Why is Parallels still allowing people to buy Buggy 4.0 Product

B

billc80015

Member
It is clear that the launch of Parallels 4.0 is a dismal failure that has caused a lot of havoc for many users in recent days. And unless Parallels doesn't pay attention to their own user forums it is clear that they are fully aware of these catastrophic problems. Question is some of us just paid for this product today ... wouldn't have it been wiser to stop us from falling into this mess by asking us to wait buying this very very buggy release of a product. This release is not even good enough for Beta Status (In most cases many users cannot get past step 1 of a 4 step process). So just to save a few more souls can you just return this thing back to beta and make all aware that moving to such a version is potentially lethal ... But to continue to sell this and especially with your lousy support is disastrous. As far as i can tell we only have one support guy in this whole forum from Parallels and quite frankly none of the questions from anyone are being answered with any measure of success. So to ask us to pay $80 to destroy our working images .. and then further ask ask for us for $30 per call to solve the bugs that you created seems unfair by any stretch of the imagination ...
 
I was just about ready to upgrade to version 4 of Parallels. Thank goodness I read
this forum first.

Not going to buy a defective product -- especially if the authors are unwilling to address problems.
 
NJRonbo said:
especially if the authors are unwilling to address problems.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but in their defense, I had problems and got help ASAP. So broadly stating they are "unwilling to adress problems" when the product just has been released is a bit far off if you ask me.
 
I did the upgrade and it is working quite well.

I did not have any issues with updating my windows XP VM machine.

So it is working for people out there, and for some it is not.

I for one do not use a bootcamp, maybe that's why I do not have issues upgrading, and mind you I have been upgrading thru all of the PD4 betas.
 
Pixeljugger said:
Sorry, but in their defense, I had problems and got help ASAP. So broadly stating they are "unwilling to adress problems" when the product just has been released is a bit far off if you ask me.
Click to expand...

In defense of the rest of the users here, Parallels really has no defense for this software. I agree with the original poster: P4.0 should not have been released to the hoards in its present form. With the number of people having problems (myself included), it's very clear they didn't do enough QC/testing/etc with it.

Fortunately, I haven't paid for it yet, so I'm lucky. And if they keep this up, I won't give them any more of my money in the future, either. VMWare's Fusion is looking very promising given this 4.0 disaster.

jas
 
Frederick and Pixelhugger ... glad to see its working for you. But before you acuse us for our impatience .. just put yourself in our shoes and then tell us to be as patient as you with your working version. Whatever your opinion .. these are facts that not one person can disagree with 1) When you post anything to tech support now it already tells you that its a 3 day turn around time (if you got lucky and were answered early you in luck, but don't pretend that's the standard right now) 2) If you need to call Parallels to have them try to help you over the phone to install the buggy product, then you have to pay up $30 per call (Of course its a great business model for them but not for us, make buggy software and get more people to pay for calls to support, I don't see how anyone can defend this ... its like walking into Walmart buying some overly marketed product and then as soon as you get out the door and try to use it .. it doesn't work ... and Walmart says too bad sir/mam it works for some people so if you want us to repair this product then pay us close to 50% of what you paid for it and we just might make it work for you) 3) If the new Parellels standard for excellence in software quality is "if works for some people and not for a whole lot others" then its good enough then quite a number of us will definitely stop using the product and worsting our money and time. and 4) if you are going to send us to some forums then at least afford a couple of knowledgeable technical people from the company to attempt to answer the questions. Yes us techies always try to help each other and that's great. But this is not open source that we can try to hack the code and try to help each other ... this is proprietary black box code that we can do nothing about other than try to install and re-install a couple of times while saying a bunch of prayers.

So Just because it works for you out there dont' tell us the ones stuck with the problems to sing any praises just because you got lucky and it worked. And while some people are indeed using bootcamp ... a lot of us are not. And in any case one of the big claims of Parallels is its ability to work with bootcamp so saying that may be the cause of the issue doesn't say much when the overly hyped marketing website claims it should work.
 
Frederick and Pixelhugger ... glad to see its working for you. But before you acuse us for our impatience .. just put yourself in our shoes and then tell us to be as patient as you with your working version.
Click to expand...

Easy there, no need to get excited.

I am in your shoes, I do not have a working VM, at least not working after PT have been installed. However, I also see that the team is helping if you provide them with the info they need to actually help.
 
billc80015 said:
Frederick and Pixelhugger ... glad to see its working for you. But before you acuse us for our impatience .. just put yourself in our shoes and then tell us to be as patient as you with your working version. Whatever your opinion ..
Click to expand...

Bill,

I have been doing suport for 15 years, and one of the thnigs I've noticed, and not just ordinary people, but also with a lot of techies, is 1) they do not read the manual or the README files. They do not usually follow the smallest recommendations from the manufacturer. And they always underestimate the capacity of windows to fail
at a critical moment.

I've helped people on this forum since Parallel 2 and it as always be the same kind of problems which keep repeating themselves.

Before upgrading your Parallel and your VM do these easy steps.

1. - Load the VM in the old version and uninstall the tools.
2. - Make sure you disabled all anti-virus, worm protection and God knows what else in your windows which is trrying to protect it. Disable their windows service if necessary They should not be active when you reboot and parallel installs the tools automatically.
3. - Make sure you shutdown the VM, no pause (you would be surprised how many times people just put windows to sleep).
4. - Uinstall the old Parallel version.
5.- Install the new Parallel version.
6. - Reboot the laptop.
7. - Install the new version.
8. - Upgrade your VM's.

These little steps have insured me no issues going thru every beta and release versions since Parallel 2.2. And by the way, you should do the same things if you are trying to upgrade linux machines.

And I have published them quite a number of times over the years here.
 
Frederic,

Thanks for your response and your insight. Yes, definitely your best practices for upgrading are points well taken so I hope Parallels will also put those in the installation manual. Yes, to some extent we users sometimes share a small portion of the blame. But from your 15 years experience with technical support wouldn't you agree though with the 4 facts i listed, i.e shouldn't a company providing OS critical virtualization tools be more responsive and offer more technical resources that actually address problems? Shouldn't they at least give 30 day installation assistance without the $30 per call fees (especially when they are well known and proven bugs on their end). I mean the Parallels teams blast you with mails on registration, on new products, on when some license is expiring ... they have a very good marketing machine ... But why is that not the same when it comes to assisting customers. Don't take my word for it .. just go through this whole forum and only few people can "claim" that tech support is working with them to address issues .. Yes, we all filled in the tech support form .. its very thorough so any suggestion that we are not providing the correct information inorder for them to respond is a little out of touch .... and trust me no one here has a mission to pull down this Parallels team .. the fact that we were willing to part with our cash is good enough evidence that we trusted them (blindly in this case).
 
Bill - theres a very helpful page that I used - I cant remember where but it was provided during the migration process.

I think most of the issues are finger trouble....."click click click, hurry up !! I want the latest ...NOW !!!" A result of the always on, immediate delivery, Buy It Now, Drive Thru. 24/7 society...

God Bless America !!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top