Reccomendation against Volusion

[JEccles]

Matt@Volusion - I think it is time for you to go to your managers with the complaints that are being posted here and work on a solution. Legal rhetoric is not going to keep the current customer happy. Do you realize how many potential customers (and existing ones) you lose when someone complains about your service? Particularly when it is not just one, but multiple people complaining?

I stopped posting on your forum when you changed formats - but I remember it as being a very nurturing and supportive place. Concerns and complaints were addressed and all the members helped each other. That is what you need to get back to. Don't ban people who complain - help them and show the other members that you are trying to work things out. Sometimes it's not the results that matter, so much as your attempt to obtain them.

[oaraxo]

I purchased a licensed version of Store2000 back in 2002 I think. Fair priced at the time and definitely the best platform at the time. I'm somewhere else now.

I sign up for a demo every time there is a new version and I'm still shocked at the fact it has not changed much over the years. Sure, that's just my opinion I guess, I'm just a customer, what do I know.
I think the PCI rules came at a bad time, it made everyone spend alot of money to satisfy the system, and compete in the marketplace. Not a feature we care about and I don't think it brought in the customers, did it.
Revenue will continue to decline, the competition continues to evolve, what a drag.

My life is business and economics, not many companies are self sustaining anymore, it's all about how much debt you can create. Sure, it's great when your expanding but the moment you start to backslide, the pain is incredible.

[Apollo]

I have been involved with Volusion for a long time now both as a customer and as an employee, luckly for me (in retrospect) I left long before the Simi Massacre.

Everyone here seems to remember the good old days of Volusion when they actually cared. This is what it was like back then:

We had a small office where you could actually eat lunch with Kevin, managers that were promoted from the current staff, it was a sin to let the call/chat queue to rise over 20... and then money happened.

2 Big office! 50+ employees! Kevin's Lamborghini! Hire new Tech Reps+IT+Server Admins+Developers...

Hey Simi Tech Support! We need a select few of you to move to Austin to help create a new Premium support for thoes "special" clients! *a few friends moved away...

Little did you know things were rotting from the inside out... You think with the better funds will be better features and support... but alas... do you know that feature request thread they ask you to email a ticket about when something is not implemented yet? Well that is what is refereed to as "the black hole" because no one looks at it, problems go in and they don't come out.

Not to be honest - Volusion THE SOFTWARE is one of the best in the industry, unfortunately its made by NeoNazi's, if the company had a little more heart, it would take over everything... but here's what happened in Simi that fateful day.

Everything was normal, people filed into work at the scheduled time, floor was busy... at 10AM sharp, a lawyer flanked by security guards walks onto the floor and says everyone get out of the building... ("Who the **** is this guy?") they escort everyone out of the building and proceed to hastily take people to their desks and have them collect their belongings with a sense of urgency as if they were on a timetable. They then had HR call anyone who was not part of the daytime shift to inform them of the news... and then they fired HR as well.

There were two groups - group A was to be slaughtered immediately... group B had a choice, this group included special interest people like developers and server administrators. They had a choice to keep their position and move to Austin. They had 2 weeks to think about it and if they refused after that that would mean they had quit... so it was more of an ultimatum: Move to Austin or get fired with no benefits.

Lucky for those select few friends that moved to Austin before the storm... turns out they have been training replacements for this for the past few months.

So my pet peeve is this:
I understand times are tough and you need to cut back a lot, it makes sense to move to one centralized location.. but don't treat the people you have been working with for years, some even invested a career into your company like dog shit. Have a meeting, call everyone into the break room, if you are worried about security have IT lock computers or down the internet while this is happening. Have Kevin or even one of the managers tell the situation as it is, offer positions in Austin, leave with on a good note. Don't ****ing hire some asswipe lawyer no ones ever seen before and armed guards to kick everyone out of their place of work. What happened to the Volusion Family and Culture... its more like a cleansing. It was even rumored that Clay (Volusion's CFO and head of Austin department) was hiding somewhere in the bushes to "oversee" the layoff... really? Clay has the real power, Kevin is now rich and I don't think cares anymore, so he has little to say in these matters.

So to those working in Austin - watch your back, you might have put too many eggs into the basket of snakes.

[irishlass]

I'm very worried about the future of my online business. I've been with Volusion for 2-1/2 years and have had great success. I went from selling on eBay to becoming one of the top selling stores in the country (within my niche). I cannot begin to tell you the amount of time I've put into this site. I have over 3000 skus in my store, have paid to have design work done, etc. Have been on page one of Google for two years, so I must have done something right with my SEO.

The recent outage a couple weeks back has been more than a little concerned. I've asked to be compensated for the down time for lost sales. No word back from them. Customers have told me my site loads slower than usual, especially in other countries.... this never happened prior to a few months ago. And no, I've not changed a thing to slow it down.

Is all this talk about the changes at Volusion something we store merchants should be worried about. Should we be looking elsewhere for a more "stable" company?

[JEccles]

I don't think that question can truthfully be answered by anyone here. The best course would be to leave your options open. Monitor site stats and sales and go to the Volusion Forum for a better feel as to what the atmosphere is. Find out if anyone else there is experiencing slow loading times. Don't panic but keep your eyes and ears open.

[sweeps]

Alright, I recently signed up with Volusion because everything seemed great. However, after reading this thread I decided to call into their tech support and it was an utter disaster. I spoke with two different techs and I had to explain to them what IMAP was because they were completely confused.

At any rate, I'm very concerned at this point. Those of you that bailed on Volusion can you share where you went afterwards? I'd hate to jump ship so fast but I prefer to avoid any problems but don't know where to go from here.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[LasVegasGuy]

yes, customer support quality is way down, was with them earlier today about the 6 hour downtime V customers suffered this morning. According to V support, it was "planned" maintenance. Really 6 hours to maintain servers?

[JEccles]

yes, customer support quality is way down, was with them earlier today about the 6 hour downtime V customers suffered this morning. According to V support, it was "planned" maintenance. Really 6 hours to maintain servers?

? Neither of my sites was down.

[LasVegasGuy]

? Neither of my sites was down.

Yep, finally have some feedback from V on this and it was not affecting everyone, but quite a few it seems. Their 4 hour maintenance extended to 6 hours for some.

[rogerwaldrup]

Wow! I'm really glad I looked at this thread after all!
Now I'm definitely not going to even consider Volusion for my own company's needs.
Spontaneous staff layoffs? Ignoring/stifling customers concerns? Canned PR rhetoric on other sites followed by a run-and-hide?
Who needs that? I'll find a company that's more reliable, thank you.
Thanks for posting this TheWhistler and formervemployee, wherever you are. I hope that your future prospects are better. And thanks everybody else for putting your two cents in - it really helped fill out the picture.

[Crashis Clay]

Is there anyone out there that can offer even a ray of hope to me regarding V, I came across this thread and my heart sank, All the work in the last year to set up 5700+ products, images, options............. I love my Volusion Store, Just Started trying to get the whole "web connect" thing to work, went to V and created a support ticket, 1, 2, 3 4 days later, no reply, phone support, on hold most of the day today, found this thread while on hold for tech support

ps still no answer

[JEccles]

Is there anyone out there that can offer even a ray of hope to me regarding V, I came across this thread and my heart sank, All the work in the last year to set up 5700+ products, images, options............. I love my Volusion Store, Just Started trying to get the whole "web connect" thing to work, went to V and created a support ticket, 1, 2, 3 4 days later, no reply, phone support, on hold most of the day today, found this thread while on hold for tech support

ps still no answer

Volusion still offers a superior product. However, it is the customer support that has taken a nose dive. if you are experiencing issues, try their forum. perhaps one of the moderators or members can help you.

Don't panic, I still manage 2 Volusion stores and have few issues.

[markwright789]

Simply if your company "experienced outstanding growth in 2010", why was it necessary to close an entire operation as well as put people out of work, It seems more of an husbanding move than a growth move.

[VolusionEX]

Simply if your company "experienced outstanding growth in 2010", why was it necessary to close an entire operation as well as put people out of work, It seems more of an husbanding move than a growth move.

I was laid off (layed off? layoffed?) when they shut down the California office. They still call me for help. I just laugh at them. Now they're laying off people in Austin. I read they borrowed money to make payroll. Take my advice and switch to BigCommerce before its too late, before Volusion shuts down and you can't get your data anymore.

[VolusionEX]

I have been involved with Volusion for a long time now both as a customer and as an employee, luckly for me (in retrospect) I left long before the Simi Massacre.

Everyone here seems to remember the good old days of Volusion when they actually cared. This is what it was like back then:

We had a small office where you could actually eat lunch with Kevin, managers that were promoted from the current staff, it was a sin to let the call/chat queue to rise over 20... and then money happened.

2 Big office! 50+ employees! Kevin's Lamborghini! Hire new Tech Reps+IT+Server Admins+Developers...

Hey Simi Tech Support! We need a select few of you to move to Austin to help create a new Premium support for thoes "special" clients! *a few friends moved away...

Little did you know things were rotting from the inside out... You think with the better funds will be better features and support... but alas... do you know that feature request thread they ask you to email a ticket about when something is not implemented yet? Well that is what is refereed to as "the black hole" because no one looks at it, problems go in and they don't come out.

Not to be honest - Volusion THE SOFTWARE is one of the best in the industry, unfortunately its made by NeoNazi's, if the company had a little more heart, it would take over everything... but here's what happened in Simi that fateful day.

Everything was normal, people filed into work at the scheduled time, floor was busy... at 10AM sharp, a lawyer flanked by security guards walks onto the floor and says everyone get out of the building... ("Who the **** is this guy?") they escort everyone out of the building and proceed to hastily take people to their desks and have them collect their belongings with a sense of urgency as if they were on a timetable. They then had HR call anyone who was not part of the daytime shift to inform them of the news... and then they fired HR as well.

There were two groups - group A was to be slaughtered immediately... group B had a choice, this group included special interest people like developers and server administrators. They had a choice to keep their position and move to Austin. They had 2 weeks to think about it and if they refused after that that would mean they had quit... so it was more of an ultimatum: Move to Austin or get fired with no benefits.

Lucky for those select few friends that moved to Austin before the storm... turns out they have been training replacements for this for the past few months.

So my pet peeve is this:
I understand times are tough and you need to cut back a lot, it makes sense to move to one centralized location.. but don't treat the people you have been working with for years, some even invested a career into your company like dog shit. Have a meeting, call everyone into the break room, if you are worried about security have IT lock computers or down the internet while this is happening. Have Kevin or even one of the managers tell the situation as it is, offer positions in Austin, leave with on a good note. Don't ****ing hire some asswipe lawyer no ones ever seen before and armed guards to kick everyone out of their place of work. What happened to the Volusion Family and Culture... its more like a cleansing. It was even rumored that Clay (Volusion's CFO and head of Austin department) was hiding somewhere in the bushes to "oversee" the layoff... really? Clay has the real power, Kevin is now rich and I don't think cares anymore, so he has little to say in these matters.

So to those working in Austin - watch your back, you might have put too many eggs into the basket of snakes.

Do tell Do tell. The majority of us didn't invited to Austin. Half the developers that went have returned to California (welcome home guys - we kept the lights on for you). Things don't look so good any more out in Texas. They keep calling me now to ask how things work but I just laugh at them.