I am so very frustrated and trying to reach CUSTOMER NO SERVICE at Corel! The chat on the website does not work -- I have tried it numerous times and always get the answer there is no one available online -- so how does this constitute being online 24 hours M-Th as they advertise? The phone number listed directs you back to the website. Maddening!!
Three of my machines have started showing a popup that my software is illegal, and directs me to a link to contact customer support, which, you guessed it! directs me back to the website!! I should not have to PAY for support to ask a question or clarify this issue. I own a full copy of the software for each of my machines. All I want to do is get this resolved!!
And then, since our company is growing and we are adding yet another graphics work station for a new hire next week (yes, I already bought another full copy of the software for that machine!!), I thought about exploring a site license or even the subscription service but, shock! I can't contact anyone to talk about my options!!
VERY FRUSTRATED!!!
Hello Lisa,
can you please contact me directly per email / direct message on this site, and I will see how I can help. I will reply from my Corel.com email address so that you know it's from Corel, and will need your serial number and proof of purchase to check if your software has been flagged by mistake. From past experience, purchasing from marketplace / auction sites is usually not legitimate software. The other problem could be that the serial number you are using has been used more than what is allowed through the End User License Agreement.
Yes, in the past, we had some whole with the registration process and didn't check for validity. With CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6, you can only get a free Standard Membership (this is replacing the traditional registration process) if you have a valid serial number that hasn't been used before, e.g. we do check. If that check fails, you will get the message that we were unable to verify your status. But we didn't have this in place with X5, and at the same time, we have started a communication process to the users who might be victim of piracy in order to provide with a very attractive price to become legal. Again, I will need your serial number and proof of purchase in order to validate that there is a mistake with the display of the message.
Regarding the questions you might have about subscription, I would be happy to help. I previously posted more information in my blog here and here.
Hi Gerard! Good to see that Corel actually does pay attention! It is enfuriating that there is no way to call and speak to someone!
I have serial numbers for all my copies of Corel. I would be happy to provide them, but not on an open forum. In fact, one of the machines that had been giving me a popup has now stopped doing so. I really think what happened was that I had the software on a previous machine, but we recently bought new computers, wiped off the old ones, and reinstalled all our software.
I am running Corel X5 on all my machines. Have not upgraded to X6, too much of an expense to upgrade multiple machines when X5 is a very good program. I wondered about a group user license, which is the only way I would consider upgrading since right now I have 3 primary machines and 2 travel laptops, and will soon be adding another primary machine.
Hi all
I also agree how frustrating it is to get to speak with a human at Corel ! I too am getting these pop ups !
I rang the UK phone number only to be directed back to the website - only on the 3rd attempt and by being on hold for 40 minutes did I finally get to speak with a human !
Unfortunately, I was left even more frustrated to find she didnt speak very clear english so with her foreign tone she found it hard to answer my questions. She also didnt want to know any details, she just wanted me to upgrade by giving her our credit card details whilst I was on the phone !
I am very thankful to The Sign Guy, George though for sending me a very quick reply on here - I must say I do find this forum excellent and the forum people have a lot of patience and knowledge and are very willing to help out.
Sammi said:I am very thankful to The Sign Guy, George though for sending me a very quick reply on here - I must say I do find this forum excellent and the forum people have a lot of patience and knowledge and are very willing to help out.
I agree, time to put George on the payroll, On second thought, naw, better just buy him a few beers...
~John
RunFlaCruiser said: I am very thankful to The Sign Guy, George though for sending me a very quick reply on here - I must say I do find this forum excellent and the forum people have a lot of patience and knowledge and are very willing to help out. I agree, time to put George on the payroll, On second thought, naw, better just buy him a few beers... ~John [/quote] Weeeeeeellllllll John I ANT cheap but I can be had. ( A case a day would probably work ) Ya know back in the 90's Corel gave you a long distance phone # to call if you needed help so you had to pay the phone charge, but there was someone there to answer if you called during there business hours, and you got a book to read that was good to, but I remember not want to have to pay the phone charge because we were a new business and not making the money to pay it. But this forum is GRATE You can come and get answers for most any problem trying to run Corel. I think most of the problems are with the way people setup and maintain there computers. So How Much do they charge for help? And sometimes it's hard to fix something that you can't touch. My Thoughts George
[/quote]
Weeeeeeellllllll John I ANT cheap but I can be had. ( A case a day would probably work ) Ya know back in the 90's Corel gave you a long distance phone # to call if you needed help so you had to pay the phone charge, but there was someone there to answer if you called during there business hours, and you got a book to read that was good to, but I remember not want to have to pay the phone charge because we were a new business and not making the money to pay it. But this forum is GRATE You can come and get answers for most any problem trying to run Corel. I think most of the problems are with the way people setup and maintain there computers. So How Much do they charge for help? And sometimes it's hard to fix something that you can't touch.
My Thoughts George
This question is for Gerard regarding his update post. After much frustration last week, I had to bite the bullet and purchase a legit version of coreldraw x5 directly from corel. In your message you state how the new x6 serial numbers will not be reused by unscrupulous people. However, what about the x5 version I just purchased and registered? I don't want to run into the problem as Larry did where a legit version is being flagged.
TheSign Guy said: I agree, time to put George on the payroll, On second thought, naw, better just buy him a few beers... ~John
Weeeeeeellllllll John I ANT cheap but I can be had. ( A case a day would probably work )
Dang George. The old Corel Corp would probably do it... lol
Everything getting too dang futurized huh. Subscriptions, policies, limited installations, and high cost tech support.
Does that long distance number still work?
hueandme said: This question is for Gerard regarding his update post. After much frustration last week, I had to bite the bullet and purchase a legit version of coreldraw x5 directly from corel. In your message you state how the new x6 serial numbers will not be reused by unscrupulous people. However, what about the x5 version I just purchased and registered? I don't want to run into the problem as Larry did where a legit version is being flagged.
I've followed up with my colleagues regarding the problem that Larry mentioned, and the problem that flagged a limited numbers of legitimate PSP serial numbers as pirated has been fixed (I am not responsible for PSP and therefore don't have more details about what happened there). I am very sorry that some people, including you Larry, received the message by mistake and we are taking the appropriate steps to do everything we can so that this will not happen again.
Hueandme, what I can tell you is that registration has nothing to do with the anti-piracy campaign that is currently running for CorelDRAW. As mentioned in a previous post, we didn't have the technology in place with X5 to validate a serial number when it got registered. I would recommend you register your product to have that product linked to your account (a great way to get your serial number in case you loose it later).
Gérard
Gerard,
I want to thank you sincerely for coming forward to acknowledge this problem as a Corel issue, and to explicitly say you were sorry that this problem caused deactivation messages to be sent in error by Corel. It has been bad enough having an unjustified problem in the first place, but the frustration and effort to attempt to fix it has been hugely compounded by an utter lack of Corel support or any form of ownership of this issue. I now feel very relieved that others will not have to deal with this problem in the future.
I really would like to use this example as an urgent request to Corel management, on behalf of all Corel users, to change the way Corel prevents any access to support people except for paid service. It does not take an experienced software engineer or software development manager to see on this and other Internet forums the vast number of issues which Corel software has created for users. I have literally stopped using Corel software and have stopped updating the one remaining product of the half dozen I originally purchased due to unresolved issues which arose during updates, patches, and supposed "fixes". The user-to-user forums should NOT be the only venue for attempting to get a remedy for these problems.
If Corel software QA were much better, the concern would be far less urgent. As a software developer myself, I have seen the immense differences between chaotic development such as seen from Corel and maturity in development achieved through CMU SEI training or other modern practices.
Having been solicited several times to contribute to the Corel user surveys, I have repeatedly participated and offered the same message over and over again, namely: Adding a few new features and releasing a new version may serve your profitability goals in the short term, but it is a wrong minded approach to keep and grow a customer base, particularly if bugs and deactivation messages and user avoidance, non support and disrespect are at the foundation of your company's mentality.
Enough of my rant......
Thank you again for fixing this problem, sparing others a repeat of my problem, and for taking ownership. I am very grateful for all of this and thank you once again,
Larry