problems with advanced access

With their sites being on a roller coaster ride (up, then down, then up, then down) it's a wonder that they still have any loyal customers. Last Wednesday the sites were acting up and finally went down for good most of Thursday. Last night they started to have some hiccups and today were down for much of the morning. As of about 3:00 PM most sites have lost their IDX searches and there is no one minding the forums to even give a crap.

As far as Anna, she is off on doctors rest. Anna is not the cure-all, she is just a CS who is pleasant on the phone which is what they get paid for. She, alone, cannot fix the troubles at AA. It needs to start at the top and continue down through the ranks, with head chopping along the way, until they get the right people in the right positions. Management currently takes no interest in fixing the problems.

I actually find some solace in seeing that other people are having issues with AA. It took several months for the IDX to be set up that was 9 months ago. Since then Quick Homes has never worked correctly. I saved a search in Quick Homes to send listings daily at the same time did one on Housevalues.com with the same parameters. In 6 months I have never received one property update. I have called and called and called CS. It is always put on the highest level and it is never addressed.

Also, the statistics page worked till March 07 then the system was down for 6 months. After it being placed on the highest level multiple times it was back working again. The catch is, it only worked for a week then down again. It is currently down and placed on the highest level for the 3rd time in 5 weeks.

How high is the highest level? It's about as high as the lowest level.

I have no choice but to find another provider. Does anyone actually know of a good provider that does have CS.

As someone who's familiar with Advanced Access both pre and post buyout I can really sympathize with those of you who are having problems with Advanced Access products and services.  I can also attest to this lack of service and an unwillingness to help clients as I witnessed first hand on more than one occasion. 

Don't be fooled however as the problems you're seeing now where there long before the buyout occurred.  The company has always had a problem keeping their websites up and functioning properly.  Their software has always been third rate and full of programming holes.  I had been privy to many a meeting and received information from those who attended these meeting where company Executives spent the meeting scrambling, yelling and laying blame on everything but themselves.  These meetings always involved senior management as well as leading members of the IT department.  I was actually close with a couple of ex-employee's who worked in that department and the consensus was that the company could never fix their software (email and websites) because doing so would have meant cutting into the profits of a few select individuals.

I'm not surprised to learn that Advanced Access websites are still having the same issues they've always had and I know from reading several posts that their email services have not yet improved either. Again the problems I see being reported here are the same problems I saw reported from the early part of this decade so don't expect things to change.  In fact, now that a large corporate entity has stepped in and taken over this small business I would say it's safe to assume that Advanced Access will be milked dry and little will be done to maintain what the original owners built.  Clients have never been a priority there, though before the buyout they were far better at convincing you otherwise.

Those of you who remain faithful to Advanced Access should understand that the leadership in place both before and after the buyout is not there to help or assist you in any fashion.  Having known several individuals in the service department over the years I can tell you that those you speak with when you call for help are told blatantly to lie to you.  They know as do their managers and senior executives that they are nowhere near finding solutions to the problems I see being reported on these boards.  They'll tell you anything to keep your business though it seems the ship known as Advanced Access is now sitting in a sea full of icebergs and poised for disaster.

The abysmal service you've all complained about has also been a staple at Advanced Access for a long time.  The service director, Aaron Spegon focuses only on the bottom line and calls answered.  There is no consideration for your inquiries or issues.  If you happen to be part of the majority of calls answered then he considers your problems solved simply because you where able to reach a human being via telephone. Mr. Spegon does not spend his days trying to find solutions to the different types of complaint/problems his representatives receive but rather finds ways to save the company money and finds ways to increase the percentage of calls his people answer. Though some of the service individuals may do a less than stellar job at Advanced Access, the lack of service can be attributed to poor leadership and a general lack of focus on you, the customer.

After having and Advanced Access site since 2004 and still using the same software interface that I started with, it was finally time to get off their worn out set of tires and move my site elsewhere. Having survived Black Monday and the week long outage that followed, the promises of a better backup system on their end failed to materialize. Outages and downtime are a constant event with most agents never being aware of it. Customer service is still lacking due to what appears to be major cutbacks. The inability to upgrade the 3.0 sites is just another example of the difficulties that have plagued Advanced Access for the last several years.

Moving my site over to Point2Agents was nothing but a blip on the screen with no downtime whatsoever. I had the bulk of it already in place before AA pulled the plug and have a file of every page and all the graphics that existed on my old site for future use. It took me one weekend to finally remove the headache known as Advanced Access. You can continue to read and post comments on my Advanced Access blog. It has a PR4 just like Advanced Access and cautions others to be weary of them!

http://AAPowerOutage.wordpress.com