Paralles Support issues

Marc1000

Bit poster
Hallo,

I have a serious problem with Parallels Workstation on my System (See: http://forum.parallels.com/thread8151.html).

I've posted 4 mails to the support describing this problem. Well I got a trouble ticket with a 3 businessday response time - fine this is now over a week old.

No further response, nothing.

I would be pleased to receive any response, even a 'we don't know what it is, go and save some money and get your free copy of VMWare Server.'

I would like to get Parallels Workstation and PAY for it, since I'm using Parallels desktop on my Mac without any problems.

But I hate nothing more than a support with cool trouble tickets and nothing more behind that.

Regards

Marc
 
ditto, only I foolishly purchased 2 windows copies in addition to my mac copy. Still nothing. Paralleles will never get another dime of my money until they fix their horrible support problem.

Somehow, I suspect if I called and paid the $30 per incident that they charge (REDICULOUS) I would get no better support.

I was planning on pitching Parallels to my company, but since they won't respond to a single support email, it's not going to happen. It is entirely possible that this cost them a enterprise purchase agreement and an ongoing support contract. Somebody needs to get a brain and realize that if you take care of "the little guys" some of them might introduce you to their big friends.
 
Yep I agree 100% -- I too was looking at Parallels as an alternative to VMWare for our companies testing lab.... Based on the lack of feedback I have seen here, I would hesitate to stray from VMWare at this point.

Ah well, at least the competition is good for pricing...

Brad
 
mfcmfc said:
I emailed them a couple easy questions over a week ago and have not heard any reply.

If you forward me those questions I can also submit them. Perhaps then those who want to see the responses will be able to. FWIW, I've not had any problem getting a response when submitting to [email protected].
 
What support? I am still waiting for a response from 4 tech support tickets I opened Oct 11/12 2006. I too had high hopes and over 500 potential licenses (OS2 requirements) and I could not even get sales to call me back after 6 phone messages I left. I said it before and I'll say it again, this product is for hobbyist not businesses or critical home applications.
 
mgpws said:
What support? I am still waiting for a response from 4 tech support tickets I opened Oct 11/12 2006. I too had high hopes and over 500 potential licenses (OS2 requirements) and I could not even get sales to call me back after 6 phone messages I left. I said it before and I'll say it again, this product is for hobbyist not businesses or critical home applications.

Interestingly, I've posted the same message on the forums on multiple occasions -- ie about people forwarding their messages to me and letting me ALSO forward them to Parallels -- and yet I've not had anyone actually forward me any of those messages yet.
 
I also have been waiting for 2 weeks for a response on a non-existent network adapter. I received an email letting me know that my ticket was submitted but no follow up.
 
drval said:
Interestingly, I've posted the same message on the forums on multiple occasions -- ie about people forwarding their messages to me and letting me ALSO forward them to Parallels -- and yet I've not had anyone actually forward me any of those messages yet.

Perhaps they think it should not be necessary to have someone in the middle handling support issues. They'd be right.
 
The support on this product is poor. I've just upgraded to the latest version after being told that my old activation key would suffice! Did it heck, I had to download a trial key to get it to work. Did this solve my problem with playing DVD's within xp, nope. I do hope Apple produce a product that will knock paralles on the head. lleis
 
dkp said:
Perhaps they think it should not be necessary to have someone in the middle handling support issues. They'd be right.

There can, of course, be a lot of explanations; however, one that does seem to be operative at least to some degree is a lack of interest in seeing that a response -- pro or con -- is actually generated from Parallels. I'm offering to forward items because I've had no problem. I find that, at times, such a process can "kick loose" whatever else is going on that is slowing down or stopping the flow.

For me it's simply a way to get responses/answers so as to keep working.
 
What we've learned from this is that until they treat everyone as they treat you then there will be posts that are titled "Parallels Support Sux!". It's a problem in the Mac forum, too, as you've seen. And since nobody has taken you up on your offer we don't know if it works or not for you to be the middle man. Point remains, and would be verified if your offer produced results, that they have to make some improvements in the support.

Hey - I know. They can separate the Beta activity from the GA code support by expanding the forums to include a Beta only issues forum.
 
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It has been reported that the corporate sector is the main Parallels target. So quite possibly, that is where the support is directed as well.
.
 
Bad focus. Wrong support model

Read the messages again. If their objective is to support the corporate world, they first need corporate customers. I am a consultant. My company has thousands of consultants. They have contracts all over the world. They need a decent VM product. The Company is located very close to the Parallels office in the U.S. Currently, they buy VMware on an as-needed basis. Most consultants use the free vmware player. It wouldn't be too hard to sell an enterprise wide license and maintenance contract to my Company IF the product had a good reputation for taking care of it's customers. When you get into this big fish/small fish mentality, prospective corporate customers have to worry if they will be considered a big fish or a small fish. Instead, they'll just go to a company that charges more to make sure they will get support. That's one reason my company competes well with IBM, the proverbial 800 pound gorilla.

I'd love to identify who I work for, but I'm not sure that I can without an OK from PR. I don't want to get fired over Parallels issues. That would REALLY suck.
 
drval said:
Interestingly, I've posted the same message on the forums on multiple occasions -- ie about people forwarding their messages to me and letting me ALSO forward them to Parallels -- and yet I've not had anyone actually forward me any of those messages yet.


OK, I'll take you up on your offer. I've had two previous issues with Parallels Desktop, sent emails to support, and heard nothing (4 months and counting). But I did get a call from a sales rep asking me if I wanted to buy more licenses. Parallels charges $30 for support calls (that's 37.5% of the cost of the product) which says a lot about their QA and business model. Please forward the following issue:

Parallels application randomly announced that my Tools were not in sync. Unsure how this occurred since I have not updated anything in a while. So I dutifully followed the instructions and now my shared folders do not work (even though shared folder is enabled). All of my Windows docs are in shared folder and thus I cannot use any Windows apps.

Has anyone had this happen? How did they get the shared folders to work again. Also, this same (broken) process completed screwed with my Windows screen resolution and desktop background image.
 
Parallels support is the worst I have ever experienced!

I can only add to all the woes already posted in this thread. I am a long-time Parallels Workstation for Mac user. I was relatively happy with build 1970. I tried the 3xxx beta, and it was aweful -- I couldn't see the client area within the Parallels window. All black. So, I uninstalled it, reinstalled 1970, and all was well...until I installed the 3186 release product. Same problem. How, Parallels has pulled the 1970 .DMB from their website. So, there is no going back. I, too, purchased a $30 support ticket and have been calling and emailing for over a week. No responses. Unbelievable! I will call AmEx and have them get the $30 back. I may even have them go after Parallels for the original cost of the software which is now unusable. I will be switching to VmWare or Boot Camp.
 
Initial acknowledgement with NO promised contact

I submitted a request for assistance using the email contact on Parallels support site. I received the automated reply with a promise that I would be contacted within three business days. That was two weeks ago. No one from Parallels contacted me, by email or by phone. I'm begining to think that the company really doesn't have any customer support at all!

I wonder what would happen if the State Attorney General's office were contacted, and a complaint filed about the products 'promised support.'
 
swehba said:
I can only add to all the woes already posted in this thread. I am a long-time Parallels Workstation for Mac user. I was relatively happy with build 1970. I tried the 3xxx beta, and it was aweful -- I couldn't see the client area within the Parallels window. All black. So, I uninstalled it, reinstalled 1970, and all was well...until I installed the 3186 release product. Same problem. How, Parallels has pulled the 1970 .DMB from their website. So, there is no going back. I, too, purchased a $30 support ticket and have been calling and emailing for over a week. No responses. Unbelievable! I will call AmEx and have them get the $30 back. I may even have them go after Parallels for the original cost of the software which is now unusable. I will be switching to VmWare or Boot Camp.

I think if you used the search function on this forum you would find a number of entries related to solving that particular problem.
 
bkingbking said:
OK, I'll take you up on your offer. I've had two previous issues with Parallels Desktop, sent emails to support, and heard nothing (4 months and counting). But I did get a call from a sales rep asking me if I wanted to buy more licenses. Parallels charges $30 for support calls (that's 37.5% of the cost of the product) which says a lot about their QA and business model. Please forward the following issue:

Parallels application randomly announced that my Tools were not in sync. Unsure how this occurred since I have not updated anything in a while. So I dutifully followed the instructions and now my shared folders do not work (even though shared folder is enabled). All of my Windows docs are in shared folder and thus I cannot use any Windows apps.

Has anyone had this happen? How did they get the shared folders to work again. Also, this same (broken) process completed screwed with my Windows screen resolution and desktop background image.


I just saw this. How about supplying complete information like system being used, version installed, current behavior, etc? That can be sent off to Parallels and, if you give those details, it's possible that someone here might be able to help as well.
 
Hello Drval !
Thank you for a critical article about Parallels support service.
We are working hard to satisfy all our customer needs !
Development of quality support services for our customers is our primary goal.
 
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