Parallels team, I know you must keep asking yourselves why are people in these forums so hostile. If you even occasionally lurk in the VMware forums you’ll notice a very different tone there. I am sure part of the difference is that PD has more of a home user base and VMware has more of an IT user base, but there is much more to it than that. Fusion Beta 4 has just as many freaking bugs as PD 3.0.4128. I run both, trust me on that. Beta 4 has oodles of issues. VMware also pushes their Betas out very slowly, so slowly many people get impatient. Beta 3 was out for 2+ months before Beta 4 was released. So why are people here (now including myself) so much more upset than those over in the VMware forums? I think there are SEVERAL reasons. 1) VMware’s team in the forums actually answer questions. The primary developer / team lead (whatever) responds in almost every forum where a response is warranted. The responses are in clear English and make sense. 2) VMware lists out all the “known bugs†clearly in the forums. They flat out state “all of this stuff is wonkyâ€. 3) Fusion has much MUCH better integration with Boot Camp. There is no needing to reconfigure the HAL which is where 95% of Parallels Boot Camp issues come from. 4) Their team responds to PMs and e-mails. I PM’d Tim S. after the release of 4124 discussing all the bugs still in it, and how it should never have been released. Tim’s PM back was contrite (and it sounds like the development team and the marketing team were on very different sides about this release). Anyway, Tim asked me to e-mail him a list of all my issues. I sent off two e-mails listing around 8 serious issues I am facing and ……. No response to the e-mails. It’s kind of sad. I know the development team must be highly stressed and overworked, but come on; you ask for information and then never acknowledge it. 5) VMware realizes their product is still in Beta. They have yet to charge one penny for the program. Compare that to the $80 - $130 users of PD have shelled out. I think people here have a right to be upset, although I would be happier if they were a little more civil in the threads. For now I will continue to use both programs. If Smart Select actually gets sorted out, it may turn into a killer feature, and may be the tipping point for most home users trying to integrate Windows into OS X. I am sure there is more I could write on this, but I have to get back to work.
one point I, not disagree, but maybe have a different viewpoint on, is that Paralllels does provide a free fully functional trial of its software. Anyone who wanted to try it could, without buying it. Most of the threads in these forums come after first installation and dont just seem to crop up after time, so using the trial rather than diving right in, might have avoided people feeling let down. This applies less to retail box buyers, who have suffered a whole lot more with localisations.
It's a good point and I agree with it for the most part, but I would offer the counter-point that the "special" upgrade to 3.0 price was only in effect BEFORE non-Beta testers could actually try 3.0. It was only after the pre-order special was over that 3.0 was released to the general public. And I think most beta testers were quite surprised to see the beta hit GA as it did. I used the trial period for 2.x, but I also found 2.x to be much more stable than 3.0. I've resorted to using Fusion for now to run Office 2k7.
My frustration is 100000% due to that fact that I have NEVER GOTTEN an answer to a problem. I mean GD !! Not one of these SOBS can post anything besides some pidgeon english "Try install tools", like we are morons ??? Worst customer service of ANY company on the earth.
Well I have to say that I paid the pre order upgrade and I honestly have been very disappointed of the 3.0 release. However, I did not start any flame threads because it simply does not make any sense. I understand the frustration of many users but folks... you can claim your money back or you can leave it as it is and hope that the money you paid is going to improve the next release. I'm going to do the second thing but I have learned from this and I will not do any pre-orders for this company anymore. Next time I prefer to test the product first.
I am the squeaky wheel... I do not care the price or the effort.... they WILL reform their abismal customer service or they will NEVER hear the end of it.
Well they will reform their customer service or they will go out of business. That is as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow. As for you being the squeaky wheel, that's what ignore lists are for and based on some of your foul mouthed hateful posts, I'm sure you're on it. You've passed the point of constructive criticism long ago and moved into the category of white noise. But hey, keep it up and see how far it gets you. Here's an experiment, try creating a positive avatar and see what kind of responses you get..
Hateful ?? Damn right. I hate being lied to, ignored, edited, treated like a moron, give canned answers and then being threatened on top of it all. I am full of hate up to the line about now. And if there is anything "constructive" in this remaining, it is the simple fact that there are HUNDREDS of posts here from newbies who posted hoping for an answer and got told to pack sand and eat static. I am their voice... in rage... the angry mob... personified. Someone has to be heard.... When a tyrant refuses to listen, the people grab pitchforks and tar and storm the castle. That's where we are at. Insurection !!
This could turn into a PR nightmare for these folks and a FEW DAILY POSTS could make all the difference... So why do they NOT ?? Is there anything in anyone's experience which can provide some sort of explaination for such pittiful customer service ?? Anyone ??
Speaking as a developer, that's not much of a surprise. Dev & QA are often bullied by the business side of the house to certify absolute garbage as being 'ready to ship'. It's tough to hold your ground when a veep starts yelling and pounding his fist. You can't just flip him off unless you're willing to quit. ;-) After all, his bonus is riding on hitting a date.
So yer saying that it's all about the money from the sales and development management side? I figured... perhaps they DO need a lawsuit to get the attention OF the "suits". Sometimes it is some poor smuck making $12 an hour and having only a few minutes to read this forum and just can't reply and his job has no review of this forum so they litterally have no incentive as just another cog in the big wheel to care about us.
I've been doing dev for a long time and this is a common scenario: devs knows something's not ready, QA knows it's not ready, but whatareyagonnado? VPs yell. The CEO yells. Dev & QA refuse to sign off but the product gets pushed out anyway. Attrition sometimes follows. When a buggy product ships, a company can either fire managers or risk losing engineers. They usually make the wrong choice. It's not salespeople. They're usually pretty good folks. They don't want to sell stuff that doesn't work - hurts their commissions. It's the folks who have bonuses riding on dates: CEOs, VPs, marketing types, product managers, etc. Us devs usually make substantially more than $12/hr. (you'd want to x8 or x10 that figure to be accurate), but that doesn't change the fact that we don't like shipping products that are unfinished. It's embarrassing. I feel that the Parallels devs are every bit as talented as the VMWare devs and I imagine they're not too pleased with having to ship a product that would have benefitted from a little more time in-house. I imagine they care very much about us users, but have no real voice in the scheme of things.
Where do you work? Seriously, where? I'd kill my first born (ok not reall ..... or would I) to make 250k a year (which is what 10x that works out to). Also be aware, these developers are in Russia ...... they are not making the big bucks you normally associate with good devs.
Russia? I was under the impression that they were foriegn as the few replies I have seen are NOT in English. And by that I mean coherent proper English as indicative of natural born speakers of the language. The words are English, but that is about all. But Russia WOULD explain the total lack of concept for customer service. Reminds me of a joke a freind of mine who is in Law School with me but from Russia said. Two friends are standing in line to buy vodka. The line is very long and they have been there since early morning, and it is now past noon. Suddenly the man comes out to annouce that Putin has just added a new tax on vodak which has greatly increased the price. The one friend looks at his money and has barely enough but becomes angry and starts to walk away. His friend says where do you go? The other replies, I am so mad, I am going to kill Putin. And he stomps off. Later, as the first man is leaving the market after his purchase... he sees his friend way back and in the line again. He says to him, Friend, why I are here, I thought you were going to kill Putin? His friend shakes his head and sighs... "oh that line was even longer".
Well said. I totally agree. To add insult to the injure, Tim from Parallels posted a message a few days ago saying that he was confused why people thought their support was lousy. Well, with this kind of mindset, I am not hopful that support will improve.
The marketing communications people, who have been singled out in other threads as the culprits in all this, are also under the thumb of the business side. If there is hype, it is usually promulgated by someone higher up. David
True enough. And perhaps this forum will NOT get their attention. So be it. If nothing else it gets googled and archived.
