interactive tools fraudulent vendor

13 posts by 8 authors in: Forums > CMS Builder
Last Post: January 11, 2010   (RSS)

  • Archived  

By Deborah - January 7, 2010

As a professional website developer, I feel there is an even greater responsibility than for the general public for us to understand and comply with software licensing requirements not only to protect our own businesses, but also as regards our clients if we are reselling a software license to them or providing such software to them if it is used on their website.

I first contacted Interactive Tools in 2005 and have never know any of their staff to be other than professional, courteous, helpful, and honest! I've since purchased (or assisted clients with purchasing) 24 licenses for the Interactive Tools products. I recall that with my first contact by phone in 2005, I had a multitude of questions about their real estate software. Questions such as "how many sites is your product licensed for?" was one of those standard questions.They clearly stated at that time that their products were a one-site license purchase... (still have my hand-written notes from 2005!)

Just my 2 cents to add to this discussion. I stand behind Interactive Tools all the way! Just have to wonder how much pirated software is installed on the business computer system of someone who doesn't understand simple software licensing laws?

Deborah

Re: [Deborah] interactive tools fraudulent vendor

  • Archived  

By sidcam - January 8, 2010

Heck, I'm NOT a professional website developer and I figured it out!

Normally I would ignore this thread, but my experiences with Interactive Tools has been so much better than ANY of my other software vendors I have to put in my 2 cents should a potential customer read this rant.

I run a small real estate team in Missouri and understanding HTML just enough that I created my own website.

In 2004 I needed a cheap but functional program to make displaying listings online easier and via a Google search I found Interactive Tools' Realty Listings Manager. I called and spoke to their sales people and they were very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful without trying to push me into a sale. I became a customer.

A couple years later when I wanted to migrate to a website management program, a Google search came up with Article Manager. Because my experiences with iTools had been positive (sales and tech support both), I purchased it.

Now, not being a "real" website developer I spent a lot of time on the phone/forum and still consider it the best support I've ever gotten from a software supplier. I even hired them to do a 1.x to 2.0 upgrade and when it didn't go according to plan, they put in a lot of extra time for free, and did an excellent job at keeping me updated on their work.

Article Manager did everything it was advertised to do but not what I really wanted it to do so back in 2007 I started working with Joomla. I'm sure it's a great product but I never got anywhere with it.

In 2008 I got frustrated with Joomla and started to look for a "for pay" CMS solution that was easier to learn and had support. iTools had just released cmsBuilder. I probably called their sales line to ask questions about it a dozen times over a 3 month period and was never pressured into a sale. Some of those calls probably lasted 30 minutes or more too.

I finally decided to try the 10 day trial. It didn't install properly. Their sales person got tech support to fix the installation and extended the trial period. At the time there was special volume pricing available running through March 30 and I was planning on rolling out multiple site. My sales person offered to honor the special pricing after it expired so I would have time to evaluate the demo and not feel rushed into a sale.

I purchased 5 licenses (because it was made clear that it was one license per site!)

Since then, my secondary websites designed in cmsBuilder have rolled out and subsequently been taken off line for redesign and my primary website has never been finished. Every few months I find time to pick up where I left off and get a little more work done on it. As a result, I spend a lot of time on this forum trying to remember how things were done.

The only downside I can come up with against iTools as a 6 year customer is that telephone tech support ceased to be free a few years ago (I'm thinking with the cmsBuilder product) and I've had to use the forum for tech support more than calling in. Although I wish that hadn't of happened, I do understand the need to control expenses and I still find iTools support quicker at responding than most of my other vendors that just make you wait on hold for an hour.

I also love the fact that upgrades are on the honor system because it's allowed me to keep the software up-to-date on a site in development over a 2 year period without having added expenses before it goes live. None of my other vendors offer me that.

And as far as the overall purchase price of cmsBuilder, it's significantly cheaper than most of the for pay products out there and easier to deal with than the free products.

Sid (6 year customer of 3 different iTools products).

Website: http://www.stlagent.com

Re: [Dave] interactive tools fraudulent vendor

  • Archived  

By Dave - January 11, 2010

Thanks so much for everybody who posted, we really appreciate your support!

Despite my offer I never heard from jsanty directly and none of my staff ever received any proof or evidence. We tried to respond to the claims, but they just kept changing.

People ask why I didn't just kill this thread. With the threats of posting to blogs on the internet and the fact this has been going on for over 3 months I wanted to publicly respond so everybody knew where we stood.

We're internet entrepreneurs and web developers just like you, and more than happy to talk to anyone who has an issue. You don't need to strong-arm us, just call or email me directly at dave@interactivetools.com.

I'm going to lock this thread now so we can all get back to business.

Thanks again, and all the best!
Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com