On 8/20/2014 7:54 AM, trader_4 wrote:

I don't know anything about Avast specifically or what this "policy"
is supposed to cover. But I would bet that if it's really a phone
support contract, that somewhere in there they say that they can't
guarantee to be able to fix everything and anything. There are some
problems that can't be figured out, identified, fixed, without
essentially starting over by re-installing the OS or "as shipped"
image. For example, a friend of mine has an issue right now where
about every 5 or 10 mins, his PC momentarily stops accepting input
from the keyboard and just sits there for 20 or 30 secs.

That's a good point, and ties in with the fact that Avast is an
antivirus/antimalware package. It is not a product designed to address
other issues with one's pc. If Higgs believed that it was an inclusive
pc repair product, then either the person who sold it to Higgs lied,
or Higgs misunderstood what the product is used for.


There is only so much anyone can do to try to resolve something like
that. You can try to go back to previous restore points, remove any
recently installed programs, etc. But that may not resolve it. Over
years, more and more software gets added, updated, removed, etc and
eventually it's not unusual for there to be some kind of issue that's
impossible to identify. To expect them to be able to fix anything is
like expecting a doctor to be able to cure any illness. On top of that,
the tech support may not be that good anyway. They may be more suited
to helping grandma find control panel.

Both true, and again, the best one can expect from the support for an
antimalware product is help getting the product to perform its
intended purpose. If there are other issues with the pc unrelated to
detecting and removing malware, Avast can't address them, and neither
will the support tech, since it is out of the product/support
contract's scope.

Since Higgs' account is so short on details, we don't know if the
problems she was having were connected with malware/its removal, or if
they were unrelated to it. We don't know if the problems arose as a
result of an attempt by the phone support tech to do something with
her pc. We don't know if a backup was performed prior to the phone
support tech's efforts. Thus, we have no idea what was wrong, when it
went wrong, whether it was anything Avast was designed to deal with,
and if there is any backup that Higgs could restore her pc back to.

Higgs: a number of us on this forum do computer support/service work
either as a living or as a sideline. First point that is constantly
made to pc users is that data protection is primarily the user's
responsibility. It is your data. If you value it, back it up
regularly. At a minimum, set up Windows backup to create regular
backups. I'd also use external storage - a flash drive or an external
hard drive - as a secondary backup. If you find all of this too
confusing, there are subscription-based data backup and recovery
services such as Crashplan that will, once it is installed,
automatically back up your data and store it on the service company's
servers, where it is available for you not only in the event of a
computer crash/data loss, but also if you are away from your pc and
need to access anything stored on it.

Second point: don't buy or install anything on your pc - even if
somebody recommends it - until you've read up on it and understand
what it is used for and how *you* will use it. That includes reading
up on competing products that perform the same function. You will then
be armed with the knowledge you need to determine if the product will
be useful for you, and know what to expect from it.