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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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