselves to auto-renew it (without my permission). So now the new subscription is good for 380 days (15 of those days belong to my previous subscription)! I tried to cancel which you can do, but that’s for a year from now, because they “lock” your subscription in. I notified my bank and I’ve e-mailed Avast. I hope I can rectify this horrible situation.

  3. My wife and I have Avast. After running an Avast update yesterday, she can no longer connect to the Internet. When Avast is disabled, she is able to connect to the Internet. When she called “support” to fix the problem, they stated that they would not fix the problem without charging us additional fees. We called back and a different technician identified a different problem but also refused to fix it without additional charges. We refused these charges as the problem is with Avast and they will not help their paid customers without paying additional charges. We already have the paid subscription. This is ridiculous. I’ve been an Avast customer for years and never had problems, but the company’s tactics are unacceptable. Their “support” system does not offer free support. What they offer is more charges and fees so that their product will work properly on your computer.

  4. There is absolutely NO WAY to contact them about billing issues.
    My license for Avast Premier was not showing in my Avast account, nor could I find it in the Digital River order platform (conveniently there were “no results matching my details”), so there is no way for me to cancel the auto-renewal. I’ve tried contacting both Avast and Digital River to no avail. Even then, the only way I could find to contact Avast was submitting my query through the Tech Support form as this seems to be the only thing they’re prepared to help with.
    Luckily I paid by PayPal so I have cancelled authorisation for them to make future payments through PayPal – hopefully this works as my subscription is up for renewal in a week. Quite sad when you have to resort to contacting your bank or PayPal to block payments from a company 🙁
    Basically, do not go near Avast! They will happily keep taking your money and they DGAF.

  5. Digital River is the real culprit [scammer] in these experiences. Avast need to cleanup it’s act with these crooked re-sellers!
    All the Avast ‘Free Trial’ pop-ups & cancel at anytime stuff is perpetrated by Digital River who freely uses Avast logos to just plain misrepresent to the consumer.
    1) Went to Avast website and stopped auto-renewal -which doesn’t really do anything till the annual renewal next May – but no way to stop the 30 day trial on the Avast site before the 30 trial expires [May 27th].
    NOTE: activation and online account info was emailed from ‘avast@digitalriver.com’ at the onset of ’30 day free trial’ – but only pertains to Digital River – won’t authenticate at Avast website.
    2) Called Digital River and explained I want to terminate Free Trial [now only 20 days into a 30 day trial]. They told me OK their won’t be any charges, but nothing in writing or email to cover me when/if the charge shows up on card.

  6. AVAST JUST BILLED MY ACCOUNT FOR $49.99 … I HAVE ALWAYS HAD AVAST “FREE” INTERNET PROTECTION. I NEVER RECIEVED THE PREMIUM UPGRADE EVEN AS A FREE TRIAL. MY BANK REMOVED THE CHARGE AND A COMPLAINT WILL BE FILLED WITHE THE ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA – CONSUMER COMPLAINT DIVISION. BTY I HAVE DELETED ALL AVAST SO CALLED “FREE” DOWNLOADS FROM MY PROGRAMS.

  7. I just happened to see an email from Avast@DigitalRiver.com saying my free trial has been converted to full product license and it will auto renew May 2018. Then another email from PayPal “You sent a payment of $53.99 to USD DigitalRiver US Inc.”
    Ummmmm no I didn’t. DigitalRiver helped themselves to my PayPal account. Hoow does that happen? I don’t recall giving them my PayPal info, I just clicked try free trial and assumed it would revert back to the free version at end of trial. Guess I’ll be calling PP next and cancelling anything to do with Avast. Might also call local news so they can warn others about scam as well as post on social media. That’s pretty shady. And when I click on upgrade from my free version, it says Premier is only $9.99. Either way, I have antivirus for purpose of keeping myself from getting scammed. Sure didn’t expect them to be doing the scamming.

  8. I paid for Avast for two years a few months back and keep getting pop-ups that my free trial has expired… I do not have a free trial,
    I paid for two years… got to watch these people and best to block them with the bank and PayPal !…

  9. Yes they took $108 from my account on May 19 and called it recurring charge. Fraud. Nothing is recurring. They are not even authorized to use my card. I have not heard for 3 weeks. I have filed fraud report to bank. I have deleted all connections on my computer with them. Will be also filing criminal charges with the District Attorney of Texas. They are a Scam. Stay away.

  10. I just received my Master Card bill and had a charge of $49.99 for AVAST-Nexway. I had AVAST 3-4 years ago, but haven’t used since. I have neither an order number, nor renewal notification…I have tried to contact by email and phone. The site claims my email address is not on file (only address I have had for 15+ years). Phone calls only give me the run around, i.e “Press 1 for billing. I press one it reverts to the menu.” Odd how they can bill me but not recognize my email address? I need to review my last 3-4 years of credit card statements, as I am sure I been billed annually, and overlooked. This scammer needs to be brought to justice, and suggest we all contact our States, Attorney Generals

  11. I called Avast thinking I was calling a legitimate company since I had been doing business with them before, and I was scared into paying $699.00 for 7 years of protection. I realized they were misrepresenting, so I cancelled payment on the check. They are now harassing me with legal action, if I ignore them.

    I was able to hire a computer programmer to monitor my computer, and he told me, they put absolutely nothing on my computer to protect it. They continue to harass me everyday, even though I put a block on the call.

    My next move is to report them to the FTC.

  12. Avast as a program was actually pretty good as it runs. But after years of being a paid customer of Avast I decided to dump them for 2 reasons:
    1) the last time it auto renewed, Avast charged me about 3x the price
    2) more importantly, their customer service SUCKS. They have no concept of responding to what you post on their side. They really can’t be bothered. Pity really. A good product let down by a non-existent customer service.

    I used to recommend Avast to friends and family. Now, Avast has lost a loyal customer.

    I’m off to Bitdefender!

  13. Avast has worked well but I’ve decided not to renew this year. Unfortunately that’s the problem, after following several online articles on how to
    cancel my auto-renewal none have worked. Either getting a server error message or there’s no link on the webpage. I’ve emailed their
    support but after three days I have yet to receive a reply. If no contact within the next few days I contact the bank and instruct them not allow
    the payment. Perhaps then someone will wake up and contact me!

  14. My uncle just called me, said someone from india called him from Zoho Support and told him his computer is hacked and they can help him to remove
    the malware. I said did you let them get on your computer? he said yes, I said did you let them download anything? he said yes. He said they wanted money
    to remove the malware and I didn’t pay so they hung up. I said, what Anti virus you have? he said AVAST. I said open it, he opened Avast and Avast said that it
    has caught a malware and to remove it he has to pay money ( can you believe this? )! I said how do they charge you? he said I pay yearly. I said they should remove
    the virus without charging you any more, I have never heard of this! Told him to call Avast support, he called them and they told him a file has been installed in the Avast folder and has taken over Avast program, so to remove it he has to pay Avast 50 dollars!!!! Told him if I were you I would format my machine, install new windows and never again install Avast. cancel your subscription and tell your bank.

  15. I have had Avast for 4 years and tried to get a hold of them to make sure that I didn’t have auto pay.
    I found out the only way to stop auto pay was go to the site that took your first payment, they have four different sites and I didn’t have my original purchase number.
    They said I had to buy a repair ticket to have them check it out. Like a fool I bought from them a gift card worth $100 all I needed to do was pay shipping and handleing and I could use that to buy a repair ticket or anything I wanted and the card cost was $4.95 which did show up at the bank.The call was recorded for quality control?
    Two weeks later I get hit twice for a total of $85.97 I notified the bank and filed a dispute and was told that I had authorized the sales. Recorded call I said Yes and the bank said I authorized the sales . I cancelled that card and got a new one and cleared my computer of anything to do with Avast and any mention of Avast.
    I even changed my Email. DON”T GIVE AVAST ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH YOUR MONEY IT IS A SCAM.
    I replaced Avast with AVG bought at Walmart!

  16. I was charged $64.04 on my credit card that was unauthorized! This is the 2nd time they have done this and you cannot find a number to call for a refund. I guess that I will request a new card with a different number in order to stop thieves from taking my money.

  17. DIAL 1-844-340-9251! AND REFUND YOUR MONEY$$. THIS TOTAL SUPPORT IS TOTAL SCAM! THEY CHARGED YOU FOR NOTHING, THIS HARD-SELLERS ARE GREAT SCAMMERS. REFUND YOUR MONEY NOW!

  18. Avast is a joke they are a scam ,I had nothing but trouble with them since JULY of 2016 ,Every time I came on my computer it would tell me I had no protection .I would notify AVAST and they said it an internal problem in my computer .I like a fool let them into my computer , WHAT A MISTAKE , It has never been right since .I have call them andtold them to remove me from their subscription list .
    SOME GUY who did not speak ENGLISH WELL said they would remove me .
    HA ! Got a bill in FEBRUARY for RENEWAL ! Who do you have to contact to get out of AVAST????

  19. I was just charged $41.99 for Avast Cleanup by Digital River and I don’t even have this product installed.

    I purchased Avast Internet Security in June. That is the only product that I want. I did not want Avast Cleanup, yet I was charged for it anyway.

    I just tried to turn off auto-renewal in my Avast Account, and it will not turn off. I contacted Avast and have not heard back from them. I attempted to email Digital River, but the email address on the receipt does not work. I got a bounce back email when I sent it.

    I will never buy another product from Avast. This is ridiculous that I have to go through all of this trouble after being fraudulently charged.

    I will not stop pursuing a refund and will use every avenue I can to get my money back.

    • I was charged by cleverbridge for the same thing. It was charged to paypal, and I was able to get them to reverse the charge right away.

    • Avast charged my pay pal account $79 for the same thing.. I didnt want it… didn’t ask for it.. didn’t want it renewed.. I have uninstalled Avast.. and closed my paypal account.. They WILL NOT get to cheat me again. how can I trust my computer to a company that cheats their customers.. I recommend BIT DEFENDER.. or anything that is not avast

    • When you succeed ( HA HA ) let me know, you will NEVER get your money back, as soon as I mention my name on the phone, they hang up on me, they will never answer your emails, their business licence should be removed.

    • Did they solve it? I went through the same thing! And there is no way to report and get my money back. If they solved it please notice here.

    • Hello Cole,
      Sorry to hear of your problem, which is unfortunately a common one. Here are some options:

      *File a report with the online Better Business Bureau. (I’d do this no matter what, btw)
      *If you purchased using Visa or MC or any major credit card, then of course you can stop the unauthorized charges. Call your bank’s customer service dept and put a block on the automatic charges and file a dispute of the charges back to when you first tried to cancel, explaining to customer service what’s going on and sending them a copy of your email if possible to cancel (or whatever method) and most probably they can and will stop the problem right then and reverse the charges.
      IF your bank gives you a hassle, so this:
      *If you used a debit or credit card, ask for a new card to be issued (you may have to ‘lose’ your card to get a new card, depends on the bank) Avast then won’t have your new card number and the charges will not post. You might have to pay for a new card, like $10 or so, but it will absolutely work immediately and might be advisable if the charge is a monthly one.
      *If you purchased using your checking account # directly, then you can simply call customer service at your bank and put a block on it to stop charges and, again, register claim to dispute the purchase.

      I KNOW one of these will work for you…and again, FILE A BBB REPORT so that others will be aware of the problem. HOPE THIS HELPS!

      I just had an unpleasant experience with their customer “support” allegedly in the Philippines (didn’t sound like a Filipino accent…I’m betting Prague..lol) and I’m surprised that “cleanup” program even worked. I tried it in the free Internet Security trial, every way possible, including uninstalling it and reinstalling it, downloading it freestanding, and it never EVER worked for me. Good on ya if it actually worked for you! ;P A supervisor I asked to speak to (couldn’t understand the 1st woman) told me that I WAS THE FIRST PERSON EVER TO TELL THEM IT DID NOT WORK. I laughed in his face and said out of 140,000,000 (supposed) customers, It failed to execute only ONCE ? Uh-huh….ROFLMAO. These techniques will work for just about any fraudulent charges. PIA, yes, but they work.

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