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XchangeIT lets newsagents down

I am frustrated that my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, continues to lose time working on XchangeIT issues for newsagents which have nothing to do with our software.  We have to do this because too often the help desk people at XchangeIT tell newsagents that our software is to blame – when it is not to blame.

It is my experience that the XchangeIT help desk can be quick to blame and slow to accept responsibility.  They act with the arrogance of a protected supplier.

The reality is that my software company has been around more than three times as long as XchangeIT.  They got their customers by demand, Tower Systems got its 1,760+ newsagent customers through hard commercial work.  Newsagents stick with them because they have no choice.  Newsagents stick with Tower Systems because they like the choice.

It is frustrating to have to spend time disproving an XchangeIT claim that the problem a newsagent has been having is to do with our software.  This waste of time ultimately hurts newsagents.

Every month the Tower team racks up hours of valuable help desk time researching these misleading claims and often fix the problem even though it has nothing to do with our software.  Newsagents ultimately suffer because this takes time away from us supporting and helping newsagents.

I have complained about the level of support and assistance XchangeIT provides newsagents with since the company was formed.  Occasionally things change, but not enough.  Each time there is a reason or excuse.  The overriding message is that they know better.  Occasionally there may be an apology.  Yet the behaviour of ill-founded blame continues.

I guess they continue to under resource and poorly manage their XchangeIT customer service because they know that my team at Tower, serving more than 50% of all newsagents with computer systems, will cover for them.  We demonstrate our support by not charging an XchangeIT support fee like some others do.  Maybe we should introduce such a charge to cover for the work we do on behalf of XchangeIT.

The quality of XchangeIT support is on my mind because of an incident which was resolved last week.  The XchangeIT people convinced my customer that it was a Tower problem, we lost hours working on this.  Even when XchangeIT realised that it was directly related to their software and how it was installed, they changed their story and said it was Gotch and Network related.  It was never a problem with Gotch and Network.  I was shocked that their spin to the newsagent.

The most recent incident  is a good example of the costs I am bearing on behalf of newsagents because of unjustified blame shifting by XchangeIT.

If you represent XchangeIT and are frustrated or upset that I have complained here rather than to you, think back to the many meetings, emails and calls about this issue and the level of service you provide newsagents.  It’s time you did something.  The current approach is unfair against newsagents.

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  1. shauns

    Probally shouldn’t ask but on the xchangit screen what does it mean when it says sales data is out of date .

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  2. Long time supporter

    It means the sales data file contained sales records that belonged to days older than the current or previous day, i.e. more than 1 days ago.
    It will still accept the data.

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  3. Newsagent

    I am a POS Solution’s client and xchangeit are doing exactly the same with us. I rang xchangeit with a problem, they said it was POS Solutions problem. After investigation it turned out to being a problem with xchangeit. We all wasted a few hours because of that run around by xchangeit.

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  4. Narelle

    I have never understood why there was no uproar from newsagents when we were forced to pay for XchangeIT!!

    All the sales spin about early returns being credited sooner is just that – spin! It is still the same as it was before – i.e. each Distributor issues a statement & credits once per month. Our returns were scanned & sent by EDI with the ‘old’ XchangeIT.

    As far as I can see, the only people benefitting from this are the distributors & publishers who now receive our sales data daily.

    It certainly hasn’t stopped any of the distributors from continuing to send magazines that we have never sold & over supplying on the rest.

    As a small newsagency, I heartily object to losing the profit on so many magazines, just to pay the XchangeIT fee.

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  5. Derek

    Narelle – I liked your post. I think their was a big debate here a few years ago. However I think Newsagents in my opinion have been taken advantage off with the amount per month that is charged.

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  6. Shauns

    It is common in the newsagency world we will do as we arebtold and it is as simple as that . We have no choice but to deal with the criminal empire they nick name distributors . We will take what they give us wether we want it or not we will pay what ever they want wether we like it or not . They tell us we do operate our business properly when we wing about anything to do with mags and yet we bend over and take it from them time and time again. Why does marks business have to deal with xchangits problems , well that’s just how it is . They call the shots .
    He’ll maybe theynmight give us an increase to cover these calls they are not even taking ,and guess what one again we will pay it

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  7. Shauns

    Oh and I cannot type on this damm ipad

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  8. h

    Hear hear, Narelle, well said.

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  9. Frank

    Sad to say this is not just limited to XchangeIT – quite a lot of software developers (not all) like to adopt this or a similar approach as their default position.

    In my mind, this approach says more about the quality of the software then their software does!

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  10. 20yr newsagent

    Well said Narelle. We also need to see industry wide stats on sales data from XchangeIT. Lets see a Top 100 magazine sales data report from XchangeIT weekly – Australia Wide, State by STate, Regionally, and total sales by Marketing Group (and independants). This customer data is ours – they are our sales. Let’s get some data to help benchmark our businesses in real time – not months later.

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  11. Paul

    I don’t have Xchange(I’m so tempted to add an “sh” here)IT as the previous long serving owner didn’t have it, said it wasn’t necessary and cost too much for no benefit and from comments on here it seems he was right. I’ve nearly gone ahead and got it a couple of times and even went so far as to register but after having a couple of very confusing conversations with their customer service decided it wasn’t worth it. I do it all the old fashined way myself while on the counter early on magazine days and while it sometimes becomes a bit of a grind I don’t think its that hard when the (Tower) POS is pretty streamlined in regard to inputting all the mags. Why would I pay for something that provides other parties more benefits than it seems to provide to me ?

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  12. James

    The idea is solid Paul, it’s just poorly resourced, poorly developed & run by numpties, that’s all!

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  13. Derek

    I am not sure if you are referring to the News Limited new Circulation website.

    Apparently a number of Newsagents & retailers failed to get their returns credited last week even though they were submitted on time.

    Personally I am not happy with it. The main reason is when you are submitting returns or adjusting supply their is no confirmation that all is good, approved etc etc.

    This facility has the ability to contact account holders with this information.

    Two Instances over the last weeks have shown it is still not resolved some issues with its interface or software, I do not know because they would not tell me anything – After reading Man bites Murdoch I fully understand the driver / project manager would not want to let anyone know their maybe some small technical difficulties.

    1) Emailed Circulation regarding the no return credits however after two days Rang circulation who were polite however could not tell me what was the problem, although through conversation it was mentioned that other account holders had the same problem.

    2) 3 weeks running I adjusted my supply to nearly double what I receive normally and it was ignored this is due to different circumstances where I trade and that meant I would be receiving more foot traffic, this will be going on for three weeks.

    This morning I received my normal delivery from Nationwide, I was very dissapointed, this off course meant I had to go and buy 40 more Telegraphs from around the traps.

    The point of this, their does not appear to be any flexibility for 1 offs or different scenarios to get a supply increase. after trying for 3 weeks to adjust my supplies.

    So here I am fiddling via the new circulation system for weeks trying to ensure the increase is accepted and My wife rings Circulation this morning and immediately all was taken care off.

    So what am i trying to say, their website needs to be more communicative with account holders regarding returns and supplies approval and most importantly dont be afraid to share with account holders in this case their was a problem with return credits for some business’s

    honest and open communication is so much better than trying to keep it quiet or not thinking it is relevant to share information.

    Rant over.

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  14. Jeff

    Who controls this mob? They give us awful service and never take responsibility. As a new newsagent I’m astounded how backward XchangeIT it and how awful they are at “customer service”.

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  15. Mark Fletcher

    Jeff XchangeIT is controlled by the magazine distributors. The problems are those you get with supplier (non commercial) monopoly. Complain in writing to them and your software co.

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  16. Jim

    Is anyone else having problems with sending sales data and returns via XchangeIT after their “upgrade” on Thursday? We are receiving invoices but some “file lock” problem is not letting files generated yesterday be transmitted although today’s sales data went through ok apparently. It’s just my luck that one of the files not able to be sent is a Network return of some thousands of $$$.
    It irks me just a tad that although we are expected to operate 7 days a week and, presumably, pay XchangeIT accordingly to access their “services” that they only offer support inside the gentleman’s hours of 9 – 5 Mon to Fri. It seems that with month end upon us and deadlines looming for submission of returns that their very skinny support service needs time off after yet another heavy week of blaming someone else for their problems!
    They are a joke!!!

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  17. Mark Fletcher

    Jim did you call them yesterday? I’m not aware of any current system problems from their end.

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  18. Jim

    Mark

    I called the Help Desk only to get the message that support is 9-5 Mon-Fri.
    I also submitted a support ticket via the website so I guess all I can do is pray that they can get me an answer tomorrow rather than blaming someone else.

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  19. May First

    Same problem here, can’t get returns files thru to Network.

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  20. May First

    Update: File has got thru but Xchangeit is trying to send it again. And again. etc & so on.

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