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Excellent follow-up Steve!
Lino Alessi
Steve Karnish wrote:
> List,
>
> After the "firestorm" of criticism concerning Prophet Finance's EOD
> services, I bundled the emails, added a number of terse comments and sent
> them along to Tim Knight...Prophet"s CEO. The following day, I participated
> in an hour conference call with Tim and Prophet's Director of Marketing: Chi
> Huang. In my "kind and gentle Detroitese" I explained why their service
> "sucked". I related my personal Prophet experiences and "seconded" the
> problems that Guy, Mike, Lino, Greg and others have expressed in these
> forums. It was an interesting phone call. If I have problems in the
> future, my tech support will be Tim Knight. For what it's worth, the email
> below is an open letter (apology?) to all they have offended. I still use
> the service...it's cheap and in my opinion, what's the difference: they all
> "suck".
>
> Steve Karnish
> Cedar Creek Trading
> http://www.cedarcreektrading.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tim Knight <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <kernish@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 10:39 PM
> Subject: Prophet and the MetaStock forum
>
> > Steve,
> >
> > Thank you for bringing to my attention the grievances about Prophet
> > in the MetaStock user forum; I hope you'll share my reply with the
> > group.
> >
> > As painful as it was to read these comments, they were invaluable.
> >
> > For the customers who have had difficulties with our service, I offer
> > my apologies and would like you to understand how we're addressing
> > the issues you raised.
> >
> > (1) Billing - From its early days, Prophet has relied on a
> > computerized billing system, which unfortunately has been far from
> > perfect. Missed billings, double billings (just to complicate the
> > matter, some double billings were actually charges for earlier missed
> > billings), and confusion were far too often the result. This year we
> > implemented a new version of the system with improved control and
> > reliability. It's been a long time coming, and our issues with
> > billing have dropped dramatically since then. We do want to hear from
> > customers with any outstanding billing issues - please contact us at
> > 800.772.8040 and let us work it out with you.
> >
> > (2) Product Performance - Prophet offers two main services for
> > end-of-day updates and historical data downloading:
> >
> > The older of the services is ProphetDirect, which downloads data
> > using the built-in downloader of MetaStock, WOW and Omega software.
> > ProphetDirect emulates the Dial/Data method of retrieving data and is
> > limited by the symbology requirements and technical constraints of
> > that protocol. It's quirky and a bit cumbersome, but many folks enjoy
> > the convenience of using the software's built-in downloader - so
> > there's certainly a trade-off. In January, we added hardware capacity
> > and upgraded the ProphetDirect server-side software. Because the
> > improvements were so dramatic - some customers reported update rates
> > of more than 20 times faster - we were able to reclaim many folks who
> > had left us previously.
> >
> > In contrast, ProphetLink uses its own software for downloading and
> > data management, and was originally designed for bulk downloads. In
> > the spring of this year, we added a module to ProphetLink that
> > enables our customers to hand-pick symbols (without downloading in
> > bulk), resulting in dramatically faster downloads and improved
> > usability. Additionally, we increased the amount of historical data
> > available - from 5 years to 40+ years for futures, and 30+ years for
> > equities - at no additional charge.
> >
> > So perhaps you tried our data services in the past. But if you
> > haven't tried ProphetLink or ProphetDirect this year, you've got old
> > information.
> >
> > (3) Customer Service - Customer service is the biggest issue that
> > we're reading about - and the top problem that my entire team is
> > committed to tackling. We read each comment carefully and recognize
> > that this is a serious issue. We've taken several steps toward
> > improvement, and I invite the members of this group to help us make
> > sure that we're delivering the goals we've set:
> >
> > (a) Increase the availability of support - We've ordered additional
> > phone lines (to minimize voicemail rollovers when all lines are busy)
> > and added tracking capabilities to better monitor support intake and
> > response. Earlier this year, we posted email links on every page of
> > Prophet's web site to encourage customer contact. We also reviewed
> > actual traffic levels to ensure that Prophet is adequately staffed.
> >
> > (b) Improve support response times - Phone staffers will leave
> > messages if the customer is not available, but calls will not be
> > considered closed until the customer is actually reached. Every
> > effort will be made to respond to on the same business day a call or
> > email message is received.
> >
> > (c) Create a better interpersonal experience - We reviewed support
> > guidelines with all personnel with customer contact. Individuals with
> > specific performance issues are committed to putting forward a more
> > consistently friendly voice, and we are all looking forward to
> > significant improvements.
> >
> > Your feedback has been well taken, and I hope that everyone reading
> > this message sees a radical improvement over the coming months. Again
> > I personally welcome any comments. If you take the time to write,
> > I'll be sure to reply.
> >
> > Yours truly,
> >
> >
> > Tim Knight
> > President
> > Prophet Financial Systems
> > e: tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > tel: 650.322.4183
> > fax: 650.322.4184
> >
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