An Act 2010 Problem

I have used Symantec Act since 1985 in its various forms. It is my principal piece of software and from it I process bookings, run my electronic diary and export to Outlook (using Companion Link) so I can then sync my contact data with my iPhone. All emails are also sent directly from the program so a complete record is specific to each contact.

I was quite happy running Act up to version 6 which was in a .dbf format and hadn't really thought about upgrading. Due to a requirement to upgrade my Microsoft Office program from 2003 to 2007 I was faced with a dilemma. Act 6 didn't work with Office 2007 so I had to upgrade to Act 9 to run the Office program which in a .sql format.

Act 9 was basically a disaster for me as the technical team at Act (Sage) couldn't import my 3,500 contacts so I had to recover my data by syncing my then Blackberry to Act which only gave me part of my contacts.

After the trials and tribulations of Act 9 I was offered the upgrade to Act 2010 (version 12) assuming a lot of the bugs in Act 9 had been resolved. That is simply not the case and maybe version 12 has more problems that Act 9 ever did.

As a lot of my bookings come from regular customers I use the "Duplicate" contact facility a lot as this retains the primary data leaving me to fill in the data against the new booking. When starting with Act 2010 the duplicate facility simply did not work.

I spent hours on the phone with technical support by remote link, ran report after report for them, sent copies of my database to them, created a new database from scratch after long discussions and when technical support replicated my database on their own computer they achieved the same result.

This took 4 to 5 weeks out of my life and the net result was they had to report the issue to the American tech support team which basically meant the issue was buried for ever. During this period I spoke to many engineers as well as sending lenghty emails about the problems with Act 2010. 1 of those emails still remains unanswered.

The issue are various: Company name is in standard rather than bold text irrelevant of how you set the field settings, the program is very unstable when trying to change the main view, the layou in the main view is not acceptable but certain of the functions cannot be changed and the list goes on.

It is typical of a piece of software developed by those who never use it and yet supposedly the prime database of its type in the world.

I rang UK tech support re another issue last week and spoke to maybe the 5th technician who answered my question on that day and whilst on the phone he realised the other duplication issue I had. I would also like to comment that I pay for their support which is not cheap.

The technician I spoke to said he would like to check a couple of things and my immediate answer was they have all been checked by other technicians as I was basically not prepared to spend further time resolving the unresolvable.

The first check was under the Tools menu from the main screen and he asked I check Tools /Manage Users and my name is there as Mr Peter Burton. He then asked me what does "My Record" show which was Peter Burton.

I simply put Mr in front of my name and the duplicate record function has worked perfectly ever since. I can only thank him for his input but it leaves a major question unanswered,

"WHY ON EARTH" did the previous technicians not know that. I asked the question and the reply was, they should have.

After many weeks of hassle, upset, questions, telephone calls, emails and a very disgruntled better half the cure for my problem was simply ensuring the database user name is the same as My Record.

Maybe training is the issue but as normal in these cases if it is not reported or listed as an FAQ then lesser technicians don't think about it. I have requested this be put in the FAQ's for future users. It would appear to me the manage users and my record data is a standard issue and therefore not listed in any of the FAQ's.

So, after using previous versions of Act since1985 with complete satisfaction I am now lumbered with a database that doesn't function correctly in many areas. No-one at Act / Sage has had the courtesy to apologise for their incompetence or in any way offer me compensation for the time I have spent solving my problem.