Ndot Company / Ndot Deals
I know it is not conventional to put up a website to make clear how unsatisfied you are with a company. I am not happy with the way things went and wish I did not have to do this.. But since I lost a lot of money on Ndot.in, this is worth it. Only if it was to write the frustration off. I want to assure everyone who is reading this that this is not a "negative marketing" strategy form a competitor of Ndot. Just check out the Internet for other reviews on their service and bad script(s).
When doing this beware that Ndot also bought a couple of domain names with really over positive reviews. You will recognize these sites easily by reading the positive commercialy written reviews, and no or difficult way to add your own post.
Google search: " ndot review" or simply "ndot".
Soon I will post screenshots of the inferior clone script and also the ridiculous transcripts where you can read the way they mislead, delay and fool you.
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About the issue...
This is what happened after I wrote the complaint below. Before posting it, I had second thoughts before pressing and contacted NDot telling them I was furious and that I was about to post a complaint online. I also told them that I withheld the complaint hoping for a good solution to my problems with their product (NdotDeals). Wel Since then I spoke to 4 dfferent people, promising me all kinds of stories about meetings with Tech Teams, pending Management approval, waiting for one more day , feedback today etc.etc. The results all 0.0. Nothing has happened, everything here is on hold for far too long. Today I spoke to Ndot again, the fifth person this week. First I hear yes, the person who promised you feedback was off yesterday, also a lie because I spoke to the person twice and have all the transcripts saved. Then again some excuses for the inconvenience and stuff. I have to say the tone of the company is always polite but that might be one of the few good thing. It does not help eventually when the outcome is nothing.
Please read on what happened In the original complaint below.
Complaint Ndot.in - NdotDeals
In May 2012 I purchased the Platinum version of NdotDeals. At this point I am beyond upset. For the record, this is the first time ever that I write a complaint about a company.
Before I purchased, I took a look at several other companies who sell Clone scripts. I asked many questions to the Ndot guy on the chat, two things were guaranteed so I would have to look no further:
1. That this was the most complete Groupon Clone on the Internet and that it had all the functions to practically start business in no time.
This is NOT true at all! The script is sloppy and basic elements to run a real business are just absent. The script does not even come close to being ready for business.
2. That they would and could do all the customizing required.
Probably true but they forgot to mention that it will cost extra, also for the things of the first point that need to be amongst the basics in the script.
I have two online stores and did business over 30 times with the real Groupon and some of their local competitors since October 2011. I will tell you which standard tools are missing in the script:
1. Report Tools
When you login the first thing you notice arte two big yellow circle diagrams that give an oversight of the overall sales per shop and total transactions, the same you will find in a graphic under that. That’s about it .
When people start a daily deal site the intention is to sell hundreds and maybe thousands of items right. Well this script did not think about that fact at all. Why not? Because the is simply no tool that exports an over sight per deal telling you what the buyers shipping addresses, contact details are, how much they spent, payment method used etc. Which means that if you have 1000 buyers for a deal… no let’s not get too exited, let’s say a 100 buyers, you will have to look up and copy/past 100 people one by one in your labelling machine. The correct way should be a report which has an oversight of all these details per deal. Simply a complete export in excel nothing more, nothing less. Nowadays even the most simple webshops have this function fully integrated.
2. The Code Generator
As I mentioned before I worked quite a lot of times with the real Groupon as a merchant and also with some of their competitors. All of them, even the most basic looking sites gave options regarding the codes that will appear on the vouchers which the clients will buy. What I mean by options? I have been asked by all of the daily deal sites as a merchant: Are you going to provide the codes or do you want us to generate them for you. This question is asked because there are some webshops who do not support all kind of codes. Because of this limitation they would like to provide the codes themselves in order for buyers of the coupons to go to their website and exchange their voucher there. After all daily deal businesses are a tool for merchants to get more people to their businesses in a lot of cases their websites. Also there is no way to give the merchants a list with reserved codes up front. This is often needed because this way merchants can put the codes in their systems before the deal starts. The ideal way to solve this is the option to put self generated codes in per deal. For example, I go to any online code generator, get a series of let’s say 2000 codes and past them in with a deal and provide the same code to the merchant. Even better would be if I could generate the codes in a desired volume inside NdotDeals and export them per deal to excel. Whatever way, the code generator standard in NdotDeals is crap.
3. The Newsletter and Voucher(coupon)
When I first saw the voucher (I did a test purchase), I was flabbergasted. I bet if I would ask a 8 year old to come up with a design that it would put the Ndot Deal one to shame. Not only does it look awful, it has nothing to do with any theme or housestyle, full of errors and just extremely poor looking. Same goes for the newsletter, do not expect a nice mail like the most daily deal sites send you. This is really so bad and unfinished, this was the point where I knew that they mislead their customers with their selling up tactics. I cannot imagine that anyone ever in the history of NdotDeals ran a successful business with this crap. It is just not possible, at least not with their superb Platinum Version.
Last week I tried to get a solution, after waiting for 2 days I got an answer: Pay 534 USD to “customize” the code generator. A day after via mail: We can “customize” the voucher, it will cost 129 USD, I dare not even ask for the other things if only these two things that should be standard, will cost me near twice
the amount of the script.
I requested a fair solution, I did not get any response anymore.
I was planning to go live this week, it won’t happen unfortunately. I had to call of my new merchants and also postpone an advertisement. Tomorrow (now it’s Sunday 22.30 local time) I am going to contact PayPal and request a refund, I feel mislead by Ndot and their claims before purchase on their site and on the chat. Luckily I keep the transcripts of the chat conversations and I have screenshots of their misleading promises.
In short:
Plus:
- The department that developed my Non-Standard Payment Provider module was dedicated and ultimately delivered a fine working functionality. (I had to pay extra for this module while the site created the impression that the module was standard by placing the logo of my Payment Provider in there layout, I mentioned it to them but ended up paying for it anyway.)
Minus:
- A Clone? Just on the surface maybe. The most essential functionalities in the Back Office are missing (specified above). The name “Platinum Version” sounds like the ultimate thing, well the way it is now it is not even worthy the name Bronze Version.
- The script seems to be designed with shortcomings on purpose so they can sell up saying that it falls under customization, which costs extra money. From the 10 questions asked the answer is 7 times, yes but that will cost extra, even for the most standard things.
- The Rocket of the Rocket Support is probably out of fuel, not everyone at Customer Support is helpful and it is not as fast as promised. One of the main reasons to get the Platinum Version instead of the Premium Version was to avoid the one day turnover period, it doesn’t matter at all eventually.
Would I buy this script again if I would know what I would face? Definitely not, Ndot deals might as well have been called DoNot Deal for me.
At this point I do not know how I will continue, with my site, we put a lot of work into it. First I will mail Paypal as mentioned before and see if there is any possibility to get a refund, at least let them know about my experience. Second I will post my message as many times on the net as I can. Third I will put up a quick website wit my complaint. ( I’ll post the address later) . And last I will check out to which other scripting company to switch to.
I have all the transcripts of the conversations and they are available upon request if you mail to [email protected].
Consider the experience above or learn it the hard way.
Take care and good luck on finding another provider for your script. I will share my choice as soon as I have one.
Rakesh
