With each infected computer we repair, this is often the last question asked by the customer.
There are so many anti-virus options out there, which one do you choose? How do you know which one will work best? What’s the differences between them?
The “whose who” of the top performers change every quarter or so. There are a few places to get good reviews on the top performing anti-virus software packages available.Sites like: PC mag, PC world, and CNET all offer their reviews.
As a business policy, we do not endorse any of the free anti-virus software. I have been told they can work well, depending on the user. The higher up the technological ladder the user, usually the less infections they have.
We have sold Nortons, McAfee, Panda, Trend Micro, and now we only sell AVG. We have no allegiance to any of the software vendors. We sell and use what we think works best. We only carry 1 brand at a time. If we ever feel that AVG is no longer the best solution, we will switch to whatever we think is.
From our customer base, the feedback on AVG has been great. Every once in a while, we will have a customer upset that we sold them something that is available free. AVG does offer a free version of its software. Don’t be mistaken, it is not the same as the paid version. You have countless arguments going online about free vs paid, and we often replace customers free versions with the paid version and we don’t see them anymore.
That being said, no anti-virus software is fool proof. Most infections are a direct reflection of web browsing habits, than from security.
A few years ago when we were having tons of issues with the anti-virus software we currently offered, we didn’t sell anything for almost 30 days. We figured nothing would stop people from getting viruses so why sell them some $60 piece of software that wouldn’t do them any good anyway?
That was probably the worse decision we’ve made around here, ever. The fallout was immense:
- “You let me get re-infected after charging me for a cleaning”
- “Why didn’t you tell me I could get re-infected”
- “You just wanted me back in here so you could charge me for another cleaning”
- “You are in cahoots with the people who make the viruses”
- “You probably are the ones putting the viruses on my computer”
We quickly found out that catering to the minority who didn’t want to pay for good anti-virus software was a bad choice.
We are often stuck between a rock, and a bigger rock. We know that buying anti-virus software will not keep you from getting re-infected. We also know that not buying anti-virus will have you back in here sooner than later. We are aware that there are free software options out there, but we cant “sell” it to you because it’s free. We also can’t recommend anything that may not work, crash your computer on install, or anything else that turns your computer from working to non-working.
When you purchase the paid version of AVG from us you get:
- Free instillation and setup
- Email support
- Discount on renewals
Custom-PC Computers recommends AVG Anti-virus and when that changes, you’ll be the first to know!