I click the “Contact Us” link on the bottom of the VMware-branded page…and am given a good indication how much they want to be contacted.Breath held, I enter the last five digits of my credit card and my email address…and amazingly, am in fact, really and truly, actually given my VMware Fusion license key, on a fully VMware-branded page! Most amazingly of all, I enter the license key into Fusion, and amazingly, it works! This seems so unlikely an outcome at this point that I have a beer in celebration.I google around to learn about, read some stuff in a French forum, take a look at their SSL cert chain, and a few other things, and conclude that, while web design may not be their strong suit, they might actually be legitimate.On top of everything else, this probably means that VMware kept my card on file somewhere. Needless to say, entering my order number fails, meaning my credit card is the only option. There are two ways to get my order: my order number, or the last five digits of my credit card, which, if you know anything about how credit cards work, are probably the five most valuable digits on the card (you can frequently guess most of the rest based on just the picture on the card).I know better than to do this, but I go to, and am greeted by something that looks like it was cobbled together by the best that ColdFusion and MS Paint have to offer.But wait! It’s telling me that to get my license code, I need to go to… ? The hey?.Why the badingo it took half an hour, I have no idea, but at least it’s there! Just before I do in fact challenge the purchase, I get an email from VMware telling me that my license key is ready.About half an hour passes, most of which is filled with me getting absolutely livid as I try to figure out how the holy hell to get a license key and debating preemptively challenging the purchase out of spite.But then Fusion launches…and wants a license key. After about 23958 clicks, I find that this is a common problem that’s usually resolved in “several hours.” I grit my teeth and hope that this does not mean what I think it means. I check the “Manage Licenses” part of the site, since I know that’s where I find licenses for the copies of VMware Workstation we have at work.License key? The email I got has a customer number, which, now that I look at it, doesn’t match my actual VMware customer number. I’m taken to a page (with broken images) asking me for my license key, so I start to…wait. While I’m downloading, I click the link to register Fusion.I get an email confirming my order with a download link, so I start downloading.I then go through what I can only describe as the single worst purchasing experience I have had, ever. So I head on over to to make magic happen. ![]() I’ll stick with a solution I trust over one that’s fast. I know Parallels Desktop might be slightly faster, but my friends assured me VMware’s plenty fast, it has Unity, it has 3D support, and I trust it due to using Workstation so heavily at Fog Creek. So when I decided to ditch Bootcamp and go the virtualization route for running Windows 7, VMware Fusion just made sense to me. They’re not perfect-the VMware Workstation updater and the Adobe updaters can go neck-in-neck for absolute single most horrible upgrade experience, for example-but in general, the products are stellar. They make awesome products, they have good support. So about a week ago I decide to buy VMware Fusion. ![]() ![]() We’ll have to see what happens over the next few months, but so far, VMware has convinced me that they get they have a problem and are going to try to fix it. Update: VMware followed up with me this morning, and has done a great job getting me help and outlining how they’re planning to address a lot of the complaints I’ve had.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |