ACT! By Sage 2008 10.0 [OLD VERSION]

Using ACT is so simple and has made it so easy for me to stay organized and on task. I love it!

I've been using ACT software for over 10 years. After installing ACT 2008, I was very disappointed in its performance and many problems. Spent much time online with ACT customer service to learn that some problems were inherent in the software and could not be fixed. These are problems that did not exist in earlier versions of ACT. I give ACT one star and am not sure it deserves even that...

I used ACT for years, sometimes with problems and sometimes no problems. ACT 2008 worked fine on my XP laptop. When the XP laptop started to fail (screen and keyboard wearing out) I purchased an new laptop with VISTA ULTIMATE OS. All programs except ACT were successfully transfered and re-registered on the new VISTA machine. I spent 4 sessions on line with ACT tech supp. The total telephone time was about 10 hours. ACT tech supp. made an honest professional effort to get the program running but failed. They than told me the problem was WINDOWS INSTALLER. How ironic the only program that wouldn't install was ACT yet they blamed Windows Installer. FYI my ACT case # was 10950937. George 21August2008

Since upgrading from ACT 6.0 to the new ACT 2008, Version 10, I've had nothing but problems, some of which even ACT customer service can't fix. One such problem is that the notes field will not display all words typed if the note entered is longer than one line. The type simply disappears underneath the next field and can not be read - there is also a problem with printing long notes. ACT customer service relates that this is a problem with the software that can not be fixed. Given that that notes field in ACT 6.0 worked just fine, this makes little sense but is typical of SAGE and their poorly thought out software. Since SAGE got involved with ACT, the quality of ACT software has really gone downhill. ACT 6.0 and all previous versions were great - after SAGE got involved, the quality of ACT went downhill and keeps on going...

I own a small business. There are a number of reasons why you may find yourself dissatisfied with this software.

1) The most important reason is that once you invest in ACT, it's dificult to break away. The data cannot be deconstructed, or exported to be utilized by another software program. So, as is the case with my business, once you go down the "ACT" highway, you're most likely not getting off. We started using ACT in 1992. At the time, it had many positive attributes, and there wasn't much competition. Now, there are many more efficient alternatives.

2) They offer a 30 day money back guarantee. That's good right? But, they will not honor the guarantee if you purchase the software from Amazon. No kidding.

3) Pathetic email interface.

4) Frequent upgrades. That sounds good too. But the "upgrades" are typically trivial. And, of course, a little way down the line, they stop supporting the older versions. So, they've got you. Believe me, I wouldn't mind if they made their software a little more efficient, but that hasn't been the case.

5) Slows the system down. There are unneccesary functions that eat system resources. You can call support and if you're lucky, you will get someone who can show you how to disengage those functions. With my previous upgrade, I kept calling back until I happened upon someone who knew.

There's more I could add, but I hope you get the point.