Darren H.

I have been using VisualSoft with two different retailers for the past 7 years, looking through some of these reviews I feel that, yes there are certainly areas for improvement however I don't agree with the fact VS don't care about there customers. I have had many issues over the years, some serious, however all of them have been worked out amicably in the end.

Ecommerce is a particularly complicated affair, it does help if you have an employee who understands various aspects be it design (science behind it), layout, functionality, basic coding knowledge to name a few areas in house; and like any major project you must have someone who can manage the project well your end and liaise with VS at each stage! Don't rush the design stage at the start, its possibly the most important factor be it layout and functionality to overall feel and flow... VS are always happy to make amendments until you are happy! The more accurate the information you give VS the less issues you will run into. The better you manage the project your end the more likely the project will go live on the date stated. Even if you are great in this area there will still be issues (usually as a result of misunderstandings), but you only have to keep on top of it and make sure they understand the issues and they will get them resolved. Any project, what ever it is can always overrun, I always factor in an acceptable overrun period but push VS to keep on target and when there has been an overrun it has been within the allowance I would be ok with because I kept on top of it and them. I should point out I have been through 5 new website projects with VS!. OK so based on the above I am saying don't rely on the account manager at VS to keep on top of it as well as you could yourself... you must manage the project yourself! We have had a different account manager on each of our new website builds and I learnt after the first two to not rely on them as they are dealing with two many clients!

As for customer service costing to much, this is old information, VS know longer charge for minor changes, only extra functionality, design work etc. You do not get charged for things breaking, going wrong through no fault of your own and never have! Other huge improvements in this area is the availability of the customer service teams who are busy working away for us mornings, afternoons evenings and weekends now.

My only gripe has been server speed from day dot, however last year we started using two dedicated servers which has improved it hugely, other than that I would say currently my only issue is hosting charges which I feel could be done in a more clearer with fixed monthly payments for various business sizes.

Other than that yes from time to time something will break on the website as a result of a global change however they have always fixed these issues in a timely fashion and rarely have they been serious... but yes it can be a tad irritating as I do find myself checking over the website frequently to make sure we don't have any unforeseen issues all though you really should anyway especially with third party plugins etc.