FRACK HELIOS!

[unity]

Originally Posted by UltimateTanSJ

Unity, Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?

LOL... yes...

[UltimateTanSJ]

I knew it!!! BSG in the HOUSE!!! January 16th Baby!!!

[unity]

Originally Posted by UltimateTanSJ

I knew it!!! BSG in the HOUSE!!! January 16th Baby!!!

Frack ya! I just hope no delays this time!

[UltimateTanSJ]

I am really sad that it's the last 10 episodes.

[navigatin1]

Nerds!

[caribbean tan man]

stay on topic pleases...

[vancouverkelly]

I used to take a lot of flack for posting comments about what a crap company Helios is, but I can see that a lot more people are finding this out.

I used Helios for many years, and it was always a miserable experience. As you all have noted, there are so many bugs in their software and they don't give a crap about ever really helping you fix anything. They have a company culture that was created by it's founder Tony, and it lives on to this day. They know everything and it's their way or the highway. My last straw was having the current boss Scott Bodgan lie straight to my face for about 5 days in a row about the return of some fingerprint scanners that I bought from them at hugely inflated prices (helios buys for about $69 and sells to you for $300) and his final comment to me was "If you aren't happy that you can't return the scanners then good luck finding another program that can run multi-salons." He was basically telling me I had no other options so he didn't give a flip about screwing me over.

Well...about 2 weeks later I was set-up on Sunlync and it was the single best decision I've made in my 10 years of the tanning business. The conversion takes a bit of work and patience, but once it's running it is a million times more stable AND flexible than Helios. It's way easier to train your staff on. It's way easier to manage inventory on. If you have multiple locations - it will save you hours and hours of time compared to Helios. The biggest difference, and the most important, is the company culture at Sunlync. They are there to help you. Here is a good example: About 6 months ago I started a complicated project to develop some advanced email and web capabilities. Sunlync has spent several hours during this six months answering questions from myself, my programmer, my web designer, and others to help me get these projects done. There was never once a word about "this isn't included in your monthly fee' or anything of that nature. Last week I had a couple of issues that needed to be solved quickly, and even though their office was super busy with various things, they made their head programmer available to speak to my programmer to assist him with some programming for my project. I think you get the point. This reminds me of another laughable Helios example. I once bought a barcode scanner on the internet for $99 instead of buying the same thing from Helios for $350. They refused to offer any tech support to get my sales codes set up because I didn't purchase the scanner from them. I was paying tech support for 4 locations and they refused to offer any assistance. Helios is just a complete joke, and Sunlync goes above and beyond to help their clients. I should also mention that I am only a 5 store operation but I feel as though I get the same service as a 100 store operation from Sunlync.

I don't know why Sunlync doesn't have a better demo - but don't let that dissuade you. It's an amazing program, and they listen to their clients about what types of things they need to do to improve the program and their customer service. They genuinely care.

Lastly, with Sunlync, they do not make a profit center out of EFT's, emails, hardware, etc like Helios does. You pay $59/month for Helios and then hundreds if not thousands more if you use any advanced options. With Sunlync, you pay $79/mth, but you are free to negotiate your hardware, eft, email, etc, with any vendor without any hassle from Sunlync. In the end, this makes Sunlync WAY cheaper than Helios once you truely factor in all the costs. And the EFT module works great.

I've got a lot of work to do this weekend, but wanted to take a few minutes to write this to hopefully save some salon owners from any future hassle in dealing with Helios, and also to show my appreciation for all the time Sunlync has spent helping me with my projects that they were not required to do. Take a look around this board and you'll find a million complaints about Helios - about the program AND even more so the totally incompetent people you have to deal with if there is ever an issue, which there will be. If you search the board for Sunlync, you will find almost 100% positive feedback. Every program has the odd flaw, but you won't find anyone who has a bad thing to say about Sunlync when you do have to deal with any kind of issue with them. The industry's best companies (Palm Beach, Planet Tan, Suntancity, Desert Sun, etc) are using this program so obviously there is a reason why.

This may sound like an ad, but I'll point out I have absolutely nothing to do with Sunlync other than being a customer. I have my little salon chain and pay my monthly fees just like everyone else.

I hope this helps.

[mjabaay]

That is what I have been looking for, I feel much more comfortable switching. I am still really apprehensive about conversion, kinda like makin an apoitment for a root canal, it gotta be done but your definitly not going to enjoy it.

[UltimateTanSJ]

The conversion is not as bad as it sounds.

[unity]

Sounds silly, but can anyone get me a screen shot! :) LOL