Pros
The customer service team would answer my calls ANYTIME day or night. I believe I even called on a Saturday once and got a response.
Cons
They made it hard to choose another POS software LOL ... they were great.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
AMS as a company is the best part of the experience! I delayed the conversion for about a year because I was agonizing over the learning process of changing the POS. Now looking back, I wasted a year of waiting. AMS made the process so easy! They are well versed in the product they support and they held our hand during the entire journey. AMS educated us extremely well before going live. On the day we went live, our personal trainer was there the whole day walking us through all the things we forgot. There was a total of one day where we struggled and I can't say it was a full day. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] is the best part of my experience! He is ALWAYS available to answer my question. He is always available to log in and help me through the more advanced questions. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was our trainer and he went over and above to make sure we were comfortable with the software and be available to answer our questions. Great job [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] at making sure you did not launch a support company without thoroughly training your crew! AMS is the only choice if want to buy Protractor!
Pros
How customizable the reports are in Protractor. In the previous POS system, you got your information from a set of reports. I had to look at several reports to get the info I needed. With Protractor, I can build a dashboard that has all the information I need to look at on one screen. Estimating a large ticket is under 5 minutes, so easy! ROW it took over a half an hour. The time saved pays for the cost of the software. It's all in the cloud so my network issues with ROW have gone away. I can log into the system with my laptop, no more teamviewer.
Cons
The conversion didn't bring over declined services. A little hassle to look back into the old software. As time passes, that issue is slowly disappearing. Not a deal breaker.
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
Most shop management systems focus on auto shops needs. Protractor is an accounting program piggybacked with a shop management program. I was with Protractor over a year and they did not fulfilled their promises for example, an oil sticker label or to fix CarFax. I went back to my previous system where CarFax is working properly yet Protractor says it is not a Protractor problem, it is a CarFax problem. I was told from the beginning that if I left, my data is mine. They did not tell me that it was available in report form and you have to pay $149.00 a month ($1788.00 a year plus foreign transaction fees) to access it. With the dollar exchange, it was costing me around $125. A few months ago, they notified me that I will be charged the FULL $149.00 plus I have to pay the foreign transaction fee. This is due to the support it requires. We are looking at previous data only and NEVER need customer support??? If you choose to go with Protractor, I believe you will agree that the your experience is very AGGRAVATING.
Hi George,
I am very sorry to hear about your experience. Regarding product developments we are constantly updating the Protractor product based on customer requests and work on as quick a schedule as we can. As it happens we do now have an oil sticker integration available. Regarding carfax, there are no known issues at this time except for in a few territories that are out of our control which would be similar to any SMS. Perhaps you are talking about some vin decoding issues which are unrelated to carfax that have been rectified.
Regarding your data, it is always available to you in a file, however it would not be possible to access this without the use of an interface. Unfortunately the best option is to run any reports that you require from the Protractor system while you have access to it, or to maintain a current subscription.
We apologize that you have had an unfortunate experience, but we do stand behind our product and believe that it is a top sms on the market.
Rating breakdown
Dependability and stable system, cloud based system with no back ups or disc needed. Made hardware expense much less
Pros
How easy it is to use, speed of making estimates and work orders, the customization to personal needs, support from AMS is second to none
Cons
The fact that AMS Protractator wasn't purchased sooner
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 10/10
We had data corruption and the old software wasn't keeping up with new technology. Protractor is cloud based.
Pros
Easy for the service Writers to learn and use.
Cons
The pain of switching to and learning a new system. AMS did a great job of on-boarding us. Still not fun though!
Rating breakdown
Likelihood to recommend: 9/10
Contact Protractor Software for pricing details.