Corel Reviews 306

Faulty product. Worst customer service.
From day 1 of my purchase of the 2020 Ultimate Video Studio, I had major issues. Customer service had no idea about their own product and simply copy and pasted answers that made no sense to my questions. They were so poor in their service a week later of still no answered questions I am asking for my money back.
The product never even worked, it has major quality drops, blurry imaging, and several other major issues that shouldn't have been occurring even with all settings adjusted to support I had to find myself on the internet. I got to the point where I had everything as it should and educated myself fully, but was still having issues that turned out to be product-related and which Corel couldn't answer.
Steer well clear of this company and its products

Like a leming I've used Corel photo and video software for over 10 years. I had resisted Adobe's product due to brand loyalty to Corel. I've never been truly happy with their products but used them so seldom I couldn't be bothered to learn new software. After upgrading my camera earlier this year, it became even more evident that the corel software couldn't handle the file sizes, I finally decided I'd had enough of crashes and losing work as well as inane pop ups asking me to purchase their next amazing iteration (which never lived up to their promises). I went with Adobe's photopshop/lightroom, it was like night and day.. I haven't upgraded the video software yet so an still stuck with corels 2019 videostudiopro ultimate. I've been prompted to write this review after wasting another two hours of my life trying to edit a minute video. Six crashes later (one of which lost the work and I had to start again).. my computer is a current high end model so it's not down to lack of processing power. Totally fed up with this. If corels software were as fast and efficient as their stupid pop ups it would be top drawer.

Awful, Awful, Awful - DO NOT!!!

The costumer support have 0 knowledge. 2 hours, at the end she close the chat. I The hang up by chat! You NEVER reach them by phone.
They delete my programs with all my videos. TWICE!!!
YOU waist your money and time!

The customer service at Corel/Roxio is rubbish; and I mean complete and utter rubbish. If I could explain how it was- it was like speaking to a brick wall. A brick wall that does not understand proper email etiquette, disconnects from live chats, and issues copy/paste responses, among other terrible practices.

That is not even describing the awful product I received from them, and the stress it caused me. According to their responses, it seemed to me like they were charging me to be a quality tester for their faulty product; they would not even refund me the total amount of money I paid for the product. Apparently I was responsible for the tax on the useless item from this company; imagine paying someone to cut your hair, they turn it into a patchwork mess, and then they say they will not give you a full refund because there was a tax on the service. In my eyes this is theft.

I would never in my right mind buy from them again, nor would I encourage anyone I know to do so. I would give this company zero stars if I could.

I'm disappointed in myself for reading all the tech website reviews that give 4/5 stars or more for Videostudio Ultimate. Yes it is feature-packed. Yes it is intuitive. Where this software falls is performance.

I built a AMD system with a 3900x paired with a RTX 2060 Super. While I knew that VS was not going to use the GPU, I still expected the massive CPU to at least be able to playback a video.

The performance was only marginally better than my old system with a i5-4690k and GTX 960.

I thought I would not have to use smart proxies in order to edit in my new system. Unfortunately I still have to. smart proxies take very little time for 1080p videos to generate. However, the videos that you absolutely NEED to make smart proxies for, 4k videos, take frustratingly long, even with a high-end CPU. I recall my 3900X spending 10 minutes generating a 1080p proxy for a 1-minute long 4k video. Multiply that by 500+ 4k videos averaging 30 seconds long each, and I have to leave the PC running for multiple days generating smart proxies.

I downloaded Davinci Resolve 16, a free editor. That software plays back 4k video and scrubs it smoothly without any kind of optimized proxy file. This leads me to my conclusion that VideoStudio is simply outdated or meant for budget systems.

I read the forums. This laggy performance hasn't changed since 2017 it appears. I'm finally giving in to resorting to DaVinci Resolve. If I find a solution I'll paste it here.

CONSTANT and annoying ads to upgrade, even when you just upgraded. Looked up how to turn the ads off and even after following all the directions, the ANNOYING ads still appear every single day....

Had I known I was PAYING to have NAG ADS on my screen everyday, I would have NEVER UPGRADED.

Worst tech support. I have been using Painter for many years and recently upgraded to Painter 2020 and Paint Shop Pro 2020. I had problems with both programs and contacted tech support on 2 separate occasions. I explained my problems in detail and their responses indicated that they paid no attention to my comments, but sent me links that "should help my problem". They didn't. After much back and forth, I finally told them to either answer my very precise questions or admit they couldn't help me, but please stop sending me these links that do nothing. Never heard from them again. The problems still persist.

At one time, Corel had one of the best graphics software products available for the small business and consumer markets. I started with Corel Draw and Photo Paint 8 in 1997. The software worked, even through the most complex scenarios. Updating to Photo Paint 2019 was an extreme disappointment.
Corel Paint 2019 is the buggiest software I've ever used. Beside the bugs, and the spontaneous crashes, there are plenty of design / usability issues where I just shake my head and ask "What were their programmers thinking?... such as " Who thought the default Pixel Grid was a good idea?" These are all things that were not issues in the early versions and are too numerous to go into all the details here.
Saving your work every minute or two to avoid the loss that accompanies a crash, or needing to use several clicks / keystrokes for something that was previously just one really slows production in a work environment. I actually had to revive an old system with the XP operating system just so I could use the older version.
My advice to those at Corel that may have some sway within the corporation: Take a look at your old products. They worked and were usable in a work environment. It seems that you may have been trying to modify your product to entice users of Photo-Shop. This latest generation of software will send people running to your competitor.

I have been a faithful Corel user since 2013 for painting. I love the painter essentials program. HOWEVER. Every time you upgrade to the next program, you lose brush packs. Something always goes wrong.

I've spent HUNDREDS of dollars on expensive brush packs that won't even work with Essentials 7. Despite contacting support several times, I keep getting the run around. No one actually reads my transcripts or addresses my actual concerns.

I want a refund. This is utter bs. Tech support is a joke. They always have to transfer you to a different department and you have to explain yourself over again.

One agent tried closing the ticket without even addressing the main issue at hand which is that the brush packs I purchased with 6 weren't showing up in 7. They kept asking for receipts - but these never come with in app purchases.

Highly disappointed. I will be looking at something like Procreate.

I wish you didn't even have to give it a star. I recently purchased Word Perfect Office X9 after upgrading to Windows 10. I have never been so disappointed in the technical support. I have chatted with two people and neither one knew anything. It was a total waste of my time. No matter how you try to get through, everything goes to India. i wouldn't mind that if they knew what they were doing. I don't understand what kind of support they actually offer. Once you purchase a product and there is an issue with the program, you expect to speak or chat with someone who actually knows the program. I guess it is time to break down and use Microsoft Word. I want to add that I am disappointed that nothing has been done about technical support considering all the bad reviews about it on the internet.

Wish I could give lower. Computer crashed had to replace hard drive. To bad the Corel program is no longer supported so we won’t giv a link to reload it. Oh ya order new version full price. This after 20 min wait then another 10 trying to communicate with help chat

Good riddance Corel

Bought WinDVD Pro 12 and it does not install.
Not possible to contact Cleverbridge and Corel never bothered to answer my mails asking for help.
Seems Corel gave up. Never sent any other than automatic replies without solution for their faulty software.
Glad I paid with PayPal

I purchased corel draw home and student 2019 for 110$ it had this issue where you are unable to remove background I contacted their support, they said its a known issue, and we have resolved this issue in corel draw graphic suit, but wont update it in home and student version, so this software is quite useless for me now, and I wont recommend anyone to buy their software their products and their customer support is pathetic and terrible, they are unwilling to resolve an issue which they admit exist and can resolve, but since its a cheaper version so they deliberately ruin it so that customers are forced to use their expensive version,

Whenever I started using Word Perfect early 1990, it was the very best most supported word processing program one could ever imagine. Perfect! Over the years, It's gone to hell in a handbasket, ending up with people in India serving as phone answerers and no more. I've called, begged, explained. Useless. I asked some female named Lavanya Jegannathan if they ever actually DID ANYTHING, other than answering the phones. She did not answer me, said she would get someone. I listened to what sounded like a phone ring for probably 200 times, then ended the call. Called Lavanya back, she did not answer. Repeatedly called for 20 or so times, my call went directly to a recording, then endless music. Over and over, I called, same NO RESPONSE. Isn't there something the U S government could do on behalf of disgruntled, abused, swindled users of what used to be the finest software program available, and deal with these sorry, non-responsive people!!??!! They've sold many people a product that is useless to the purchaser. But the UPDATE for a discount keeps popping up. They're still after U S DOLLARS!!

Worst customer service and product interface, which asks you to log in- ( and you must always be online ) every time you try and use the software... I'm often not connected as I'm traveling without access to the internet, so using CorelDraw Suite 2019 is impossible...! Their customer service just transfers me around instead of solving my problems... Ironically I've been one of the Champions of this product for decades when my retail stores used it exclusively for many years...

Bought Studio 23 update version in nov 2019. On their website no information at all about update-installation. Contacted Corel support with some questions. Got an almost immediate response which answered my first question but for the rest was useless. I tried again and got the same reaction. Appeared I was in communication with a computer! The only smart thing about this is that I filed a second ticket and they were able to recognise this - sending me the same reaction again. So much contempt for their customers: don't know if I should laugh or be angry.

The support they provide is anything but - it is a joke - they give you the runaround continually - asking for the same information over and over again without resolving a problem. In my case, the problem is that something was promised in their advertising that wasn't provided in the product delivered. Over and over again they ask for the order number, etc, apparently in an effort to make it look like they didn't receive the information. When I go to their so-called complaints page, you are admonished to send your complaint to their support and that if that didn't work to escalate the problem by clicking a link below. Well, the below link is non-functional! What a ripoff!

Bought Studio 23 Ultimate and it was bundled with other Corel software. I have been hesitating on upgrading for a couple of years because i had issues during installation, at least with studio 21 ultimate. I have been with the studio ultimate supporter since studio 11 but after this last experience i just cannot do it anymore. All the bundled software installed perfectly, had no issues. Studio 23 however turned into a nightmare, kept crashing at the beginning and told me to restart. I was on their live chat 5 or 6 times that night and the phone twice but could not get any resolution because all customer service inquires seemed to be outsourced from out of the country. I couldn't get very technical with my issue with someone reading a book or cue card, its kinda like calling 911 with an emergency only to find the operator speaks Hindi reading from a script, what are they thinking? Technical support is suppose to be TECHNICAL SUPPORT, how can you support my technical issues when you cant understand me? After about 4 days and countless hours, i finally got it installed but it will my last Studio installation i have to endure. I recommend spending the money for Adobe After Effects or Premier Pro, the installation is a breeze and you can skip customer service all together.

Well, just been reading the awful reviews of Corel and I want to add mine. Last year my Corel softeware, Video Studio Pro stopped working correctly, every file came in out of sync so was useless. So I upgraded to Ultimaet 2018. So now the new software will not open any of my files. Did a chat with Vijay and in the end he said tough luck, the old files will not work with the new software and NO WAY TO UPGRADE THEM. So all my work a history is useless. What kind of way is this to design software. I was using a Word program from 2003 and it converted and worked fine with newer or older files. So I second all the terrible reviews of Corel software and customer service. DO NOT BUY COREL PRODUCTS.

Loyal client since 2009 - What upsets me most TODAY is the inability to fully eliminate the pop-up update notifications regardless of my extensive, in-depth research, effort & time spent attempting to make them go away within both Corel software and Windows 10. Leaving Corel software eco-sphere forever solely because of this insidious banner/notification harassment. Otherwise I had been quite satisfied with the performance of this affordable alternative to Adobe. Uninstalling DRAW, PS-Pro, for Affinity software, will soon drop AfterShot Pro & Videostudio. I'd stick with Corel if they dropped the update notification behavior!