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.
Beware!!! I got the Avast internet security and Avast cleanup total price $52.89 Also the Avast VPN. I thought I would try it for a year and then decided to cancel the auto renewal. They make you jump through so many hoops that you would have to be a computer geek to stop the auto renewal. I tried many many times to stop the auto renewal and finally after 6 back and forth emails, I got a confirmation on auto renewal was turned off and would not be charged, two days later my bank account was charged the $52.89! I went to so called customer service and asked for a refund and to cancel auto renewal, again I got a confirmation email that said it was turned off and minutes later I received another email saying it was turned back on! I had to stop my bank card and request a new one, as this is a total scam, and I was the one that called an avast no. and they asked for info. and said I would get a refund and would connect me with billing. I was disconnected and called back and told them the story, I was asked for my name, Avast account, and avast order ID which I did not have as you have to save all the emails with the invoice no. and then request a password so you can remove the auto renewal which does not work. They asked that there must be something stopping this and asked my permission to fix the problem, they showed me the event viewer, and said that my computer had a virus, and that I should not cancel Avast, I told them in a firm voice that I wanted a refund and not to renew any and all Avast subscriptions, the foreign speaking man said that I should go with Norton for a fee of $100.00, then I told him he was a scammer, while on the phone, and I shut the computer down and unplugged it, and he kept asking if I was there, and I hung up. He called back right away and I declined to answer. I did not give out any credit card info etc. but having a real bad time wondering if he got anything off my computer. Avast is a total scam and they will not refund your money and will not stop auto renewal. I was ripped off of $52.89 and had to be reissued a new bank card and change my passwords. Why is this continuing????????
Yes,i’ve just managed to turn off auto renewals, hopefully it will work…Frankly i didn’t know i’d signed up for auto renewal,and the price for secure line vnp was 79.99dols plus 19 dollars tax..i checked on internet and it was priced at 59.99 dollars …Now i’ve seen in my mail that i’ve been charged for grime fighter,..oh it’s getting confusing,now comes a bill for avast cleanup,maybe the same product?…ok i managed to cancel auto-renewal,at least i hope i did,but i’m stuck with all those bills….They said by upgrading to avast premier,at a special xmas offer,i would have the trials automatically incorporated..but they avast have done everything in such a sneaky way,but looks like i’m stuck with it
Avast charged my credit card in 2018. I haven’t had intrrnet service since 2016. So far. I have been given the run around -told to contact another phone number that was no longer in service. When i tried to call back to get a working number, one would answer and mo return. May have to file a claim in small claims court or FCC.
I have worked in the tech industry as a system engineer for the past 20 years, and sadly I too fell for their scam. When I was in the market for a new anti-virus product, I did some (obviously not enough) research, decided to give Avast a try. I had previously used McAfee, Norton (Symantec), and AVG, and was relatively satisfied with AVG, though I was tired of the pop-up messages from their free version. I found out through some quick google searches that Avast now owns AVG, so I installed their “free” product to evaluate it for a day or 2 before the purchase. Everything seemed to be fine after a day or 2, so I purchased Avast Professional, and took advantage of their discount of 3 computer/2 year deal. That’s where the trouble began !
I upgraded the Windows 10 Dell laptop I am using to the Professional version, and tried to install it on a Dell desktop running Windows 7. The product installed just fine, but the services would not stay running, and repeatedly threw up UI errors. After cleanly uninstalling the product and reinstalling several time, I finally decided to contact their tech support. SURPRISE ! For starters, I logged into their portal and there is NO listed number, email address, etc to contact their support ! There is only a link to their forums. I was able to find their tech support via google (1-866-951-7679), and after approx. 30 minutes of their technician “troubleshooting” the issue via remote control tools, I was told there were numerous issues with the Windows 7 PC. The technician went on to tell me that these issues would require extensive work on their part, and for that I must purchase their “Premium” support for $119. My response was simply “Why would I pay you $120 to fix a DAY 1 problem with your $50 software? Before I pay you $120, I’ll backup my data and reload the OS from scratch!” Obviously I declined, and proceeded to remove all the “troubleshooting” tools their technician had installed. Not wanting to have my purchase be a total waste, I tried to install the product on a Minix mini computer running Windows 10, and to my utter amazement I received the same UI errors.
Shortly after this fiasco with both a Windows 7 and Windows 10 UI errors, I began “lose” my start menu, search features, Cortana, and IE/Edge functionality. When clicking on any of those items, nothing would happen. My only recourse was to perform a system restore to the previous day, and these functions were again usable. So, back to a couple of google searches where I discovered many other users stating they experienced the same issues right after installing Avast. I removed Avast and monitored the situation for a few days. Guess what? The issue did not resurface ! However I now have a 3 computer/2 year (and minimal $50ish investment) that is completely worthless ! Ok, no big deal, they offer a 30 day money back guarantee, right? I go onto their portal, remove any license allocations, and request a refund (using https://support.avast.com/en-us/contact/sales_refund). 2 weeks lapses, and no word from them. All this has transpired between Thanksgiving (purchase made on Nov 30), and Christmas (refund requested on Dec 4th). After receiving no response from them, on Dec. 17 I decided to call support once again. The technician I spoke with insisted they could not refund my money until they had properly performed troubleshooting steps, so I reluctantly granted him access to the Windows 10 laptop. After more “dog and pony show” troubleshooting, I was shown a litany of “issues” with my laptop, and told I would need to purchase their premium support for $119. Again I refused, and insisted I wanted my money back. Their technician requested some information (docile stuff like email address, etc… all information that should have been available to him as it was required for registration). Then came the kicker,.. I was asked for my credit card number. Now, working for a large corporation as a system engineer, I am well aware of scammer techniques. Since I purchased this product via Paypal (I know, not the best tool in the world, but it DOES protect my credit card information for online purchases), I told him I will in no uncertain terms provide him with ANY financial information whatsoever, and wanted the money refunded via the original purchase method (ie Paypal). He claimed they were not equipped to refund my money via Paypal, and while in control of my laptop tried to sign me up for a “Coinbase” account for this refund. I refused, and told him basically he is completely full of crap, as anyone (person or business) than can accept payment via Paypal can send funds via Paypal. After several minutes of us going back and forth, he agrees they will refund my money via Paypal, bgut “it will take them up to 30 days for their billing and accounting department to issue the refund”. Ok, again, no big deal, right? I mean my refund was registered both online and via telephone well within the 30 day window.
Fast forward to January 27th, and no word on my refund, so I submit another refund request. This time I receive an email reply (on Feb 7th) stating they are sorry I am experiencing problems and “Could you please give us more details about it as we have no call recorded related to your subscription?” WHAT??? NO RECORD of any calls (or refund requests)?? How is that possible? Well, I’ll tell you how,.. by simply not responding to my refund request, and not emailing me with the requested information, there is no “paper trail” for me to prove there were ever any conversations. I replied to their email with a scathing reply detailing my adventures in “Avast hell”, to which they responded “Based on our records, Order #nnnnnnnnn was placed on Nov/30/2017. As per our return policy, refunds cannot be issued 30 days past their original purchase date. I have cancelled automatic renewal on your orders so that you are not billed unnecessarily when these licenses expire.” Cancelled my automatic renewal??? I never authorized any automatic renewal ! No where in the agreement for purchase or EULA on the install was automatic renewal mentioned !
Unfortunately for them I use Ooma as my home phone home, so I have the log to prove my call to them on Dec 17th. However, the Dec 2nd call to them was placed on a cell phone that has since been replaced, so I have no concrete proof of that call. I have submitted a screen capture of my Ooma logs to them and I an anxiously awaiting their reply of how they cannot accept my evidence as proof of a refund request or something of that nature.
Do yourself a favor and never so much as utter the name Avast. The product is far inferior to even the free Microsoft Defender in my opinion (which is commonly referred to as crap), and the nightmare of granting them access to your wallet will be one you’ll soon regret !!
One note I neglected to put into my post. I am a system engineer (Windows Server administrator and member of a team of 14 that manages approx. 5000 Windows servers world-wide) for a large corporation, so my technical expertise is well above the average user. While I certainly do not profess to know everything about computers, my job involves troubleshooting hardware and software issues daily. I am often tasked with resolving these issues on hardware or software I have never seen before, so I fully understand how to use system and application logs to determine root causes of these issues. However I do understand when an application expert may be needed, if for nothing more that identifying what specific function(s) and application may be performing, or what applications/features it may be leveraging from the operating systems that may lead to a root cause. The Avast technician’s troubleshooting steps were superficial at best, and their conclusions in both cases were totally unrelated to the root problems.
In the Window 7 workstation issue, I was told it was related to residual registry entries from a previous install of McAfee. However, on that computer McAfee had been uninstalled form > 2 years, and the computer had been using AVG perfectly fine over those 2 years. AVG was removed prior to installing Avast, and no residual AVG items (ie files, registry entries, etc) were found.
On the Windows 10 laptop, I was shown Event log entries for a separate backup software product from a different manufacturer for not having access permissions to a selected folder, and time synchronization errors because the computer was trying to time sync to an old, no longer valid source (which I resolved right after the call). Neither of these items has anything to with Avast services crashing
Update – After filing a claim to dispute the charges with Paypal, and informing Avast of said dispute I received an email they “have reviewed this ticket and we have confirmed evidence you tried to contact us requesting this refund”. I verified my Paypal account, and indeed the money was refunded.
I received email from Avast that my subscription will be renewed. If I chose not to renew I was given information in the email to cancel renewal. The information to cancel was Invalid. I tried to email them and discovered that the email could not be sent. They are scammers. My only option was to cancel my credit card and get a new one or I would have been out $60. Beware of them. Do not buy their product. Their product caused problems in my computer and I deleted it two weeks after installing it.
I clicked on Avast, they offered me a software for, $19.99, they say my computer has lots of problems I now need another software for $199.99, I tell him (Kevin Copper) the tech person. Long story, short I told him I could not afford it, he tells me, they could not refund my $19.99 until I fix the problems
Should have learned my lesson from the first time I used avast a few years back. THIS time is no different from the last. Suddenly after engaging avast my laptop’s system is in worse shape than before. All kinds of avast messages are posted to the screen: low memory, broken registries, and many others. The browser is suddenly one from h*ll, system freezes, pages don’t load, email is lost, the slowness would be comical if it weren’t so frustrating. Yet all avast offers in the way of assistance is “BUY BUY BUY SALE SALE SALE!!” and sounds like those stupidly pestering facebook ads that most find loathsome. I refuse to buy anything more from avast and will have to start afresh somewhere else.
My checking account was debited $62.99 for Avast. which I no longer use for security. Conveniently they did not give a phone number or address which I or the bank could respond/complain. I realize my complaint is much less than some others but I still want a refund and a register of my complait.
On behalf of ALL consumers everywhere, THANK YOU EVERYBODY WHO POSTED!! You made my night. Seriously folks, DON’T GET THIS!! My free trial expired today, and I nearly renewed. Now that I’ve read this site, I WON’T EVER RENEW with them!! THANK YOU AGAIN to all who posted!
As of yesterday my bank account was debited 69.99 from Avast and I never once used them for the software on my computer, I don’t know how they got a hold of my banking information. I got a hold of the phone number for their company and everytime I called I would get a representative on the phone and they would hang up on me as soon as mentioned anything about them taking my money. I cancelled my old card and got a new one, but my bank is doing an investigation that will take 5-10 business days and once the investigation is completed. I will get refunded the money that I lost. AVAST ARE SCAMMERS. BEWARE.
I had been using Avast free Antivirus for years and in the fall of 2017 upgraded to a two year plan for $43 or so. A few days ago I got a notice that I needed to update my Avast and I tried to update it but kept getting an error message. I called the support number for Avast and bottom line is I was talked into buying a $199 total support package. “Techs” worked on my computer two days in a row for hours and wound up making it worse, with lots of changes and problems. I called in a local computer tech to my home and he pointed out that I was the victim of a scam. He worked on my computer for a little over an hour and corrected the problems created by Avast total support. I called my Credit Card company to contest the $199 charge. Then I called the Avast phone support number to demand a refund. I gave them the order confirmation number. That wasn’t enough to find the order. They needed my name. That wasn’t enough. They needed my email address. That wasn’t enough to find the order. They needed my credit card number. Nope, I wasn’t giving that to them again. What a scam!
I received an email from Avast digital river informing me that my 60 day free trial was about to expire. I had no recollection of having signed up to any such trial, but reading on it said that I could unsubscribe, otherwise I would be automatically upgraded to a full year’s subscription costing £39.99. I was given an identity number and password to use, so naively thought it would be simple. Ha ha !! The password was full of 0 or O, I or 1 s but any combination I tried was unsuccessful. With still a couple of days to go, I contacted my bank to stop the payment and they said they would. However, I found the money had been taken out of my account through PayPal. I was furious that all my attempts had failed, and the bank said as it had been withdrawn using my debit card account, they couldn’t refund it. Last ditch attempt was to contact PayPal directly, making a strong argument that I’d been scammed. Success! Next day £39.99 refunded to my PayPal account and all further requests from Avast Digital River will be rejected. I do love a happy ending!!
HI .AVAST has just taken £50.00 from my account today without my knowledge…i rang them and he tried to sell me an ugrade for life a one off payment of £400.00 to be fully protected ,he also showed me how i am at risk from people from all over the world lol….I asked for my money to be refunded into my account emidiately he then said it would take 5/7 working days to be put back..HOW DARE THEY TAKE MY MONEY .THAT £50.00 WAS ALL I HAD IN MY ACCOUNT WHICH WAS WAITING TO GO OUT AS A DIRECT DEBIT TO SOMEONE ELSE ,NOW I WILL BE CHARGED FOR NOT HAVING ENOUGH MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT WHEN THEY TRY TO TAKE IT. SHAME ON YOU AVAST .
DO NOT buy ANYTHING from AVast!
I have never experienced such a scam operation in my 20 yrs online, These scumbags bring a new generation of con artists and scammers that are unreal
After finding out they charged me again after I cancelled auto renew in March, they said they would themselves make sure it was shut off and I have it in writing in an email, I just went to look at my bank statement Friday June29 and again they ROBBED me!
I know from reading these comments they will NOT give me a refund and just give me the run around, and maybe even release some virus on my PC, so Im making sure ALL Avast crap is off my PC and then calling my bank to have my card number changed, I suggest anyone do the same!
STAY AWAY FROM AVAST these guys are seasoned crooks!
If I can prevent someone else from being taken and robbed bcoz thats what they really are doing, if I can cost them 10x what they stole from me I can be satisfied, only Justice I can get!
My only Digital River charge in PayPal archives was in 07/2017 for $21.99. Auto-renewal @ $61.98. Ripoff. Computer choked on requested re-boot after install to turn off auto-renewal.
After running into a [VIRUS DETECTED] warning when trying to surf to a website, Avast popped up and suggested I scan my computer. Naturally, I scanned with the Avast antivirus tool. Then an Avast report popped up so I took a look at it. No virus found. However, there were many other issues “found” that needed immediate attention as these issues were “severely affecting the performance of the computer” I looked at the details of the report and noticed that a stunning number of junk files (69.8 GB) No, not MBs but GBs, were reported! In addition, there were 9 broken shortcuts. A grip of over 100 registry errors, Outdated programs, programs needing drivers, and many other issues (a full page of them). As most would be, I was shocked that I had so many issues, many serious ones, on my PC.
“Relax,” I thought when I saw the [Fix issues] link at the bottom of the report. I happily clicked on it. The link was to a page that showed 3 programs that needed updating. “Do you want to update these programs?” Sure. So it did that. But wouldn’t you know it? in order to fix the rest of the issues Awast informed me I must upgrade to the “Pro Cleaner” for 1, 2 or 3 years. Well, The 3-year upgrade was the best deal so I chose it. It was $69.00 including state sales tax. I had not even finished the transaction when the program upgrade downloaded it to my computer, how efficient, right? The new program instantly went towork scanning my computer. The new report popped right up. To my complete jaw-dropping shock, there were only 4 shortcut issues 6 registry errors 9 GB junk files zero driver updates needed and on and on. Had the new program automatically fixed the earlier errors leaving some that needed my input? NOPE This antivirus is a total lying, con-job scam! Now I am doing the Avast run-around dance to try to get a refund. I have jumped through so many hoops I feel like it is my new exercise routine. I am now offically a HATER, an AVAST HATER. Warning to them: You had better not piss me off even just a little bit more, I am not a fun person when I am angry. This report of mine is copied and will be pasted EVERYWHERE on the net. Here I come Facebook.
Found a Debit on my checking account for 74.36 on August Eight 2018 . I have a copy of Free AGV antivirus on my cell phone and same Free AGV on my Laptop . I am disputing this with my bank where debit checking exists. But they say looks like I made the charge to my debit card. I did Not ! I went though my e-mail no Avast. I did not even think of Avast . The AGV on both Laptop and Cell Phone say FREE AGV !
Unlike many, I have not contacted the Avast! support line. I’m just getting a bit tired of the endless stream of obviously bogus and/or unnecessary popups the program is giving me.
-Hundreds of registry issues detected—I use a reputable dedicated registry scan and repair program on the regular, and typically find 30 or fewer errors.
-Digital TV tuner registration application slowing my system—I do not have a digital TV tuner.
-My security and privacy are horribly exposed and I need Avast! VPN—Welcome to the modern Internet, and if I want a VPN there are free proxies available. As for security, that’s what encryption is for and why your browser warns you about unencrypted connections.
-Game ‘x’ added to Avast! collection—Why? Shouldn’t you be asking me before adding an application to firewall exceptions?
So, they’re starting off with fraud on the same basic level as the “I’m from Microsoft and your computer has a virus” phone scam, doubling down on it, attempting to sell me a free product under third party duress, and finishing up with what might be a gaping security breach and is certainly a breach of permission. Remember the good old days, when malware protection wasn’t malware?
Avast scans the pc… yes…But after each scan if you want to fix a problem, they automatically send you to a payment page to get one of their subscribtions. And if you don’t order it, nothing goes fixed. Also, it’s disallowing my Windows 10’s own defender against threats, whenever I try to switch it on, it switches off, like a broken switch. I tried uninstalling avast, but it didn’t change. It’s like this program ruined my pc normal defender functions. I’m thinking about reinstalling my windows at all. By the way, I never paid for their services as they seem really fishy and untrustworthy. It’s really true what you’re describing there. Avast was one of the most popular and reliable companies, but now I see it as a very uncertain spyware or money grabbing app.
I used avast for a number of years; the free version. Anyway, last year I received two different renewals; one for avast anti-virus and one for avast clean-up. The problem was I never have asked for a subscription for the clean-up. I contacted avast and got a hold of someone from India; who kept trying to go through my computer. He searched my email for this confirmation that wasn’t there. After a lot of frustration I told him to just cancel everything from them, Avast or Cleverbridge, I did not want the service anymore. I do not use the computer that it was on. He told me that he had cancelled it, that we would no longer be bothered by them. I even went through and did the cancellation through their site. This year I got another email from cleverbridge saying that my subscription has been renewed, money has been taken out of my account for a product that I never asked for, then cancelled last year, and cancelled again this year. I’m turning them into my bank to have them investigated. I’m wondering how many other people have been having the same issue.
On 28th August 2018 I installed Avast Free Antivirus on my Windows 7 computer (Windows 10 is just too much trouble for any home user to use). I also accepted a ‘Free 60 day trial’ for their ‘Clean Up’ program, for which I used my Pay-Pal account. Towards the end of September I cancelled the trial and uninstalled the ‘Clean Up’ program (using IObit Uninstaller). I also used the Avast – Digital River site to cancel the ‘automatic renewal’, and in my ‘innocence’ assumed that would be the end of it. Today I have received notification from Pay-Pal that Digital River (Ireland) have accessed my account and have been paid £39.99 for my Automatic Renewal.
As Avast appear to be totally impossible to contact, and as I am now dizzy from running around from useless website to useless website, none of which seems to have any purpose other than to pass you on around their pointless circle., I now intend to pursue a request for a refund via Pay-Pal.
Wish me luck, I think I am going to need it.
I have today received notification from Pay-Pal that they are refunding the £39.99 which Digital River took after I had been around the totally useless ‘Cancel your Account’ on the Avast website. I contacted Pay-Pal asking for a refund, supplying account details from Digital River’s email.
I have now removed every Avast product from my computer and have no intention of EVER using any of their products again.
A huge THANK YOU to Pay-Pal. – I regularly use their service when I pay for things online and have always found it easy to use and reliable.
Obviously companies like Digital River don’t work to the same high standards that Pay-Pal do, mores the pity. I have no commitment to Pay-Pal, other that being one of their many satisfied users, but I would recommend everyone to have a Pay-Pal account.
Hi there. Can you comment on getting money back if it came from a credit card? It turns out my Mum has been charged for Avast having not had a computer for 3 yrs. I’ve just raised a request via their website. She hasnt had any email notifications. Is there cause for complaint as a result?
Hi,I have found out just today that avast charged me with 38 USD for a product I have not ordered at all via my credit card.I bought an antivirus program from them years ago,but I’ve already uninstalled it and I never thought that they assume that I would want to buy from again.Now my account is in negative because of this,I am really pissed,because I have not given any permission to them to do this.I’ve contacted the support team,who knows if they answer…deleted my avast account as well permamently,hope it works.
Just got charged $49.99 through Paypal which I never authorized. I sent both them and paypal “refund me immediately” messages. We’ll see what happens. Avast is despicable. I am virtually broke and work way too hard for what money I get.