I’ve been a Parallels Desktop customer for over 10 years. Throughout that time I’ve almost always bought permanent licenses rather than subscriptions. Until recently the permanent license price was roughly in the same ballpark as an annual subscription, which made the permanent option feel reasonable for someone who prefers to own the software outright.
This year the permanent license price was roughly doubled. That already felt like a significant change in direction. On top of that, the process of moving a permanent license to a new computer has become extremely difficult.
I am currently trying to transfer my existing permanent license to a new machine. The only way to free the license appears to be contacting customer support for a reset. Support has been responding only once per day. As of today (the third day), the license still has not been released so I can activate it on the new computer.
A few related points that make the experience worse:
At this point I am done with Parallels. There are other options available, and the current experience no longer justifies staying.
If anyone from Parallels is reading this: is there a faster, self-service way for permanent-license holders to deactivate and move a license without waiting multiple days for a single support reply? Or has the permanent license model simply been deprioritized?
This year the permanent license price was roughly doubled. That already felt like a significant change in direction. On top of that, the process of moving a permanent license to a new computer has become extremely difficult.
I am currently trying to transfer my existing permanent license to a new machine. The only way to free the license appears to be contacting customer support for a reset. Support has been responding only once per day. As of today (the third day), the license still has not been released so I can activate it on the new computer.
A few related points that make the experience worse:
- Even though I already own a permanent license, I am still forced to re-enter the full 20-character key on the new machine.
- Copy-and-paste is disabled in the license entry field, so the key must be typed character by character. This is unnecessary friction for a product I’ve already paid for.
At this point I am done with Parallels. There are other options available, and the current experience no longer justifies staying.
If anyone from Parallels is reading this: is there a faster, self-service way for permanent-license holders to deactivate and move a license without waiting multiple days for a single support reply? Or has the permanent license model simply been deprioritized?