Situation: A bunch of customers bought Parallels 7 around the anniversary in June, paying full freight. Parallels 8 introduced shortly thereafter, but free upgrades are only available to VERY recent purchasers. Complication: This angers customers who just missed out. Resolution: Change from a "step function" or "cliff" upgrade pricing policy to a "graduated" upgrade pricing policy. How? SIMPLE! If the full upgrade price is $49.99, adopt a linear or multi-step pricing system, e.g., up to 1 month out = free, 2 months = $10, 3 months = $20, etc. Result: Happy loyal customers who don't resent Parallels for employing a "pump and dump" strategy, and who enthusiastically recommend Parallels to others.
This would be nice. I bought my copy on July 12th expecting retina support, didn't get it in that update like they promised, but now they have it if I shell out another $50 for the next version. I'm not exactly wanting a free upgrade, but two weeks outside the cut-off date, I feel a little cheated that a feature I fully expected to be in Version 7 can be available for me if I shell out money for a whole new version. So they basically went from misrepresenting the retina "support" in version 7 to trying to force me to buy version 8 for a feature that I should already have, and their response so far has been "tough luck." I really like this product, I've certainly brought Parallels more business by recommending the product via my marketing job, but now I can't in good conscience continue recommending them based on their treatment of customers like me.
I'm in the same situation. I purchased on July 11th expecting retina support. I did contact customer support and was told July 25th was the hard cut off for free upgrades. I'm really feeling cheated by the whole thing. At this point, I'd rather give my upgrade fee to VMWare if I feel I really need to pay for an upgrade. The cost would be the same and they didn't just screw me over.
I to Bought this after being a VMware Fusion user, I did the tradeup to Parallels, being told full retina support, bought in July, I feel left out that there will be no updates to the software I just bought, kind of crappy
I bought PD7 on July 15, at full price, there being no upgrade from PD4. I haven't yet managed to get it working properly. In these circumstances, an ad inviting me to pay another £34.99 for PD8 makes me see red.
I seriously cannot fathom the lack of due diligence exercised by so, so many people here. It is easy to see that Parallels have an annual release cadence and that they have historically released in early September. So why then did many go and buy before this date at a time when no upgrade announcement had been made and before the terms of any free update to the next had been spelled out!? I think it's a legitimate complaint that PD7 doesn't have proper and complete Retina support when it was advertised as such, but surely it was obvious that one was purchasing a product that was about to go EOL from a development standpoint.
You're right - I should have told my clients that I wouldn't be able to do any work until September. I'm sure they would have been cool with that.
Lol. Surely you checked compatibility with the software critical for your work before updating from Lion to Mountain Lion? No?
Wrong Marketing UPGRADE Strategy I purchased July3rd. Parallels 7 Reason being purchase of the Retina Mac. Sorry guys not everyone knows that Parallels has bombarded September as release month. However you may expect that Parallels (made for Mac) has some considerations to have functionality matching Apples latest released products. For sure No pre-announcements and a very short FoC upgrade period. Wrong Marketing Strategy. Effect is that at least I and many with me will not buy future Parallels versions anymore. There are different options in the market. Happens when a company operates like this.
I agree their policy truly sucks and it's awful for anybody that gets caught by it, and that it's terrible business practice that is undoubtedly harmful to their long term interests. I also think that they have the best solution out there. I am only surprised that people get caught by it. When I buy any software, I always check to see when the previous paid updates have been released, past upgrade policies and costs of upgrades, and how well previous releases are maintained and make a considered judgement from that. (Not meant as a holier-than-thou thing, rather why don't others do this? Genuinely baffles me...)
Hi Nick, your right due diligence is important I worked on my macbook with Parallels 5. Very Happy with the combo. Bigger investment was the Retina Mac. (did my due diligence ;-) )Expected Version 7 supports Mountain Lion and the new hardware. Expected also that the company would accomodate Parallels Purchasers who moved during the time frame Mountain Lion and Retina Mac was released. Never expected such a contra productive marketing sales strategy. Long term it is not a healthy policy. They should fire the marketing strategist. He or she has no clue how things works.
PD7 is compatible with Mountain Lion, if you hadn't noticed. I'm having certain problems with it, but tech support have not suggested that this is anything to do with differences between 10.7 and 10.8. Oh, and, if it's any of your business: I had to get PD7 when I did because PD4 wouldn't work with Lion, which came with the new Mac that I had to get because my old one died. OK? Do I pass the IQ test?
