Turn off ads

[KurtT]

Switch

At home I switched from Parallels to VMWare a couple of years ago. Work still uses Parallels. Every month or so I get another inquiry about Parallels. After reading this thread, I'll forbid use of Parallels from now on. I'm the senior OS X engineer for the country's largest bank. We don't allow such ads.

 

[andy_herbert]

Individual notifications can be turned off by clicking the dont show this again button. However, because customers need to receive important product information, there is not a mechanism for customers to completely disable notifications.

You don't speak on my behalf, I don't need the advertisements. After paying for your product many times, I won't be doing it again.

 

[atknapp]

Many of our customers rely on the information about product updates and appreciate the special deals for products that are of interest to them.

For the sake of our shared humanity, please tell me that you don't actually believe that line and are actually being forced by your evil Overlord of a manager to say that ridiculous drivel?

Because if you use a computer, you know as well as we do that no one wants to be bombarded by spam under any circumstances, and we only tolerate it when either a) we for some reason opt-in, or b) are getting something for free and that's the cost redistributed.

Individual notifications can be turned off by clicking the dont show this again button. However, because customers need to receive important product information, there is not a mechanism for customers to completely disable notifications.

Similarly absurd fig leaf to cover up the fact that you choose revenue stream over customer experience.

Thank you for sharing your opinion. At times, Parallels staff may remove or edit posts that contain product code information which changes the general nature of the product, as it may affect the overall performance of the software.

Welcome to the Streisand Effect - the more you try to hide the workaround for your customers to actually use the expensive product they bought from you, the more we are incensed to stop you.

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."
- John Gilmore

I use Parallels at home, but I'm the CIO for the UK's third-largest charity and have been considering virtualisation options for 475-500 Mac users; add me to the list of people who will never give you another dime. Feel free to keep a tally and let the Overlord know.

 

[BrndnH]

Parallels, take note

You guys are absolutely nuts handling this the way you are.

I wish you luck, but it won't be enough.

 

[deanishe]

It's not just disrespectful to paying customers to force annoying ads upon them (though it does add to the authenticity of the Windows experience), but it's downright insulting to then pretend it's some essential security feature.

There's no way Parallels will ever get another cent of my money. Fusion all the way from now on for me.

 

[RonSchn]

The world must be a better place than I thought when these are your worst problems, guys...

 

[Dean Herbert]

I for one will be recommending vmware where I used to recommend parallels (due to its superior performance). Good luck keeping such a dodgy anti-customer business going.

defaults write com.parallels.Parallels\ Desktop ProductPromo.ForcePromoOff -bool YES.

 

[JaspreetS]

I've been a Parallels customer since Parallels 3 (check my support / purchase log Parallels)... now, with the interoperability of most software and also, the fact that I have a full Windows desktop, I haven't had to use Parallels 7 much... but, if the above is true, Parallels, you've lost another long-standing customer. Kudos to competition and I'll be heading over to VMWare.

 

[sglewis]

Ads?

Apparently not all ads can be disabled, even third party ones? And I was really wondering if I should get the latest Parallels or the latest Fusion. Now I know. Ads in a VM server? Really? Have you lost your mind, or did you get secretly infiltrated by the competition?

 

[unhappyc]

I'm done with parallels as well

I've been a customer for a long time as well. Adios parallels, this is absolutely ridiculous. Pathetic to say the least. Even if you get rid of the ads at this point not sure I'd ever come back. Its pretty obvious where your appreciation of the customer is. I will not be telling anyone about parallels anymore in a positive light.

 

[solus]

It's has been a great pleasure to see the user responses to this thread. They are saying exactly what I've been feeling for a long time now. The advertisements are absolutely unnecessary, and really annoying the hell out of me.

Please send me the PM with instructions on how to disable these notifications.

The responses by Parallels over this issues have been almost as ridiculous as the advertisements themselves.

"We use in-product notifications to share several types of information with our customers."

That's right. There are several TYPES of notifications. Then add an option in preferences to allow the user to specify the TYPE of notifications they want to allow. If a message is so critical that every user must receive it, then mark it "critical". Unnecessary advertisements for 3rd-party products can then be skipped automatically, while critical notifications can still be served. There is a good likelihood that these notifications already have a "type" designator assigned to them. If not, add one. It's ONE BYTE of information.

Oh! And by the way ... I have Kaspersky installed. I've had it installed for years, and still have 2+ years on my license. No matter how many times I've checked "Do not show again", I keep getting this notification. It's damn annoying. If you're going to SPAM your users, at least implement an OPT OUT so that it works correctly.

Please send me the PM with instructions on how to disable these notifications.

 

[deanishe]

If you're going to SPAM your users, at least implement an OPT OUT so that it works correctly.

If you let people opt out, you can't spam them any more. And Parallels clearly wants to spam its users. Spam them all the way to the competition.

 

[stevenjklein]

Allow users to see update notices AND block ads

YanaYana wrote:

We use in-product notifications to share…
information about product updates…
special offers from Parallels…
[special offers from] third party companies…

Allow me to suggest that you should update parallels to allow the following preference settings:
⊠ Display notices about product updates
⊠ Display notices about special offers from Parallels
⊠ Display notices about special offers from third parties

This would allow you to provide important notices about product updates (which most users probably want to see) while allowing users to block advertisements they do not want to see.

 

[solus]

@thumperj - Thanks!

@stevenjklein - Perfectly said!

 

[Rollo The Cat]

My first post after many years of ownership.
My first post after recommending Parallels to many many people.

My first post:

BAD BAD BAD BAD IDEA!!

Thank god for terminal and people smarter than me.

 

[macwhiz]

Another customer lost

I was just about to buy Parallels 7, as my copy of Parallels 6 was uninstalled by the Mountain Lion installer, biting the bullet for yet another expensive upgrade. Then I read about the ads.

Count me as another lost sale.

If VMware offered a competitive upgrade discount, they'd already have a new customer. For now, I'll evaluate my needs and options... but I'm not likely to buy Parallels 7 so long as the company undertakes such a sleazy business practice. What else is buried in their code that I wouldn't like running on my machine?

Frankly, the response so far from the company has been contemptible and insulting to the intelligence of its customers. To win me back, Parallels will have to issue a public, sincere, and groveling apology, as well as removing every last vestige of adware and bloatware from its product. I'd rather have Parallels priced fairly on its own merits, than propped up with telemarketer-style sleaze like this.

As a senior systems administrator for a company in the top 10 of the Fortune 500, I'll be doing my best to ensure that my company no longer purchases Parallels products. I suspect that the company's Mac team has already come to that conclusion. I also won't be recommending Parallels to my friends and family who use Macs any longer.

 

[VahurS]

We use in-product notifications to share several types of information with our customers. First, and most importantly, we share information about product updates which are generally related to compatibility with OS X, new features and product enhancements. Second, we occasionally share special offers from Parallels or other third party companies who provide special deals for our customers. Many of our customers rely on the information about product updates and appreciate the special deals for products that are of interest to them.

Please use e-mail instead of in-product notifications. Makes the app faster - does not need to contact parallels servers at startup, does not annoy users and still gets your message across. e-mailed notifications can be automated and received by people not directly using the app, probably a good thing for sysadmins in case of really important updates.

 

[Kreme314]

A friend of mine emailed me this morning asking for my opinion on whether he should buy Parallels or VMWare for his 50 employees in his department.

I replied by sending him a link to this thread.

 

[Sleeperservice]

Count me as another lost customer.

To put these ads in a paid product is bad enough and shows total contempt for their paying customers. To reply to posters' entirely reasonable requests with this pathetic PR-speak is even worse.

I have been a user of Parallels for many years and have recommended it to numerous people. No more.

 

[stevenjklein]

To put these ads in a paid product is bad enough…

Advertising is not all-or-nothing. Just about every newspaper or magazine I've read has ads, and yet I still had to pay for the newspaper or magazine. I also have to pay for many basic cable TV channels, and yet those channels still carry advertising.

The Ars Technica website has found a great solution: You can pay an annual subscription fee, and then you don't see ads when you view their website. Amazon sells two versions of the low-end Kindle reader, and the only difference between them is that the cheaper one shows ads.

If Parallels thinks they can't profitably sell their product at current prices without ads, then the decent thing to do is to offer two-tier pricing. A lower price, with ads, and a higher price without ads.