katrenco
05-18-2006, 05:45 AM
Our small job shop made the mistake of buying a production control/tracking program from Link It Software and paid a substantial price for it. It is one of the worst programs I have ever dealt with, topped only by the company that puts it out. After installing the program, we quickly realized that this was a poorly written piece of software, and we'd been grossly misled about the its capabilities and functionality. I contacted Wayne McFarland, CEO of Link It, expressing our dissatisfaction with the program and belief that he had totally misrepresented the product. I got nowhere with that, so I began checking the companies listed on Link It Software's website as customers of JobMaster. (They also put out a fleet maintenance program called EZ Maintenance, and each program has its own customer list.) I spent several hours over the next week searching the internet for the businesses behind the names, and, in most cases, I was either not able to find any matches at all, or the names as they were listed were partial/incomplete and a search produced so many possible matches that it was impossible to find the company associated with the name. Of those I was able to pin point and contact, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT responded to my inquiry with the exact same story....the program was misrepresented prior to sale, verbal money back guarantee was not honored, and in all cases, the software had been abandoned, even though it represented a substantial investment for most of these small businesses. (Of those that disclosed what they paid, prices ranged from $2000 to $3500.) The only exceptions to these opinions were those few companies I contacted who responded saying they'd never purchased the software. A few had gotten a demo but never bought the full program and a few more had never heard of the program or the company and were not happy about being listed as a reference. Within a couple days of my communications with these companies, JobMaster's customer list was removed for several weeks, for "updating", according to the website. The customer list is back up, and as much as I'd love to give it another go around, check each and every name listed and again put the spotlight on this company and what I believe to be questionable business practises and an inferiior product, it's a time consuming undertaking that I can't accomodate right now.
I also contacted a lawyer about possible class action against this company, in light of all the negative responses I received from the businesses I was able to contact, but was told that because none of us got the verbal guarantees in writing, there's nothing that can be done.
This experience taught me something I didn't know and reminded me of something I should've learned a long time ago: 1. A software seller can claim and promise anything about a piece of software, and unless it's in writing and they put their signature to it, they can't be held to any of it. People who make their living by misleading consumers and selling junk software are no doubt aware of this or they wouldn't likely be so blantent in their deception.
2, I've been around long enough to know that references should be checked BEFORE you buy, not after you get stung! There are MANY production control/job shop programs out there, in such a wide range of prices that everyone should be able to find one that fits their budget. If you take your time, do the research, get references and a presale demo, you should come out better than we did and not end up with a piece of junk software not worth the CD it's written on.
I also contacted a lawyer about possible class action against this company, in light of all the negative responses I received from the businesses I was able to contact, but was told that because none of us got the verbal guarantees in writing, there's nothing that can be done.
This experience taught me something I didn't know and reminded me of something I should've learned a long time ago: 1. A software seller can claim and promise anything about a piece of software, and unless it's in writing and they put their signature to it, they can't be held to any of it. People who make their living by misleading consumers and selling junk software are no doubt aware of this or they wouldn't likely be so blantent in their deception.
2, I've been around long enough to know that references should be checked BEFORE you buy, not after you get stung! There are MANY production control/job shop programs out there, in such a wide range of prices that everyone should be able to find one that fits their budget. If you take your time, do the research, get references and a presale demo, you should come out better than we did and not end up with a piece of junk software not worth the CD it's written on.