Broadcom support says I can't get Workstation Pro license keys without a contract number

[hijax]

I just got off a call with Broadcom support and was told that because I purchased VMWare workstation pro directly from the VMWare e-store, I can't get access to my license keys now because I don't have a contract number for them to reference and they will not show up as entitlements in the dashboard!

That makes no sense. I purchased Workstation Pro directly from the VMWare e-store so why would I have a contract number? I'm not a company, just an individual that wanted virtualization software.

I need some help in solving this.

[Technogeezer]

A couple of thoughts:

Did they say that this is a temporary situation and that they were going to fix this? That would be the acceptable answer - because there are many Workstation (and Fusion) Pro users in the same situation. Or did they say "sorry, that's the way it is" - which is an absolutely unacceptable response.

Did you by chance post this in the Broadcom Customer Care forum?

Also note that as of Workstation 17.5.2, Workstation Pro is available for free for personal use. Just download it and install it. Doesn't help with accessing your already-paid-for Workstation Pro license, but would allow you to get up and running quickly.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[hijax]

Thank you for the thoughtful answer. I just saw the post about Workstation and Fusion being made available for personal use. That's definitely helpful.

Regarding support, they said "that's the way it is" and that I would need to contact a vendor if I wanted to purchase a contract for a future version.

Since this is for personal use, I guess this won't be an issue but I don't feel support offered a great answer to folks who have purchased the product.

[Yupeng Liu]

How to download VMWare workstation pro? I can't find the download address.

[Arno_00]

I had the same discussion with support yesterday, and they told me there is no ETA for those of us with no contract number, but that eventually our licenses should show up on the dashboard. Whatever eventually means...

In the meantime they had no solution to download the Workstation installer because this requires a license to be in there system which is not the case at this time... Basically a human can see you have a valid Workstation Pro license from VMWare but the dashboard can't see it, so you can't download the installer... To me this is a breach of contract since I have a valid license and no access to my product. Unless this is fixed quickly, it is only a matter of time until someone serves them a lawsuit IMHO...

I thought, that since it is now free for individual use I would just eat my pride and forget about my license and use the free version, but I can't even download the free version because it says "Account Verification Pending" when I try to download... The bottom line is they don't care about individual customers, and have no idea how to deal with us, their portal is too corporate customer oriented...

[Frank Law]

I tried thousand times after they told me "Please try after some time".

They don't care about us.

[lenh51]

I created my account and when I went to download the pro 17 personal addition, I was asked to provide additional information.  Once I did and returned to the download page and tried to download it, I got this message:   

Account verification is Pending. Please try after some time.

It has been hours since I did this and I am still getting this message.  Any ideas on how I can get past this?

[Jan Alexander Corsini]

Account verification is Pending. Please try after some time.

Same situation here for both Fusion and Workstation. I guess they announced free edition before being ready.

[Jeff Haddon]

Same for me as well, not sure what to do to get this resolved.

[Alexi Aizenberg]

I am in the same boat!

[Arno_00]

Same here, and it has been over 36h... still waiting... Can't download the licensed version because my license did not carry forward since I don't have an active contract with them, and can't download the free one because "Account Verification is Pending"... This is very upsetting.

[robnicholsonmalt]

Aside but I've just read on The Register that VMware Workstation Pro will be free for personal use.

[Technogeezer]

Yes that is true, but you can't download it because the Broadcom download portal is broken. Won't let you download anything VMware.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[laugher]

+1. Same here.

Looks like someone didn't do a proper analysis of the technical merger of VMWare into Broadcom. According to this, I need a site ID. When I try to request one, it asks me for Company Name. Of course, I didn't purchase my VMWare software using my company name so I put in "Personal" and then it asks me for product. It doesn't even list all VMWare products. Someone seriously botched up the merge.

[Technogeezer]

I just called the Broadcom Customer Care team and the representative was able to find my Site ID. Took him about a half hour to do that, so I have to assume that the systems are in pretty rough shape right now. I updated my profile with the Site ID and got a message that there was further "pending approval" and that it takes about 1 business day. If I haven't heard back by Friday, they'll get another call from me.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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