Resellers slam Pegasus over upgrade shambles

n A group of Pegasus resellers is looking to the accountancy software vendor for financial compensation after delayed tax-year upgrades caused turmoil.

A leaked newsletter seen by PC Dealer, compiled by the Association of Developers of Management Information Technology (Admit), details complaints from resellers.

Upgrades to the Senior application were due to be released in February, in time for tax-year changes, but only reached resellers for the last week in March, leaving them just one week to distribute upgrades.

Many single-user releases to customers failed in the first run of payroll and needed bug-fixes. When upgrades arrived, about five per cent of Senior releases had the wrong activation keys issued with them, the newsletter claimed.

Complaints included ?a terrible effect on cash flow? and ?little or no help or support from Pegasus?. The opening section of the report concludes: ?Staff morale at Pegasus is low, from director level down.?

Chris Leak, sales and marketing director for Pegasus, denied that morale was low and claimed comments had been taken out of context. He said the government had not made tax details available to vendors until the last minute. ?We didn?t have time to develop and quality assure the product.?

Colin Parnell, chairman of Admit and reseller Peg Associates said: ?We?ve lost billing revenue, which affects our cash flow. Dealers are losing other business because of this issue.?