A letter to VMware

In case there is any interest in improving your client interaction, my customer interaction with your company today:

• I was advised by an Apple technician to update my 6 day old copy of VMware Fusion 2.0.4 - I'd installed the shipped copy 2.0 an hour earlier - to 2.0.5 because it would fix the issue I was having.
• After agreeing to a licence, I downloaded 2.0.5 , which when I installed it, asked me to agree to yet another license. I've now agreed to the one for 2.0, the one to download 2.0.4, the one to install 2.0.4, the one to download 2.0.5, the one to install 2.0.5 - despite having to actually login to my profile before I can even begin the download - have your lawyers not got anything better to do?
• The problem was not resolved, and since I had a spare 15 minutes, and despite several hours of research to resolve the issue over the weekend, I thought I'd phone support since I have 30 days support when I bought VMware Fusion. The website indicated that support was available in Australia from 7am to 7pm EST, so I launched the white pages, did a national search for VMware, found your Perth Office number and dialled it.
• The telephone number in the electronic white pages shows a phone number for VMware in my local town of Perth, Western Australia. Only it is no longer connected.
• The electronic white pages do not show the 1800 number for telephone support.
• When I contacted the Sydney number, a long distance call, I asked to speak with technical support. I was provided with the 1800 number.
• I dialled the 1800 number, chose technical support, workstation, fusion, and then got a message telling me that it was closed - even though your web-site tells me that it's open from 7am to 7pm EST (or Sydney time)
• When I contacted the Sydney number again, I was put through to technical support where I spent 7 minutes on the phone with a lady who didn't speak much English and turned out to be in licensing support. All she could tell me was that I didn't own any copies of VMware - my bank disagrees.
• When I contacted the Sydney number again, I was put through to licensing again, who put me through to technical support. The gentleman who answered was in Canada, but could not provide telephone support. He actually called me back on my phone so we could have a conversation on your dime, rather than mine. It transpired that your registration process had not registered my product. I was advised to speak with licensing support.
• I tried to license my copy of VMware Fusion on the web - no success, not a valid serial number, despite the fact that the serial number was written on the CD sleeve and that it had happily been used by the application as a license key.
• I dialled the 1800 number and chose licensing support. I spent 13 minutes discussing the merits of your web-form when finally the gentleman was able to license my copy of VMware Fusion. I wanted to ask about why my VMware workstation license wasn't visible, but the call had already ended.
• I dialled the 1800 number in an attempt to speak with customer service, no such option.
• I tried to license my copy of VMware Workstation on the web - no success, not a valid serial number, despite the fact that it was copied from an email you sent me.
• I dialled the 1800 number and chose licensing support. I spent 15 minutes attempting to license my copy of VMware workstation. The gentleman advised me to contact the sales team "to swap the key".
• I dialled the Sydney number, but they had gone home, despite that the web site says that it was open for another hour and a half.
• I dialled the 1800 number and chose the sales team, where I got the global voice mail for VMware USA.

You can just imagine how much fun I was having. I then tried to lodge a support call on the web.

• The web-form tells me that the maximum length for the description is 2000 characters, but when I pasted 1908 of them, it told me that there were too many.
• The web-form has the ability to upload files, and even has sections describing what files are smart to upload, only OSX doesn't exist, nor does VMware Fusion.

So, all in all, I've now been at this since 14:16. It's now 16:35. Whom do I bill for the $355 dollars in time this has cost me, let alone the cost in phone calls, which I'm not looking forward to.