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I’m irritated, frustrated and annoyed

Warning: Nero Support Is a Disaster

We recently purchase Nero Platinum Suite from the Nero web site. We received an email confirming purchase and providing a link to the installer and a password. The installer failed. That failure and everything else we did after that is not part of this issue,

We attempted to contact Nero Support but it is a disaster.

First, the Nero website is designed to sell, obviously. The idea of support must have been an after-thought, based on the position and size of the links to the support site, nerosupport.freshdesk.com/en/support/home

When you visit that site there is a chat option offered. Optimistically, we took that and got a message saying "Hello there! Need help? Reach out to us right here, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!". That was more than 7 hours ago. If the chat isn't actually open for business, they should do what all other support chat options do which is to make the first message say something like "Chat isn't available right now". But they didn't. Incompetence?

The site also provides an option to create a new support ticket, which we did on a previous visit. We got an acknowledgement that the details had been received but that acknowledgement didn't include any reference number, just a promise to get back to us "shortly".

Shortly turned out to be "in 20 hours or so" and when "Nero Feedback" finally sent their email, it was clear that they had either not read or not understood what we had written to them. We replied to them straight away and, more than 5 hours later, we are still waiting for a response.

On the same page, there is an option to "Check Ticket Status". Clicking that prompts for an email address and password so we used the address we had supplied when purchasing the product and the password given to us in the purchase confirmation. The response was "The email and password you entered does not match" which implies that we had the wrong password so we attempted a password reset. That resulted in "You are not authorised to access this portal. Kindly contact your helpdesk administrator." so it is apparent we're not going to be able to check our ticket status. More incompetence?

So, not only won't the software install when using the supplied installer but their support offering is pathetic.

I'm wondering if all the marketing I'm seeing from Nero in my inbox is related to their other failures which might be resulting in a loss of market share. What a pity.
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  • Normally, they try to respond within 2 days so it's seems you're getting more attention than usual, given their response time. They used to have a "for pay" phone option but they discontinued that a long time ago so, I'd be surprised if the chat works.

    Did you buy a subscription? Just asking because there's no serial number associated with that. There should be an activation code (password), which you received based on your post. . (Don't post the number or code here.)

    What happened when you tried to install it?
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  • I appreciate your response but a two-day turnaround on an installation issue is not a level of service that I find acceptable.

    I am curious about why you said "I'd be surprised if the chat works.". I left that chat window open for 24 hours and there has still been no response. If the chat function doesn't work and/or isn't supported, what is it doing on a support site for commercial software?

    We did not buy a subscription. We purchased the perpetual licence.

    The confirmation email included a link to an installer. The installer, when run, stops at 22% downloading the product and there is no further network activity. We downloaded the full package from the web site and ran it. On the first execution, it failed installing Nero Core. It ran to completion on the second execution.

    I imagine their new licensing procedure is an attempt to address software piracy. They don't supply licence keys but we are supposed to log in to ther Nero Start app with the email address used for the purchase and the password the emailed to us. We did that but it shows the product as a 7 day trial version.

    If their support is rubbish
    and their installer is rubbish
    and their licensing procedure is rubbish

    maybe I'll just ask for a refund and find a better product.
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  • Yesterday, I asked Nero about the chat line. I was made aware this morning that this problem has been forwarded to the responsible person. I don't know if they'll respond here but I'll keep in touch with them about it.

    Two day turnaround is an improvement. It used to be as long as 7 days. That doesn't mean you'll have to wait that long in every case. Just depends on the work load. Note they don't work weekends.

    I'll take you word for it that you purchased a permanent license since it's not obvious at their site how to do that. Since you bought a permanent license, you should have received a 39 character serial number and you should be able to insert it either during the installation or to the Nero ControlCenter, Serial Numbers. What are the first four characters of your serial number? Can you insert it into the ControlCenter?

    Note that the installation of most Nero suites has the appearance that nothing is happening at certain points of the process. Those points vary with the version. One usually has to sit there waiting 3 or 4 minutes (I never timed it) at those points before it continues.
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    • Perhaps you're buying as a business/volume user. Perhaps you purchased your copy before the implementation of their "account system to manage your products and serial numbers." They started using it in 2019, though.

      There is nothing on the Nero website that suggests they are using different systems for subscriptions and perpetual licenses but maybe you have another source of information. Since the invoice provided by Nero cites the same value as the perpetual licence on the web site and the perpetual and subscription prices are quite dissimilar, I can be confident that we purchased the correct version. Perhaps this is just another flaw in the Nero process.
    • Nero provided my serial number for v2020. My v2019 serial numbers are also 39 characters. If I remember correctly, if one buys a boxed version with a permanent license then one gets the 32 character serial number. Is all you have is a short activation code? I had asked you what the first 4 characters were for whatever you have as a number/code.
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  • I have had nothing but quick, informative support. I immediately went to the forum, and within hours I had two techs working on my issue
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  • A quick update

    Nero "Feedback" sent us two emails. The first said:

    I checked your order and find you have Nero Platinum Unlimited Version.

    It then went on to provide us with a link to the same installer we had already used.

    I replied to that email but because I sent from a different email address, they got confused (even though I had included the email trail) and asked me to provide order details again. I did that over 8 days ago. Since then, nothing.

    The person at Nero signed their name as Lindsay Chen

    The software has expired and won't run and, in the absence of anything that looks remotely like adequate support, we have requested a refund.

    Buyer beware.
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  • I'm surprised they didn't lead you to the offline installer.

    If you wish, I can find out what happened to your second e-mail. Did you look in your e-mail spam? Sometimes, e-mails from Nero are accidently placed there.

    I asked again about the chat a few days ago but haven't gotten a response.
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  • They did provide a link to the offline installer ... but we had already downloaded the same file from the web site.

    I imagine that the lack of response you got to your repeated inquiry about the chat is indicative of their overall level of service ... appalling.
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