We are on version 6.2 and started using MOM in 2000. We were version 3 for maybe a month then version 4 immediately came out. Went from 4 to version 5.4 (best version of all). Then went to version 6 (nightmare on speed!!!).

We no longer have a service contract because I was not going to pay $1000 a year for absolutely NOTHING!! The Google MOM Users group has been outstanding in providing all the answers we need.

In the early years, there were several bad years followed by a huge turn around in customer service, it was good, for about 1-2 years??, then it went to hell in a handbasket to put it bluntly and they have never checked up. My guess is they are trying to improve the books to sell the company so you trim back, make it look proffitable, sell it and leave the next owner to figure out they just bought a failing business.

I found this page looking for a bridge between MOM and Magento. We have been using another cart for the last 10 years and we are switching to Magento. I really do not want to switch from MOM as it is really a good program (just HORRIBLE customer service). I agree with the person who stated it should be upgraded to SQL for all users (at no cost!!!). They had no business developing MOM on a dead platform to start with. That would be the best thing they could do for their customer base and that may, just may, turn them around.

If you own MOM, drop your service contract and join the Google MOM Users group. If you are thinking about buying MOM, DON’T!!!! You will have many sleepless nights. I have been dealing with it for 10 years and know the program very well so I don’t need their support. If you don’t know it, you will need help as it is a very detailed program.

I hope this saves one unsuspecting person from days (years) of misery and I hope it cost Dydacomp dearly for the way they have treated us many customers over the years.

Before user groups, blogs, and so forth, support always said, you are the only person having this problem”, REALLY!!!! Well now we have blogs and sites like this one to confirm it was not just us and everybody else is getting the same crappy service.

Hallaluya for the internet :)

Tim

Best regards,
Jackson

When I saw this thread, I had to chime in.

I think what people are forgetting is that MOM is a product that has all the features and functions that people want and need but the price is low that its hard to NOT purchase it. Then they are completely shocked when the support just stinks. Since we work with many different systems, I can say that most of the ones we work with are far more expensive, but don’t have nearly the features and functions that MOM has, and thats for a reason. These companies understand that its very expensive to support the “MOM type” customer. You folks demand a high level of service and support beyond the average “internet retailer”. I’m not being critical here, I’m only stating the facts. The average MOM customer has their fingers in many different channels (catalogs, internet, direct, direct response etc.). This presents a high degree of support and complicates the process of supporting a customer that JUST sells their widgets on the Web.

Also, I’ll say this MOM’s a complicated product that does many things, but not many of them very well. As Jackson stated, moving to SQL server would fix a lot of problems, but I disagree that it would virtually solve the support issues.

First off, even if they moved everyone to SQL Server, the product would still be FoxPro based — the client application is written in Visual FoxPro and the SQL Server edition simply removes the DBF database an replaces that with ODBC / ADO calls to SQL Server. This is something that shocks people when I tell them that… You’re effectively using the FoxPro version with SQL Server as the back-end. It improves on things, but sadly, its still the same data-model and they’re not (as of 6.x) been using anything in the way of taking advantage of SQL Server’s technology other than using it to replace the DBF tables.

And then there’s the whole SiteLINK debacle and the issue of “open”.

We compete with SiteLINK and CV3 on a level that I think is starting to hit home with a lot of MOM customers. People using MOM have traditionally been locked into a proprietary solution like SiteLINK, CV3 and even our original shopping cart product, Freeportway (which was proprietary). After 10+ years of doing e-commerce for MOM customers in 2006 we moved away from supporting our own shopping cart and decided to support 3rd party shopping carts with BizSync like X-Cart and Magento. The reason for this was simple: Being open and having a choice.

Looking at the comments above, its clear we made the right decision.

The MOM customer is looking for choices and looking for options. Having our own shopping cart that only we supported was a problem for our customers and it was hard for us to support the MOM customer who’s needs vary greatly between them. A company like CV3, which makes a very similar product to SiteLINK is only perpetuating the same sentiment. Even though they make a perfectly good shopping cart system, the control, the ownership and the technology is still completely under their umbrella. If a customer wanted a feature of function, the company that owns the shopping cart stands directly in their way to get that done, and even if they will do it, it’ll be quite pricey.

And that goes for MOM and SiteLINK as well.

This was the main reason we abandoned the hosted “proprietary” shopping cart like SiteLINK and CV3…

Our direction may have caused us some sales over the last 4 years and we’ve probably stunted our growth considerably by not selling a shopping cart that was hosted and proprietary, but from our perspective, it was the right thing to do for the MOM user and customer — we believe firmly that in time, MOM customers will move away from being “locked in” and demand being “open”.
This is the only way Dydacomp’s service and support will improve. It’s the only way, in my opinion, they will survive. If they keep locking the customer down, they’ll move to something else (hence all this discussion).

“open” is where Dydacomp / MOM should be headed. However, I’m not sure that will happen given the current management.

As a vendor thats been supporting MOM for 10+ years, I would love them to open their product up, create an SDK (hey, sell it), support it, and go back to having “approved VARS, consultants and 3rd party support.

If they went this route, it would only help with their support issues, and vendors like us would not have to deal with the conundrum of being a product that “works with” but be a product that is “approved by”. Which is a world of difference for people.

Choice, options and open are the only way this company will survive.

Finally, on Jackson’s comments about cost and doing it right.

The reason why someone hasn’t done this right is because its hard, expensive and not very profitable. The answer to Dydacomp’s problems is about taking the approach that a lot of companies have. You give away the handles and sell the blades… A company like Dydacomp as small as it is, will never be able to keep pace, they need the community behind them, they need people to champion their product, and when the customer needs support, they give them great support because they have the ability and budget to do so.

Let me ask this question…

If the company took the approach of say, giving away a single user addition at the low end, “a community” edition”, which was the FoxPro version, only provided the means for the community to collaborate, support each other how far would that go to improving the overall products appeal to the customer base? Don’t you think this would not only help them in the commercial support arena as well?

But will they think like this? Probably not.

1. Summer of 2009: average wait time on hold for tech support 1:20 minutes. 3 out of 4 calls “disconnected” after waiting an hour or more. Call again = wait another hour.
2. Fall of 2009: Dydacomp no longer accepts tech calls. Instead you get an untrained customer service person who’s supposed to understand your technical issue enough to “write a message” to a tech support person. More calls went unreturned than returned. Those that were returned were not correctly answered: in other words, a Tier 1 support person was insufficiently trained to fix the problem, took some notes, said would call back, and never did. Other tech support calls were answered by emails and “closed” as resolved, when the “solution” didn’t at all resolve the problem. I’m guessing that the new CEO looks at the reports and sees all these “resolved support tickets” and has, presumably, no idea that personnel are sabotaging the company.
3. So, I emailed the new CEO. He chose not to respond.
4. CEO sends out surveys asking very clear, relevant questions. Answers are ignored. I completed 3 such surveys. Never even got a “we’ll look into it” cursory response.
5. Sitelink code is full of validation problems. It costs 400-500% more per month than the most expensive shopping cart and hosting that I could find. You pay $1000s to update their antiquated cart, and then surprise! you own your custom code, but it’s useless to you if you want to move. A big investment into a sinkhole. Sitelink is about 8 years behind every shopping cart I’ve reviewed re: functionality and SEO. It’s horrible for search engine placement. You have to do a lot of custom coding. Support was so bad, I ended up learning html and .asp in my “spare” time to do the most simple things for which they charged a minimum of $350 per request as of 2009.
6. Even sales has ignored email questions about upgrading.
7. Latest strongarm tactic is they want you to pay for them to keep their software current. For $1000s they’ll make their software PCI compliant. I cannot find another software company on the market trying to charge their customers to bring this aspect or any other aspect of the software current.
8. In the “old days” when you could call tech support, if you were on hold for an hour and the clock struck 3:55 in New Jersey, you were hung up on. Why? Bankers hours. They all leave early on Friday.
9. Website down? No problem, we’ll look into it next week. Want special weekend service at a premium? If you didn’t pay in advance of need, you can’t sign up now if you need it.

The list is longer, much longer, but the above form a “top level” overview.

I can’t see Dydacomp lasting much longer. The solution was quite simple, but perhaps nobody is vested enough personally to care. They needed to automatically upgrade all of their customers to the SQL version and get rid of Fox Pro. Take a year and upgrade everybody, one-by-one. At the end of that year, 60-70% of the tech calls would have disappeared. Then, they could have delivered great tech support and even charged more for it. Now, they’re overwhelmed. Their short sighted solution was to take “tech support messages” by untrained personnel. There are so many messages–many of which don’t make sense, I’m sure–they’re overwhelmed with piles of paper representing calls that will never be returned. Of course, leaving promptly every day and early on Friday, isn’t the right response to their condition either. I don’t think anyone considers staying late or working on the weekend. It’s unfortunate because I think you could fire half the people there and turn that company around with $200K in the bank with 12 people who really cared, who’d work 6 days a week for a year, and who had stock in the company.

All of the above is either my personal experience or my personal opinion only. I’m out $20,000, and as I said, leaving Dydacomp was one of the most relieving days of my life.

I was leary to read articles and blogs about them before I purchased the software due to the price of the product and all it offered. I use SiteLink and many of the other modules, all that come at a hefty price for a small business owner.

The kicker was the upgrade to 7i to be PCI Compliant. Then they tried to make a 7xpress with fewer items but the same cost. UNBELIEVABLE.

If you are thinking of purchasing MOM, DON’T!!! Search the web for other programs…they exist now and are much MUCH better than the idiots you will deal with at Dydacomp and /SiteLink.

Customer Service does NOT exist at Dydacomp or SiteLink. They do not answer your emails. Phone calls go unanswered and you end up with a machine or after an hour on hold, it just disconnects. Great way to do business. ha!

Well, that’s my $.02…hope it saves you thou$ands.