Your Universal Remote Control Center
RemoteCentral.com
Custom Installers' Lounge Forum - View Post
Previous section Next section Previous page Next page Up level
Up level
The following page was printed from RemoteCentral.com:

Login:
Pass:
 
 

Page 11 of 22
Topic:
Portal, you are making a SERIOUS mistake
This thread has 323 replies. Displaying posts 151 through 165.
Post 151 made on Thursday August 2, 2018 at 12:34
imt
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
June 2007
466
On August 1, 2018 at 18:38, goldenzrule said...
I wanted to add that I do hope they get it together and fix the issues. I really am pulling for them.  I don't think the guys and gals at portal are bad people.  I just think they need to tweak things to get to the desired results.  The proposal tool should be easy to fix.  Fix the font and picture sizes mainly and I think its ok.  The pricing issue, I am not sure the best way to handle it, but relying on the vendors to send it to them doesn't seem like the best way.  It puts the responsibility on someone outside of their business.  Again, not sure how to fix that.  As has been mentioned, emails is not the best way to handle orders.  Access to the ordering system at the vendors in some form or other would be best.  All I know is there needs to be some tweaking to eliminate any possible issues which as of right now, is clearly too common judging by what not just myself has said here, but what others have said they've gone through using the service as well.

I can see both sides on the pricing as far as whose responsibility it should be. As Fred said, its the vendors responsibility to update Portal. In reality, Portal is at the mercy of the Vendor either way. Unless of course it get tied in electronically so everything is real time.

I do appreciate that Portal does tell you the last time the price was updated. So they are cluing you in. Problem though is the screen where its located. Its not front and center when you do an item search in the catalog. Have to then click on that item to view the full screen. That is a PITA to have to do that on every item to then know if something was recently updated, where odds are pricing is dead on or is a price update from 7 months ago, where chances are price is incorrect. Same with the ordering process. Dealer should know right there.
Post 152 made on Thursday August 2, 2018 at 21:09
Don Heany
Senior Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2008
1,178
Portal can update pricing, but how do they integrate dealer levels? That was the rub for us a couple weeks back- and the “vanishing” tax line item. Regardless, it’s an great proposal tool, we’re 10 pages in on this rant, and they’ve responded in good nature. Dealer levels need incorporated, that should set the record straight and I imagine that would require a couple additional layers of data. Be calm and Portal on.
Post 153 made on Tuesday August 7, 2018 at 11:06
Josh Willits
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2015
31
On July 31, 2018 at 15:51, GotGame said...
Using email to vendors for orders from portal is not a good way to do business.
"For that reason, I'm out."

Many people don't realize that when you book a hotel room on Expedia, anywhere in the world, it gets delivered via fax machine. For Expedia, it was the least common denominator to ensure they could book a room with any hotel in the world, in the right amount of time.

We took a page out of the Expedia book when we built the ordering tool. At the time, 99.9% of vendors accepted email orders from dealers. Some still accept fax, some have websites (and some don't), etc. Email was the least common denominator that allowed us to load ANY vendor in the industry for dealer accounts and allow the dealer to place orders from one place. If we waited until every vendor could tie into their ERP systems for automated order delivery (ignoring the fact that many, yes - many, vendors in the industry run their business manually on Quickbooks and couldn't even do this), it would take us 10 extra years with little value to dealers in the meantime.

That said, we recently completed support for EDI (electronic data interchange), a standard for electronic ordering. We did this specifically for some large vendors who we are onboarding as Portal Select, but are offering it to any vendor who supports EDI (most of the larger vendors do) as part of our Supplier Services. Eventually, I anticipate many vendors will move over to EDI which will only improve the dealer experience on Portal.
Post 154 made on Tuesday August 7, 2018 at 11:25
Josh Willits
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2015
31
On August 1, 2018 at 08:21, goldenzrule said...
I didn't email anyone, Portal did.  They used the exact email address they asked for me to submit, my rep.  If there is an issue with this process, it is on them to fix it.  I have never had to check for order confirmations from any of my vendors, ever.  If I placed the order, it comes.  Enough of the BS of putting the blame on us for ordering through them.  Portal did the same thing, saying I AM THE ONE that should have checked my confirmation to make sure it went through.  If you want me to use the service, then make it work as it should.  I order online mainly from 4 vendors.  All 4 have websites that I can order from that work well, 3 of which are very easy to use and one that is not the best site but mainly with finding products you are not sure of what you are looking for.  Enter the model number in search and it comes right up.  I can order everything I need in a matter of minutes from all my vendors without any issues.  If I am waiting to receive confirmations emails and going back to check that the order went through on every order, it will not be faster to use Portal.  Sorry, thats just the truth.  I'm happy you have had such success, but maybe your usual vendors do not have very good websites.  I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and continue using them during my testing.  They failed at 3 things that make it impossible to move forward with them.

I was actually pulled into this situation by my team (on your order, specifically). We allow dealers to set who their orders go to at any supplier. Some like to use the order desk, some like it to go to their rep, so we let dealers decide. In this case, the order was sent to the rep and they didn't do anything with it. Snap's order desk processes email orders really fast, actually. Anyway, I reached out to the Customer Service manager at Snap concerning this situation. Because they provide fantastic customer service, they comp'd the entire expedited shipping amount with a credit. It doesn't always end up this positive, but I was happy we were able to work with them to make it right for you. Our team does everything in our power to help dealers when situations arise.

1) their pricing is off on items.  Not every item, but enough that it means I have to verify pricing on every item I add to a proposal if I do not know the correct price off the top of my head.

As Fred mentioned, it's a challenge for us to manage multiple pricing levels across hundreds of suppliers and thousands of manufacturers. We have a full time data team that works with dealers to dial in their pricing. Some vendors are more difficult than others, and other vendors make sure their pricing is accurate for dealers (like Capitol Sales). We try to encourage dealers that if you see any pricing discrepancies, let us know and we'll work with you to get you in the correct pricing tier or load custom pricing for your account. Our goal is to make it as painless as possible.

We do make it easy for vendors to keep their pricing up to date and accurate for dealers via secure FTP data feeds into our site. Not everyone does that yet, though.

2) the updated proposal software is glitchy and does not look good when printed/sent.  They may fix this over time, or part of these issues.  Someone mentioned they said they have no plans to fix some of the issues that fall under this umbrella

To be honest, we've always battled with the PDF print version, as it was really designed for web delivery. We are working on a condensed version of the proposal. It's in development (not planned - they are actually working on it). I hope it comes soon, as I hear and agree with dealers who end up with too much white space on the PDF print. Let me know specifically what issues you were told we do not plan to fix and I can clarify.

3)  the ordering system needs a major overhaul.  This experience added both unneeded stress and a lot of wasted time on my part.

I mentioned this in another post a few minutes ago, but we just finished building support for EDI - automatic ordering - which most larger vendors support. This removes the human element for larger vendors and allows us to dump the order right into their ERP. We have several large vendors we're working on right now getting it implemented. As we continue to develop and offer this to vendors the experience will be greatly improved.
Post 155 made on Tuesday August 7, 2018 at 11:28
Josh Willits
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2015
31
On August 2, 2018 at 21:09, Don Heany said...
Portal can update pricing, but how do they integrate dealer levels? That was the rub for us a couple weeks back- and the “vanishing” tax line item. Dealer levels need incorporated, that should set the record straight and I imagine that would require a couple additional layers of data. Be calm and Portal on.

Hi, Don. We built our system to handle multiple "columns" or "tiers" of dealer pricing per supplier in our database, all the way down to custom pricing per dealer account with any vendor. If we didn't, then we couldn't support how the industry does business. In most cases, if a user is seeing inaccurate pricing, they've changed price tiers (maybe due to volume with that supplier, for instance). Just let our team know and we'll get you in the right price tier. If it's custom or we're missing the tier, we'll load it for you on your account.
Post 156 made on Tuesday August 7, 2018 at 16:59
SOUND.SD
Loyal Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2006
5,523
On August 7, 2018 at 11:25, Josh Willits said...
I was actually pulled into this situation by my team (on your order, specifically). We allow dealers to set who their orders go to at any supplier. Some like to use the order desk, some like it to go to their rep, so we let dealers decide. In this case, the order was sent to the rep and they didn't do anything with it. Snap's order desk processes email orders really fast, actually. Anyway, I reached out to the Customer Service manager at Snap concerning this situation. Because they provide fantastic customer service, they comp'd the entire expedited shipping amount with a credit. It doesn't always end up this positive, but I was happy we were able to work with them to make it right for you. Our team does everything in our power to help dealers when situations arise.

As Fred mentioned, it's a challenge for us to manage multiple pricing levels across hundreds of suppliers and thousands of manufacturers. We have a full time data team that works with dealers to dial in their pricing. Some vendors are more difficult than others, and other vendors make sure their pricing is accurate for dealers (like Capitol Sales). We try to encourage dealers that if you see any pricing discrepancies, let us know and we'll work with you to get you in the correct pricing tier or load custom pricing for your account. Our goal is to make it as painless as possible.

We do make it easy for vendors to keep their pricing up to date and accurate for dealers via secure FTP data feeds into our site. Not everyone does that yet, though.

To be honest, we've always battled with the PDF print version, as it was really designed for web delivery. We are working on a condensed version of the proposal. It's in development (not planned - they are actually working on it). I hope it comes soon, as I hear and agree with dealers who end up with too much white space on the PDF print. Let me know specifically what issues you were told we do not plan to fix and I can clarify.

I mentioned this in another post a few minutes ago, but we just finished building support for EDI - automatic ordering - which most larger vendors support. This removes the human element for larger vendors and allows us to dump the order right into their ERP. We have several large vendors we're working on right now getting it implemented. As we continue to develop and offer this to vendors the experience will be greatly improved.

Boom. That's how it's done. Rapidly becoming one of my favorite companies in the industry. Sincerely, Thank You for everything you have done and continue to do to improve our business process, customer facing proposals, ordering, tracking etc. We constantly here from clients how they love the new systems (you plus 17hats for CRM, contracts, and mailers).

Looking forward to the improved printed or pdf proposals. Also 17 hats integration would be awesome but I'm probably the only guy using it.
Bulldog AV - San Diego, CA
www.bulldog-av.com
[Link: facebook.com]
Post 157 made on Tuesday August 7, 2018 at 17:31
goldenzrule
Loyal Member
Joined:
Posts:
July 2007
8,470
Don't have too much time right now to reply, but wanted to say thanks for coming into the thread and replying Josh. Like I said, I really am rooting for you to succeed. The issues I've had in no way change my desire to see portal succeed.
Post 158 made on Wednesday August 8, 2018 at 08:42
Dawn Gordon Luks
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2001
1,178
Josh,

Can you please address the problem of product photos and font descriptions being too small? Do you plan to make them bigger, or have an option to make them bigger in both the online and pdf versions?

When I last asked you about this I received a very non-committal response -- something to the effect of keeping pdf and online sizing consistent. That really didn't answer my question.

IMO, in the old version they were the perfect size and everything looked great. Not sure why you can't do this with the new site.

I also want Portal to succeed. Before the formatting mess I was a huge fan.
Post 159 made on Thursday August 9, 2018 at 09:24
Josh Willits
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2015
31
Can you please address the problem of product photos and font descriptions being too small? Do you plan to make them bigger, or have an option to make them bigger in both the online and pdf versions?

Dawn, in the next release we are increasing the font sizing and the images. I'm told by the designers and dev that it's not quite as large as the old version, but they are definitely getting increased. I'm not sure the date of the next release but it should be within the next few weeks.
Post 160 made on Friday August 10, 2018 at 08:30
Dawn Gordon Luks
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2001
1,178
How much will the increase be? 10%, 20%, 50%, 75%?

Thanks.
Post 161 made on Friday August 10, 2018 at 12:24
Josh Willits
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2015
31
I'm not sure, Dawn. I'll see if there is an easy answer to that question.
Post 162 made on Friday August 10, 2018 at 12:26
Ernie Gilman
Yes, That Ernie!
Joined:
Posts:
December 2001
30,104
I'm wondering if I'm seeing an error, or what else it might be:
On August 7, 2018 at 11:25, Josh Willits said...
As Fred mentioned, it's a challenge for us to manage multiple pricing levels across hundreds of suppliers and thousands of manufacturers.

Somewhat more than a thousand would not be thousands. 1900 manufacturers would not be thousands. It would have to be at least two thousand to support the use of the plural "thousands."

Really?
A good answer is easier with a clear question giving the make and model of everything.
"The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." -- G. “Bernie” Shaw
Post 163 made on Saturday August 11, 2018 at 09:31
Dawn Gordon Luks
Founding Member
Joined:
Posts:
September 2001
1,178
Ernie, while technically not correct, I think Josh's intent was understood.

I'm more concerned that they fix the small photos and text. If they make them close to the same size as before I will be very happy. If they increase them by 10-50% that may not be enough. 70% of the original size would be ok.

I am curious as to why this is so difficult to do, especially since they did it on the old site? "Enquiring minds want to know....."
Post 164 made on Monday August 13, 2018 at 10:07
Josh Willits
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
January 2015
31
On August 10, 2018 at 12:26, Ernie Gilman said...
Somewhat more than a thousand would not be thousands. 1900 manufacturers would not be thousands. It would have to be at least two thousand to support the use of the plural "thousands."

Really?

2,428,508 Sku's (yes, that could include some duplicates that haven't yet been merged)
7,738 Brands available from 1,004 suppliers.
Post 165 made on Tuesday October 2, 2018 at 10:59
goldenzrule
Loyal Member
Joined:
Posts:
July 2007
8,470
So what is going on with the rewards dollars?  I have 3 or 4 months showing as pending with no payout.  I asked in the support chat and they said that your partners will be paying it out?  How long is the rewards going to last with that model?  When will we finally see the funds?
Find in this thread:
Page 11 of 22


Jump to


Protected Feature Before you can reply to a message...
You must first register for a Remote Central user account - it's fast and free! Or, if you already have an account, please login now.

Please read the following: Unsolicited commercial advertisements are absolutely not permitted on this forum. Other private buy & sell messages should be posted to our Marketplace. For information on how to advertise your service or product click here. Remote Central reserves the right to remove or modify any post that is deemed inappropriate.

Hosting Services by ipHouse