Do you still trust AV developers?

My Emsisoft license ran out 2 weeks ago and since then I am looking for a replacement. Let's say I just wanted to see what is going on on the security market.
I realized that it is hard to trust AV developers or to like them. Most of them sell crap. Sorry for that, but what's all about this overbloated junk they want to install on my system without a single question? And most of this junk doesn't even help to make your system more secure.

Bitdefender, per example, wins one test after the other. I don't doubt that its detection rate is very good, but who can live with that UI? It looks like I need a high end graphics card to render the UI. It reminds me somehow on the WINAMP days of Avast.
The AV might be ok but the IS is so full of features that I ask myself how a person not knowing anything about security find his or her way through this application. A friend of mine asked why the thing is blinking all the time. I looked at it and clicked on "fix everything". The program didn't tell me what it was what was fixed. It didn't tell me anything else than: "OK". Nice. -.- Why didn't you fix it yourself in the first place, you blinking 3d UI looking like the cockpit of a Tie Fighter.

Kaspersky may be one of the top players but I installed the trial and my PC was just slow. No, this wasn't something that would go away when all the files are whitelisted. Startup and everything was really slowing down. Then I got errors messages all the way. (I did try every program on a clean PC)
Looking at their forums told me that they have really serious problems right now. Their IS is overbloated like every other IS on the market. I'm a nerd, damned. I don't let my kids to the PC if I am not in the room. I don't need children protection or banking protection and so on.

The one that bugged me most was Avira. Whoa, it is really installing Ask toolbar. Bundling with toolbars is one thing. But Ask?? This is for most people malware. You even cannot uninstall that crap without going into the registry. Really? Ask??

AVG is the next candidate that nags you with toolbars. Click - click and you have everything in your browser changed to AVG stuff. Then they "warn" you, that something isn't right with your PC. "Do a system scan." I did. And then they tell you that to fix the problem you have to buy another software. What the hell? And when you uninstall the crapware again, they nag you again: "Do you really want to uninstall the toolbar, too? Keep it on your system!"
For sure.

Then there is the question of support.

When I write to microsoft USA, I get an answer, no matter in which country I live. When I write to Apple USA it is the same. When I write so some nice app developer all around the world everything is smooth.

When I write to ESET with a serious problem or a simple question, no matter what, they tell me I should write my local support. Seriously? I worked in customer service for 4 years. Rule number one: Even when others are selling your stuff it is still your name on the stuff so be kind to the customer and if you don't want to answer a single question then forward the mail to the local partner. Is that so hard? As a person who is in a country because of his job and who isn't good at all at the local language, is it so hard to get help from an English talking person?

The same goes for Kaspersky: I wanted to buy a license through a promotion of a magazine. 4€ for Kaspersky Pure 2.0. So I asked Kaspersky the simple question if there is a downside of this deal. I got the answer that they aren't responsible for this stuff I should write another department of their support. Really?
That is what you call customer support? I call it crap. Just forward my mail, please? Is it that hard? Do I have to look for 2 hours and mail to all your departments to get the right one?

Are there still good AV companies out there? Which one do you trust and why?

 

Lol! You summed up my grudge against most AVs. I do too like a simple non blinking non CPU demanding UI. I refused to use AVAST!, Avira, AVG for the same reasons you did.
There are few AVs out there that are not overly bloated into IS, that are non blinking, that don't offer toolbars and that don't have some annoying graphics. I am not going to say which ones because it would technically become A vs B thread. I will just say that right now I am using FortiClient.