SugarCRM and FatCow

Posted: February 8, 2010 | Categories: Miscellaneous

I've been trying for some time now to get the open source SugarCRM Customer Relationship Management system to work on a couple of my web sites being hosted by FatCow. It just doesn't work. After trying FatCow's automated install several times (which worked, but Sugar wouldn't run after the installation completed) and many manual installations of SugarCRM 5.5 (the latest version) I decided to give FatCow support a call. FatCow's usually awesome and sine they're giving me so much for very little money, I try not to call them too often.

I spoke with a tech who told me what I was asking for was more complicated than he could handle (I like honesty) he immediately escalated me and I spoke with a guy (Jordan I think was his name) who understood my problem and got to work. He immediately tried their automated install - it failed with the exact same errors I was getting (validation, I love it). Then he downloaded the latest community version files (free) from the Internet and did the installation himself - it failed again (even more validation that my error was reproducible). He opened a ticket and promised to escalate it to Engineering.

I waited a couple of days and received several emails from FatCow as they tried to work through my problem. Of course, some of the messages I got were related to the technicians just not reading the case history (I hate that and FatCow does it all the time - phone support is AWESOME, but dealing with online support is HORRIBLE for that reason alone). They finally told me that were able to get it installed and operational. Unfortunately they installed an old version (4.4, I'm trying to use 5.5), they installed it in a location different than where I asked to have it installed and they REFUSE (yep, absolutely and repeatedly refuse) to tell me anything except that they have it installed. I've asked what they did to get it to work - won't tell me. I've told them that I need 5.5 to work, not 4.4 and the only response I get is 'SugarCRM works on our systems' - nothing else. Arghhhhhh!  These guys are usually so good but in this case, they're absolutely refusing to actually help me with my problem.

Now, I know FatCow doesn't 'support' SugarCRM, but they'll install it for me and it's just PHP, MYSQL and some other stuff - it should work just fine, right? Every single other product I've tried to install on their systems work just great (Joomla!, Drupal, vBulletin, phpBB and more).

I've been working with the folks on the SugarCRM forums for help and finally got a chance tonight to look at one response where another customer is having difficulty with SugarCRM on FatCow (https://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56281). So now I know it's not just me having troubles. I'm stil lnot getting anywhere with FatCow support - for the 10th time now I've said 'please, why won't you answer my questions' - I'm going to call tomorrow and see if I can get a manager on the phone or speak with my original tech since they are clearly demonstrating that they're not interested in helping me.

Their service is so awesome for a very reasonable amount of money that I hate to complain. The issue though is that I'd gladly pay more money per year (I already have two accounts just so I can give them more money - I'm serious) to get the help I need but they just don't seem to care.

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