Thank God for Andy...

[Nichole74]

I just want to say thanks to Andy for all of the help that he provides. I know Helios pays for this little area on Tantalk but I don't see them posting any remarks or help to those in need. Yes Tech support is there over the phone for a cute price. LOL and I pay it. But Andy has been more than helpfull on tantalk and has saved me a ton of time by answering others posts. I have learned a great deal. Thanks again Andy!!:)

[Andy]

Thank you Nicole for your kind words, I am truly pleased that my advice has been of assistance to you.

[Andy]

BUT, let me clarify - Helios DOES NOT "pay for this little area" on Tantalk.

My relationship with Helios has become very stressed over the last months and year.

After years of contribution by myself, through testing and reporting bugs in the program, which lead in part, in my opinion, to the stability (if not the salability) of V8.1.39 and V9; my ability to earn income from the sale of Helios in Canada was terminated without consultation or discussion in a phone call on May 31st, 2001 when ETS acquired controlling interest in Helios.

This action on their part has not stopped me from sharing my knowledge of the operation of Helios, online; nor has it stopped me from offering the Training and Setup services outlined on my ACT Web Site.

Later last summer, Michael at SolarSoft invited me to assist in the Marketing of the Salon Net products which provide Data Replication between salons using Helios (a safe and proven approach to a WAN solution for the Tanning industry).

Helios has in fact "based on an email I received from the owner of another discussion board" paid for a support forum on another new discussion board and asked that I not participate there. There have only been two questions posts there, neither have been answered by Helios. Tony and Scott at Helios were Moderators on that forum but I notice this morning that they no longer are - interesting.

I understand from emails received from Tony at Helios that when V10 is released it will be "Proprietary".

I believe every Salon Owner should determine what that means and further determine the immediate and future impact on them of this action.

My understanding is that they are doing this to attempt to impede the success and ability of the Solarsoft products to work with future versions of Helios.

Well BE AWARE if they do in fact have an impact on the ability of a 3rd party product to open and/or use "your" data within "your" databases. This could have SIGNIFICANT impact on your ability to do activities with your data outside of the Helios program itself.

[jcole]

Nichole,
I just wanted to clarify a statement in your post, Helios provides no support to TanTalk, either for Andy's Technology Forum or through banner ads.

In fact, there has been almost zero contact with ETS/Helios over the past year, aside from a poorly written letter from an ETS/Helios legal consultant. ETS/Helios has had no problems calling our customers, however, and making claims that are questional and in our opinion technically unfeasable.

As Andy pointed out, please examin carefully any software product you are going to use. Make sure that there will be no passwords or data encryption that will prevent you from gaining access to your valuable data.

Ask questions, and this is a perfect spot to ask them, on any technical subject. You can also send them to our tech support dept at support@gosolarsoft.com.

[tangirl]

Thanks for the information Andy and John. I've made three phone calls to Helios in the past two days. Everytime I am told that I need to deal with someone else. No one wants to help solve my problems. I'm going to continue to keep my eyes open for better software.