VMWare Horrible Customer Support

[ron66]

Anyone else finding waiting days for an email response to issues is just a LITTLE frustrating? There is no telephone customer support and calling the head office in California is a waste of time.

I use my computer for my business and having windows fail because I updated Fusion from version 1.1.2 to 1.1.3 is beyond annoying and costing me time and money. This is not the first problem Ive had with Fusion. Has anyone heard of any legal actions against VMware?

Ron Bedard

Vancouver, BC

ph. 778-882-4440

[ron66]

Thanks for your help jeg

I brought my computer to the shop and will reinstall everything and start all over again... ive read some of the other issues people have had recently and it seems thats really the only solution to any vmware issues... another reason to stick to Mac and not use virtual machines...

[jegbook]

Because I'm a geek, I wanted to see some of this theory in proof of concept.

Indeed, you can create a new .vmdk file and add it to a VM and have access to it as a second hard drive once booted in the VM. Then, in the Settings of the VM, if you remove the virtual drive, the .vmdk file inside the .vmwarevm package is not deleted, the config file (.vmx file inside the .vmwarevm package) is simply updated to not use the hard drive file anymore.

If you add the same .vmdk file that you just removed that still resides in the .vmwarevm package back to the VM, it still copies the .vmdk file and creates a new .vmdk file, resulting in two identical .vmdk files with slightly different names (Virtual Disk.vmdk and Virtual Disk 2.vmdk).

Having read other posts, I learned that one can modify the .vmx file in the .vmwarevm package directly, bypassing the GUI "Settings" within Fusion. Using TextWrangler, I was able to change the .vmdk file being used as a second disk:

"ide1:1.present = "TRUE"

ide1:1.fileName = "VD3.vmdk""

So, in the above, changing the file name in quotes will tell the VM where to look for the additional drive file and add it to the VM as a drive, without having to have the Fusion Settings window copy the entire .vmdk file. You do need to relaunch Fusion for it to recognize changes to .vmx files made with a text editor. This could be handy because one might make a copy of the original .vmdk file from the original Windows install that isn't working. Modify the .vmx config file of the new Windows instance to add the copy of the original .vmdk file as a second drive in the new VM--bypassing the GUI to add the secondary virtual hard drive to the new VM. Then boot the new VM and copy the .dll file to the proper directory on the secondary hard drive (the non-booting Windows drive).

Then go back to the original Windows VM package, move the .vmdk file somewhere else, move the modified .vmdk into the original VM package, and try to boot. The advantage here is that the original .vmdk file only has to be copied once, instead of multiple times if one accomplished the same thing directly through the Fusion GUI. Given the likely size of the .vmdk file, this will likely save 30 minutes of copying .vmdk files. Also, you are left with your original .vmdk file untouched, though non-working, as the modified .vmdk file was a copy.

Hope this helps a bit.

[ron66]

dude... thats way over my ability!

I just bought fusion software to work with windows on my mac, not to "fine tune" or fix it. Im glad you as a proficient computer programmer or"geek" as you put it, could get it to work. Thats great. I am not in your category.

Me as an end user, who paid for functioning software, is still disappointed in the product and support offered by VMWare.

[Bob_Zimmerman]

Finally home from work, so I can reply.

I see others have had issues, but nobody else had reported anything like the errors you were seeing. Issues can only be solved and properly documented for future resolution when people open tickets, post on forums, and so forth. If a company doesn't hear about an issue, they can't possibly solve it. If a company only hears about an issue once or twice, it will take a very long time to resolve because the sample size for debugs is just too small.

If these people would actually post about their problems, maybe something would get done! But no, people assume everyone else is running into the same problem and that the company knows about it.

And you didn't answer my questions. From reading the rest of the thread, it looks like you've already decided to reinstall.

Once you have everything installed, make a backup. Not just a snapshot, but copy the .vmwarevm package to another hard drive if possible. That way, if something like this happens again, you won't be back to square one.

[ron66]

Bob

The only reason people do not spend anytime reporting errors is because of the frustration generated by piss poor customer service like what VM Ware is providing.....

what is easier? to spend a hundred dollars taking the computer to the shop and reinstalling, then updating everything which could take a couple of days. Or, spending a week with "customer service" sending emails or discussion forum messages back and forth, countless hours trouble shooting and being more frustrated and then in the end, still having to bring the computer to the shop... What would your choice be?

I spent almost 10 hours installing, reinstalling, trouble shooting, made 4 phone calls to VM Ware, sent over 15 emails on the discussion forum and in the end I still have to bring my computer in. How much money did I waste on "customer service" and down time for my business?

[Bob_Zimmerman]

Fine. You obviously don't want my help, so I'll quit offering it.

[jegbook]

If it's only $100 for someone else to do a fair amount of work, that does sound like a good option. I'm just amazed that a shop is going to charge so little. Are they just reinstalling Fusion and building a new Windows VM for you?

Good find on the shop on your part!

I can understand your frustration regarding this issue, but providing customer support is very expensive. VMWare charges for much of their support if you call (per incident or bulk incident pricing), but they also seem to shoot themselves in the foot regarding that since it is obvious that many VMWare employees monitor the forums closely, and thus, offer a great deal of free tech support.

Lastly, in VMWare's defense, remember that there is no way to know exactly what caused your problem. It may have been the upgrade, or it may have been unlucky coincidence. Bob makes a good point about periodically making a backup copy of the .vmwarevm package to safeguard oneself against possible issues (like a failed Windows update or crash or some such).

Good luck!

[WoodyZ]

VMware Fusion's support policy is documented at VMware's web site and as such if you did not like what support options were available you did not have to buy the product.

The BSOD you are getting when starting the Virtual Machine has nothing to do with having upgraded to a new version of Fusion. With the exception of updating VMware Tools in the Virtual Machine upgrading to new version doesn't modify the Virtual Machine. The file in question is not a part of VMware Tools and as such even if you updated VMware Tools in the process of upgrading Fusion neither of these processes would have caused the BSOD.

The file in question is a part of Internet Explorer 7 and as such your issue is a Windows OS issue not a Fusion upgrade issue!

The easiest way to resolve this issue is to boot the Virtual Machine with a Live OS CD that has support for VMware SCSI and Windows NTFS and replace the target file. As a test I intentionally crippled the target file on one of my Virtual Machines and then used a Live OS CD to replace the target file and the repair process took less than five minutes. I would have gladly remoted into your system and fix this for $100 however I didn't offer because frankly I didn't like the attitude you took in the two posts you started on this issue!

If you are dependent upon the use of your computer for your business then it stands to reason a smart businessman would have either in-house tech support services or an outside consultant that would be capable of providing what's necessary to ensure that when situations such as this occur it will have minimal impact and can be resolved quickly and efficiently minimizing the downtime and cost to resolve such issues.

As far as initiating any legal action towards VMware I'm sure if they're lawyers were to read your posts they would be laughing in their seats as you haven't any ground to stand on in this issue. So do yourself a favor either learn how to properly use and maintain your own computers and software or hire someone to do the job right for you!

[RDPetruska]

If you are dependent upon the use of your computer for your business then it stands to reason a smart businessman would have either in-house tech support services or an outside consultant that would be capable of providing what's necessary to ensure that when situations such as this occur it will have minimal impact and can be resolved quickly and efficiently minimizing the downtime and cost to resolve such issues.

Additionally, if the poster depends on this computer to run his business, then I'd think as a smart businessman, he'd have an actual PC running Windows instead of a virtual machine ONLY. If I absolutely require something to keep my business running, I'm going to make darn sure I have a backup ready to go! And, knowing the technical hurdles and occasional problems with virtualization technology, I wouldn't rely solely on that. Heck, he apparently has enough money to buy a Mac computer... so he could have spent the same amount and gotten 2 PC computers instead - one for production and one for a spare.