bit-tech Shopping: Sage ACT! 2008 Upgrade Retail Box (Upgrade)

• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Rating: 6

Time with product: 30 Days

Strengths: product stability and responsiveness, runs well under Vista which was my only reason for buying this version

Weaknesses: Very typical ACT! release, hyping non esistant features and selling bug fixes and fixes to known product deficiencies as new features.

Summary: Unless you are still on ACT! 2005 (the version from hell), or need Vista support there is really no reason to pay for this upgrade as it is typical of these thieves, marketing minimal product enhancements with bug fixes in order to expand on their list of "new features". If buying for the first time however, well ACT! is still the best contact manager out there and the stability of this version is quite good, I use it daily for 10-12 hours per day and it has not failed or hung on me once.

Rating: 2

Time with product: 20 Days

Strengths: Tech support spent many hours with me on the phone until they figured that it won't work with my version of Vista

Weaknesses: Has a "known Issue" that currently makes it impossible to with my installation Windows Vista. Customer Support won't honor their money back guarantee.

Summary: I really was looking forward to a version of ACT that would work with Vista as advertised. I had a lot of difficulty installing it, they eventually had to do it for me. After it was installed, I couldn't use it to open up any database. It took a few calls (and many hours of my time wasted) until I finally got someone in tech support who knew what was going on. Apparently, ACT uses SQL Server, but under some circumstances with some setups of Vista, ACT cannot communicate with SQL Server which makes it impossible to open up any database. They are working on it, but have not yet found a solution to the problem.Tech Support told me to call customer support to get my money back, but customer support asked me to fax them my receipt before they will give me an RMA to allow me to return it to them. I faxed in a copy of the week before last, but did not hear back from them. I called back again last week, and they took a message and said they will call me back. I still have not heard back from them as to how I can return it. I am afraid they will string me along until the thirty days expires and then tell me it is too late for me to apply for a refund. I suggest staying away at least until a few reviews come out confirming that it is stable.