Click here to read why the folks at Chiltern Newsagency switched from POS Solutions Browser software to Tower Systems newsagency software.
Click here to read why the folks at Chiltern Newsagency switched from POS Solutions Browser software to Tower Systems newsagency software.
Some things just never change; almost a mirror image of the experience we had over 3 years ago, hence why we changed tp Tower.
We were the same, never looked back.
G’day Guys
With recent changes at pos, I’m finding their support has improved. I have been fast tracked a few times!
Ive noticed their is some new voices on their helpdesk, who are very polite and helpful.
I find also pos updates their software more frequently then tower, and most importantly they are still supporting my much loved Pos Dos. I will upgrade in the future, but while pos is adding features like Touch phonecard intergration therefore I can do this upgrade to Pos Browser at my own pace.
I have just performed a major shopfit and we are doing very well with this change alone!
Just wanted to add my 2 cents.
Good luck growing your business guys
cheers
Pinewood Newsagency,
Happy Pos Dos User
Pinewood this is not my experience. I am switching in two weeks and will be glad to rid myself of them. Calls dont get answered, they are rude if you do get to speak to them, and I hate their updates which are not properly tested.
I guess I am not one of the very special close circle of pos fans they look after with fast tracked service.
Like I said, good riddance. I will publish my story like chiltern did once I am rid of pos.
PINEWOOD do you have shares in pos …thats my 2 cents worth
people still use dos?
On reading why Tom & Denise Rowland switched software, I realised that you could probably substitute the names of hundreds of newsagents and still have essentially the same circumstances.
How do I know – I was one of them!
Like Julie, we were never offered (nor sought for that matter) an invitation into that cozy circle of friends where technology and software decisions were made and then foisted upon the entire user base without consultation.
Just a few of the circumstances that forced me to look elsewhere –
a) promised training never being delivered,
b) phone calls that degenerated into screaming matches as excuse after exuse was piled on to cover support/software shortcomings,
c) confudential phone calls from one party denigrating other parties within the POS Solutions organisation,
d) the refusal of a certain senior sales person to return even one phone call as I tried to resolve issues surrounding hardware purchased after POS had recommended it,
e) unsolicited phone calls from another senior POS person covering the arse of the one mentioned above,
f) maintenance charges, which on a percentage basis would make most software manufacturers cringe with embarassment,
g) being referred to another newsagency for support on a particular module of the software,
The list could go on and on but the point is – when the time came to shift to what I would regard as software at a suitable level of maturity and functionality for the newsagency industry there was no hard sell, the job was done with a minimum of fuss, there was no downtime and on the rare occasions we need support, it is there!
PINEWOOD – your name was given to us as a reference site for POS Browser some years ago yet I see here that you are still on DOS – are The Zimmer Man and Null and Void (aka the Varga brothers) aware of this or is this just another of their ploys to suck users in?
As we all know this industry is very diverse with many different working business models.
I was just expressing my experience.
Software is a personal choice and for my shop i’m quite happy with the software I have and the support “I” have received.
I have a strong computing background and this may give me an advantage in this area as i do not need to call very often for support in the first place.
I have since realised that this is a tower forum not a newsagency blog my apologies
Pinewood, Your labelling this a Tower forum does not do the 5,000 posts over several years justice nor the broad church of commenters who participate here. Just because a couple of people have different experiences to you does not mean you should pass judgement as you have.
Mark
Pinewood
Hi, I dont neccessarily agree at all that it is a Tower Blog, this maybe a rare Tower post.
Hope you hang around and read the many and diverse subjects and information, it is a transparent Newsagency information service, some post you will relate to, some post you dont like and some posts you may want to contribute.
Some good stuff here, whatever your software is.
Mark- you are good, you always get in before me, this time by 5 minutes. (I type slow)
Mark,with respect, you could do well to apply your own last post to youself,different opinions to yours are often ridiculed,different isnt wrong,its different!!
Helen I am not sure what you actually mean by this. I had cause earlier this wek to go back over several hundred comments and there were plenty disagreeing. It would see that you don’t approve any disagreement at all.
Mark
Its very very clear what i mean ,if you dont agree with somones posts you attempt to ridicule them or try to offer excuses as to why they are wrong ..opinions are never wrong they are opinions…intralot and bill express is a clasic example…both damaging to the channel,obviously only one damaged you!!
Helen,
You are wrong. There are plenty of comments posted here over the years with which I have disagreed and which have not been ridiculed.
I get your point about Intralot and have no desire to rake over old coals on that. What do you mean about Bill Express?
Mark
Get a life Helen. Sure Mark has opinions. Don’t look in the mirror because, shock horror, you do too. Yes you do. And you try and beat Mark into submission. So what is he disagrees with you. Get over it girl. He lets you have your say. What does that tell you. Like I said, get a life woman.
Let me tell you my family’s pos solutions experience.
After a few years using the system I decided I did not want to pay $3,200 a year for what I felt was less than acceptable service. I have kept track of calls and the best response to a call is a day, 24 hours.
I told them I was not going to pay the support fee and they did not respond. The day the bill was due my software stopped working. There was nothing in the agreement which gave them the right to do this. They just did it and stopped me putting sales through. I called and some girl refused to put me through to anyone until I paid the three grand.
I switched to access POS.
Aaron,
That is the question I too am asking! This industry is notoriously slow in the uptake of technology.
Hi Pinewood
We use Computerlink and have done so in 2 newsagencies now. I also thought this was a blog for just tower newsagents, but like the discussions on relevant issues , I just ignore the ones relating to Tower. As we are very happy with our systems and support. Stick with what works for you.
I will finally be rid of pos solutions next month. Yes I am switching to Tower but that does not matter. Getting away from POS was the issue. I am sick of magazine returns problems.
Jarryd, Aaron
Yes, this industry is relatively slow on the uptake of technology but look at what is on offer –
a) software vendors who lock users into archaic platforms (eg. POS DOS),
b) web-based applications that were probably state-of-the-art when the Internet was a lad (eg. XChange-IT),
c) electronic interchange standards so numerous you could write a book about them,
d) suppliers who refuse to use any of the above-mentioned “standards” so the receiver gets to experience the joy of manually receiving hundreds of items month after month,
e) suppliers who supply product with no barcodes
The list is endless but there are only so many letters in the alphabet to apply to so many issues.
It is interesting to note that these issues, which are prevalent in fragmented industries such as ours, do not exist in for example, the supermarket trade (or not to the extent we suffer). My experience in the past as a supplier to the supermarket trade is “Our way or the highway” and at the end of the day it enforced standards – maybe not the best standards in the world but at least they were standards!
While this industry continues to tolerate and support obsolete and archaic platforms, they will continue to exist and we will all suffer.
But then, this is an industry that, despite its size and potential strength, is renowned for its tendencies to kow-tow to suppliers and its willingness to perform almost obscene gymnastic exercises in an effort to be screwed by publishers and distributors.
Jim,
The picture you paint of the state of this industry’s technology and standards is a sad one. Unfortunatly, it is also true.
XchangeIT and publisher websites are the single greatest technological joke this industry endures. Other industries have such things completely and fully integrated into their point of sale systems.
The data exchange standards are a huge problem and one that contributes to further integration issues. However when it comes to multiple suppliers (especially smaller ones) much the same issues occur in other industries. Although I would note that the methods in which other industries handle multiple supplier data and invoicing is different (better).
Suppliers that can’t follow such basic standards (and provide barcodes – that meet international standards I might add) should automatically be shunned.
Marketing groups have the ability to begin enforcing some standards (at least in a few categories). But none are doing this at the moment. It is long overdue.
The way in which newsgency point of sale systems handle supplier and store product data is also a problem. It is a little difficult to explain, but one look at supermarket based point of sale systems will show how this data can be managed in a much more efficient way that also opens doors for future fundamental changes in the way newsagents manage product data and in particular pricing.
It seems to be a vicious cycle. Everyone including newsagents, pos providers, marketing groups and suppliers are at fault.
Jarryd, Jim,
Change is coming this year in the form of new XchangeIT standards, new newspaper publisher standards and moves by several non circulation suppliers.
While none of these moves address the level of core change you both seek, they are better than what we have today.
Those who make decisions on standards in our channel have access to the supermarket, pharmacy an convenience IT / data standards. It is disappointing that they have not followed these valuable leads.
Too often in meetings over the last ten years with suppliers about this issue of standards, decisions have been about those newsagents and suppliers who fail to meet the most basic standards. Decisions have been made to help these non performing suppliers and newsagents maintain a seat at the table. This was most notably evident at a two day News Ltd facilitated conference in Melbourne over two years ago, a conference from which nothing was achieved because of this very issue.
There is will for change. To me, the key is to not see ourselves as a single group because we cannot act as one. Those who want best practice need to work together for our good. Good suppliers will be with us. What we achieve will be aspirational for some who do not initially come with us.
Mark
I don’t know about ‘the industry’, as many people here refer to it, as I’m only a casual at a newsagency, but something as old as dos shouldn’t even be used.
i’m guessing all pos registers are computer-based (not sure if it used to just be a normal cash register. lol) but if …the world doesn’t use dos, then i think it’s time to change it.
Those who make decisions on standards in our channel have access to the supermarket, pharmacy an convenience IT / data standards. It is disappointing that they have not followed these valuable leads.
Could it be that those decision makers have a vested interest in a fragmented industry? When the arrogance dissipates, some of these suppliers/publishers/distributors must quake in their boots at the thought of a unified industry demanding and enforcing standards. Unfortunatley, whilst we tolerate sub-standard practices from within the industry, that arrogance will only be replaced with laughter.
For a newsagent to state that he is perfectly happy with his obsolete software that has more cobbled on bits than a centipede’s shoe cupboard and for others to encourage him to stick with what works for him is, IMHO, exactly what is wrong with this industry!
The other tragic thing about this is that those charged with running our various associations who are theoretically best placed to bring the relevant partys to the table to address these issues probably
a) don’t have a clue of what I am talking about and
b) believe XchangeIT is a bartering system where you exchange large amounts of cash for a pile of under-performing magazines!
bernard has posted a similar blogpost about why someone changed from tower to pos.
failing to give any..convincing information, it seems he made it into a cheap-looking advertisment.
Aaron,
If you are a casual as you have stated in item 24, is your employer aware of your time wasting efforts on this blog or are you paid to roam the net
i believe this blog is accesible from ANY internet connection?
Bernie Zimmerman is a joke as dmonstrated by his replies to himself. I go there sometimes if I need cheering up.
I switched from POS Browser to Tower after they took a week to fix a bug which killed my system.
They will find out next month when they ask me to renew support.
Aaron ignore noname nsw person – i like your comments.
thanks denise. though i’ve probably only posted her a few times. (could possibly count on all my posts on one hand, or two)
WE SWITCHED FROM pOS TO TOWER IN DEC AND ALTHOUGH WE HAD A FEW HICCUPS IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF WEEKS, IT HAS MADE A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE NOT ONLY TO US THE OWNERS BUT THE STAFF CANT BELIEVE HOW MUCH EASIER THINGS ARE TO DO. WE HAD NOTHING BUT GRIEF WITH POS, MUCH THE SAME AS OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPEREINCE, THE MAIN ONE BEING THEY NEVER RETURNED OUR CALLS. THE IRONIC PART WAS, THAT ON THE DAY OF INSTALLING TOWER (WE DIDN’T BOTHER RINGING POS AND LETTING THEM KNOW, THEY WOULDN’T HAVE CALLED US BACK!) I RECIEVED A CALL FROM POS ASKING HOW WE WERE GOING! I TOLD THE BLOKE WE WERE FINE BUT THAT I WAS BUSY AND COULDN’T TALK. HE CONTINUED ON AND SAID HE HAD HEARD A RUMOUR WE WERE SWITCHING TO TOWER. I LAUGHED AT HIM, SO THIS IS WHY HE HAD RUNG. WHEN I ASKED HIM HOW HE KNEW, HE TOLD ME THEY HAD A GUY IN TOWER WHO HAD GVEN HIM THE INFO!! SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF A SPY NOVEL!! AND HE WAS SERIOUS. HE TOLD ME HE WOULD LEAVE OUR ACCOUNT OPEN BECAUSE WE WOULD BE BACK TO POS IN TWO WEEKS BECAUSE TOWER WOULDN’T WORK!! PARANOIA AND ARROGANCE, JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE!