JoesCat

This website comment editor is funky, so I went ahead and posted the previous message before I ended up losing all of the content. Another mention and reinforcement to Avast: Rethink your business model and treatment of your paying customers! WE got you this far. Please don't go the way of so many businesses that look at the immediate bottom line only, and burn your long time devoted customers. Yep, you had (and still have) a good product, have swallowed up smaller companies like AVG and Piriform into the Avast collective - and showing your ever-increasing coldness along the way. Sigh. Others have cited their responses to that attitude - I may join them. I too have recommended (and sold) CCleaner SO many times. Today, I'm also (and was) and AVG CloudCare business reseller (now Avast of course), (unrelated to this forum account), and you have my attention as "Avast" in this thread. Am I big enough to take you down? Probably not even noticeable as your apparent business attitude seems to suggest. But I could leave a mark. At any time, I could cancel my numerous paying business customers (monthly, so the effect would be within 30 days), across the board. And the damage to your reputation along with it as a paid consultant reversing my stance and most definitely, loudly and with direct effect, advising AGAINST all Avast products. My good word has notably increased your sales, equally so should I decide to turn against you completely. Click-click in the admin portal, and immediately billing ceases, customers drop off immediately. And I'm well aware you simply do not care. That's the sad part. It just perplexes me why companies like yours adopt this attitude and business model, burning the very people who helped get you to where you are, supporting companies you've snatched up then disappointed their established user base. It would cost ME much time to adopt an alternative product, almost certainly hurting me more than you in the short term. I've come close to that decision many times as there are a lot of good products out there to compete with any of yours. MY company philosophy is whenever I feel compelled to go to such lengths, I set a loosely determined quota as a percentage of damage caused to me back to you that is significantly greater. In the long run, I will hurt you more than I am hurt - just like I've personally helped you more than you'll ever realize. Particularly in today's widespread word-of-mouth social media. And my very useful presence on a major thoroughfare traveled every single day by untallied thousands of vehicles. Meaning whenever I post a sign, it IS seen by thousands of people each day. Trust me, the combined salvo of all the things I can leverage WILL have an effect. Some of the companies I've targetted through the years for whatever reason have ranged in their response of course; some including senior management traveling from afar to hand me a check and personally apologize, imploring me to cease the onslaught, some companies folding completely, and yes some continue to care little if at all, they're still making their tidy profits. Seemingly you are of the last type. That's sad to see. I show on 12 currently following this thread (voluntarily). I doubt anyone of importance at your organization will happen to read this drivel. Oh well. I could, and might still, really get your attention but by then the mutual damage will have been done. In the meantime go on and ignore the issue, pay people to copy/paste canned responses, enjoy your growth and profits while they last, continue to market in your vague, confusing ways. Many, many countless companies, some so huge it was inconceivable they would ever fold - are completely gone. Wake up - there are paying customers and hungry competitors aplenty just waiting for that day, their chance . . . . I don't have that risk. That's the stinging bite from the "little dog" that too many neglect to watch out for until it's too late. A little bite . . . it gets infected . . . and ends up in some way different than the way it started. All the while, I'm the "little dog" that is completely insulated from such risks. The popular phrase is "the bigger they are the harder they fall".

I see this old thread doesn't even go as far back as I do with Piriform and CCleaner. I've purchased many "copies", both download and retail box. I still have an opened box I've installed from, and one unopened one from circa pre-2012 I believe. And I've known about (and used) CCleaner well before that (back when it fit on a floppy disk). Of course, like most people, I did not save the published EULA from way back then. On the box(s), on the receipt I have from Jan 2013, nowhere is there any mention of a "subscription" - to any portion of the product. Updates, support, nothing, zip, nada. TODAY Piriform (now owned by Avast, purchased in July 2017 I believe) just keeps repeating it was ALWAYS an annual subscription, currently for "support and updates". I join the rest of you in believing there was NO expiration period of any kind. It's disgusting that every support rep I contact regarding this just keep incessantly repeating it has ALWAYS been an annual subscription, the "Pro" version will continue to work as it always has just without updates and support, and there NEVER was a lifetime/perpetual purchase option. NOTHING in print ANYWHERE regarding my original purchase, boxed or digital download affirms their claims. Nor does it state it's a "lifetime/perpetual" license. It was NEITHER. It's just generally, intentionally vague (they wrote all iterations of the EULA), and all of the receipts I have, digital or retail box, still definitely prove this today. Again, I have right here, in my hand, an unopened retail box. No subscription mentioned. At all. They are telling me TODAY that it doesn't exist and never did! With the box still factory sealed, there is no way to determine for certain what's inside - but as the purchaser, my case is ironclad - the ONLY information I can reasonably expect to learn is what I'm reading on the box. No subscription. Piriform / Avast, are you hearing us?! That's the crux of the matter - I guess we're quibbling about priority tech support for the price? I guess. On their own website TODAY, it's their "summer sale" (50% off), and the usual columns comparing versions. The "Free" version includes only "Standard Privacy Protection" and "Standard Cleaning". The "Professional" version has 7 additional items listed, Standard Privacy Protection Standard Cleaning Only the item "Updates apps to reduce security risks" has a mouse-over to explain further. Still keeping it vague obviously.