OK software that could be great software

This review should not surprise the team at Tyches Software and I am happy to update this review when, and if, things change. I will also correct any factual inaccuracies in my review. I hope you will take this review as a fair summation of what my experience is as a customer so far.

I use the pro version of their plugin for which I paid $299/year.

The software is OK, but could definitely be better. I’ve had some issues with the software since initial purchase, all of which I have detailed support emails about, including:

1. Custom fields not being captured at checkout in spite of it stating that in the publicly available documentation. The team fixed these in their next release.
2. Quirky ways that their integration with Sendgrid worked, including settings in Abandoned Cart Pro differing from how Sendgrid specified they should be entered, emails sending as plain text connections to the server/unencrypted, “from” name being set to email address. The team fixed these in their next release.
3. Not saving previously entered passwords for custom SMTP servers on upgrading the software. The team fixed this in their next release.
4. The big one… I opened a ticket in February, 2024, as I had found a bug that HTML emails changed their formatting only when sent through Abandoned Cart Pro. I provided detailed information and examples and it was more than enough to provide the team what they needed. Today, June 18th, just over 3 months after I first opened the ticket and after an 86-thread email support exchange, the issue is finally resolved. The team finally said they’d issue a small credit on my next renewal. The team said they fixed this, issued an updated version, and said it is fixed in their next release.
   
   In all of these cases it took a number of emails and in the latter, a truly ridiculous amount of replying to their support and pushing constantly on their support to first of all convey that there actually was an issue, which they initially didn’t agree there was, and then constantly haranguing them to get a resolution. Many times it would go weeks without any reply. I learned that a core component of their software, TinyMCE, was being used but the community/free version and without paid support. Sure, it’s not their software, but as it’s a core component of their software they should properly support it or pay its developer to have it supported.

As I said, the software is “just OK.” It could be really good. I am a very experienced marketer and have decades of experience with software development and implementation across a diverse range of businesses and use cases. I think the main issue is that Tyches is likely a small company and doesn’t apply, or invest in, the level of testing resources that a robust piece of software needs and that while they have some good developers they probably don’t have experienced testers who really dive into the features to check they work, so it’s left to customers to uncover these bugs. Customers by default become, but are the worst kind of, beta testers. Added to that there’s a disconnect between the front end support staff and feeding back bugs from experienced customers.

I think it’s got the foundation to become the best abandoned cart software available – the segmentation and targeting features integrated with WooCommerce are not available in other abandoned cart software I researched extensively. But at the moment, the software is “just OK” and somewhat underwhelming.