Act now seems to be a disaster- need some technical help

[frustrated]

I used ACT for about 10 years at my former job and I successfully went through 2 or 3 upgrades.  Now I work for my self and i bought a copy of ACT last November.  It took me about a month to get my data loaded and then after a couple of weeks I was just getting back in the swing of things when I had a MAPI catastrophic failure.  I called for tech support, but I was already out of the 30 day window and they wanted to charge me $300 for tech support.  I said i wanted my money back, but I was also out of the 60 day money back window. 

After a little sould searching, I decided to reinstall the program.  It would not let me reinstall.  I then went into Add/delete programs and deleted the program (yes, I copied the database folder as a backup).  I still can't reinstall the program, because it says there is an existing version installed. 

Every time I open Outlook I get error messages  that are looking for ACT related dll files. 

At this point, I can't go forward or backwards, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nlowe1]

I would call and speak to someone in customer service - even sales - I am sure they can find someone to help you at least reinstall. It can't be good for them to have you so frustrated! Good luck! Natalie

[pmtate]

I suggest you look at the following Knowledgebase articles on http://www.act.com:

21385  and 21390 

The first is the normal uninstall, the second the manual one.

[mpitts]

I had to do a complete reinstall of the entire PC  to get rid of that problem.  It messed it up pretty bad

[cmi-jb3]

I feel your pain! As a 12+ year ACT! user I was talked into upgrading from V6 when they stopped supporting it. I am on V9.0 now and if there was any way to go back to 6 I would. I think there are more bugs in the new program than you would find in a deserted house in New Orleans.

[tbowen]

I had a very frustrating initial experience with customer support as well.  However, once I spoke with the right people it was handled perfectly.  You might want to check into their customer loyalty program/team. 

[frustrated]

Thanks for the suggestion of the manual uninstall. It took all afternoon, but I was able to do that and then reinstall the program and install the latest patch.  I have my database back, but I have not set up email in ACT to connect with my Outlook (due to the MAPI failure last time around). 

[neil_beam]

Dear Frustrated,

I didn't want you to go too long without a communication from Sage. From your thread it looks like there is a mixture of environmental problems and as your name states: "Frustration". Since you have a support contract you always have a resource in the team here at Sage to step through the technical issues. I encourage you to pursue both a continued dialogue on the community and touching base with Support.

What else is great is that you have found your way to the community which is a great place to be and some fantastic insights and solutions have been presented here already.

As tbowen says above, while it may not feel like it all the time, the Sage team is here to deliver the best possible customer experience. Feel free to reach out at any time. We are here for you: the customer.

Neil

[frustrated]

I do not have  support contract and I refuse to pay more than the software costs for a support plan when the software is still brand new (only a few months old).  Also, I take issue with your comment about environmental problems- I have Windows XP pro and MS office 2003- all of those had the very latest updates before I installed ACT!  Seems to me the software is top heavy, buggy and lacking in viable support (and this comes from a guy who LOVED Act! for nearly 10 years).

I am very nervous about ACT! and I am considering another contact manager software.

[realtimeact]

Frustrated,

Most of us who work with ACT! as consultants are often left to wonder if ACT! creates problems or simply uncovers them. When presented with a clean environment (PC), good machine specs, and using best practices during an install ACT! performs very well.

The reality is that despite it's shortcomings ACT! is feature for feature the best value on the market. 

Your MAPI errors do sound environmental, and while the software is relatively cheap access to competent technical support is not.