Which AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

What do you think huh ? it's hard but the worse supporter that i contact is:

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Dealing directly with the vendors, IME, Frisk Software for F-Prot, VBA32, Aspect Systems for NOD here in the UK and Kaspersky UK have all been superb.

The NOD and KAV forums are also excellent

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

For me, Awill Software (avast!) and Softwin (BitDefender) are the ones I had excellent experience with.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Did receive good & quick support from Bitdefender and KAV.
Also received support at Avast's forum.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

I would not think it would be McAfee.

I have not dealt with many AV companies, but when I've tried to work with McAfee (like to get rid of a persistent 'black box' problem), I just usually end up giving up.

The 'online chat help' and message board are quite aggravating.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

And the winners are....
NOD32 forum (win)
F-Prot Tech Support (place)
BitDefender (show)

Also ran (but driving hard in the home stretch)...
DrWeb

Left at the Gate (a crippled never-ran)...
BEETLEBOMB (a.k.a Sighmantec)

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

I'd say BitDefender. The other day I sent an e-mail to their tech support, and in less than 10 minutes I got a reply. Maybe I just got lucky getting a reply in less than an hour, but getting a response in the same day, impressed me.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Kaspersky Labs
Eset

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

I think avast! has the best support forum going, then Kaspersky second. Bitdefender has excellent Live Assistance.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Well that is fine for all the Symantec-Haters but I would give them first place if the question was, "Which has the best WebSite?" My experience has been that their Knowledge Base has solved all my problems so I have never needed any live Support. Besides, I have gotten to know several people on the inside of the Company and can write them directly if need be but I don't need to.

I agree that Kaspersky and some of the others mentioned here have excellent support but they are also a fraction of the size of a Company like Symantec {in market share and sales} and have a much much smaller customer base to provide such support to. It might not be very cost-effective to provide the same type of personalized support to the size of customer base that a Company like Symantec has.

I tell what is funny, is all you people who harbor such bigotry and hatred, that is really funny, because it is YOU who I am laughing at most of the time.

EDIT: I mean no offense by this post but the not-so-subtle public jibes at Symantec really get old ..

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Randy, trust me Smynatec is a no good. Searching on their page is a real nightmare (knowledge base might be big but hard to search with same "wrong" answers over and over again).
Live mail contact is nothing less than just a copy of knowledge base answer or a question for a question. I never solved anything by their support and i had to dig by though their software and solved it by myself.
Never had anything like it with Kaspersky Lab, Softwin or Alwil Software.
They always responded correctly to my inquiry via email or their forums.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Softwin, Trend Micro, Kaspersky Labs and Eset have been excellent as far as support goes for me.

Kaspersky usually replies to my emails (except for the sales division) within the same day, sometimes I recieved reply in 10 minutes.....

Softwin's Live Chat is excellent, and Eset's NOD32 forum is great. Email support is also good at Eset.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

The original question being best support, Symantec - McAfee et al are going to lose.

Agree with Randy in the sense that large companies with comenserate cutomer bases are simply not going to respond the way NOD - KAV et al. can.

Don't agree with Randy in labeling Symantec's KB as an adequate substitute. How many users are going to be skillfull in searching? Lets say that Randy is correct, that the KB has the answer, in order to find it, one has to know the correct question to ask for starters and then skill to apply "general" instructions. And if they don't work, round and round.

Regards - Charles

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

This excuse does not compute. Poor service is NOT driven by size but by business decisions and practices. Not to mention, in some cases, arrogance.

Let's say that a highly regarded small AV company has X customers & Y tech support personnel & $Z net profit.

Is it unreasonable to expect that a large AV company -- with, say, 20X customers -- should have a ~proportionately greater number of tech support personnel than does the company with X customers?

But, no, the large company looks at its 20X customer base and decides that it isn't satisfied with $20Z net profit. It wants (say) $25Z, or $30Z, or maybe even more. So it scrimps on tech support personnel -- but NOT on its advertising budget (of course).

BOTTOM LINE- The idea that a large outfit is less able to give decent support is plain ole bull**** (I won't use the S word except to say it's the color of chocolate.)

By the way -- I have NOTHING against any large company maximizing its profits. That's business, & capitalism works better than any other system I know of. However, "cheap" isn't always the same thing as "economical," and "popularity" doesn't necessarily connote "value." Therefore, I feel it's appropriate to get the news out whenever the big company isn't the best deal.

Good support IS value added. So is courtesy. So also is respect for one's customers. Those qualities are quite appropriate within a system of capitalism. Why? Because, by manifesting those attributes, a little outfit can compete successfully against a bloated megacorp.

BOTTOM LINE- I remain convinced that any company that persists in giving poor & impersonal support will -- in the long run -- gain a better understanding of the old saying: "penny wise, but pound foolish."

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

1st - Softwin
2nd - Eset
3rd - Alwil/Kaspersky (tie)

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

The best support for an a/v program that I have experienced is VBA32.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Well it aint Panda, thats for damn sure - Took them almost 2 months to answer my question, and when they finally responded, I didn't even know what they were talking about (couldn't remember).

Call it bad memory if you like, but 2 months for a support question is unacceptable.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

What can be better support then Livechatt from bitdefender,
best support
1: bitdefender
2: Kaspersky
3: Alwil
4: nod32

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Actually how is that BS?
The larger the business, the worse the inherent support. It is the nature of support, especially tech support to be crappy. However, it is not always the number of people who are hired that is the problem, but the skill of the support workers. It is not possible to hire the necessary amount of competent employees (especially true in the U.S.) as your customer base gets larger and larger. Why?

1. Competent technical employees are inherently limited
2. Competent technical employees also fit the mold for better paying jobs, and therefore have a high turnover rate
3. Once you reach a certain threshold, any more workers you hire will be substandard and actually counter-productive (which we see now, with all that "robotic" responses).

The best support I've ever received always seems to come from or indirectly from software engineers of the firm. That is a luxury of a small company.

Therefore, humans are the biggest limiting factor in technical support IMHO.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

As a Nod user

I would have to say KAV and Fsecure are both outstanding - not tried Eset yet

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

avast

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

For me, Alwil avast! and Kaspersky.

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

Well, i,ve only had experience with NIS and Nod32 so u guess...


snowbound

 

Re: Wich AntiVirus you think has the best Support ?

The only time I asked Symantec support, I got a very quick reply (including another friendly one after replying that I had solved the problem myself). I guess it doesn't count for "support", but I must say their automated assistant is very efficient too.

However, I'm not saying that they have the best support, don't get me wrong.

Cheers,
nicM