Terrible service, support and sales

After eight years with Sage, this will unfortunately be our final year.

Pastel annual registrations have always been problematic, but in previous years at least the support was functional. This year, however, renewals simply do not process at all. When attempting to register our package, a support-related issue resulted in us being redirected to sales, where the only proposed “solution” was to purchase an additional standalone module at an upfront cost of approximately R6,000 just to get the software operational.

As a bookkeeping practice, we rely on our accounting software to function in order to generate income. Expecting an immediate upfront payment under these circumstances is unreasonable. I therefore requested that the software at least remain operational for the remaining days we were still contractually entitled to. This was declined, leaving us effectively strong-armed into purchasing additional software.

I ultimately sourced an alternative solution and opted to downgrade, as Sage demonstrated no loyalty to long-standing clients and placed unacceptable operational risk on our practice. A week later, the downgrade has still not been processed. Despite this, the original debit order continues, with a credit of approximately R4,000 sitting on the account.

The lack of coordination between renewals, support, and sales has been deeply disappointing. After eight years of advocating for Sage, this experience has made it clear that client retention and service delivery are no longer priorities.

For anyone considering accounting software: do yourself a favour and choose Xero. While slightly more expensive, you receive actual support, assistance, and continuity of service — not a business brought to a standstill during the busiest time of the financial year.

I am not seeking apologies. I simply expect services paid for to be delivered. Sadly, this has not been the case.