I have been with ZC for around 3 years now. When you invest so much time and money into a particular platform (about $ 30,000.00 USD  worth) then it is nearly impossible to simply change platforms and start again. Maybe ZC knows this, which is why they continually introduce unannounced changes that break links and stop businesses in their tracks.

For years now I have suffered greatly from these background surprise attacks. An every time it occurs 2 things happen (1) My ability to take orders (bookings) via Zoho ceases instantly and it costs me customers and (2) I have to contact my programmer straight away no matter what early hour of the morning it may be (I am in Australia and he is overseas) and fork out an average of $ 150,00 since the programming fee is $ 500.00 per hour and yu can bet it will take about least 3 hours to diagnose the ZC stuff up and find a temporary work around, that then needs to be reversed when ZC finally fix the error that should never have occurred if thorough testing had been performed in the first place.

My conclusion from my first hand experience is that ZC has a "collateral damage" philosophy, meaning that they are fully aware that every time they make a change they will disrupt a percentage of users, and rather that spend the necessary time in checking possible consequences of such changes they will just wait and see what the back lash is when the forums light up in the hours that follow such a change. They (ZC) play the numbers game, and do not really have a single concern about the real human individuals who are severely affected by this "take no prisoners" approach to business.

Yesterday, was such another example. The platform "upgrade" instantly stopped my radio buttons functioning in 2 areas of my application, one disastrously resulting in all new customer inquiries being told that we have no inventory available. Where do you think a customer goes when he or she is told we can’t help you?

And this is what happens to me when ZC break my program. In Australia at around 11pm to 12 midnight I am just finishing a full days work tidying up loose ends, processing bookings, issuing receipts, sending follow-up emails and customer inquiries etc. via our ZC online booking application. The last thing I need at this hour is to discover it has all fallen apart yet again and needs to be fixed immediately in order for my business to continue.

So, no matter how tired I may be at the hour, I need to arrange a Skype session with the programmer, and hope that I can get in first, because inevitably he is swamped by other ZC clients from around the world, who are suffering the same problems and I need to be prepared to start a series of laborious testing over the next 2 hours or so until we successfully diagnose and discover a workaround to keep our application operating. And ... pay him for his time accordingly.

Then when ZC finally issue there standard retrospective "apology" and fix the never should have been broken problem, I contact the programmer again and undo our workaround to get back to normal. More time, more loss of business and more programming fees.

It is such a shame since ZC and Mail (which is amazing) and Sheet, all of which I have now built my online cloud business around, has the potential to be sensational ... but although the fees from  ZC etc, are reasonable and although the platform is versatile and offers a huge amount of features  etc., the TRAP is, that it is simply not affordable in any way, shape  or form, because of the constant disruptions to my business, loss of customers and the consequent cost of repairs afforded by me.

I have had enough. I am moving at first opportunity, no matter what the cost.

Mark (Australia)