Relius ASP customer service issues

[TPAnnie]

Has anyone else been having trouble with Relius ASP customer service?  I understand we probably aren't their ideal client, but our issues aren't being resolved.  Problems like posting transactions easily see weeks turn around time, and more often than not I'm finding some manual workaround.  Since they've switched to that Portal, though, I'm wondering if I'm going about submitting for help the correct way.  It just seems very disjointed for the past year or so.

I'm also unsure that we've gotten any correspondence about the IE discontinuance and how to log in.  (I'm using our old stand alone version of the software currently because the plans I want to work on don't work on ASP.)

[Mr Bagwell]

Annie, 

The customer service is not what it once was.....  very slow resolution timing as you know.

I would suggest you get used to the Portal and figure it out.  It's their baby and they ain't giving it up.

They have had correspondence about IE.  It wasn't that long ago... late April, early May....   You have to make Edge browser emulate IE.....  lol.... not making that up.

Good luck.

[TPAnnie]

Thanks Mr. Bagwell, oh, that portal.  LOL  We're using it, just not loving it. 

I've been using Relius almost my entire career - I started with pentabs almost 30 years ago, then switched to Quantech about 25 years ago.  I've rolled with the changes and never had such a hard time adjusting as I have to this ASP version.  If only their service was better, I think it would make a huge difference.

I'll look for that correspondence, I appreciate your contribution!  thanks,

Annie

[pmacduff]

I had to smile when I read Annie's last post....I have worked on Relius my entire career (32 years).  We were on FDP to start - boy those were the days!  You could go to Miami for training and were treated like kings and queens, great training, great people, great dinners, etc.  You called and got a real person when you had a question.  (heavy sigh)  We then transitioned to Quantech.  Always used the stand alone systems for both FDP and Quantech.  Then finally currently on ASP.  One advantage from way back is that they keep the software udpated, which I like as opposed to having to do our own updates on the stand alone systems.  It took some getting used to ASP (still getting used to it 🙂).  The software itself is MUCH slower at times.  Tried to blame our internet connection, but that is screaming fast for everything else and even the log in to ASP, so I'm pretty sure it's just ASP.  Haven't had a LOT of service issues but you are right about the slow down on those too.  Thankfully I haven't had to put in any incidents because I'm not able to log in to the Portal.  I got locked out and then couldn't get it to reset so I have to call to get a reset for that and haven't had time.

[Belgarath]

I just use the document system. Last year they had some serious service problems, but I must say, the last 4 or 5 months the response time has been excellent. And while I don't particularly like the new portal system (probably because it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks...) it seems to be working fine. Took a little getting used to, but that's generally true of any changeover.

[Pam Shoup]

If you are not already part of the RVUG (Retirement Virtual Users Group), I highly recommend that you join it.  They have quarterly online training sessions (which cost all of $25).  The sessions have been very informative and the website is a great way to interact with other users/ask questions.  https://www.rvug.org/    It is free to sign up.  They had a session all about using the portal and have been doing some updates to it based upon our feedback. 

If you are not already signed up for weekly alerts from the Portal, I would also sign up for those as a lot of information is disseminated that way.

[Pam Shoup]

5 hours ago, pmacduff said:

I had to smile when I read Annie's last post....I have worked on Relius my entire career (32 years).  We were on FDP to start - boy those were the days!  You could go to Miami for training and were treated like kings and queens, great training, great people, great dinners, etc.  You called and got a real person when you had a question.  (heavy sigh)  We then transitioned to Quantech.  Always used the stand alone systems for both FDP and Quantech.  Then finally currently on ASP.  One advantage from way back is that they keep the software udpated, which I like as opposed to having to do our own updates on the stand alone systems.  It took some getting used to ASP (still getting used to it 🙂).  The software itself is MUCH slower at times.  Tried to blame our internet connection, but that is screaming fast for everything else and even the log in to ASP, so I'm pretty sure it's just ASP.  Haven't had a LOT of service issues but you are right about the slow down on those too.  Thankfully I haven't had to put in any incidents because I'm not able to log in to the Portal.  I got locked out and then couldn't get it to reset so I have to call to get a reset for that and haven't had time.

We started on FDP as well.  We left to go to Investlink and then returned to Relius.  Did you know that a lot of the old FDP hot keys still work in Relius?

[Tom Poje]

Retired, pop in here once and a while. Sorry to hear the gripes, having done software support for years on Pentabs (1992 - 1997). Worked my 'butt off' to learn the system and provide the best support I could, because it made a difference to me. Switched jobs when Pentabs closed down, did some training when a member of the Southern User Group, used to give away a number of Crystal reports I created. 

 

Have fortunately 'forgotten' much of the pension tuff, so no more grief of  ADP test deadlines and the like. Now spending much of the time at church. Today is an especially glorious day for me. New tabernacle will be unveiled today, from funds I donated, quite a story with that, God gets what He wants when He wants. 

 

[Ajillity]

We are getting no response time to tickets and at that, now I can't even submit a ticket.  Calling the 800 number leads to infinite hold times with ultimately being disconnected from the system.  I was on the new portal today and almost anything I clicked on was a dead end.  So if you need support and can't create a ticket, what are you to do?  I had previously been able to create a ticket, but I had no Relius products to choose from.  They told me at the Portal support that was ok, just make a ticket.  Here I am 2 months later with still an open ticket.  I finally on a whim emailed an account rep I got from the Sungard territories map.  He is to call me tomorrow.

[BG5150]

I remember the good ol' days:  a decade or two ago, you would call, or go onto the java site and enter a ticket (for Administration, at least) and someone would call you back in a day or two.  (Though I often found it funny as they had to know I'm in NJ, but they would leave messages at like 6:30 pm "this is Relius calling...")  But you got to talk to the same few folks.  They would walk you through stuff right on the phone.

And up to about a year ago, you could call, and if someone was available, they would talk to you right then and there.

Now, I think these tickets are going to software guys or engineers, rather than user support people--the people who actually USE the software...I heard mention of a JIRA ticket in one of my calls to them.  In my experience, that's like the coders' and engineers' workflow.

So, I think it's now programmers who are trying to answer questions SOLELY via email/ticketing system.

FIS is a huge company, 65,000 employees (compared to SunGard, who had around 13,000.  I understand why they want to streamline things (in their mind), but the customer support of the Relius products has taken a nosedive.

I've sent emails from a variety of FIS websites complaining, but have yet to get even a response.

[Pam Shoup]

They sent out alerts on Friday that the ticketing system was down and then they said it was back.  If you call, the phone rings and rings and then someone picks up and hangs up.  Customer service is seriously lacking.  I still have an issue pending from April of 2021 with app issues and vesting.  I have an issue pending for several months now with MFA and the app.  If a participant needs to enter a PIN to access the app, it just spins and spins.  If they re-boot their phones, they can usually go into the app afterwards.  Needless to say, we have received a lot of negative reviews by users of the app and there is nothing we can do about it, since we are not going to disable MFA.  A lot of enhancements were promised for the app but it has been crickets on those since it launched.

If there was a viable alternative, we would seriously consider switching.