Better Business Bureau complaint

After two weeks of being ignored by the support team at Parallels I have felt that my only option is to file a formal complaint against this company. I will retract this complaint upon resolution of my problems or full refund of my purchase price of the software. I regret that it had to come to this.

A copy of the complaint follows:

Thank you for using the Better Business Bureau's Online Complaint System.
Your complaint has been assigned case # 22111545.
Correspondence regarding this complaint will be emailed to : XXXXXXXXXXX
Please print a copy of this for your records.

Filed on : April 3 2007

Filed by :
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Filed against :
Parallels
660 SW 39th St Ste 205
Renton WA 98057-4914

Complaint Description:
This firm sells software which is advertised as allowing windows operating systems to be run in a virtual environment under OS X. The corporate web page states that the product is compatible with boot camp installations of Windows XP and additionally promises technical support for these installations. I have been refused technical support after purchasing the product and have not been able to get the software to function as advertised.

Your Desired Resolution:
I am seeking either a prompt resolution to my complaint of failure to provide customer service as agreed on the company's web site which promises a maximum 3 day response to all e-mails sent to the support team OR a full refund of the purchase price of the software. If my complaint can not be resolved, I anticipate a full and prompt refund. My order number and amount follow: Order ID: 1172670562-11260-970374 Order Total: $87.03 USD

 

Before you went through all these theatrics did you call Parallels or send email to them requesting a refund? Sometimes life is as hard as you want to make it.

 

I don't know about his results, but I have e-mailed them twice about a refund, and have so far received no reply.

I won't go to the BBB, since I have none nearby, but I'll surely take it up with my credit card company if I haven't heard from them by the end of the week.

 

I too have had a terrible time with customer service; they replied to my first tech issue with "Try reinstalling Parallels Tools". When that didn't work I never heard back.

The bad news for them is I work for a nationally published tech magazine and I'm colleague is writing an article on poor customer service. I can't wait to tell my story...

 

Nowadays a good rule of customer service probably is "treat every client as if they own a magazine".

 

i cant get windows on a real machine to function as advertised.. can i file a complaint ??

without starting a flaming war.. to all those threatening this and that to get their problems fixed, did you ever consider using the trial product before leaping in and buying ?? And for those that reply (as many have in the past) "it worked for what i needed it to when i bought it" , then you wont have a leg to stand on when harping on about getting refunded.

 

Hopefully you have a good proofreader. Other than working for a magazine do you have any technical qualifications that will make your story not sound like a floundering noob who failed to make the thing work? I'm curious because I and other technically competent contributors to these forums have had no trouble *at all* with any part of the product. That doesn't mean I don't recognize the inept support issues - they self-identify if you pay attention. I can't imaging you will provide much more than a summary of the frustrations voiced here over the past year.

I guess I'm wondering what came first - the need for a story in a national magazine, or frustration from incompetence at installing a rather simple product. Wipe your chin - you're drooling.

 

Yeah really...

Eric, working at a law firm, my initial belief is that you really don't have the best of grounds. You are using an unsupported feature. I understand your frusteration, and if you are still in the return period of 100% satisfaction you should be able to get your money back... But I don't know that, that is another set of facts that can change the judgment. A point on your side though... Parallels is deficient in not returning messages in their perscribed time. They should at least notify you that you have an unssuported feature. This practice of ignoring requests is wrong, and should be corrected. Hopefully this can serve as wake-up call. But as the other forum seniors point out, you guys need to pay attention to what you might have done that is deficient.

As to the media and bad publicity. It is ALWAYS an issue. Parallels is creeping up their support, but it can still use work for some people. It is sad their are such mixed results, I have had almost instantaneous responses to my questions. Ricardo has a point though...

 

The real issue

Is not so much that a piece of software doesn't fully work as advertised.
As pointed out in a separate post, nowhere on Parallels site does it mention that bootcamp installations of Windows are only supported on the same boot disk as OSX.

The issue was really that getting an official answer to a question really shouldn't be such a pain in the ass.

After this thread was posted, I received a phone call from Parallels and after discussing my install, they suggested that my only course of action is a reformat and re-install of Windows. Now, I don't like that option but I'm satisfied with it.

I've had non-supported software and hardware before and it bugs me but this is the first time I've been so ticked as to feel the need to file a complaint. Why? Because I think the advertising is wrong.

Example. I have a HP printer that I bought two years ago. When I got OSX 10.4 I tried to get drivers for it. Called HP and they said bluntly "that device is no longer supported, try finding a generic driver" Was I happy? No, but neither did I file a complaint.

Here, I think I fairly clearly posted my configuration and my problem and despite a written statement promises e-mail support within 3 days I spent two weeks trying to get a response.

At no time did has anyone from parallels said that my configuration is not supported.

I consider this episode closed, and I will backup my XP install and try again from a fresh partition. It's a lot of time and a real PITA as I will have to call MS and get validation #'s two more times and will have to call on other software also. I will let you know if this works.

The bottom line is do not ignore your customers.

 

Good for you. This is a near stellar product which is ruined by lack of any
support. Using their system and forum results in nothing. To me the issue is
not any specific problem but the lack of any support. I am not sure how one
could pay as the phone queqe always gets longer and you just give up.
Their new version killed xp printing and also linux running.

 

That is not true in my system - running 3188 and xp, Solaris, Fedora, and OS/2 and printing works perfectly. You have a local problem.

 

Problem

Why don't you just call your credit card company and get your money back. Calling the BBB doesn't hurt their pocketbook.

For me Parallels works perfectly, no issues whatsoever.

ld

 

I'm glad to hear that -- I remember that you were reporting some problems or, perhaps, lack of features(???) related to linux or solaris. Am I not remembering that correctly or did some of those issues get addressed in some way?

It's really just curiosity on my part as I'm not using either of those guest OSs.

 

Hi Val - the problem with the Linux and Solaris vm's remains the lack of Parallels tools which which means mouse and keyboard need to be released with the magic key chord combo. It is not different than running Windows without Parallels Tools installed. Windows works fine but is not well integrated into OS X without the tools. Fusion has created the needed integration and I've found it sufficiently convenient that I find myself loading Fusion for extended Solaris and Linux use. If Fusion did not exist I'd still happily use Parallels with the Unixes.

 

.

If fridges did not exist I'd still happily use an ice box.
.

 

Oddly enough the only real glitch I have had has been in Build 3188, it sometimes doesn't recognize my Boot Camp partition. But I just click run and it works the 2nd time. It doesn't happen all the time, just once in a great while.

Otherwise it is pretty good. I just can't wait until Vista is supported by Parallels, since Bootcamp now supports it. And soon if we are really lucky, Bootcamp will support the 64 Bit Version of Vista.

 

Eh, cuz - what evah keep da beer cold, stay mo' bettah.

(Old Hawai`ian saying - maybe not all that old)

 

Fridges aside, if you have some issues with Parallels Support - please have a look at this thread - http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?p=53826#post53826.

 

I for one hadn't - there wasn't a similar copy made sticky on this forum. Thanks for the link, I've IM'd him directly about my refund.

 

Complaint to Better Business Bureau

I have already complained to my credit card company. Having no response to my TWO Emails asking for support, I decided to take a chance and pay the $30 for a support call. All I managed to get was a voice mail asking for my phone number and email. So far, nothing at all.

It appears that this company has found the mother lode with a hugely popular software program, but did essentially nothing in anticipation of the many problems consumers would have getting the program to work. That's often the way it is with business people who don't really care about their customers.

Call your credit card company. Once Visa or Mastercard get enough complaints, they'll yank the company's ability to use the accounts.

I still want to use Parallels to run a few Windoze programs that just are not available for the new Intel Mac.

Dave Clark