Conrad,
Please accept my apologies with regards to the inconvenience this may have caused to you. I can definitely see how frustrating this would be, I will definitely try my best to help you arrive at a best possible solution.
Starting with your original AVG Ultimate purchase on 7th Sep 2017, I see that refund for this order was processed successfully and you should receive the credit within 7 to 10 business days. And I see that you paid for AVG GO Premium technical support using a different email address than the one you used to contact us here. I wish I could help you with processing refund for this as requested, but it is a different channel of support which we do not handle, I could not help you with it. However, I assure you that our premium technical support representatives can help you with it.
AVG Technologies
To whom it may concern,
On September 5, 2017, my AVG Ultimate subscription ended and it automatically reverted to the free version of AVG Anti-Virus. A few days later, on September 7, I received a message from AVG announcing that they were offering me a yearly subscription to AVG Ultimate at the price of $50 CDN. I decided to take advantage of this generous offer and purchased the package. However, I could not get the program to work; I could activate only the features of the free version that was already on my computer. Therefore, I started an online chat with an AVG Customer Care agent and after a long chat session, it was ascertained that I had to get rid of the free version first – as well as the ByteFence anti-virus program that originally came with my computer. The agent even sent me an email to assist me in installing my new AVG Ultimate.
I followed the instructions given to me during the chat and in the email, and the very moment I deleted the two anti-virus programs I had on my computer (ByteFence and AVG anti-virus free version), a pop-up with an accompanying blaring sound appeared on my monitor. The message said that my computer was just attacked by a Trojan horse and that I needed to call a certain number right away. This was the first time that such a situation had ever happened to me, so understandably, I panicked a little. I had not even realized that it might have been a scam.
I found and called the number for AVG’s help center. The agent with whom I spoke told me that if the AVG program had been installed, it would have stopped the intrusion. I informed him that I was just following the former agent’s instructions while trying to install the new AVG Ultimate. He said that I would have to pay $200 to get rid of the so-called Trojan horse; this would give me unlimited future calls for assistance and would come with AVG Internet Security and another software called NANOHEAL, which he said would get rid of the Trojan horse virus. I would have to give him remote access to my computer so that he could install the programs. At first, I was very hesitant due to both the price and the idea of granting a total stranger remote access to my computer. After succumbing to his insistence (he said that was the only way), I agreed to get that package called AVG GO Total Care Bundle and allow him remote access to my computer. However, I had to first pay with my credit card on what he called a “private server”. By the way, I told him that I had already purchased the AVG Ultimate earlier that day; this meant that I would be paying twice for the Internet Security, but he assured me that he would request a refund for the former. I have still not seen this refund on my credit card statement. Furthermore, I would like to mention that I was originally under the impression that the $200 I was asked to pay was for a product (AVG GO Total Care Bundle + Internet Security + Nanoheal) to get rid of the so-called Trojan horse, and NOT for a service. In the email the Customer Care agent sent me, it mentioned, “…have an AVG agent remotely access your computer and assist you, free of charge.”
The next day, I could not help but feel that I had been pressured and scammed into buying that package. I checked the results of the operations that the Nanoheal program had performed, and I did not see anywhere that a Trojan horse virus had been found, quarantined and eliminated; it just said that the program had been executed. Coincidentally, later that day, a friend of mine sent me a photo of a pop-up that appeared on his monitor at work. It was the same one that I had the day before, and it gave the same number to call! My friend consulted his IT department and was told there was nothing to worry about and that he just had to click on task manager to delete this pop-up – which was nothing more than a scam!
Due to the aforementioned points, I called AVG Customer Support to cancel my subscription to the AVG Total Care Bundle. To make a long story short, I wasted 3 hours of my life being stuck on the phone with 6 different agents! I was being “ping-ponged” back and forth between the Philippines and India. One agent after another said that they could not help me, so I was transferred to a different “department” each time. The most annoying and frustrating part of this agonizing ordeal was that I had to tell the whole story from the beginning to each one of those agents. I ended up talking to the agent who had sold me the package, and I explained my situation to him. In keeping with the pattern of this bureaucratic nightmare, I was transferred to his supervisor. After a long discussion, he said that he would ask HIS supervisor to call me on the following Monday (September 11) at a time agreed upon. I waited all evening for that call, and not surprisingly, I did not receive any call from AVG. I thought they might call the next day, but there was still no call. Escalation of one’s issue to the agents’ superiors appears futile!
In summary, this was the most unpleasant online shopping experience and most unsatisfactory customer care experience I have ever had. All I wanted was to cancel my subscription to that $200 package and restore my AVG Ultimate, which is what I purchased in the first place. The agent who sold me the package said that I would have unlimited calls for assistance for a year, but there is no way in H…l that I would want to make such calls, especially considering what I had to go through. I am even thinking of totally uninstalling ALL products associated with AVG and go with another (higher-rated but cheaper) company. Time permitting, I am planning to approach the Better Business Bureau with my case in the near future. Frankly, that is a shame, because before all these shenanigans, I was very happy with my first year of having AVG Ultimate (September 2016 – September 2017).
There are other problems I could go into (e.g. since the installation of the programs, my computer has been so painstakingly slow at times – both online and offline – that I have been frequently using my old computer), but my time is precious, and I need to end this ranting here.
Please accept my apologies with regards to the inconvenience this may have caused to you. I can definitely see how frustrating this would be, I will definitely try my best to help you arrive at a best possible solution.
Starting with your original AVG Ultimate purchase on 7th Sep 2017, I see that refund for this order was processed successfully and you should receive the credit within 7 to 10 business days. And I see that you paid for AVG GO Premium technical support using a different email address than the one you used to contact us here. I wish I could help you with processing refund for this as requested, but it is a different channel of support which we do not handle, I could not help you with it. However, I assure you that our premium technical support representatives can help you with it.