3 Software Horror Stories that Will Leave You Spooked

Software… it can be a blessing, and it can be a curse. As a responsible leader, it’s up to you to decide the fate of your business by choosing the right tools. However, it’s not as easy as it seems.

In honor of the season, here’s 3 software horror stories guaranteed to leave you spooked enough to think twice before you invest in any old software solution! Read if you dare!

Tale of the Unfit Template

In the shadowy depths of the office, Frankenstein & Co., a small construction company based out of Indianapolis, realized they needed to invest in a workflow management tool to centralize their complicated, piecemeal business processes. 

On a budget and blissfully unaware of how her team operates, the COO chose a pre-built Monday template to get started. 

Right off the bat, the team had their qualms with the template. Since it wasn’t customizable, they found themselves attempting to operate their day-to-day within a workflow built for companies 3x their size.

The process of managing everything in the template became so grueling that the team had to dedicate an entire staff member, Victor, to learn and manage business within the templated workflow. Being the in-house Monday expert drove Victor mad.

After months of frustration, Victor lost it. He resigned from the company without a 2 weeks notice, leaving Frankenstein & Co. 100% reliant on workflows that were not equipped for their business, and no one left on the team who knew how to manage them. 

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Ghosted by Customer Support

Meet Peter, the founder and CEO of a successful material handling dealer called Venkman Solutions. Venkman recently experienced a huge uptick in sales, causing them to outgrow their ability to operate via email and spreadsheets. 

With a majority of order information living in silos, things were getting messy. Team members were duplicating tasks, orders weren’t getting fulfilled, and they could no longer keep track of order status. The Venkman team desperately needed to invest in a tool to centralize their processes and data. 

After doing some research, Peter chose a popular workflow management tool that another local dealer recommended to them. At first, the order fulfillment process in the new tool was great! The software’s interface was clean, easy to navigate, and worked seamlessly.

However, after a couple weeks of smooth sailing, the Venkman team discovered a technical error causing certain orders to move stages seemingly by themselves. Aware of the damage that this error could cause in a short amount of time, Peter immediately contacted the software’s chat bot… but there was no reply. He then contacted customer support via email... again, no response. Peter even called the software’s emergency hotline... still nothing. It appeared as if the software’s entire support staff had simply vanished into thin air. They were ghosted by customer support.

As orders continued to slip through the cracks at an alarming rate, Venkman Solutions was left in the dark with a malfunctioning tool and no one to fix it for them. Why? Because the software solution they chose cares more about gaining new customers than supporting the customers they currently have. 

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A Nightmare on Software Street

Freddie was once the honorable, successful founder of Krueger Logistics, a business specializing in the wholesale of professional gardening tools. Like all entrepreneurs, Freddie strived for a financially successful business. However, Freddie was a personable, generous  leader. At the end of the day, a positive employee experience and superior company culture was of utmost importance to Freddie. 

To help his team operate with more ease and efficiency, he heavily invested in a technology that guaranteed to slash their process time in half and streamline the hundreds of emails and slack messages they were sending back and forth each day. 

Immediately upon implementation, the Krueger team discovered that the software’s UI was a total nightmare. It was confusing, hard to use, and worst of all - it would require months of training and optimization before the business would see any ROI. 

Hopeful the kinks would work themselves out and having already invested so much money into the tool, Freddie reluctantly demanded his staff make it work. Fueled by frustration and an increase in effort and hours on the clock, the Krueger team began to turn on Freddie. 

As a small-town founder, Freddie’s worst nightmare came true. Not only had he wasted a horrific amount of time and money on the wrong software, but he also lost respect as a leader by putting his team through this situation.

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If any of these stories sound eerily familiar to something you’re experiencing, don’t fret. The Vsimple support team is here to save your business from its frightful demise. Chat with a team member today to find out how we can help you and your team with a customized software solution that won’t leave you in the dark.