RUN FAST OR YOU WILL SPEND $$$ FOR NOTHING! SCAM!!! I purchased a software program from Bill at Synergy International. Bill is one of the owners and the designer of the program. Myself and my catering manager had visited his booth at a catering convention for three days, asking him detailed questions of his program and comparing it to others that were half the price. He demonstrated his software program and sold us on the fact that it was the most versatile program on the market and the most user friendly program made for catering and special events. His program looked like it would track many more things than the competitors programs and he insisted it was easy to implement and use. He compared it to anther program (ACT) which we had been using for 10+ years and were all very familiar with it. He stated that he used to work for ACT as a programmer and if we new how to use ACT then his program would be very similar with just a lot more options and custom upgrades that were geared towards the catering and event planning industry. He stated it was "ACT on Steroids" and that it was easy to set-up the reports and tracking information that he had shown us. I had made custom templates, reports, new design layout and fields with our ACT program and have totally customized several databases to meet departmental needs of our company. I don't claim to be a computer programmer but I definitely know my way around a computer and can easily understand new programs. In comparison our ACT Program cost us about $100 new. The last day of the convention we purchased the program from Bill / Synergy ($6500 w/ three user rights). He said we wouldn't actually get a CD to install but that he would install it through the internet on our server / computers. From that point on he worked with my Catering Manager in trying to install it on our server / computer system. My catering manager spent about 6 weeks and 100's of hours trying to input information into the program. It never functioned correctly and never worked on multiple computers. We could not get it to successfully perform tasks, track information or provide us with reports that Bill had shown us it would produce at the convention. Again Bill had sold the program to us based on the fact that his program would easily do what he had shown us. In the hundreds of hours spent trying to configure the program once it totally crashed and we had to start over from the beginning with imputing the information. When my catering manager called tech support (Bill) he gave her very limited information or tech support and tried to get her to just sift through a 400+ page PDF booklet of computer jargon he emailed her. The help tab in the program he also suggested we use didn't even work! We should have know better when just days after the sale and before the program was ever installed Bill / Synergy started the bait and switch by trying to up-sell us on their computer support packages or paying them additional money to input our data into the program for us. All at an additional fee that would of cost us thousands of dollars more just to get their basic program installed and running. When we contacted Bill and let him know none of the solutions he gave us was working he told us that our free tech support time had ended and that he would have to start billing us hourly for any additional support time and that the booklet should answer our questions. We pressed on reading through the booklet and trying to make sense of the computer jargon Bill had written. We tried different methods of inputting our information but it would track and report information like we were shown it would do at the convention. I have absolutely nothing from Synergy except a $6,500 charge. Their program that we purchased and put countless hours into never worked or did anything for us. Bill knew if he acted like he was trying to help us long enough he would exceed the time needed for us to get a refund through our credit card company. Their program is not on our system to date. Before it totally crashed it never functioned correctly and again was NEVER EVEN USED in the coordination or production of one event we ever did!!! I have no physical program or property that I ever received from Synergy other than a piece of marketing material we got at the convention! read more

My company has been a client of Synergy International for 16 years and I still get amazed at the customer service they provide. Our system received a crypto virus in October of this year. If you have had this happen you are aware it takes over ALL your documents and holds them "hostage" until you pay a ransom to get them back. However, we caught this in the middle of it running through the system but we were too late to save our synergy data. Our local IT company was not familiar with synergy. So I knew I needed to get the owners Bill and Chris Marsh on board as quickly as possible (October is a huge catering month). I contacted Chris at 5:30 am thinking if he is on the east coast that would be 6:30 am his time. Actually he was on the west coast and it was 3:30 am his time but he still ANSWERED the phone. I explained the situation and he said he would be happy to help and then explained to me where he was!! I could not apologize enough but he couldn't have been more courteous and helpful. Later that day my IT company reached out to Chris for further assistance and he was unable to take their call (due to being with another client) so I gave the local company Bill's number (he and Chris are brothers) and he answered the phone call while he was at the hospital. Again, above and beyond what you would expect. Needless to say my software is running, the data saved and October is an image in my rear view mirror BUT my world could have been a disaster with out "the brothers". Thank you Bill and Chris for ALWAYS being available to me no matter where you are or what you are doing!! read more