Proclaim your problem and I'm more likely to trust you

Mr. Enthusiastic · 12-03-2009, 11:19 AM

Last night I wanted to try a different free antivirus program. I asked a friend who likes to keep up with Windows security stuff what to try, and she suggested Avast. I found, downloaded and installed Avast.

I then went to a small subscription site for marketers, where some people I respect share some files they created themselves or licensed directly from the creators. Downloaded a program from the free to subscribers, licensed software collection that others have been using without trouble for years.

Avast said there was a virus!

Wanted to open a new Firefox tab to look it up and found Firefox stalled out by Avast. Shut down the download, killed the browser, reloaded the browser and looked for answers.

Googled the virus warning message and found that a programming error in Avast made it flag everything written in one particular, totally legitimate programming language as a virus. The programming tool is used by many respected companies such as Adobe and many hardware manufacturers.

Found there was no way to turn off Avast other than using Add/Remove Programs to totally get rid of it. Did so.

Went to the Avast site this morning to see if they made any mention of it. They did, but it's buried. From the home page, pick Support, then from that page, pick Support Center (Support doesn't get me directly to the Support Center??). Then at the bottom of that page is a "knowledge base article." Says that they accidentally got false positives and six hours later, made a new definition file, here's how to retrieve anything that got incorrectly flagged.

Compare this to how Tylenol handled the third party destruction of their products, which wasn't even their fault.

Two things are wrong here.
First is that there's not a single word such as "sorry for the inconvenience."
Second is that it's not a huge banner on the home page.

The home page should have had a really big banner that said, "During the night of December 2-3, we released a virus update that inadvertently finds false positives in programs written with the Delphi language. We learned of this issue and released an update within six hours. Click here to learn how to make sure that you have the corrected virus definition, and how to restore any files that were incorrectly tagged. We apologize for the inconvenience and are reviewing our programming and testing procedures to ensure we're worthy of your trust going forward."

If that was front and center on the home page, they'd now have a customer for life. As it is, I'm going to ask my geek buddy what else she recommends.

I think there's a lesson here, not just for software.

Your opinions?

Chris

12-03-2009, 11:19 AM	#1
Mr. Enthusiastic Enthusiastic Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 815 Blog Entries: 4 Thanks: 222 Thanked 224 Times in 170 Posts	Proclaim your problem and I'm more likely to trust you Last night I wanted to try a different free antivirus program. I asked a friend who likes to keep up with Windows security stuff what to try, and she suggested Avast. I found, downloaded and installed Avast. I then went to a small subscription site for marketers, where some people I respect share some files they created themselves or licensed directly from the creators. Downloaded a program from the free to subscribers, licensed software collection that others have been using without trouble for years. Avast said there was a virus! Wanted to open a new Firefox tab to look it up and found Firefox stalled out by Avast. Shut down the download, killed the browser, reloaded the browser and looked for answers. Googled the virus warning message and found that a programming error in Avast made it flag everything written in one particular, totally legitimate programming language as a virus. The programming tool is used by many respected companies such as Adobe and many hardware manufacturers. Found there was no way to turn off Avast other than using Add/Remove Programs to totally get rid of it. Did so. Went to the Avast site this morning to see if they made any mention of it. They did, but it's buried. From the home page, pick Support, then from that page, pick Support Center (Support doesn't get me directly to the Support Center??). Then at the bottom of that page is a "knowledge base article." Says that they accidentally got false positives and six hours later, made a new definition file, here's how to retrieve anything that got incorrectly flagged. Compare this to how Tylenol handled the third party destruction of their products, which wasn't even their fault. Two things are wrong here. First is that there's not a single word such as "sorry for the inconvenience." Second is that it's not a huge banner on the home page. The home page should have had a really big banner that said, "During the night of December 2-3, we released a virus update that inadvertently finds false positives in programs written with the Delphi language. We learned of this issue and released an update within six hours. Click here to learn how to make sure that you have the corrected virus definition, and how to restore any files that were incorrectly tagged. We apologize for the inconvenience and are reviewing our programming and testing procedures to ensure we're worthy of your trust going forward." If that was front and center on the home page, they'd now have a customer for life. As it is, I'm going to ask my geek buddy what else she recommends. I think there's a lesson here, not just for software. Your opinions? Chris