I am eligible for the $9.95 Parallels Desktop upgrade from v4 to v5. I have followed all the instructions that Parallels sent me about how to get that upgrade. The last response I got was on Nov 18, which included: "Please be patient and stay tuned until one of our customer service representatives will contacts you directly." Since then, I have only received promotional emails trying to sell me an upgrade at the regular price. So today I tried using the online "chat" support. The page tells me I am #2 in the queue. After many minutes I am #1 in the queue. And after many more minutes I am told... "we are offline" and to submit my request using the form that displays at that point. I do that. I can't actually tell if the form is accepted; there seems to be no response to my clicking the submit button. But eventually a little box pops up: Online chat service is not responding.Please use alternative resources in order to submit you support request. Parallels: Please make it possible for me to get the $9.95 upgrade that you stated was available to me.
I tried to fill the form and submitted successfully. However, you would receive an email embedded with an upgrade key for trial. Look Good ? The story is just begin. The key is not working. You can not use the key to activate PD5 download from trial link of PD5. I still need to use the key sent to me with the download. The key will only enable PD5 for less than two weeks. OK, there may be a mistake, let talk to Parallel Support. I sent email to <[email protected]> (the address sent the upgrade key to me). The support system promptly generated a reply said that. "The ticket number #817010 used in this request has been closed from the Parallels Support System. .... If you feel that your request is related to a previous issue and has been closed by mistake please include the previous ticket number in the body of your new request (not in a subject field)." OK, it is my fault. I should modify my email to cater the expected format. I modified my email and sent again. This time, the support system acted quickly and said that. "You have received this message because the subject field of your recent mail request does not contain a unique Ticket Number." At last, all the problems are customer's problems. As a nobody customer, you have no right to ask and there is no path for you to seek help.
success, finally I finally got the $9.99 upgrade... I sent a reply to the Nov 18 email that had told me I would be contacted directly by customer support. This email had a support # in the subject line. Immediately I got a response saying that ticket # had been closed. The email gave 3 links to open a new case (but they were all to do with Parallels Plesk, whatever that is, and the forms they led to were not relevant to Parallels Desktop support). So instead I filed a new support request via the link next to my Parallels 4 registration in "My Account" / "My registered products." This process included uploading the pdf invoice of my Parallels 4 upgrade purchase. I get an email with a new ticket #, and a list of 21 common support issues plus instructions for each about what to do. None are about the special upgrade, altho some are to do with the free upgrade (for people who bought v4 after Oct. 1). So I follow the relevant instruction and send a reply, stating that none of those issues are my issue. Next morning I have 2 new emails from support, the second of which includes a discount code and instructions on using it. Hooray!
F. CraigL -- I'm pretty sure that wasn't an option, it being more than 30 days since I bought the v4 upgrade.
