Advice on new program

[Cliff Salisbury]

Brandon, I have used HighPerForm for over fifteen years and have had numerous problems. The last time I called them about a copying problem they went through everything that they knew what to do and than said we can not do anything more. I still have the problem. If they can not get it to work, how do they expect me to be able to use it. They limit the way that you can copy files. At least Dave Bigggers comes on to the forum and fields some questions. I wish the CEO of HighPerForm would. Maybe I would know that he was concerned about the program that they are selling.

 

[BigBlueGA]

What kind of problem are you having? I have gotten pretty good with it in the last couple of years, maybe I can help.. shoot me a private message.

I have been pleased with the program.. it has had its share of quirks, but they are fairly good in fixing the bugs that pop up relatively quickly with the updates. Only bad experience I've had was a tech support guy that I wanted to reach through the phone and choke.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, before I start this, a disclaimer. I think most here know of my past comments about alamode. However, Mr. Biggers does desrve credit for the severs. They only time I have ever hada problem was with my sever and the routing. I ran a trace and found the problem. (this was back on dial up ISP). Simply called in from another number and had no problem. I have found the servers to be very reliable and do what they were promised to do. Mr. Biggers, This is one area that I have no gripe but praise for your product. Since going to cable modem,I have NEVER had a problem with the servers, EDI, mapping, etc.

I may not like everything about Alamode, but I do have to had it to you on this one. It does work.

 

[Judy Whitehead (Florida)]

I'll stick up for Dave, as well. I just started using Ala Mode in April or May and have had very little problems with it, except it doesn't seem to like any antivirus program :wink:

I finally had to disable my Trend Micro PcCillon and downloaded a trial version of Norton, which WinTotal Tech support told me yesterday has some "issues" with WinTotal. For me the Norton program has been operating much better. I have to use some "amateur" programs to obtain information and my perception is that they all fight each other.

The one thing I have never had a problem with, however, has been transmitting EDI reports. I do use Cable and don't know what I would do if I had to go back to phone lines.

 

[Anonymous]

Judy,

That has long been a complaint of mine. How come I am told bu support that all of my other software is "an inferior product" when it conflicts with total? How come none of the inferior stuff, like excel, the 4 MLS's i have, word perfect, quattro, etc have any conflict problems?

 

[dbiggers]

The anti-virus issues aren't "conflicts" as much as thas they are just plain slowdowns due to the nature of appraisal files. Norton and the others aren't inferior in any way, nor are we blaming them for anything -- other than dramatically slowing down WinTOTAL.

The reason is simple and makes perfect sense. From the very beginning, we've always compressed each appraisal into a zip file, called a ZAP (zipped appraisal package), so that all of the pieces of the report -- photos, forms, addenda, faxes, field notes, maps, etc. -- are in one container. The biggest advantage is that with everything in one file, you know that you can copy it, e-mail it, back it up, etc. and never be missing pieces of it which were "left behind". That also, combined with the Digital Workfile feature (which can store you paper notes, etc.), makes it the only USPAP-compliant digital storage method for appraisals.

Anyway, anti-virus programs tend to think that they need to scan every file of every type, especially zips, and they scan the entire zip every time anything is read from it or written to it. That gets painfully slow, and can even cause WinTOTAL to die if it "holds up" a zap too long while it's trying to read or write to it.

If you can configure your AV program to ignore ZAP files -- it's impossible for a ZAP to have a virus anyway, since it's got no executable code in it -- then you can have it protecting you without having it slow everything down.

Dave Biggers
CEO
a la mode, inc.

P.S. Bill -- thanks for the support on our server reliability. I really appreciate it.

 

[BigBlueGA]

Bill -

It's for the same reason that when your kid gets into a fight, the other kid always started it.

 

[Anonymous]

Dave,

Man, if that is the right answer, you should hear what your techs say. I have an idea for you. Have a friend or a relative that nobody there knows become a "new tech". Wait a few weeks and I bet you wont believe what you are told about the canned answers they give people. Do you know how many programs I have on my machines that your tech flat told me where inferior to alamode? About all of them Dave. I dont want to get into a big deal here today. (I did start by standing up for your product in this thread) But Dave, your posts sometimes are not even close to what your techs or swat teams tell us.

 

[dbiggers]

Bill --

The anti-virus program issues are even documented in our tech docs and on our website, so I know that's how the AV issue is explained. Since I don't know what other non-AV software you're talking about on your system, I have no idea what may or may not have been discussed inyour particular case. However, there are always some programs which conflict with each other -- some of the ones I've seen are so esoteric and odd that it's impossible to categorize.

As for knowing what techs say, trust me when I tell you that we (and I) do listen in and monitor phone calls. Our phone system allows managers to monitor calls remotely, with the technician not being aware that anyone is listening in. It's standard practice in a call center. So, we don't have to hire a relative to know what gets said.

But regardless of how much you monitor calls, there will always be cases where a tech is wrong, jumps to conclusions, or points the finger at another program too quickly. Besides just training issues and flat-out human error, there are completely legitimate reasons. A tech winds up with about 10 minutes to determine a cause to a problem, and that time pressure and the nature of phone support can make it easy to make a mistake. It's like being a doctor in the emergency room -- no matter how much training they have or how bright the doctors are, the likelihood of error is there anyway, and it's compounded by the urgency and time constraints. Tech is no different.

Dave

 

[BarbaraNJ]

Julia:

Sorry, don't have any suggestions on new software. Just wanted to tell you that you are NOT CRAZY.

The same things have happened to me with Alamode. Over the past two years, I have had at least five occasions when my reports would not go through. When I inquired, I was told the problem was with my ISP. Funny, having NO other problems with any other sites/downloading/emailing.

Sure enough, one or two days go by and the reports are suddenly sailing through again. Then a few days or weeks after that, Alamode issues a small blurb about past technical problems and everything is "OK" now.
NO KIDDING!!!!

The reason I will NEVER upgrade my support is each time I have had a question, I get an email, phone or fax message telling me to "go to the tutorial" and look for the answer. Exactly what is the SERVICE here???
I KNOW I can look up the answer myself, but don't have the hour or two to search. I (mistakenly) thought that SERVICE was paying someone to do something you could not or did not want to do yourself.

By the way, if you DO find an better alternative, please e mail me.