Dydacomp has instituted a new protocol for handling their technical support calls. Not too long ago when you had a MOM technical issue you would call in and wait on the phone for upwards to an hour to get a technician. That was bad, but their new system is worse!
The new system uses some kind of call center that writes down your issue (makes a support ticket) and then Dydacomp will call you back. I have made two calls and have not been contacted yet. On Friday, I had a production stopping issue and immediately called Dydacomp. I placed the call at 4:00pm Eastern time and still have not heard back from them.
At least with the previous system I could have waited until they answered and had my issue resolved. Now, MOM users are at the mercy of Dydacomp. Luckily I have an IT guy I can call in to help me. He was able to resolve the issue. Still, I have not heard anything from Dydacomp other than the email telling me a support ticket had been created.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Still Integrating my data into MOM
For the past week I have been importing stock into MOM and appending "buy tables" nonstop. With MOM you have to set up buying levels for every item you sell to be able to order from your manufacturers. It takes a while to get them in the system. Have tech support teach you how to append to the tables in the database because you could spend a month doing them manually.
I have been on the phone with them this morning for over an hour. I am on hold now as I type this. I called so we could set up credit card processing and waited on hold for 45 minutes...again. I wonder if Dydacomp is getting a cut from AT&T on all my long distance charges?
My experience this time around has not been great. They have an integration specialist assigned to me and he is good, but super busy. It is hard to get with him, so I feel a little isolated. If I didn't already have a little experience working with the MOM program I would be really frustrated and feel really lost. I am doing most of this alone. Maybe they found this blog and they are punishing me...hehe. By not having an integration specialist "at the ready" I am behind schedule for going live with this program.
I have been on the phone with them this morning for over an hour. I am on hold now as I type this. I called so we could set up credit card processing and waited on hold for 45 minutes...again. I wonder if Dydacomp is getting a cut from AT&T on all my long distance charges?
My experience this time around has not been great. They have an integration specialist assigned to me and he is good, but super busy. It is hard to get with him, so I feel a little isolated. If I didn't already have a little experience working with the MOM program I would be really frustrated and feel really lost. I am doing most of this alone. Maybe they found this blog and they are punishing me...hehe. By not having an integration specialist "at the ready" I am behind schedule for going live with this program.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
MOM Technical Support Takes Way Too Long
If you are considering purchasing Mail Order Manager be advised that MOM technical support takes at least 30 minutes to answer the phone. From my past experience this is a relatively short hold time. They also do not have a toll free number to call for tech support. Frustrating! I realize that phones get clogged, but they could do much better in this area--at least give you an estimated time of how much of your life you will have to waste waiting for them to answer. With OrderMotion I could get through immediately.
I also sent in a customer support email about this same situation I was having. Their disclaimer on emails is that they can take up to 48 hour to respond. Upon reading this I immediately called tech support. It only took them about 30 minutes to respond via email. They told me to call into tech support! Funny, I was already on hold.
Anyway, I talked to a very pleasant young lady who was very helpful and was able to resolve my problem quickly. I like her, but the hold time sucks big time. She gets an "A" and MOM telephone hold time on my dime gets a "D-".
I also sent in a customer support email about this same situation I was having. Their disclaimer on emails is that they can take up to 48 hour to respond. Upon reading this I immediately called tech support. It only took them about 30 minutes to respond via email. They told me to call into tech support! Funny, I was already on hold.
Anyway, I talked to a very pleasant young lady who was very helpful and was able to resolve my problem quickly. I like her, but the hold time sucks big time. She gets an "A" and MOM telephone hold time on my dime gets a "D-".
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Round 2 - The Beginning
Dydacomp sent me a list of system requirements to run their MOM program effectively. I do not know why we were not given this list before. Dydacomp's sales department is the most aggresive that I dealt with when I was looking for a new order management software. Don't believe the sales guys. Talk to an integrator or a tech guy for what you need to get up and running with any order management software. I was told by a sales guy that MOM would work fine "out of the box" on a peer-to-peer basis for the amount of users I have--he was WRONG. We found that out the hard way.
After getting new information about what is needed to successfully run MOM, I have spent around $7,000 for a basic server, battery pack backup, upgrades to XP Pro for 8 machines, ram upgrades for all machines and a new switch. This is what is needed to run MOM Enterpise version with 10 users. In total, we have spent around $20,000 all together. I estimate another $1,000 in labor to pay my local IT guy to get everything installed.
Dydacomp's integration team captain called me last week and I went through the specs of the new server and other upgrades. He said with all the changes MOM would now work beautifully. Why wasn't I told about this in the beginning? This information would have saved a lot of stress and anxiety. Once we get everything set up on our end we are supposed to call them and they will start on the integration. They told me we could go live with MOM in 45-60 days from the date I contact them to start.
After getting new information about what is needed to successfully run MOM, I have spent around $7,000 for a basic server, battery pack backup, upgrades to XP Pro for 8 machines, ram upgrades for all machines and a new switch. This is what is needed to run MOM Enterpise version with 10 users. In total, we have spent around $20,000 all together. I estimate another $1,000 in labor to pay my local IT guy to get everything installed.
Dydacomp's integration team captain called me last week and I went through the specs of the new server and other upgrades. He said with all the changes MOM would now work beautifully. Why wasn't I told about this in the beginning? This information would have saved a lot of stress and anxiety. Once we get everything set up on our end we are supposed to call them and they will start on the integration. They told me we could go live with MOM in 45-60 days from the date I contact them to start.
Friday, July 24, 2009
MOM Sending New Program Disks
MOM is sending new program disks to me today. I have requested that they send me contact information for the integration team. We need to get together and make sure my system(s) is okay (it was a year ago) for running the program. We are running 10 PCs on a hard wired network.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
MOM Responds
I am pleasantly surprised by MOM's response. They want to do a complete reinstall and implementation. This is much more than I had hoped for. I mean, I did initiate a chargeback dispute. I figured they would be cold and distant. I doubt they are aware of this blog at this point and when they do see it I hope they will take it as a challenge to treat me right. I will give credit where credit is due. I will keep everyone up-to-date with the reinstallation and implementation of the MOM program as it moves forward.
Having $13,000 on the line, I have swallowed my pride. We need to make this program work for us. DydaComp says they want it to work for us, too. I sincerely hope it works. My staff is very concerned about this, but understand how much is at stake financially.
Here is what I am going to do--throw myself completely into the integration and keep my fingers crossed. In all honesty I hope that MOM comes out looking like the best order management system--ever.
Having $13,000 on the line, I have swallowed my pride. We need to make this program work for us. DydaComp says they want it to work for us, too. I sincerely hope it works. My staff is very concerned about this, but understand how much is at stake financially.
Here is what I am going to do--throw myself completely into the integration and keep my fingers crossed. In all honesty I hope that MOM comes out looking like the best order management system--ever.
Purchased Mail Order Manager
I started this blog because I wanted people to know about my experience with Dydacomp, the maker of the order management software system, Mail Order Manager, or (MOM). DydaComp is much larger than my company, more organized than my company and has much more resources (financially and legally) at its disposal than my company. Once you read the following text you will see that my company is at the point where it does not have a voice. This blog is my company's voice. If you have any questions feel free to contact me through this blog or through my website, which is linked to in the next paragraph. In no way am I saying that our experiences with Mail Order Manager are typical. MOM must work well for other companies or other compnaies would not be using it.
We own a small business called Distinctive Decor, www.distinctive-decor.com and have 10 employees. We started our business on the web in 1999, and most of our revenues come from our website. We nurture a boutique-like shop where customer service is the first priority. We believe in being honest with people and accepting returns with a smile. We were using OrderMotion as our order management system and wanted a less expensive way to manage our website and storefront orders, make our inventory process quicker and get better reporting capabilities.
No order management software is perfect; we knew that going in. We did our research and evaluated a number of different programs. Mail Order Manager fit what we were looking for and it looked really clean; so we ordered their trial kit. The trial version looked great and operated smoothly. MOM was going to cost us less money in the long run over OrderMotion, offered better reporting, was an in-house solution (OrderMotion is web-based) and they had everything nicely bundled together. For example, they would provide at a cost to me, professional looking invoices and packing sheets. MOM was also was set up for bar coding and scanning -- something that would help us save time when doing inventory and save time with checkouts in our storefront. We were very excited with the trial demo and ran a few mock orders through the queues to see how the system worked. It was smooth as silk, baby! We were pumped.
In September of 2008 we purchased MOM with a few plug-ins for around $13,000. MOM had a 30 day return window. MOM's implementation team assured us that we would be up and running before the fourth quarter, which is our busiest time of the year. I want to make a side note here. If you ever want to upgrade or change your order management software. Never do it before your peak season. I feel really stupid for doing this.
After two months of integration, we had to go live with MOM. I needed my investment to start paying off. We decided to go live on November 6, 2008. Integration was not completely done and what was done was done sloppily. We had to import around 50,000 old orders and OrderMotion did not make it easy for them. We were very excited that this program was going to make our life much easier and help our business run smoother. That did not happen. We experienced numerous crashes, errors and database corruptions. The system created bogus tracking numbers for our packages, too. We were losing data and were scared to death our business would crumble under the stress of increased order frequency. Finally I had enough. I asked for my money back. I could not have a system behaving this way in peak season. I was told to fly a kite. My return widow had lapsed.
DydaComp, the parent company of MOM is suave, persuasive and savvy. They say they have a 30 day return window but you better read the fine print. Here is what the fine print says: to return the program back to DydaComp you must notify them, get an RMA and the program disk cannot be opened. There is a restocking fee of 25% within 15 days of purchase. There's a 50% restocking fee for returns between 16 and 30 days of shipment. Beyond the 30 day window, no refunds will be processed. If you want to take legal action, you will have to do it in New Jersey--where DydaComp is domiciled. New Jersey attorneys are expensive; I hear.
What were we to do? We had an expensive program that was not working for us. Implementation took MOM 60 days to partially complete and it was sloppily done. They essentially ate up our return window with implementation time. A fact of which I accused them before the 30 day window was to expire. We could not use the program with our data in it until 60 days into the purchase. We were out of luck. They would not give my money back. The only option we had was to file a chargeback or dispute with our credit card company--Bank of America.
To make a long story short (I will flesh out all the problems that we had in other posts) here we are seven months later from the time we started the dispute process and Bank of America chose DydaComp's side. I have a $13,000 program in which I have no confidence. Don't get me wrong, DydaComp is a big company, and a lot of companies like mine use their software. It must work for some businesses.
I am between a rock and a hard place. I refuse to flush $13,000 down the toilet. I have swallowed my pride and asked MOM to help me get their program working like it should....I have yet to hear from them.
We own a small business called Distinctive Decor, www.distinctive-decor.com and have 10 employees. We started our business on the web in 1999, and most of our revenues come from our website. We nurture a boutique-like shop where customer service is the first priority. We believe in being honest with people and accepting returns with a smile. We were using OrderMotion as our order management system and wanted a less expensive way to manage our website and storefront orders, make our inventory process quicker and get better reporting capabilities.
No order management software is perfect; we knew that going in. We did our research and evaluated a number of different programs. Mail Order Manager fit what we were looking for and it looked really clean; so we ordered their trial kit. The trial version looked great and operated smoothly. MOM was going to cost us less money in the long run over OrderMotion, offered better reporting, was an in-house solution (OrderMotion is web-based) and they had everything nicely bundled together. For example, they would provide at a cost to me, professional looking invoices and packing sheets. MOM was also was set up for bar coding and scanning -- something that would help us save time when doing inventory and save time with checkouts in our storefront. We were very excited with the trial demo and ran a few mock orders through the queues to see how the system worked. It was smooth as silk, baby! We were pumped.
In September of 2008 we purchased MOM with a few plug-ins for around $13,000. MOM had a 30 day return window. MOM's implementation team assured us that we would be up and running before the fourth quarter, which is our busiest time of the year. I want to make a side note here. If you ever want to upgrade or change your order management software. Never do it before your peak season. I feel really stupid for doing this.
After two months of integration, we had to go live with MOM. I needed my investment to start paying off. We decided to go live on November 6, 2008. Integration was not completely done and what was done was done sloppily. We had to import around 50,000 old orders and OrderMotion did not make it easy for them. We were very excited that this program was going to make our life much easier and help our business run smoother. That did not happen. We experienced numerous crashes, errors and database corruptions. The system created bogus tracking numbers for our packages, too. We were losing data and were scared to death our business would crumble under the stress of increased order frequency. Finally I had enough. I asked for my money back. I could not have a system behaving this way in peak season. I was told to fly a kite. My return widow had lapsed.
DydaComp, the parent company of MOM is suave, persuasive and savvy. They say they have a 30 day return window but you better read the fine print. Here is what the fine print says: to return the program back to DydaComp you must notify them, get an RMA and the program disk cannot be opened. There is a restocking fee of 25% within 15 days of purchase. There's a 50% restocking fee for returns between 16 and 30 days of shipment. Beyond the 30 day window, no refunds will be processed. If you want to take legal action, you will have to do it in New Jersey--where DydaComp is domiciled. New Jersey attorneys are expensive; I hear.
What were we to do? We had an expensive program that was not working for us. Implementation took MOM 60 days to partially complete and it was sloppily done. They essentially ate up our return window with implementation time. A fact of which I accused them before the 30 day window was to expire. We could not use the program with our data in it until 60 days into the purchase. We were out of luck. They would not give my money back. The only option we had was to file a chargeback or dispute with our credit card company--Bank of America.
To make a long story short (I will flesh out all the problems that we had in other posts) here we are seven months later from the time we started the dispute process and Bank of America chose DydaComp's side. I have a $13,000 program in which I have no confidence. Don't get me wrong, DydaComp is a big company, and a lot of companies like mine use their software. It must work for some businesses.
I am between a rock and a hard place. I refuse to flush $13,000 down the toilet. I have swallowed my pride and asked MOM to help me get their program working like it should....I have yet to hear from them.
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