News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 11, 2007

windows

Parallels, maintenance, and customer service

Posted Jun. 11, ’07, 7:46 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Windows

Parallels 3.0 We’re all big fans of Parallels fine virtualization product for the Mac. It makes working with Windows almost bearable. It lets me use my streaming movies in Netflix. It’s inexpensive. All in all, it’s pretty wonderful.

As such, I was really excited about the recent 3.0 release. One of the reasons I have a Windows installation is to play Windows games. The new 3D support looked really excellent. Best of all, I bought last year when it came with “maintenance” aka free upgrades for a year. I was getting a free upgrade.

Well, my friends, I’m still waiting. From what I’ve read, I should get the activation key within a week. I could be patient, but my question is, why should I have to be? Version 3.0 didn’t just appear in their hands suddenly. They’ve been developing it for a while now. Parallels even pre-announced the upgrade a week ahead of time.

Maybe it’s my impatient, selfish streak, but I think they should have been sending out these keys within moments of release, even perhaps before. The maintenance customers are existing customers and the best way to keep them as continued customers is to treat them right. The fact is that we have no recourse even if we are dissatisfied with waiting. They have our money. They have the activation keys.

For now, I’m using a trial key which should last until I get the real one. Hopefully I get it in time.

Adendum: As I went to post this entry, I found out the new version of Parallels hoses the Cisco VPN client. Consider yourself warned.


3 Comments

Irina said:

Derik, what is so bad about having the Cisco VPN Client in Parallels?

June 11, 2007 8:08 AM
Mark 2000 said:

You aren't waiting for much. The 3D support is nonexistent. Parallel's forums are exploding wit people angry about false advertising and wanting their money back because they were promised "All the hottest games".

June 11, 2007 8:26 AM
JMD said:

I upgraded to 3.0 last week and hadn't tried the Cisco VPN since then, so this kind of freaked me out--but I just tried it, and it works fine with my setup. So it's not that the Cisco VPN doesn't work in 3.0 at all. It's probably something specific to your configuration that broke with the upgrade.

June 11, 2007 5:59 PM

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