Need Aloha Frequent Buyer Support - will pay$$$

[RosemarysBaby]

I've been on Frequent Buyer for many years and it's worked great until we upgraded to Aloha 6.1. The upgrade caused every customers birth dates (over 3000) to become grayed out and null. It also did some weird things to the address field.

Anyway, the local dealer in trying to fix these concerns said the only way to fix would be to "downgrade" my Aloha back to 5.27 but with credit card CISP etc., that doesn't seem wise. Dealer talked me into E-card and Stored value saying that Frequent Buyer is a dinosaur and really not supported any longer. "Hosted solutions" is the way to go they said. After 2 months with E-card I really have to abandon the program, way too many limitations for me.

I need to know if there is anyone for hire that has worked with V5 Fastech Frequent Buyer and knows some of the bugs I'm talking about. I've run out of options and I'm looking for support here that I can pay for.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

I'll pay $500 /hr. to anyone who knows of this problem and can fix it.

 

[DigOffSys]

Radiant has a program called eFrequency and Aloha has a membership module (extra charge).

Both work in 6.1. Also why the upgrade to 6.1 and not 6.4. 6.4 is through beta testing an is the latest software.

If V5 Fastech does not have a version that will work with 6.1 I think you only have one option, downgrade. The problem is the move from 5.x to 6.x had some field changes in the underlying data.

 

[RosemarysBaby]

I upgraded to 6.1 about a year ago. R U saying that 6.4 works well with V5 Fastech? That the underlying field change problem has been resolved? These are answers I can't seem to get from my dealer (a really big dealer).

I'm on eFrequency. It dosen't work well with my bonus plan structure. Way too many limitations and my Frequent Buyer customers of which I have over 3000 for over 10 years, aren't very happy. This is why I'm desperate here and willing to pay for a proper fix. I won't downgrade my Aloha as that would only be a temp fix anyhow.
Thanx

 

[DigOffSys]

No you will have the same issues with 6.4 the underlying databases have changed.

eFrequency has some limitations but I have always been able to work around them.

 

[TobeThor]

It might be beneficial if you described the bonus plan structure in detail and maybe a few work arounds or ideas will come about. Worth a try, at this point what have you got to lose.

Curious.. I thought Fastech was a Frequency program that Micros offered in the 90's, is it the same program you're using?

 

[RosemarysBaby]

Work arounds is what I'm trying to do with the eFrequency people right now. They're working hard at trying to not loose me from their hosted solutions.

My problem is as I'm getting closer to transitioning 100% from Fastech Loyalty to eFrequency, there's a lot about eFreq that I'm not liking. I need to commit or cut loose very soon. I would gladly stay with fastech loyalty if my most recent Aloha upgrade didn't corrupt it. Fastech says they can't speak to me, only my dealer. My dealer says they (dealer) don't want to try and fix the issue. They say I'm their only customer in Florida using Fastech loyalty and that it's a waste to try and support it.

Digoffsys was on the right track hinting about database issues but at this point I'm leaning to abandon Fastech and commit to eFreq.

eFreq people told me that they've submitted 2 RFC's to the developers to try and resolve some issues. RFC's are supossed to be a big deal, we'll see.

TobeThor, Yes it's the same company, Fastech, they developed for both. I credit them with the enormous growth of my business. It's almost ironic how they refuse to even speak to me about getting their program fixed when I absolutely love the program.

 

[TobeThor]

Unfortunate indeed. I looked it up and found that Radiant bought Fastech some years ago. When you examine the tactic (buy an existing frequency program, attempt to transition all of their users into your own up and coming frequency program or else they are left w/o a future and w/o support)it is clear that it may pay off financially for Radiant but the little guy who likes their original frequency gets the short end of the stick.

Did the Dealer inform you that the upgrade would corrupt the fastech frequency database?
If not and it damaged your business, you may have a legal standing if the Dealer performed no due diligence.

Have you considered 3rd party frequency programs? If I understand correctly, the 3rd party programs import many of the proprietary frequency programs in existence. If it is corrupted thou you may have to go back to an earlier version of Aloha to get a clean database.

3rd party programs offer many web based services for your frequency customers as well.

Have you considered that the company that is offering you the new efrequency program intentionally squashed your original program and now these same folks may now control your new frequency database and that you will be forced to accept any new rules they decide to make. In essence they have proven their main focus is their bottom line, not yours, otherwise they would have committed a few dollars to develop and provide a smooth transition for the thousands of Fastech users. As you can tell I don't like it when companies use this approach to increase their revenues.

Did you know that Mercury (MPS, credit card processors) offer a Free Gift Card program for their credit card clients? Be careful if you choose this option, you must be aware of all factors should you decide to leave Mercury after a 2 year stint for IE:.

Curious...
If you are using a few features of Fastech that are "huge" in regards to how they enhance your frequency program, did any of the folks at Radiant call or send out a survey to learn of what features about Fastech their end-users really relied on? If not, it's an indication that they really handled this transition poorly or that they basically had no real intention of handling a transition at all. Neither scenario is comforting if you plan on putting more of your eggs into the Radiant basket.

 

[DigOffSys]

If you want to give eFrequency another try I'm willing to work with you. If nothing else we can at least get a list of "must have" features so you can look for another product. I've worked with eFrequency on two other projects and seem to get everything the customer wanted, althought there were some work arounds. For example you may have to combine or more likely split some of your promo's into multiple eFrequency programs. A little trouble on the maintance side but the end customer does not know the difference.

 

[Circle9]

What 3rd party solutions are out there for this? I am also in the market for a frequent buyer system and have no need for eFrequency as we only have one store.

 

[AlohaSuppport2]

Rosemary

There is no reason FB/Delvery should not work when upgrading to Aloha 6.x. It is considered a "legacy" product by Radiant, but if you have been using it, it should continue working. There was a version update for FB/Delivery that needs to be in place for it to work. If the other responses on the forum have not resolved your issue completely you can email me. Visit

http://www.askbillbradley.com.

Good luck.

 

[awbbar]

The new version of EDC(6.4) runs/installs independently
of Aloha Pos. So you can run your old version of Aloha POS /DELFB with a compliant version of EDC.