No Link to Forum on Homepage

syntrak · Feb 27, 2007

Did anyone else notice that there is no link to this forum on the main page of parallels ?? Or am I missing something....

toddgarvin · Feb 27, 2007

No, you didn't miss anything. Apparently this is some sort of dark secret that only a geek can find. Make sure you bookmark the link.

veggiedude · Feb 27, 2007

There used to be a link, but they took it off 6 months ago.

syntrak · Feb 27, 2007

toddgarvin said:
No, you didn't miss anything. Apparently this is some sort of dark secret that only a geek can find. Make sure you bookmark the link.

How weird - I guess they only want die hard enthusiasts as members !! I feel so honored !!......NOT !!!!!!!!! ( that was a Borat NOT joke by the way...) !!!

David5000 · Mar 3, 2007

toddgarvin said:
No, you didn't miss anything. Apparently this is some sort of dark secret that only a geek can find. Make sure you bookmark the link.

Thank you for the reality check.

Great product, abysmal support basics. Anyone have an explanation? Surely by this time it's not a lack of cash.

David

murphy · Mar 4, 2007

David5000 said:
Great product, abysmal support basics. Anyone have an explanation? Surely by this time it's not a lack of cash.
David

When you purchase the product they send you the link to the forum in an email. I assume that they want the forum to be used by paying customers.

sidssp · Mar 4, 2007

David5000 said:
Thank you for the reality check.

Great product, abysmal support basics. Anyone have an explanation? Surely by this time it's not a lack of cash.

David

Providing good support is very hard. I bet they don't have a separate tech support team. Supports are done by developers pulling double duties. So when they are not busy writing code or debugging, or when they feel up to it, they log in and answer a few questions on this forum, resulting in short and sporadic replies and the total lack of follow up.

This is very typical for a start-up. Although Parallels is not a start-up any more, but they are still operating like one.

janitor · Mar 4, 2007

Only found the forum by asking a question about parallels on another mac forum, someone there sent me a link.

RichB · Mar 31, 2007

murphy said:
When you purchase the product they send you the link to the forum in an email. I assume that they want the forum to be used by paying customers.

Aha! My original purchase email was never received by me due to my company's email domain that died. We had to re-request the activation key from the reseller and that's why I had never heard of this forum until googling.

12/13/2006 Invoice# 191975
Distributor: Tech Data Product Management Inc. Parallels Reseller: CDW Logistics Inc.

SiliconAddict · Mar 31, 2007

All I can say is thank god for Google. I've been trying to find out what is new in Build 3188 and up til now couldn't find anything on Parallels site. (Question: What kinda of company doesn't have a change history under either their support page or listed prior to the download?) I ran across the forums while searching Google.

PS- Still haven't found anything. Its not in the download or anywhere obvious on the site. Generally speaking I don't download updates until I know what they are doing to my app. Come on Parallels. You guys can do better then this. I do IT support and RTFD isn't a suggestion its gospel in my line of work.

darkone · Apr 1, 2007

http://forum.parallels.com/post50772-2.html

all i did was a quick search.. 3rd subject had that link.

dkp · Apr 1, 2007

darkone said:
http://forum.parallels.com/post50772-2.html

all i did was a quick search.. 3rd subject had that link.

One of the support staff, Tom Riddle, I think, had told Stevamundo the changes list would be added to the download page. That didn't happen.

hanseric · Apr 1, 2007

This proves the point

sidssp said:
Providing good support is very hard. I bet they don't have a separate tech support team. Supports are done by developers pulling double duties. So when they are not busy writing code or debugging, or when they feel up to it, they log in and answer a few questions on this forum, resulting in short and sporadic replies and the total lack of follow up.

This is very typical for a start-up. Although Parallels is not a start-up any more, but they are still operating like one.

All the more reason to make the forum front and center on the Support link on their parallels.com website, IMHO. At least then you'd have some of the more advanced users helping newbies and various other supportive cross-pollinations.

David5000 · Apr 1, 2007

murphy said:
When you purchase the product they send you the link to the forum in an email. I assume that they want the forum to be used by paying customers.

I did purchase the product and looked back at that e-mail. You are right--the forum link is there but it is not very prominent and I overlooked it. Whoever put it there was obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit.

The fact that there is no link on the home page of the Web site--especially if it is as you say, to keep out those who haven't yet purchased the product--is a marketing blunder.

The problem (for us, the users) is that Parallels apparently sells itself very well with little or no effort by the company and there are few returns, so there has been little incentive to reach out to users. User contact seems to have been left entirely to development engineers, who in this case do not have the aptitude, training, skills or motivation to succeed in this function.

Apparently the company is putting all its efforts into product development and little into overall customer satisfaction. I like the product in general and hope the company wises up before a competitor with a good product and better customer support knocks them off.

David

David5000 · Apr 1, 2007

sidssp said:
Providing good support is very hard. I bet they don't have a separate tech support team. Supports are done by developers pulling double duties. So when they are not busy writing code or debugging, or when they feel up to it, they log in and answer a few questions on this forum, resulting in short and sporadic replies and the total lack of follow up.

This is very typical for a start-up. Although Parallels is not a start-up any more, but they are still operating like one.

I think you have described the situation exactly. As you say, though, they are not a startup any more, so the question is, why are they still operating like one? Very odd.

David

Eru Ithildur · Apr 2, 2007

David5000 said:
I think you have described the situation exactly. As you say, though, they are not a startup any more, so the question is, why are they still operating like one? Very odd.

David

Yes, well, whoever created Parallels might not have been the greatest business person... If anyone has a million or so laying around, it might make a good Venture... It would be come much more valuable outside of the start-up phase.

IscariotJ · Apr 4, 2007

sidssp said:
Providing good support is very hard. I bet they don't have a separate tech support team. Supports are done by developers pulling double duties. So when they are not busy writing code or debugging, or when they feel up to it, they log in and answer a few questions on this forum, resulting in short and sporadic replies and the total lack of follow up.

This is very typical for a start-up. Although Parallels is not a start-up any more, but they are still operating like one.

Since they are owned by SWSoft ( and have been for about 3 years, AFAIK ), it's safe to say that cash isn't/hasn't been an issue for a long while. If you check the through the forum, you'll see the same line over and over again, saying that they know there is a problem, and people are being recruited on a weekly basis, yet the problem still exists.

Not linking to the forum seems to be a way keeping the various support issues quiet. Not answering emails seems to be a way of not giving refunds, too.