Comments on: Banned from “Sage Event”

By: David Stanton

David Stanton — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:39:16 +0000

At least you know Sage is scared of what KashFlow has produced… SIMPLE

By: Sharron Clemons

Sharron Clemons — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 20:22:45 +0000

I am surprised that Sage would conside pulling such a petty move. kinda makes you look good. lol

By: John Donnelly

John Donnelly — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:42:33 +0000

To all those bashing Sage, particularly those posting after Duane’s last post and Rita’s before that, it seems clear that this decision had absolutely nothing to do with Sage at all and was taken entirely by Sift Media…

John

By: Wayne Austin

Wayne Austin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:27:48 +0000

Madness, never been happy with sage to be fair, gives us more of a reason to move over the KashFlow in the near future.

Kudos to KashFlow!

By: TaxTeddy

TaxTeddy — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:55:41 +0000

Thought this was quite funny. To be honest I am not often keen on recommending Sage as the smallest businesses find it too complex. By contrast I regularly recommend KashFlow.

But banning you from the meeting? I just don’t see why they would. As a director of a small tax firm I regularly attend seminars by the ‘big boys’ like KPMG. They know I am a ‘competitor’ but clearly they aren’t worried about it. Quite right too.

Funny, funny, funny.

By: Chris Carrier

Chris Carrier — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:57:52 +0000

Just looking at getting an accounting system even a web designer can use, and came across this! I want to steer clear from Sage even more now Corporate Bullies! Had a couple more to trial, but will trial with KF now.

Any company that worldwide household names are scared of, are exactly the place I want to be!

Kudos!

By: Tina

Tina — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:17:55 +0000

I took a dislike to Sage ever since I applied to go on one of their training courses. They refused to give me a place, saying they can’t train deaf people (I can lip read and speak perfectly well, and have my own communication support, thank you). When queried at a more senior level, I was informed ‘We CAN train disabled people but not deaf people’.

?????

Idiots.

By: Ali-V-8

Ali-V-8 — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:51:54 +0000

I am surprised that Sage would conside pulling such a petty move. kinda makes you look good. lol

By: Karin H

Karin H — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:17:16 +0000

Business lesson to learn for all:
Excellent example of not telling the left hand what the right hand is doing 😉

Karin H

By: Jon Behr

Jon Behr — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:49:04 +0000

I don’t think that even you could have even dreamt this one up, Duane.

By: Maria

Maria — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:46:30 +0000

Duane, Obviously the organisers have never heard the saying ‘when you are in a hole stop digging’!

By: Duane Jackson

Duane Jackson — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:34:50 +0000

Hi Rita,

Thanks for posting, to clarify your clarification though:

The first call I had from Sift wasn’t from you, it was from one of your colleagues.

There was no mention of tickets or guest lists. I was simply told that he “had a problem” because he’d been told “it wouldn’t be appropriate for [me] to attend” because it’s a “private Sage event and it wouldn’t be right to have a direct competitor there”.

I said whoever is making that decision must be mad as they must know I would kick off about it on my blog and on Twitter and not just take it lying down.

He said he knew me well enough to know that was the case but his hands are tied. I was pretty surprised as it seemed a very short-sighted decision. If you run the events there then you’ll be aware of the pretty big favour I pulled for you guys earlier in the week, so I’m surprised and disappointed that this would be the thanks I got.

Anyway, he said he’d call me back if there was any change. I never got a call back so emailed him to say so not to worry, that I wouldn’t be comfortable going now anyway and that I would of course kick up a fuss. I then went ahead and published this post.

It was only later when this had all blown up that I got a call from you. That was the first time that lists and tickets were mentioned to me. I’m not arrogant enough to have just assumed I’d be on a VIP list, certainly not one ran by Sage!

To be fair to Sage, Cath who runs their Twitter feed got in touch with me shortly before you did late Friday afternoon to say the decision wasn’t theirs and I’d be more than welcome at the event.

By that time I’d already made other plans anyway.

By: Rita Andrews

Rita Andrews — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 21:44:04 +0000

Hi Duane,

We have had a conversation about this but I thought I would post something here.

As I explained, there appears to have been some misunderstanding. When we first spoke yesterday I assumed you hadn’t actually bought a ticket. As the Sage guest list was the only option, I decided that adding you to the list would be inappropriate. This was my decision and not one taken by Sage.

Following another conversation, it turned out that you had actually bought a ticket but your PayPal confirmation had been blocked by our firewall. On investigating, we discovered another four ticket confirmations that were blocked.

As the problems were caused by a Sift Media IT error and you had bought a ticket, we said we were happy for you to attend or to provide a refund of the £10 ticket fee.

Rita Andrews
Head of Events, Sift Media

By: Pete Bowen

Pete Bowen — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 20:15:04 +0000

Load. Aim. Fire. Hop. Hop. Hop. What a bunch of idiots.

By: Martin Smallridge

Martin Smallridge — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:52:57 +0000

The down side of this is that you don’t get to enjoy a social event but if you take nothing else from it I’d say someone is seriously scared.

.. Of course the fact that you don’t mention your black ski mask and outfit or your intention to raid Sage HQ for all their data, probably puts a bit of a different spin on things 😉

By: Marie Jones

Marie Jones — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:47:19 +0000

Microsoft have a bigger profit than some countries annual spend, yet still they push for more! Sage has one of the biggest names in the business and they don’t want to share the market or compete? I like to be on the same side as the under dog and I like to feel that there is a challenge to be brought. Gosh… I am in a tenacious mood!

By: Jason Pavlou

Jason Pavlou — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:33:47 +0000

It seems to have been a week of aggression this week, what with E2Live, & the slating they got from a supposedly supporter of SME’s, and now this.
Such a shame when it is mean’t to be GEW. Should we not all be supportive of each other, at all times, at least for this week if none other.
I was also at ThePitch this week and heard the comment made, and right, surely there is a market for more than just 1 in that business.
After this week is over hopefully we can learn some lessons, and begin to collaborate with each other, help each other, so that we may all move on to greater things.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:27:55 +0000

Well I guess it’s nice to know that they feel threatened by you, I agree with Gary – childish and petty, after all you give them plenty of publicity on your blog!!

By: Nikki Pilkington

Nikki Pilkington — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:19:56 +0000

To be honest, if I were you I would just go anyway. It’s not their private event, they’re just sponsoring it, so I am pretty sure they can’t ban you from the event.

By: Bonsoni

Bonsoni — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:18:23 +0000

Ermmmm… what is the definition of a “Private Event”?

By: Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:59:48 +0000

Very narrow minded and silly of Sage. But at least take some satisfaction from knowing that you must have rattled them.
A web designer once tried to ban me from attending a training course on web design and SEO because my full service marketing company was perceived as a competitor. I argued my case and was allowed to stay and listen, which i did intently! What they didn’t realise was that we actually outsource our web programming and such was the quality of their presentation that i would have seriously considered adding them to our suppliers list. Fat chance.

By: Carla Corrie

Carla Corrie — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:59:27 +0000

It must however make you smile that Sage see KashFlow as such a big threat someone fairly high up in Sage went to the GEW organiser and actually said I don’t want him allowed and I want you to call him and tell him!!!

Major PR mistake for sage ~ they have lots of egg on there face over this.

By: Karin H

Karin H — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:56:56 +0000

Hmm, another business that is afraid of competition?

Not that, IMHO, Sage has a decent bookkeeping program – never been a big fan of it anyway, too little value for money. But weird and rather stupid they feel so threatened by any critique they think they can solve the problem by banning those who could give them better ideas 😉
Counter-productive!

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Who, BTW, received a request from another well-known bookkeeping/accounting software business to link to them (my business pondering blog frequently mentions those software programs I think/other small businesses could benefit from too). No offer for link-love or any kind of incentive – just a blatant request to add a link to them.
If they had truly taken the trouble to browse my blog (Kiss, Keep It Simple Sweetheart 2) they would have known me and my readers share insights only on those programs we use.
But it seems the bigger they are (think they are) the more “air” they seem to have – or are they really starting to feel the pressure of being overtaken left, right and center by other – better – software programs?

By: Gary Dickenson

Gary Dickenson — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:55:51 +0000

It’s not the first time the the out of date short sighted corporates have done such things and I very much doubt it will be the last.

By: Dan Ladds

Dan Ladds — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:53:47 +0000

Funny thing is, as soon as I saw your tweet, the last line of the blog post went through my head. Then I read the post.

Dealing well with your critics’ questions can count in your favour. Trying to mute them rarely does.

Oh well, it wasn’t an open bar anyway 😉

By: Gary Turner

Gary Turner — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:50:50 +0000

Way to go, Sage. Childish, cynical, incompetent, in need of a serious kick up the backside.