If you’ve experienced problems with Avast Software as described on this site, feel free to tell us and everyone else about it here.
If you’ve experienced problems with Avast Software as described on this site, feel free to tell us and everyone else about it here.
My story is simple, a few months before they launched their Android app, they posted a blog post that supposedly revealed a malware/trojan (as they called it) along a regular Android app which I happened to be developing at the time.
The app was the perfect victim, at the time of only 50,000 Android apps on the Market, the app was one of the TOP 5 in the US paid apps.
The problem is, that they claimed that A) they got the app from the Play Store, which they did not (later they changed the blog post after Google confirmed that there is no such “malware” on the official android app on their store) B) that I was stealing their information via this app which as it turned out C) was posted on file sharing servers and had only 1 back link to it. I will leave it to the smart people to figure out how they picked up on an app that was probably downloaded a couple of times so fast.
For whatever reason this small blog post was picked up by all the bigger “news sites” and as you can see in this article, the CEO blatantly lies that they were not developing an Android security app at the time.
“Steckler denied that AVAST will shortly release a security app for Android, or warned users of the malicious edition of Walk and Text for publicity. “What we care about is malware out there that takes personal info and incurs costs to users,” he said.”
Quote from here:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2507599/mobile-apps/rogue-android-app-sent-personal-info-to-legit-version-s-developer–claims-avast.html
This was also denied in a commend under the blog post, made by a person from the company. They also started revealing IPs of people who were defending and saying that the article is a farce and the CEO Vincent Steckler personally accused me of manipulating the comments.
AVAST released their anti security app, which they wrapped around a find my android app, just 3 months later. The app has around 500 Mln downloads so far and its value is in the millions. You will probably understand that they clearly lied when they said they are not planning on releasing an Android security app at the time and this was used for publicity purposes.
Unfortunately the article still stands and at the time I did not have the time to research on the CEO. Had I have known about his fraudulent past I would’ve definitely put him to his place.
What a racket… I was getting emails that my subscription was expired. I just renewed it. I asked Avast support to stop sending the emails. I told them that the auto renewal credit card that was on file was expired and that I renewed with a new card. It seemed to me that their auto renewal kept trying to charge the old card. A tech somewhere in the world connected to my PC and told me that this was happening because my PC needed servicing for $119.99. What a bunch of scammers. I am trying to get a refund now and will just use Malwareytes.
I wish I know this page before, here is my story, I ask them for my money back for an order I placed an did not install, I was billed to my MasterCard $64.46. this request started almost 2 months, see below some of their replies:
1. Dear Tim,
Thank you for contacting Avast software. We do apologize for our delayed reply and all inconvenience this may have caused.
I’ve checked your order with our distributor and I can confirm that your order was disputed. Dispute status can appear only if customer asked his bank to reverse the payment.
You should already have payment back at your account otherwise please contact your bank for further investigation.
If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me again.
Best Regards,
Blanka Pichova
Customer service department
AVAST Software s.r.o.
2.Dear Tim,
We have received your inquiry.
We are very sorry for the late answer.
Our records show that the order 9118795106 has already been refunded.
If we can be of further assistance, please reply to this message.
Kind regards,
Selma K.
Customer Retention Specialist
AVAST Software s.r.o.
http://www.avast.com
3.Dear Tim,
I am sorry but I did not find your recent order in our database.
Could you please send me a proof of credit from your bank interface where will be visible that money was already credited from your account ?
I can then contact our distributor for a further investigation.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Blanka Pichova
Customer service department
AVAST Software s.r.o.
4.Dear Tim,
I am sorry but I did not find your recent order in our database.
Could you please send me a proof of credit from your bank interface where will be visible that money was already credited from your account ?
I can then contact our distributor for a further investigation.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Selma K.
Customer Retention Specialist
AVAST Software s.r.o.
http://www.avast.com
5.Dear Tim,
We have received your inquiry.
Regrettably we are not able to find any charge with (email address withheld) apart form for the order 9118795106 which is already refunded.
We found one more order registered with the same billing address but with different email `(email address withheld) / Timothy Lindeman`:
11630201547 Avast Internet Security – 1 user, 1 year – Aug/18/2015 – Automatic renewal has been canceled
We would like you to send us the proof of the payment and the credit card number for the charge that you claimed in Mach/2016 so that we can escalate the request to our shopping partner for further investigation. It can be registered with different email address.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance,
Kind regards,
Selma K.
Customer Retention Specialist
AVAST Software s.r.o.
http://www.avast.com
It’s almost 3 months and no money return yet, hope my story will help other to avoid falling with those scammers.
It is virtually impossible to Cancel Auto-Renew………the customer service phone# just refers back to useless website…..the online “cancel” pages that search your acc’t comes up empty……..the Support “ticket” link from emails comes up empty…..still no response after 6 days….i will probably have to change my credit card number!
Don’t trust Avast! When I recently returned home from vacation, there was a popup window on my desktop that said, “Avast needs to restart your computer.” First I ignored it, but then finally complied. It wiped out all of my files! 118,386 files, or 423.89GB of information! I contacted Avast and was told if I purchased Avast Total Support, it would help me find my files. It didn’t! I requested a refund for the $299 I paid to cover four computers, but they have not complied. It still is within the 30-day guarantee period. I’m still waiting.
This company canceled my order, and I have not got my refund back, when I wrote them my issue, I got this reply from this idiot which called himself “Customer Retention Supervisor” see it below, and I need your advice, please.
Dear Mr. Natividad,
Thank you for contacting AVAST software.
Could you please give me some further details about the problem you are having with the software and I will eagerly work with you to attempt to resolve it.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Vladimir Hornicek
Customer Retention Supervisor
WTF, what Supervisor, I think this idiot needs a lesson in English to understand what you asked for, you should contact your bank as I can see from the stories above, those people are crooks…..
It is not easy to find the suitable words which describe this company , I’ve contacted Avast to inform them that my father passed away on July 15 2015. Since I have access to his old email account, I was able to see that he had a subscription with Avast.
I received a mail that informed me about the automatic renewal of his subscription. The issue that I have already cancelled his account and subscription a couple of days ago. I asked for a refund, since his subscription was still going on (since July 15 2015) until now (3/22/2016 ) .
Their reply was:
Hello Christina,
Mr J. Brendan Deady had two licenses with us, however that have expired and of course, we will not charge the credit card in question anymore.
If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me again.
Nuno de Sousa Pereira
Avast Customer Service Department
It is absolutely exhausting that I have to contact them several times and that they are not able to read my questions properly. I am not asking for the order to be stopped, I am asking for a refund (from July 17 2015 up until now for his two licences). I ask them to read my other mails (and my other messages which I have sent to Avast a couple of times via other contact forms). I asked If a refund is not possible – which I will not accept – I would like to have the contact information of the person in charge. They do not understand my frustration as I have contacted them many times and had to wait for a response for a very long time. My father paid for two licences which he was – unfortunately – not able to use. It is not acceptable that they profited from his death from July 2015 up until now. Any suggestions???
To the creator of this website, I would ask you kindly to work on publishing your site, as if I know all those info, I will never subscribe to avast at all, I haven’t seen a worst customer care like theirs. I sent them a request to refund my money, and I got this reply:
It’s my understanding that you currently need to protect only one computer.
Kindly note that your Internet Security license, 3 users, will remain valid until Aug/11/2016.
If you agree, we can convert the license count from 3 to 1. This will extend the validity of your Internet Security license until January 2017, at no additional costs.
Additionally, and while you’re certainly entitled to a refund, if you wish to protect your computer with Avast Premier, these remaining months can be added to your new Premier license, 1 user, extending its validity until January 2019.
Kind regards
Fabio T.
Customer Service Department
AVAST Software s.r.o
140 00 Prague, Czech Republic
I replied to this idiot to read carefully and act immediately.
Cancel subscription on my account for “AVAST Premier” with expiration date of 4/14/2018 immediately.
1) I already have a subscription with you for “Avast Internet Security”. Which at the time was show to be expired, then it updated itself to an expiration date of 8/11/2016
2) I requested cancellation within first hour of my purchase (by accident)
3) I was as clear as above in my original request. Instead of doing what I asked you to do.. you chose to create hurdles by asking me if my credit should be used for other things for consecutive days.
4) When I called the customer service, they created additional hurdles.. a) didn’t reveal the full name (first name was Jose) of who I was speaking to, b) didn’t let me speak with my manager c) didn’t share confirmation number d) didn’t share ticket number e) mentioned can’t send the confirmation email
All of the above are truly unprofessional and unethical.
It’s not easy to deal with this company, I did not receive the license key until AFTER I requested a refund. I asked them to refund my money, to my credit card. the reply was insufficient, I do not now what to do:
Dear Nora Snyder,
We have received your inquiry.
Your Avast Premier – 3 user, 1 year subscription was renewed, because your original order (order number: 14180878760) had an automatic renewal service active.
The automatic renewal was agreed with during the original purchase and license was sent to your email address nora@arionfl.com.
I would like to point out, that your Avast subscription is transferable to another computer.
The only limitation is, that you cannot use it simultaneously on multiple machines.
May I offer you to extend your license for 3 months instead of a refund?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Selma K.
Customer Retention Specialist
Beware of this company, they are stealing from your bank account without authorization, they claimed that I agreed their auto-renewal, and I never do, read their reply, and do not let thieves to steal you:
Dear Millicent,
Thank you for contacting Avast.
Please note that the auto-renewal charges were only made because at the time of purchase you had accepted to have the license renewed automatically upon approaching the expiration date.
Regardless, I would sincerely appreciate the opportunity to assist you with any issue in case your decision is motivated by any technical difficulty you experienced with the software.
I would like also to highlight that Avast subscription is transferable to another computer in case you have changed your PC for a different one.
Looking forward to your reply.
Best Regards,
Blanka Pichova
Customer service department
AVAST Software s.r.o.
I bought a product from avast which mentioned auto renewal there was an option to disable this which I found difficult never the less I emailed them to cancel it I received an email back saying auto renewal was cancelled I have just found out that the subscription has been taken out of my account I have emailed them but to no avail how can they keep my money when I have the proof email that auto renewal was cancelled
I have had Avast Antivirus since April 26 /2016, since then I have been infected with Malware; I’ve spoken to criminals claiming to be agents; who have continually attempted’ to sell me products to remove Malware’ they infected my computer with; this morning’ I spoke to two agents Chrisie; and Lawanda; the first never disconnected control of my computer; after I hung up;the second Lawanda’ kept calling back harassing me; and taunting me; ” what are you gonna do about it?” I’ll keep calling you back! I swore at her and the ***** kept calling me back’ I paid these criminals for service. I’m using Malware bytes Free, to hopefully clean my computer, Do Not Use This Anti Virus Program!
> Avast! Antivirus suite is actually a solid and effective antivirus product
That part is probably quite true. BUT, when their own website says that I dont have a license with them, why should it charge my credit card?
I took it off because it tries to “run” on my computer even when I’m not on the Internet!
Never buy their crappy product, after I upgraded to W10, I have the “Start Menu and Cortana” problem because of avast, I had to uninstall it, and I asked them to return the money, I really hate such a reply from someone consider himself VP of Customer Care and Satisfaction:
Dear Tomas,
we are sorry for inconvenience. Yes, you can get the refund.
However what about a different offer? If you are able to reproduce these bug again then we will send our dev team to debug it on your computer. And we’ll give you ALL Avast product for free. Sounds interesting?
Have a nice day!
Lukas Hasik
VP of Customer Care and Satisfaction
Avast Software
Watch your bank account, I thought that I got a billing error. I received originally email as being billed at 39.99 with a 10.00 discount, but was actually billed 49.99. Seems they are doing it intentionally, see their staff response:
Dear Lizabeth D Gallegos,
Thank you for contacting Avast.
There are certain offers given the time of year and other factors to new customers. In many cases, these offers are introductory offers with renewals being billed at the current rate than offered on the introductory price. At the same time, we do also offer, from time to time, prices which are even lower than these so-called introductory offers to our loyal customers.
In this particular case, I would like to offer you a 4-month extension of your current license to close this price difference/gap, if you agree.
If you require additional assistance, do not hesitate to contact us again.
Kind regards,
Carlos B.
Customer Retention Specialist
I am another victim of Avast’s scamming tactics. They took $79.99 off my Visa debit which I didn’t authorize. After several fruitless emails back and forth with them, they refuse to refund my money. Even after complaining to my bank, they weren’t willing to help me get my money back (Royal Bank). My only option is to cancel the Visa debit I have and get a new one, so Avast doesn’t scam me again!
Hi Mary,
If those bastards refused to refund your money send an email to their managers. Start from the top. Their salaries are being collected from all of us. You can find their names here: https://www.avast.com/en-us/about
The company is using (last name)@avast.com (e.g. Vincent Steckler the big thief’s email address is: steckler@avast.com, Ondrej Vlcek next one email address is: vlcek@avast.com and so on..)
Do not let thieves to enjoy your money.
Never pay for anti-virus. Lesson learned.
A few years ago I purchased the 2 year package for 20 dollars. A good deal compared to not having a fully functioning anti-virus. Just two days ago, I was charged $42.03 on paypal from DigitalRiver Inc., and received no license key or even any notification of incoming renewal. I had not been aware the service was an auto-renewal. When going to the website to try to submit a ticket for a return, an order number is required- again, I had not received a product, I was just charged. I attempted to call support only to find out they will not handle billing over the phone. This company leaves virtually no way of backing out of contract short of cancelling your card or blocking it on paypal. What’s worse, is that the unexpected charge overdrew my bank account, forcing me to pay my bank a $35.50 overdraft fee. Do not fall for the scam of Avast giving a good deal, or you’ll regret it.
Antivirus company Avast Software is planning to acquire Dutch rival AVG Technologies for $1.3 Billion in cash. good by avg and to all out there avast was hacked and told no one they are the ones doing it they virus program is bad bad do not use it and if they do buy avg i will not run any virus program again on my pc you have a bug and they want
money and that is you have a life time account they lie to you and they cheat you do not use this company program find some thing else this program is not any good or safe it is a LIE CROOKS AND LIERS
Earlier this year my wife and I broke-down and bought a Macbook because she had been without a functioning PC laptop for almost a year (her previous PC laptop became impractically slow due to unresolved malware pop-up b.s. as the avast software she had purchased just less than a year earlier was clearly not working).
During this time she got her credit card numbers and exp. dates refreshed to new ones (our annual due diligence), yet 2 weeks ago on one of the new credit cards (new meaning “new number and exp. date” but in which the previous card on that account had been used to purchase avast more than a year earlier) an avast charge appears for annual renewal!!! This is the type of fraudulent auto-renewal b.s. we are legally trying to avoid by getting new number and exp. dates on our credit cards each year, yet avast as fraudulently wormed their way back into our account. This is outrageous and this company is nothing more than a scam whose products might have been several years ago but they have clearly been dealing fraudulently. I’m tempted to sue them in small claims court. From the looks of the complaints posted to this blog I believe there are enough legitimate fraud issues here for a class action lawsuit against this shyster company