Concerning the "Your online security is incomplete" Notification

AVG Protection
1

Hi,

I have been a long-time user of AVG (more than a decade), and have been satisfied so far with AVG products.

However, recently, a pop-up notification has been appearing, saying that "Your online security is incomplete\nInstall online security features for maximum protection". Here is a screenshot:

Notification Screenshot
Notification Screenshot588×332 93.4 KB

I have a separate security solution for online, so I click "No Thanks". This closes the window, and yet it returns a few minutes later.

This is completely unacceptable. Besides being pointless, the window disrupts any fullscreen application. It occurred this weekend during my conference presentation, which was both thoroughly embarrassing and disruptive.

I have not been able to find a solution myself, and the consensus seems to be that:
1: General agreement that this is both annoying and unacceptable
2: The resolution by current AVG representatives has been heretofore unsatisfactory, and with any due respect, borderline incompetent. For example, see this thread.
3: Perhaps a method of advertising that only exists in free versions.

Now, as I wrote, I have been a long-time user of AVG, and I would like to continue to be. The problem is that this is actively damaging to the use of my computer for research. This means that I cannot use AVG, if this continues.

I am writing to ask one question: will you please promptly remove this behavior? If yes, then I will be able to happily continue using your product. If not, then please tell me so in plain words so that I can uninstall AVG and seek an alternate solution. Since it is your software, you are of course permitted to make either choice. But I hope you shall elect to remove this notification, as I do not believe you aim to be driving away your user base.

Thank you for reading,
-S

The precise version of AVG is 2015.0.6189, and the OS is Windows 7 Professional.

28

Well AVG, congratulations. It is now August 11, 2016 and your legitimate business campaign is still causing poor computer performance (as my computer lags for quite a long time UNTIL the AVG popup finally shows and I exit out of it). This happens everytime my computer reboots. I have the free version and I have turned off all notifications as your experts have suggested. I got AVG, as it had good reviews and ratings on the internet,  to improve my computer performance, not reduce it. 

It is one thing to have an ads on freeware, and quite another to have those ads pop up incessantly, interrupt, AND reduce performance.

I have spent quite a lot of time this morning already after months of irritation, and I see your responses on this and other threads. I hope you come up with a different "legitimate business campaign" as well as responses to customers who bring legitimate problems with your product to your attention.

Now to go out and find a reasonable alternative!

8

Yes Alan. My circumstances are exactly as per the original poster. Essentially a pop up that won't stop popping up, That said, I don't think I've seen it this morning (it's tomorrow now, if you see what I mean) so perhaps the issue has now been fixed. I will repost here if it does start happening today, otherise problem apparently solved. :slight_smile:

30

Can I echo the sentiments of the original poster. No matter what I press to remove this pop-up it returns again within 5 minutes. This has been going on for days and AVG will be uninstalled very soon if it doesn't stop. Which is a real shame because like so many people I really do hold AVG in high regard.

Folks, you really need to make this one a top priority.

Kind regards.

38

@ Jan | AVG Employee

Not to worry, Jan.  I am in the process of uninstalling AVG and installing another product.  Thank you for the 10+ years but, with the pop-ups occurring more than once daily now, it's time to go.  Whoever the brainiac is who thought this up should get a promotion if getting rid of free users was the goal!

34

Next time it pops up I can do a screen shot.  It would look the same as what James H posted.  We are all having the same issue, that is why I posted here.

31

Hello Paul,
We are glad to know that. AVG carefully monitors the quality of our products and the service we provide, therefore all feedback from our customers is important to us. If you have a specific experience with AVG products that you would like to share with us, we would appreciate hearing about it. Submit your valuable feedback in http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-feedback .Thank you.

37

Same here too, and glad I found this thread. Been an AVG free user for decades, left feedback and also complained to consumer affairs about the pop-up ad taking over my screen with no way to permanently stop it from randomly popping up again and again this whole month.

Going to drop AVG over this until your marketing department can pull their collective heads out of you-know-where. Avast here I come, and I have to pay for my antivirus protection I'd rather go with Vipre which consistently finds more than AVG can any ways.

32

Thumbs down accross the board. Better REMOVE this popup soon or loose ALOT of customers:

 

https://support.avg.com/answers?id=906b0000000bneE

https://support.avg.com/answers?id=906b0000000bngjAAA

https://support.avg.com/answers?id=906b0000000bn1CAAQ

https://support.avg.com/answers?id=906b0000000DA01AAG

 

And here are some helpful reviews. Please do not ask me to stop this, I can't, it's part of my "marketing" campaign. I do undreservedly apoligise though and I understand any concerns you may have.....

 

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/avg.html

33

They definitely have not removed the pop-ups at this stage.

I checked that I have the most current version, and the application tells me that I do.

However the pop-ups are still there, for me, today (the 18th of March, 2016)internet security pop-up

35

I have been an AVG user for well over a decade.  As suggested, I tried to submit product feedback about this nuisance pop-up and got the error Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-feedback" on this server.
Reference #blah blah blah.  Great.

I recall when the pay/ free versions were consolidated.  It was explicitely stated that the free version would continue.  Are these tactics designed to get the free users to leave voluntarily?  I'm not sure how AVG wins by creating inconvenience and bad feelings.  I'm sorry to say but unhappy former users don't tell others to try a product (people who might be in a position to pay).

15

I've been having this issue to and would like to add a couple of things.  I'll also do the AVGfeedback link above.

1) This thing keeps coming back.  The options to either install or be reminded later are not what I want to do.  I understand this is the free version and you will show me ads, but when I turn something down that should be the end of it.

2) This popup interrupts full screen applications and game mode.  I don't recall any other pop up ad doing that from AVG.  It is very frustrating when I am playing a game to be constantly interrupted by this ad.  

These two issues combined are pushing me to consider a new product. Which means no more referrals of friends to AVG.  Has AVG taken the position it wants to compete with McAfee in the annoyance arena?

2

Ah yes; sorry it wasn't clear; it is the free version. I just hope that doesn't mean I can't use it anymore.

22

Hello Paul,
We are glad to know that. AVG carefully monitors the quality of our products and the service we provide, therefore all feedback from our customers is important to us. If you have a specific experience with AVG products that you would like to share with us, we would appreciate hearing about it. Submit your valuable feedback in http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-feedback .Thank you.

26

Hello Jordan,
We apologize for the inconvenience caused. Did you uninstall the 'trial' version of AVG programs which had expired? Have you changed your pop-up frequency settings as per http://avgread.me/29lFofA ?Do you use a latest version of AVG(2016)? Could you please provide screen-shot (http://avgclick.me/getscreenshot) of the pop-ups you receive? Thank you.

20

Not to be curt, but that is not at all what I'm asking.

As I wrote, for technical reasons, dealing with this is not an option. I am simply asking whether it is AVG Technology's intention to leave this behavior as-is, in spite of any complaint.

21

Can I echo the sentiments of the original poster. No matter what I press to remove this pop-up it returns again within 5 minutes. This has been going on for days and AVG will be uninstalled very soon if it doesn't stop. Which is a real shame because like so many people I really do hold AVG in high regard.

Folks, you really need to make this one a top priority.

Kind regards.

10

I have been an AVG user for well over a decade.  As suggested, I tried to submit product feedback about this nuisance pop-up and got the error Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-feedback" on this server.
Reference #blah blah blah.  Great.

I recall when the pay/ free versions were consolidated.  It was explicitely stated that the free version would continue.  Are these tactics designed to get the free users to leave voluntarily?  I'm not sure how AVG wins by creating inconvenience and bad feelings.  I'm sorry to say but unhappy former users don't tell others to try a product (people who might be in a position to pay).

11

Hello,

I am glad I came across this feed, I too have AVG Free Adition on 2 of my computers, 1 of which is my Media Centre, and AVG has this popup which comes up almost every few hours interrupting my Movies. It is starting to piss me off, so what did I do, I contacted the head of Microsoft department and filed a complaint because I disabled ALL NOTIFICATIONS within the AVG Software and also disabled ALL notifications through the Microsoft Action Centre, which should hide ALL Notifications from AVG, but AVG have by-passed this somehow and have violated Microsoft Terms and Conditions and will get a nice letter from their legal team in the comming days/weeks advising them to change their script and remove this notification or they will be persuing legal action against AVG. Kind Regards! Better pass up to your developers ASAP to redo their sneaky little coding of their popup string that by-passes ALL Microsoft Notification Disabling Services!!!
User-added image

12

Next time it pops up I can do a screen shot.  It would look the same as what James H posted.  We are all having the same issue, that is why I posted here.