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"Big Dave" Ostrander's Advice: Choose A Company You Can Trust!
I hear you Kevin. It is a tragedy. I'm so sorry your system crashed, but I may have a... solution for you regarding the long time till you're up an running again. As you may know, I was a Rapid-Fire poster boy in the mid 90's. At that time they were the best in product and service. I emphasize service. I wrote an operation booklet called Big Buck's with Big Dave, help and encouragement. I got to know the principals of the company very well. Brian, Duessa, Barry, Kevin, Roberta, Ben and Bernadette are, and still are the best. I have never met a company that did so many things right. In time we decided to start the first Q&A internet forum on their website. I answered hundreds of operational questions and this led into Rapid-Fire sponsoring me to present seminars at Pizza Expo. All was fine till about 4 - 5 years ago when Rapid-Fire was purchased by Radiant Systems. Radiant decided to consolidate all corporate offices to Alpharetta, GA. They had discussions with my friends in Oregon and asked them to move to Dixie. These folks passed on the offer and found themselves without jobs in short order. At this very instant I knew my relationship with Radiant was about over. I'll never understand or work with a corporation that acts this way, especially to the core group that built the company from day one. I knew I'd never trust them to treat me the same way. Immediately after the closing of the Portland office tech support was in a shambles. They wouldn't even answer the phone. Operators were going ballistic. After giving up on reaching a 'live voice' on the other end of the phone, they called me since my website was linked with theirs. I tried to calm down the operators, many of them being my friends and clients. I then called the unlisted number in GA and advised them to get with the program or lose their standing, market share and reputation. They were unwilling or unable to get Tech Support to acceptable levels. This upset me because I will not endorse any product I don't totally believe in. My reputation was being dragged down because of their short sided thinking. I immediately withdrew any support of them. I kept in touch with my friends and crossed my fingers and hoped and prayed they would land on their feet. They assured me they would be fine and soon started a company called FireFly Technologies. They would master and set up ATM machines and developed a new software for Veterinarians. This tactic allowed them to keep eating and spend the next two years developing the next generation of pizza POS. They had a 2 year non-compete with Radiant but they still had the commitment to the pizza operator even though they had ever reason to be bitter. But, like I said, these aren't average folks. It takes someone special to not carry a grudge and do the right thing for customers. I don't think I personally could have done it. Last week I visited with a long-term client in Detroit. His name is Ali Bedoun and he owns Sicily's Pizza. When I first started working with Ali eighteen months ago his POS system was a pile of junk. He asked me my opinion on what he should do. I urged him to wait a little while longer and look at the Phoenix system that was going to launch soon. He did and bought it. Last Wednesday he told me that he was absolutely pleased with Phoenix and had started using all of the marketing features. He told me tech support is excellent and has never had anything but a great experience when calling for help. I was pleased but not surprised. That's the way my friends do business. Take care,
www.bigdaveostrander.com
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Below is an excerpt from an e-mail Dave sent to a client who was complaining about some problems with his old RapidFire POS system. It nicely summarizes the FireFly story! Read more about Dave's POS advice on the |
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