Jump to content

Bromcom's idea of support: 'Blame the user, close the ticket, and hope they go away.

Jaan

By Jaan
in MIS Systems

 Share

Recommended Posts

Jaan

Jaan

Posted
Posted (edited)

Bromcom's habit of shifting responsibility for their own errors onto us, by closing support tickets and requesting feature requests, is infuriating me!

 

We're sorry your system is broken, but hey, why don't you write a feature request to fix our mistake?.....

 

I have an issue which i asked for clarification, it seems anything at all remotely technical their response is....

 

oh-no.gif

 

Booked ticket below;

 

-----

 

Missing "Gender" selection in Student & contact details settings screen

 

Dear Bromcom Support Team,

 

We've encountered an inconsistency regarding the "Sex/Gender" field in Bromcom. While this field is mandatory when manually adding a contact (indicated by an asterisk), it's not required when using the admissions form under config\MCAS\Student and Contact Details.

 

As a result, we're seeing contacts created without a defined sex/gender, which are then listed as "unknown" on the "Others" tab. This issue is further compounded when exporting data using Capita One, as these contacts are formatted as "" and causing errors during LEA import.

 

We can manually correct these instances, but we need a long-term solution to prevent this from recurring. Please let us know if this is an oversight on our part or if a backend fix is required.

 

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

 

image (1).png

 

image.png

 

Sincerely,

Jaan

IT Support

 

reply:

 

Note Description: Good morning Jaan,

 

Unfortunately contact gender is not a field that can be enabled for the admissions and data collection forms.

 

I can understand how this is causing problems, so I would suggest using the Raise Ideas portal, if it is not already there, to detail your requirement for consideration for future development.

 

Anybody else or am i just being grumpy [again]

Edited by Jaan
Jaan

Jaan

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
The only way to elicit a response is via their PR team on Edugeek.

 

Hence the post! LOL

Edited by Jaan
PotNoodleTech

PotNoodleTech

Posted
Posted

"Please let us know if this is an oversight on our part or if a backend fix is required"

 

Never start off by admitting culpability!! Replace with

 

"Please let us know when you will apply a fix to your backend"

mikes

mikes

Posted
Posted

Get this with pretty much every provider these days. E.G. cashless catering runs fine the first and last 5 mins of lunch/break but slows to a crawl in the middle. And because the UI is poorly designed - no local caching - every single button press introduces a 3 - 6 second delay which is infuriating with a fast moving queue of kids waiting for dinner.

 

The cashless supplier - "It is your Internet connection, we ran a speed test it is incredibly slow, your IT needs to fix it" I get onto the LEA who are our IT provider - "nothing wrong you will need to contact the vendor". Can't find any evidence of any speedtest actually being run on any till and when I ran one speeds were fine, and the fact that the slowdown happens right when lunch gets busy (when our Internet usage would be low) makes me suspect the catering vendor but good luck getting them to do anything about it.

And the gall of it, when we had this system forced upon us, I was told "it will be so much easier than managing it yourself because our support will do everything for you" :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: (Plus some of our LEA support seem to respond as if they are personally offended you are wasting their time every time you file a ticket...)

 

Basically since covid esp. - get used to it - orgs have realised they can slash costs, provide a barely working service, people still have to pay for it right?

  • Thanks 2
mthomas08

mthomas08

Posted
Posted

Data manager is constantly complaining about these type of things and told to put it on the ideas page.

 

She quite often misses SIMs...... and wants it back........

TheCookieMonster

TheCookieMonster

Posted
Posted

[adjusts anorak]

Software is designed to work in a particular way, or it isn't.

If it's meant to do ABC, but does ABZ - that's a defect/bug for the software provider to fix.

If it's meant to do ABC, and does ABC, but you want it to do DE and F - that's a request to change how the software works.

 

Some people might not want it to do DE and F, so changing it to what you want would cause them to raise another request to change it back.

 

You don't get this argument with bug/defect fixing because the solution is normally staring you in the face and there's a software design to fall back on.

 

This is why most good MIS providers have change request portals (like ideas or roadmaps etc.) with comment sections, so people can vote for what they like and argue against things they don't want.

They do listen - I know Bromcom recently re-jogged it's 2025 roadmap according to customer preference.

 

This seems more like a grey area in the MIS though that is worthy of discussion. I would suggest raising the Idea and then raising it on Bromcom's own community to get some weight behind it.

  • Thanks 2
robyholmes

robyholmes

Posted
Posted
I'd say that a mandatory field not being mandatory if you happen to enter the data in one specific place is a defect...
Exactly this, either it's mandatory or it's not. So one or the other is wrong.
  • Thanks 1
Bromcom_ML

Bromcom_ML

Posted
Posted

Good morning Jaan

 

I've taken a quick look at this, and will pass the feedback directly to the product team. Unfortunately, the support team do not have a direct way of passing such items to product, so the response of asking you to raise it as a piece of development feedback is valid at the moment. We are currently reviewing the Admission Form process, so this feedback is very useful and timely. Please do however raise it as an idea (or vote for it if it already exists).

 

Thank you for your feedback.

 

Mark

PotNoodleTech

PotNoodleTech

Posted
Posted

So at a company level you don't take any data from existing suport calls to feed into your product?

 

That's crazy.

 

I guess that explains why the market churn stats show Bromcom is being left in the dust in 2024 compared to Arbor/Key group.

kennysarmy

kennysarmy

Posted
Posted
Good morning Jaan

 

Unfortunately, the support team do not have a direct way of passing such items to product

 

Mark

 

I had to read that four times.

 

Maybe you should post such items on Edugeek and get the product developers to read your posts?

  • Thanks 2
Jaan

Jaan

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Good morning Jaan

 

I've taken a quick look at this, and will pass the feedback directly to the product team. Unfortunately, the support team do not have a direct way of passing such items to product, so the response of asking you to raise it as a piece of development feedback is valid at the moment. We are currently reviewing the Admission Form process, so this feedback is very useful and timely. Please do however raise it as an idea (or vote for it if it already exists).

 

Thank you for your feedback.

 

Mark

 

Hi Mark thanks for responding to this thread.

 

I'm hesitant to invest time into another submission that might not be considered or acted upon. I've noticed that past feature requests, such as the student portal CSV uploads, have seemingly disappeared or been deleted, even though it had plenty of votes.

 

Point in case: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-5900

 

That and the fact i was asked to submit another feature request is the very reason i posted this thread.

 

But thanks anyway.

  • Thanks 2
gszech

gszech

Posted
Posted
Good morning Jaan

 

I've taken a quick look at this, and will pass the feedback directly to the product team. Unfortunately, the support team do not have a direct way of passing such items to product, so the response of asking you to raise it as a piece of development feedback is valid at the moment. We are currently reviewing the Admission Form process, so this feedback is very useful and timely. Please do however raise it as an idea (or vote for it if it already exists).

 

Thank you for your feedback.

 

Mark

LOL each time there is an issue with Bromcom, the reply always sounds like this: "Your issue is a beautiful, complex piece of digital art. We're currently contemplating its deeper meaning. We've sent a technician back in time to fix this issue. Please allow a few millennia for a response."

  • Thanks 3
  • Haha 1
Synkrox

Synkrox

Posted
Posted
Hi Mark thanks for responding to this thread.

 

I'm hesitant to invest time into another submission that might not be considered or acted upon. I've noticed that past feature requests, such as the student portal CSV uploads, have seemingly disappeared or been deleted, even though it had plenty of votes.

 

Point in case: https://ideas.bromcomcloud.com/ideas/BRCM-I-5900

 

That and the fact i was asked to submit another feature request is the very reason i posted this thread.

 

But thanks anyway.

 

Following a bit of a moan I had on here in a similar vein to yours I had a convo with Darren earlier this week to give him feedback.

 

It's slightly reassuring to know I'm not alone. I do hope things improve.

Jaan

Jaan

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Just to respond to the above feedback, gathering information on development ideas from support calls is something I am actively working on improving. I fully appreciate that this causes frustrations.

 

I have created an idea on your behalf Jaan, if you'd like to add any comments and vote, please do: Ensure mandatory fields when creating new | Bromcom Ideas Portal

 

Thanks for this Mark..

 

If i could ask all the members of Edugeek who have read or commented on this thread to cast a vote.... it would be greatly appreciated :D

  • Thanks 4
Ditto

Ditto

Posted
Posted
[adjusts anorak]

Software is designed to work in a particular way, or it isn't.

If it's meant to do ABC, but does ABZ - that's a defect/bug for the software provider to fix.

If it's meant to do ABC, and does ABC, but you want it to do DE and F - that's a request to change how the software works.

 

Some people might not want it to do DE and F, so changing it to what you want would cause them to raise another request to change it back.

 

You don't get this argument with bug/defect fixing because the solution is normally staring you in the face and there's a software design to fall back on.

 

This is why most good MIS providers have change request portals (like ideas or roadmaps etc.) with comment sections, so people can vote for what they like and argue against things they don't want.

They do listen - I know Bromcom recently re-jogged it's 2025 roadmap according to customer preference.

 

This seems more like a grey area in the MIS though that is worthy of discussion. I would suggest raising the Idea and then raising it on Bromcom's own community to get some weight behind it.

 

I broadly agree, but it can be a design 'bug' where even if software does ABC as designed, if ABC is a bugged design, it's the same outcome for the end user.

Bromcom_Darren

Bromcom_Darren

Posted
Posted
Following a bit of a moan I had on here in a similar vein to yours I had a convo with Darren earlier this week to give him feedback.

 

It's slightly reassuring to know I'm not alone. I do hope things improve.

 

The offer is there to anyone, I am always willing to listen to constructive feedback to assist in your customer journey.

 

Thanks

Darren Moody

Community Manager

  • Thanks 1
  • 8 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


×
×
  • Create New...