REPORT ISSUES

Eyes and ears needed! Please help us stay current on issues with shop management software you have used. By reporting any problems you have experienced with vendors and their software, we can most effectively work on improving the current mess. Please use the contact form and report the following:

• Vendor
• Distributor (if any)
• The software program
• The problem you experienced
• The extent to which you were able to get the problem resolved.

You can use the contact form to report any issue to me.

ALERTS

Here's a listing of the types of alarming situations I am finding as I work in the shop management software field:

• An inexpensive program crashes or corrupts the database when they do updates
• A vendor claims to be endorsed by the ASA but isn’t.  The ASA does not endorse programs.
• Several vendors report false information to the ASA annual survey
• An expensive program looks very nice but many people find it so difficult to use they stop using it and get something else.
• A vendor tried to charge $1,000 - $3,000 extra for basic reports that the system should have in it
• An expensive program does not let you print customer reminder letters
• A vendor renamed their old out of date program so shops think it’s a new product
• Several vendors make exaggerated claims about their products being at the top of the class when they are not
• A web service program stop working due to a problem at their data center despite our warnings to them that is would happen sooner or later.
• Several vendors sell a program that is not suitable for larger operations due to the database they use – and they sell it to larger shops anyway
• Several programs have features that barely work.  They have them just to say they have them, but the features are pretty much worthless.
• One vendor sends a trainer out onsite even though they know he has a potentially contagious condition.
• One vendor claims to be selected by a university when really it was just some students in a class that selected the vendor for a school project.
• Several vendors make absurd claims regarding the return on investment that you can realize
• Several vendors have web sites with old testimonials from users that have now left them for other software.
• One vendor with a number of shop locations has an owner pretend that he is an independent satisfied user
• One vendor proudly sells “vaporware”, that is software with features it claims are coming but really aren’t.
• Several vendors claim to offer regular updates but don’t.
• One vendor offered a free upgrade to a better product that they were working on that never ended up coming out.  They didn’t give any money back.
• Several programs have reports that don’t calculate correctly.
• One vendor told me they have a consultant who refers them business but they realize he only does it because the vendor pays him each time they do; otherwise the consultant would just make arrangements with another vendor.
• Some vendors have lost key employees or have changed ownership and are now just adrift
• One vendor has a history of selling unnecessary hardware that adds thousands to the cost of the purchase
• Several vendors claim an interface to a third party service such as a parts ordering connection is limited because of the third party, when in fact it’s them, not the third party.
• Some programs do not allow you to associate cost of labor with labor revenue.
• While doing data conversions I have observed that some vendors are developing their programs on top of very substandard database designs.
• While doing data conversions I have observed that several customer databases have significant corrupt data in them.

Thank you for participating!