An agent who is using Zoopla’s property software Alto says he is experiencing great problems with it.
The agent said that the software is double counting receipts – for example, rents – which is making reconciliation impossible, because it does not tally with the firm’s own records.
For example, a £20 receipt is double counted to show as £40 in the history timeline.
He said that this problem has been going on for some time, without resolution, and that he has been told is a bug.
He showed us an email from a member of staff at Zoopla confirming this on August 23.
The sender says: “The issue that you reported . . . is in fact a bug that has already been logged. It is with the development team and is just waiting on them to fix it.”
However, Zoopla told EYE that the problem being experienced is an “anomaly”.
Carl Olivier, head of product, software and productivity at Zoopla, said: “We have been working closely with this customer for some time to understand their experience in using Alto.
“We are committed to resolving it as a priority and believe it to be an anomaly, with no implications for our wider customer base.”
Zoopla said that the issue is in the context of book-keeping and how it is visualised within Alto. However, it did not impact the core data.
A Zoopla spokesperson said: “We advise all customers that Alto software should not directly replace the services provided by an accountant.”
However the agent said that the problem has proved so frustrating he wants to get rid of Alto – which was originally Vebra – and get a new software system.
“Zoopla say that they are dealing with it, but it’s always in development,” he said.
“However, I am tied in by contract and cannot leave until next February.
“I have been told it is a bug, and would be interested to know if other agents are also experiencing it.”
Comments (12)
The irony is that the customer service levels of these Customer Relationship Managament suppliers is so atrocious. sadly all of them now.
I particularly like Jupix, but I admit I became a fan before it got bought out by Zoopla.
It’s quick, simple and does everything you need it to. Setting up template letters and property particulars, once you get the hang of it of course, is actually fairly simple.
I tried DezRez a few years ago and it was like having my teeth pulled out. I have worked for two companies that went all in for it and then binned it immediately because it seriously disrupted the negotiators workflow and was counterintuitive.
I trialled several of the others and they were undoubtedly fantastic but SERIOUSLY complicated.
In the end it boiled down to this: how long does it take a new member of staff to get to grips with it.
Jupix is about half an hour.
The rest seemed to need three day intensive courses just to be able to register a new applicant and do a simple property match.
BTW – I don’t work for the Jupix development team, just in case you were wondering 🙂
I like Jupix too, very user friendly, the only thing that has annoyed me was the lack of notice when closing down their website hosting so we ended up with a very average website through technicweb ! I feel as if I need to be a web designer to use it. Did you have your own website designed to integrate with it?
umm, isn’t Jupix now part of the Zoopla crowd – so sooner or later, new features will stop being developed, support will stop and the only option will be to upgrade to a more expensive, yet worse ZPG offering?
How much are Zoopla currently charging estate agents for monthly advertising?
This sounds tame compared to using Rezi. Please do not consider Rezi.
Vebra have loads of errors in the platforms, they have been on going for years.
your service reply is they are dealing with it..
that has been the case since 2016..
Vebra services have dropped since the new Vebra Live, and getting help is always returned with you need to have your technical team to look at it ..
2006 was when I used Vebra and the Tec team support was all included ..
they change the package to suite themselves and forget about the small companies
Agreed. Shocking.
Use Reapit instead. Or Jet. (Think Reapit lite).
Rezi by DezRez is also worth considering.
PMX from Axiasoft also worth considering. A smaller independent that cares about their product and their customers. Been using their lettings and management software since 1991 and remain happy.
Had Alto for a short while nightmare, cost me a lot of money to get out of it but the stress levels were not worth the money on myself and my fab team. Went back to Jupix which is old fashioned but works. We wanted to be as uptodate as possible and loved the concept of Alto but they just cannot deliver in my experience.
Personally, as a small operation, I can’t fault jupix- if you are mainly lettings (as we are) the PropertyFile bolt-ons are brilliant and the accounting package works just fine for us. That said there are some cool offerings out there.
Are you using the viewings widget? We just trialled it but had a lot of people complaining they thought they had booked appointments instead of given an ideal viewing time! Love the app for tenants/ maintenance reporting. Van Mildert is great for us. I was really hoping to try MOve IT as we curently use Tenant Shop and entering extra info is a faff!