Horrible support: How do i get support to respond to my email?

My experience recently

I was very happy to be contacted by a Parallels support person (named Andrew) who asked for my number and shortly after phoned. We went through the most recent of the three totally different approaches to solving my .hdd file problem. When we reached the point that it said my .hdd file was "corrupted," the phone connection broke off. I have not heard from Andrew again--this was last week.

At the time that Andrew called, I had a Windows XP VM that was working (although with no programs or data installed) and, as a result of trying to get Parallels to work properly, at least three and perhaps four VMs with "corrupted" .hdd files. Something we did during the phone conversation caused the working Windows XP VM to lose Windows completely. It now wants to "boot from hard drive" and nothing I do causes any response at all.

I asked Parallels support via e-mail if they thought my situation is hopeless. IF they do, I would like to eliminate every trace of Parallels from my iMac and then re-install Parallels 3 from scratch (updating to the latest build). So far, no reply.

 

Bryan, please see your PM list

 

Dunno but if you figure out the secret, let me know. I've sent about five separate incidents in and haven't gotten anything back. Pretty disappointing. I don't mind the delay but no answer at all doesn't make me want to shell out for a support contract.

 

Its the same re: the public forums.. no answer is a bad sign. Perhaps the customer support folks need to complain they need more help and that if cost is the issue it should be considered a marketing expense.. There is no way for them to know how many journalists&bloggers might be reading forums prior to reviewing the product, or how many folks from big companies evaluating it may peek in here to get an impression of how customer support is and how buggy things are..

A company with a product like this should find it easy to get additional funding if needed.. and it hurts their eventual bottom line not to do so if it lets eg VMWare pull ahead of them enough to eventually become the defacto standard.. (VMWare may have support issues also, I don't know.. but that wouldn't be an excuse).

If any of you support folks get stock options you really should try to clue in the execs or managers (anonymously if need be).

 

Andrew and Eugene and Stan 0.

While I have not had my problem solved, I have had encouraging support from the Parallels team. I think that the postings on the Support Forum are more likely to get results than e-mailing. What did not work was paid phone support, but they did give me my money back when I pointed out that I was getting no phone help at all from that source.

 

Despite encouraging noises from the Parallels team, I have yet to get a full solution to my problem. Indeed, the three written and one phone proposals each made my situation worse. I cannot access any of the half-dozen VMs that have now sprouted on my iMac. I have been discussing this with friends and we all think that my old files and programs are lost beyond any remedy, but I would like this confirmed by someone from Parallels. If that is indeed the case, I need advice on how to rid myself of all vestiges of Parallels so that I can start over, reinstalling Parallels 3 from the disk, reinstalling Windows XP from the disk, transferring as much as I can from my old PC via the Transfer facility, and buying new programs to replace the ones that have been lost. Advice from Parallels would definitely be appreciated. (Perhaps I made a mistake telling them that I could guarantee being near the phone and computer yesterday afternoon and this morning, but have a busy schedule. Ideally they could give me a number and I could call them, but that does not seem to be happening.)

 

My experiences with support (see the 'support woes' thread) seem to mirror yours in some ways. I certainly never expected a magic fix, but I did expect someone knowledgeable and well supportive of the product I paid for in good faith. Instead I got worse advice than that received form other customers, links to updates for the wrong product and repeated attempts to get me to give them more money for upgrades which they admit don't solve the problems.

I'd like to see Parallels succeed and they seemed off to a good start, now I see nothing more than a frontman who makes big promises, developers who cannot deliver and support who can't read.

I'd love to be proved wrong but so far all I can see if more evidence to back up the opinion that Parallels cannot survive long if they keep up this farcical attitude towards customers. When I see staff saying things like 'stick to the facts' and 'no mistake in purchasing Parallels Desktop 3.0!' it makes you wonder what's going on.

Stan, you want facts, see my thread and look at my numerous e-mails to the company which have either gone unanswered or responded to completely unsatisfactorily. Look through these forums and at your own posts and examine the language used and poor communication. Look on these forums and throughout the rest of the community at the number of serious issues going unaddressed or being brushed under the carpet.

You were the new kid on the block and a company with drive and ambition so some leeway was expected. Now you've taken a lot of people's money and are simply not delivering in a professional manner. I've had far far far superior customer service and support from one-man shareware outfits than I've ever had from SWSoft. How's that for a fact.

 

Stan:
I sent you a PM today. If it did not get through, please let me know.
Bryan