Forum: Across support
Topic: Can't use crappy Across because of error in crossMarket authentication
Poster: Rafael Mantovani
Post title: how it happened
Thanks for the input, everyone.
Unfortunately I have two big clients who won't switch to another tool, and I can't afford to stop working for them now, so I just have to stick with Across and deal with all the bugs, and poorly-engineered features, and a website that's difficult to use even if you're trying to purchase things.
Here's what happened in the end:
My login details were right all the time, and I knew that. The message didn't say my password was wrong or anything, it just said that activation had failed due to "local environment" and I had to get in touch with support. I was in a super-duper hurry to finish a project, and not get in trouble with my client again because of Across's bugs (this had happened once, huge configuration problem that took me about SIX hours to solve, and the client was not sympathetic at all).
I submitted a support ticket and got an answer relatively fast, about 30 min, with a guy giving me standard tips on how to solve the issue, none of which applied to my case. Then he called me on the phone, asked questions, didn't seem to know what was going on, I could hear he was nervous and embarrassed, not a great dealer-with-people, but honestly trying to help and be friendly. He then accessed my computer through TeamView, which I find sort of invasive but what the heck, he looked around a lot, he visibly didn't know what to do and had never seen this problem.
After about 20 min of looking around, after I had to reset my password a few times, after the guy downloaded and ran diagnostic software or whatever, he removed some registries using a tool, and this time it seemed to have worked. I was able to login and had access to my dashboard, but a message kept popping up saying my authentication had failed.
As soon as I started working, Across closed suddenly without a warning, and when I started it again, the very same message from the beginning was there, I couldn't login again. Yay.
I called the support guy again, and it took him some more 40 minutes of TeamView (most of this time he kept doing exactly the same thing and it still didn't work, obviously). After some trial and error, we managed to solve the issue when I removed my clients from the login screen and then imported the CAP files again. But clearly he didn't understand what the problem was, and he ended the call in an awkward tone, unwilling to admit that he didn't know what he was doing, as is typical of tech support men.
And the cherry on top: if I understood him right (but he didn't seem to understand it himself) the whole problem originated when I purchased Premium some days before, which caused some sort of account incompatibility (?) that led the authentication system to go bananas.
So ironically, it was my finally deciding to pay them that led to this head-on collision against their incompetence. In the end it was about 2 stressful hours I wasted, and the bitter thought that it was just because of authentication in crossMarket, which I never use and I'm forced to be part of, and I was still paying them for it.
So, my recommendations if you're reading this topic later because you had the same problem:
- Submit a support ticket right away, pray that you'll be heard and that the person will have professional qualification and some social skills
- If you can get at least to the screen where you choose the client, try deleting each client and then importing the CAPs again, that's what worked for me in the end, but only after the support guy had been in my computer and run the registry tool or something to delete old registries
- Think that it could still be much worse (Transit NXT). And pray that, one day, Across will cause so much hell to your clients that they'll be traumatized and convinced to change.
Have a nice day