# Inksoft vs deconet vs shirt tools. HELP!



## Thepurplesash

We've been in business for 9 years and are ready to enter the online market. I've been doing a little research and have read several forums, but I'm still a bit lost when it comes to the e-commerce/shirt design solutions.

InkSoft-
Love the 9000+ stock templates and clip art
Hate- the inability to design on tablets (flash) and was told it would tak 20-30 hours to create

Deconet-
Seems perfect, love all the functions, quotes, works on smart device, love the embroidery features, etc,
HATE- the month reoccurring fee based on orders processed.

ShirtTools-
LOVE- the non-flashed based software and the one time price.
HATE-we are concerned that the software will be difficult (or impossible) to integrate into our current godaddy site.

Any ideas or comments would be helpful. We are even considering hiring someone to set it up for us.


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## TPrintDesigner

Hi

ShirtTools works with Opencart so you would need move your content from your GoDaddy site into ShirtTools but it's really easy to do. The great benefit from doing that is your website becomes "mobile responsive" so it will re-scale to fit the size of device it is being viewed on.

Our designer is built using HTML5, Javascript and Twitter Bootstrap so it's responsive as well. You can drag objects with your finger on a smartphone, tablet or touch screen which is what mobile users want to do. Only our designer can do this.

There are pros and cons with all platforms, I always tell people to compare platforms by using real people who don't have experience using online designers. Sit them in front of the screen and ask them to create something and get their feedback. After all, these are the type of people who will be spending their money with you.

P.S Thanks for the post. I'm humbled (and proud) that we're getting compared against the big guys


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## KristineH

We use DecoNetwork because paying the monthly fees were easier to deal with financially instead of paying a lump sum up front.


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## Thepurplesash

KristineH said:


> We use DecoNetwork because paying the monthly fees were easier to deal with financially instead of paying a lump sum up front.


 Besides the financial aspect, have you found other benefits to using deconet? May I see your site or is that asking too much? Also, I'm curious what you use for stock art. InkSoft comes with 9000+ clip/templates. To my understanding, deconet does not have stock art but it can be imported.

Thanks so much!


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## ETA

I also use DecoNetwork, they do have stock clipart as well! I will PM you a link to one of the sites I run on Deco currently (one of the best perks I have found is that with their highest package you can run an unlimited number of sites!).


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## ETA

Thepurplesash, your inbox is full! You need to delete a message before I can send you another


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## Thepurplesash

ETA said:


> Thepurplesash, your inbox is full! You need to delete a message before I can send you another


WOw! I guess I'm limited to 5 messages. ANyway, Inbox is empty!


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## KristineH

Check out www.demo.deconetwork.com
This is their demo site - with all of the available clipart and templates. Some templates are an additional cost, but paying for all of the artwork, your monthly fee is the same as InkSoft - minus the 1.85% transaction fee.

None of the sites I have running have the designer enabled, it's all pre-designed products so probably not very helpful for you. When I get something ready, I'll ask for reviews in the Site Review section - it will be a while since we are a small shop and I'm doing all the design work myself!


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## RodJ

If we go with DecoNetwork do they process the credit cards themselves or do we still have to use a merchant service/paypal on top their fees? My concern is we already have to pay about 2-3% of the transaction to the merchant services and adding the deco network fee on top of that means we are nearly doubling our current transaction for online sales. Plus, what do we do in the event of fraud, cancelled orders, oops orders? Do I have the ability to review the order before it's batched out? We like to review each and every one of our online sales as we get fraud orders from time to time and we decline them if it looks fishy.


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## chuckh

You do need to have a Merchant Account - we are in the process of switching to Stripe Payments, 2.75% I think.

You can set most Merchant Accounts to Capture & Process or just to Capture - where you manually accept payments. DecoNetwork does not charge transaction fees on orders until the order is marked as shipped. You move an order through the system - "In Production", "Awaiting Shipping" and "Shipped". So you can cancel any order, you also have the option to reactivate the order.


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## RodJ

Wow, well that is a lot of charges. I'm not in love with deco network, but our business currently does more embroidery than printing and it's the only one with embroidery options. 

Currently, we use Costco for merchant processing...which is Elavon. We get 1.99% fees on normal cards, but corporate/business cards are about 4%. So, that means the deco network would cost us 4-6% of each invoice.
Doubling our current cred card service fees. As it is, paypal costs us more but we get so many requests for it we had no choice but to integrate it into our store despite the higher fees.

I actually like Inksoft more, but with no embroidery options and not iphone/ipad compatible it's a no go.

The Open source software seems half finished in comparison...maybe I just need to look at that more in depth.
The nice thing about Deco was that we just pick and choose the items from a vendor catalog - no need for months of working on it.

Seems to me despite the auomated feel to these studios, we're going to have to walk people through it most of the time on the phone anyway. Anyone's comments?

We need a solution, it's 2014 and regular info-webpage requesting for a quote just don't cut it anymore.
As it is we're going to have to upgrade to a more mobile friendly web solution already.


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## RodJ

forgot to mention, you can auto-pend a transaction for review before batching. at least with elavon.
that way we can check with merchant services if you have a high risk factor for fraud on an order before batching out.

i'm using the deco demo site right now. trying to put in team names....a little hard to edit them.
and i don't like the fact that the layout options are a the bottom of the page where I did not see them right away. And the location of a print seems really low in the image mockup...and if I pick a screen print for the fron there is no way to add team names because vinyl is not an option. sigh. not 100% happy with such an expensive service. are there any workarounds?


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## YourLogoGear

RodJ said:


> forgot to mention, you can auto-pend a transaction for review before batching. at least with elavon.
> that way we can check with merchant services if you have a high risk factor for fraud on an order before batching out.
> 
> i'm using the deco demo site right now. trying to put in team names....a little hard to edit them.
> and i don't like the fact that the layout options are a the bottom of the page where I did not see them right away. And the location of a print seems really low in the image mockup...and if I pick a screen print for the fron there is no way to add team names because vinyl is not an option. sigh. not 100% happy with such an expensive service. are there any workarounds?


If you have someone who knows html and css you can work around most (but not all) of the issues you'll run into with Deco. I can't speak for the other 2.


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## brenden

RodJ said:


> Do I have the ability to review the order before it's batched out? We like to review each and every one of our online sales as we get fraud orders from time to time and we decline them if it looks fishy.


Hi Rod,

You can certainly review and cancel an order at any time. I'm not sure what payment gateway you use, but you should contact them and ask them about their fraudguard protection. Some allow you to block certain IP addresses by country. For example, Ghana is a known hot-spot for fraud activities. Therefore you can block those countries, or if you wish to only deal with US you can block all sales from any region other than the US. Certainly look into that!

Let me know if you have any other questions about DecoNetwork or in general. Happy to help!

Cheers,
Brenden


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## stevegamble

TPrintDesigner said:


> Hi
> 
> ShirtTools works with Opencart so you would need move your content from your GoDaddy site into ShirtTools but it's really easy to do. The great benefit from doing that is your website becomes "mobile responsive" so it will re-scale to fit the size of device it is being viewed on.
> 
> Our designer is built using HTML5, Javascript and Twitter Bootstrap so it's responsive as well. You can drag objects with your finger on a smartphone, tablet or touch screen which is what mobile users want to do. Only our designer can do this.
> 
> There are pros and cons with all platforms, I always tell people to compare platforms by using real people who don't have experience using online designers. Sit them in front of the screen and ask them to create something and get their feedback. After all, these are the type of people who will be spending their money with you.
> 
> P.S Thanks for the post. I'm humbled (and proud) that we're getting compared against the big guys



Stumbled upon shirt tools and thought it looked too simple on the home page , BUT decided to stick around a browse.
I Finally designed a shirt with shirt tools.

From a non techy guy , fairly newish to the "decorating" biz and learning month by month.
I have to say wow, user friendly, simple, simple, quick, nice layout on webpage with no scrolling or looking around for buttons, it is just all right there..
Just me though.. Non Techy guy.
Now maybe , the newer techy generation would like the more complex feature rich designers.
But, Many of my customers want Simple, Fast, Cheap, Shirts.
So it might work for us.
Heck with a one time fee, I could see us adding it in a new catagory on our site under "Simple shirts" sub site , and for more complex designing and embroidery, customer management etc.. use whatever you may feel is more feature rich.
If that doesn't pan out, pay off.. you always have your life time owned shirt tools to sell the simple designs and or upload your own cool art.
Really so simple to use.
A lot of techy customers just email us their proudly designed art in photoshop and ask for a quote on qty of whatever styles.
They usually know what they want it to look like and what shirt they want.
They don't feel using a designer will produce the results they want, like it may get processed with filters of whatever.
The people learning the Buying Custom T shirt process, are browsing at night at home and looking for a combo of easy, fancy, quick, cheap... and buy.


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## Anonoprinter

Inksoft either has or will very shortly have a new design studio that is based on HTML 5 - so it's tablet and phone compatible.


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## stevegamble

Anonoprinter said:


> Inksoft either has or will very shortly have a new design studio that is based on HTML 5 - so it's tablet and phone compatible.


They have a very nice designer as well.
I'm on deconetwork demo site now.

Uploaded There stock clip art.
Trying to change a colour in the art and can not figure it out?
Unless that is a feature we can not use ?

Just frustrating to try to create a dang shirt in these designers.
Shirt tools is at least simple.

I like the complete package avail from Deconetwork, if only they would re do their designer.

Then text.. add DTG Printing , My customers are gonna say "What the hell is DTG Printing and the phone rings.

Too many techy guys that need to really gather some feedback BEFORE developing, But They know best.

Make it friendly for (Avg) customer wanting to design and buy T shirts First.
the developer web guys second.
I know the feedback has been great yadda yadda.. what do I know.
Inksoft has only USA catalogues, so have to load item by item.
Deconetwork has Sanmar Canada at least a head start to upload full catalogues (Save a ton of work).


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## Anonoprinter

Uploading a full catalog sounds like a great thing but you end up with way too many products for customers to choose from when you do that. Just my $.02


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## JCS2013

I have inksoft, DO NOT buy in for the art. Not worth it. Inksoft is on the cusp of being amazing as they are constantly hiring new staff and getting more talented programmers too. Inksoft works great for our needs and the 3.0 design tool is 5.0 HTML and its dope. However its still beta and has issues. Shouldnt be too long before it gets fixed.

I hate payiong$150 a month, but We just got into DTG so its a must in our eyes.

Lots of great stuff, still need to get around to using it all. Clipart sucks, design templates are ok.

Get Action Illustrated if you want art. I got their whole collection for basically nothing.


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## stevegamble

Thanks for the feedback.

We would upload Most of our art..
We have an established Client base with school, sport team, etc logo's on file maybe nearly 1,000 logo's to upload.
Currently people email us asking for Logo XYZ to be put on 4 hoodies etc..
Problem is , some teams have 5-6 different logo's they use and customers do not really know what they are asking for, Just way too much back and forth with mock ups "Is this what you want" ? and then Oh no I meant XZY logo, sorry..
Hoping a new ecommerce site with editable art, add names, numbers etc.. will save a lot of time for us.
And not everyone here in retail can open Corel and make some name files, but they all can run our easy to use DTG printing and embroidery machines.

Most don't know the difference between embroidery or screening, or DTG, or Sublimation, (Deconetwork) sites. change those buttons..
Have it when you hover over the DTG button it say "Direct print to Garment" might help , many ways to fix that. I would hope that is a editable feature?
I see there designer as their only drawback it looks old? The layout?
Inksoft Looks like Actual Designer software , like I went into a gimp, corel, adobe etc.. design software, Just in the first 5 seconds you feel the difference in appearance and feel.
Everything should be in a Button, not look for little text or scroll for it?

Inksoft has a pretty Nice designer, 150/mo is a ecommerce website with designer. Not too bad at all.
The upfront cost would have people starting out hesitant to make double sure before buying.
But almost all have a upfront cost I believe. (except Deco) But I am not smart enough to design a shirt on it, so If I can't use it I can't buy it.

Most(not all)small businesses looking to implement a designer are start ups , or in early stages of business and still have that "Cost of start up mentality".

Vs the OK, we're rolling along here, how can we perhaps spend/invest to grow this a little more and actually look where to spend some time and money.

And yes John, uploading an entire catalogue would be too much, now that I think of it.
Few choices , keep it simple , in the designer end.

I saw Deconetwork has a edit button that removes all items that are not screenprint friendly, and a Not embroidery friendly etc.. Kinda cool feature. Lot's of great Dashboard features I like.
They all get points for things they've done well.

But some things are real head scratchers?


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## InkSoft

Anonoprinter said:


> Inksoft either has or will very shortly have a new design studio that is based on HTML 5 - so it's tablet and phone compatible.


You can see the new InkSoft Design Studio HTML5 version here.


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## stevegamble

Gotta say, Best Looking designer I have seen.
now to look at the quote-order-invoice- management piece of this software.


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## stevegamble

JCS2013 said:


> I have inksoft, DO NOT buy in for the art. Not worth it. Inksoft is on the cusp of being amazing as they are constantly hiring new staff and getting more talented programmers too. Inksoft works great for our needs and the 3.0 design tool is 5.0 HTML and its dope. However its still beta and has issues. Shouldnt be too long before it gets fixed.
> 
> I hate payiong$150 a month, but We just got into DTG so its a must in our eyes.
> 
> Lots of great stuff, still need to get around to using it all. Clipart sucks, design templates are ok.
> 
> Get Action Illustrated if you want art. I got their whole collection for basically nothing.


Do tell ? to buy there whole collection is a couple thousand $.
$300 + per pkg x many packages.


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## rikespi

We are currently using Deco, it's alright. The designer is awful, as we just got more phone calls of confusion than anything. I disabled the designer and pretty much just use the back end for quoting customers manually and I send mockups via email outside of deco for art approvals. I do agree that it is 2014 and many customers would rather use a designer and get a fast quote much like custom ink. People are like me and don't want to have to wait for a response when online shopping. We used inksoft for a little while a few years ago but it didn't have any kind of back end control for invoicing at the time which is why we switched to deco for the business hub stuff. Ink soft appears to have really come along since we've used it. Deco has its pros and cons but we are currently trying to find something else. We are also a sign shop and high volume print shop. We are trying to find something that can encompass everything but it seems that its either/or with work around that will get you by for both. Most of this stuff seems like it was made for DTG with Screen Printing as a super after thought especially when it comes to the affiliate stores that they push so hard.


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## JCS2013

stevegamble said:


> Do tell ? to buy there whole collection is a couple thousand $.
> $300 + per pkg x many packages.


I told the owner I wouldn't say, but I got a great deal. Work hard on them a the shows.


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## stevegamble

rikespi said:


> We are currently using Deco, it's alright. The designer is awful, as we just got more phone calls of confusion than anything. I disabled the designer and pretty much just use the back end for quoting customers manually and I send mockups via email outside of deco for art approvals. I do agree that it is 2014 and many customers would rather use a designer and get a fast quote much like custom ink. People are like me and don't want to have to wait for a response when online shopping. We used inksoft for a little while a few years ago but it didn't have any kind of back end control for invoicing at the time which is why we switched to deco for the business hub stuff. Ink soft appears to have really come along since we've used it. Deco has its pros and cons but we are currently trying to find something else. We are also a sign shop and high volume print shop. We are trying to find something that can encompass everything but it seems that its either/or with work around that will get you by for both. Most of this stuff seems like it was made for DTG with Screen Printing as a super after thought especially when it comes to the affiliate stores that they push so hard.


I Agree Inksoft wins for their user friendly clean designer.
but we too want something with a nice back end, deco coach to help get going, embroidery, film, etc.. lot's of features.
But the designer is the focal point that brings people to these website subscription systems. So, The designer needs to be Customer friendly, not just programmer friendly.

When you say you get phone calls regarding your designer issues, is this for simple T shirts or are you dealing with other issues like using it for decals, banners, sublimation,? etc.. ?


We primarily want it for DTG.
But we do promo stuff with sublimation.
we have a new VS540 versacam and would like to have clients design banners and basic decals.
We also do embroidery 1+1+4 head Tajima
Laser engraving.
Buying into UV printing..
So having a system that is friendly for multiple technologies would be nice... but maybe asking too much?

T shirts and small Banners is the most (wasted) time spent for low cost purchases.
helping someone at the counter for 30 minutes to design a 14.00 shirt is a loss that we just can't do day in and day out.


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## rikespi

Yes we would get phone calls for shirts. I even have a hard time using the designer. We haven't put the printing into effect on it because it's just not worth the headache. We figured out how to do it but only for standard sizes. We were looking into getting lightspeed pos to encompass all our needs since we don't use the designer part at the moment. We are still researching though because we also want job management and tracking as well. And yes helping customers out for one shirt is a bummer but of we don't we get dinged with bad customer service. We just cross our fingers that it leads to bigger jobs weather from them or someone they told.


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## stevegamble

We have LightSpeed POS.
We really like it, for invoice , inventory and customer management. easy and works great.
We've had it since day one when it was merchantos.

We don't like it for sending quotes, can't provide mock ups, etc..
and find it time consuming for creating work orders for the person printing or embroidering.. too much typing.

I think we're all just over worked here, and need to be more efficient, or hire more people?
Was hoping the deco-inksoft-etc.. would increase efficiency and save some time.
We will help people with the one off goods, but for the generation who wants to design their own on custom ink and send me a screen shot of what they want, this would help.. and this is happening every other day now, as we get busier growing bigger..

But sounds like both of these are not working out too well for many of you?
Most are not sticking with it.. dead websites?
We're actually swamped not looking for more.. just looking to do it better, less mistakes, smoother work flow for staff (all 4 of us)lol. as we grow we will need something more than scrap paper work orders, and 
Lightspeed pos


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## rikespi

Thanks for the info on lightspeed. I wish I could combine the parts from different programs to make one awesome one. It kills me everytime I get a custom ink screenshot.


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## PremArt

I'm researching these platforms as well, one huge advantage I can see with InkSoft is that they connect to both AlphaBroder (who we probably do 80% of our ordering with). So for quotes, this would seem to add an advantage in turn around.

How do DecoNetwork and ShirtTools fare in comparison?

I will say the Flash based art creation in InkSoft is a HUGE disadvantage/non selling point. However I like the sound of their backend and sales processing.


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## InkSoft

PremArt said:


> I'm researching these platforms as well, one huge advantage I can see with InkSoft is that they connect to both AlphaBroder (who we probably do 80% of our ordering with). So for quotes, this would seem to add an advantage in turn around.
> 
> How do DecoNetwork and ShirtTools fare in comparison?
> 
> I will say the Flash based art creation in InkSoft is a HUGE disadvantage/non selling point. However I like the sound of their backend and sales processing.


*IMPORTANT:* InkSoft has an entirely new online designer (Design Studio) that is 100% HTML5. We've replaced our Flash version with this new technology. 

You can see the new Design Studio in action here.

You can view a video tour of the new Design Studio here. 

If this weren't enough, we just released a beta version of our fundraising 'Micro Stores'. This is very exciting new technology. Learn more about Micro Store here.


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## Justin86

InkSoft said:


> *IMPORTANT:* InkSoft has an entirely new online designer (Design Studio) that is 100% HTML5. We've replaced our Flash version with this new technology.
> 
> You can see the new Design Studio in action here.
> 
> You can view a video tour of the new Design Studio here.
> 
> If this weren't enough, we just released a beta version of our fundraising 'Micro Stores'. This is very exciting new technology. Learn more about Micro Store here.


Is the new Design Studio still in beta mode??

The showcase websites I visited on inksofts homepage seem to still be running the outdated design tool.

The new design tool does look nice and clean but were is the social media integration? The uploading from a mobile device looks painful and outdated for this day and age.... 

Could you please explain the activation fee's? A $3000 activation fee and then $300 a month seems to be alot unless that includes web designing and a custom theme.

I originally purchased Shirt tools since it has a really nice look and feel to the designer. After I went through the install I found the templates are very very limited. You have to create each template in the designer and at the time you were limited to .svg only which meant 90% of my designs simply wouldn't work as they contain elements that cannot be created in an .svg format.


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## InkSoft

Justin86 said:


> Is the new Design Studio still in beta mode??
> 
> The showcase websites I visited on inksofts homepage seem to still be running the outdated design tool.
> 
> The new design tool does look nice and clean but were is the social media integration? The uploading from a mobile device looks painful and outdated for this day and age....
> 
> Could you please explain the activation fee's? A $3000 activation fee and then $300 a month seems to be alot unless that includes web designing and a custom theme.
> 
> I originally purchased Shirt tools since it has a really nice look and feel to the designer. After I went through the install I found the templates are very very limited. You have to create each template in the designer and at the time you were limited to .svg only which meant 90% of my designs simply wouldn't work as they contain elements that cannot be created in an .svg format.


The new Design Studio is out of beta -- not all users have enabled it. We are currently supporting both versions; however, we will sunset the Flash version. 

Yes, the Design Studio has a 'Save & Share' function. Users can share via email, or social media. 

As for the investment, we have three options which you can view here. 

Have you had a live, personalized demo with an InkSoft professional? This is the best way to understand the value that InkSoft represents.


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## justin_86

InkSoft said:


> The new Design Studio is out of beta -- not all users have enabled it. We are currently supporting both versions; however, we will sunset the Flash version.
> 
> Yes, the Design Studio has a 'Save & Share' function. Users can share via email, or social media.
> 
> As for the investment, we have three options which you can view here.
> 
> Have you had a live, personalized demo with an InkSoft professional? This is the best way to understand the value that InkSoft represents.


That makes sense. 

What I meant was with Deco Network I can use my instagram photos and facebook photos without even leaving the designer. 
Correct me if im wrong but if I was using inksoft designer on my ipad I would have to leave the designer go to facebook download my picture and then email it with the correct code etc.

I have seen the 3 options and I do like the fact there are no transaction fees. However what is the activation fee for? 

Comparing to Deco network I can pay $150 a month and not have their logo shown at the bottom, no activation fee and the money I can save from from the activation fee would pay for there Deco coach service which would give me a custom theme setup on my shop and they were going to throw in a month free when I got my quote.

I have spoken to one of your sales reps. We didnt get as far as a live demo since I was told you didn't support your system in Australia and it was still being beta tested by a client in Aus.

Are you supporting Australia yet?

What file formats can be uploaded as cliparts? I have a ton of old single colour vinyl elements as .cdr and .eps files that I would like to upload as a design collection.


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## youshirt

im a printer based in germany and look forward to start a web bizz with dtg and laser etching. 

wich designer depends on your needs, but we have to keep in mind, that user interfaces are the front door of the company and user experiences might be more important to catch a customer than the needs a company owner might has on top . 

to compare deco and inksoft depends on the angle, some of the behavior depends on the code or the " inside " concept,

-deco informs that it uses coral engine on server and every operation in the designer will be processed on their server.
atm its not intuitive at all to work with the designer interface on small hand held devices and the german language version is just partly working, the surface is sometimes with mixed language of german and english.

-inksoft html 5 designer is based on angularJS. thats a universal step into future technology. the look is amazing, the interface intuitive.....but atm. they are just in english. 


Both have no european or german catalog for garments atm. but its a no brainer to implement the catalogs in both systems.
The graphics are also not point that counts because for germany and local european market both have just 10 percent useful Stock graphics.

Quoting and Order Management of both working. But live quoting in combination with communication solution the inksoft version is again they way future systems look and work like. 

Both don't work out for german market very well before they have a working language pack, also for the backend. 
German law for orders recommends double confirmation and eu cockies are a different story.

so what is with shirttools 

Shirttools designer is a cheap single domain solution but not ready or comparable yet, uses atm. something looks like fabricJS inside. All simple but working. 
the fact of an working german language pack makes them to the guy with the one eye under the blind. 

but

who uses shirttools???
... so if anyone uses shirt tools, let me know about your experiences... and please let me take a look at your site.


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## aimagedesign

Youshirt... Andreas;
You might want to check out fancy product designer. It's a woocommerce/ wordpress plugin
As well as jquery. It's available on codecanyon. The Author is German and I'd think German is a supported language. 
It doesn't appear to be as sophisticated as deco studio or inksoft.

But it might be enough to get you started. And the investment is not large $39. And the time required to set-up and configure.

Good luck!



Peter.


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## Anonoprinter

InkSoft said:


> The new Design Studio is out of beta -- not all users have enabled it. We are currently supporting both versions; however, we will sunset the Flash version.
> 
> Yes, the Design Studio has a 'Save & Share' function. Users can share via email, or social media.
> 
> As for the investment, we have three options which you can view here.
> 
> Have you had a live, personalized demo with an InkSoft professional? This is the best way to understand the value that InkSoft represents.



Do you support Instagram sharing? Just thinking of the current trends in social sharing (particularly among teens.)


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## youshirt

Hi Peter, 

i know this designer, but honestly you need 5k additional to bring this designer in shape and ad some more features. 
at least i sail with deco, frankly i have to sale 1 more Shirt a day for the basic cost of deco and without any additional investment in the designer functions. they charge also an additional percentage, thats right, but not for existing customers managed into bizhub.
for sure inksoft is the best looking designer so far and fundraising module they have now is exiting, but at the moment aim able to fix the language problems in the deco UI by myself and with some simple css its possible to pimp the designer a bit. its still a boring communication with the server on every step you make into the designer but i guess they will bring out a new, more browser orientated version earlier than inksoft made a decision for additional languages.


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## thinkshirt

Don't sign up for DecoNetwork. We are in the second website outage in a matter of weeks. Clunky designer and simple features are missing from both the front and back end. The whole software is littered with bugs and slow performance.

I called in to get a partial refund for the repeated downtime and they claimed it wasn't even their fault that thousands of their customers' websites were down. 

You pay $149.00 a month for a piss-poor designer, slow development times, and a broken product. Avoid at all costs. ﻿


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## brenden

Hi ,

Thanks for your posts and I'm sorry for your frustration. While I have little info at this time as it's still early here, our servers don't seem to be the issue again. The connection issues again seem to be via certain ISPs. For example in Australia there are no connection issues. UK are reporting some, and a small handful in the US. 

One is too many for us so we will certainly investigate at full. 

A good test would be to paste your website address and ask people to try visiting your site. This might even help identify which ISPs it's happening with so we can check into issues like their DNS routing. 

Also, check with this site http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com which can help identify if it's just you or your connection, or everyone. 

I'll keep you posted on what we discover. 

Cheers,
Brenden


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## thinkshirt

brenden said:


> Hi ,
> 
> Thanks for your posts and I'm sorry for your frustration. While I have little info at this time as it's still early here, our servers don't seem to be the issue again. The connection issues again seem to be via certain ISPs. For example in Australia there are no connection issues. UK are reporting some, and a small handful in the US.
> 
> One is too many for us so we will certainly investigate at full.
> 
> A good test would be to paste your website address and ask people to try visiting your site. This might even help identify which ISPs it's happening with so we can check into issues like their DNS routing.
> 
> Also, check with this site Down For Everyone Or Just Me -> Check if your website is down or up? which can help identify if it's just your or your connection, or everyone.
> 
> I'll keep you posted on what we discover.
> 
> Cheers,
> Brenden


Brenden,

How is it possible for two times in a row for this to happen, to the same website in such a short period of time. They're is obviously something that Deco is doing wrong or skimping out on. The worst part was when I called to explain we're losing money when our website is down, and we requested a partial refund, the customer rep didn't understand how a partial refund would help.

I'm stuck on a few orders because we can't login to business hub. 

Not only are losing $149, the costs of the orders, time but also potential clients who come to our site and see that our site is down.


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## thinkshirt

Join DecoNetwork and have DNS issues around the globe. (AKA YOUR WEBSITE IS DOWN AND DECONETWORK WILL CLAIM IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT)


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## brenden

Yes it is very strange that it seems to be just certain people on certain connections. A good test is to try your phone 3G assuming it's on a different carrier to your office ISP. Also, who is your ISP ? We can ask them to do a trace route to find our why their service is not accessing the site. 

Thanks,
Brenden


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## thinkshirt

brenden said:


> Yes it is very strange that it seems to be just certain people on certain connections. A good test is to try your phone 3G assuming it's on a different carrier to your office ISP. Also, who is your ISP ? We can ask them to do a trace route to find our why their service is not accessing the site.
> 
> Thanks,
> Brenden


My ISP is Optimum in NYC.


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## brenden

thinkshirt said:


> Join DecoNetwork and have DNS issues around the globe. (AKA YOUR WEBSITE IS DOWN AND DECONETWORK WILL CLAIM IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT)
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 103498


Hi Nabil,

The reason this is all showing red is because you entered an IP address. For this sites test you need to enter the domain name don't use the IP address on this site. It searches DNS which is your domain name. i.e. I've entered your websites domain name and it is showing OK.


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## brenden

thinkshirt said:


> My ISP is Optimum in NYC.


Great thanks. I'm engaging with them at the moment to see if they have any known routing issues at this time. I'll keep you posted.


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## brenden

Hi Nabil,

Here is the chat log I had with your ISP. They asked that you call them to investigate possible local connection issues in your area.

As you can see below at first they also could not see your site but then it loaded. Very strange.

Tash D.: Hi, my name is Tash D. and I will be assisting you today.
Tash D.: Brenden, I am having difficulty finding your account. Do you have an alternate telephone number that I could try? I can also take your account number. 
Brenden Prazner: Hi Tash.
Tash D.: Are you there, Brenden? 
Brenden Prazner: I'm actually calling on behalf of one of your clients in NYC.I am in Sydney Australia. He uses our service for hosting his website and he cannot access his website from your ISP. His site is Create - thinkshirt whereas it is accessible from other ISPs or 3G. We are wondering if you are experiencing any known DNS routing issues?
Tash D.: Thank you.
Tash D.: I have tried to access that site as well from my computer and it is not resolving either, please allow me a moment.
Tash D.: Thank you for waiting, I have tried it again and it is loading a site with various t shirts on it.
Brenden Prazner: Thank you. You can also test it with https://www.whatsmydns.net/#A/design.thinkshirt.com and it shows it is OK. and also with Down For Everyone Or Just Me -> Check if your website is down or up? which again shows it is up. So hence why we are wondering if it is a DNS routing issue from your end.
Brenden Prazner: That's the site.
Brenden Prazner: Do you know why sometimes it will or will not load? Again, only seems to be by his Optimum connection.
Tash D.: I suggest having our customer chat or call us to further troubleshoot this issue. I do not see any known issues loading the site, however on second attempt of the site it loaded fine and quickly.
Brenden Prazner: OK great. I'll ask him to contact you direct. This chat is fine, or should be ask for you in particular?
Tash D.: We would need to be chatting with the customer and pull up his or her account, it might be something specfic to their area.
Brenden Prazner: OK thank you. I'll ask him to contact you. I appreciate your time.


Please let me know how this goes. We obviously want to ensure you can access your site and will happily work with your ISP to resolve any issues. Thanks again.

In the interim would you like our team to email you your orders so you can produce them?


Brenden


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## brenden

Hi there,

I've got an update on this issue. It was in fact again a mass Internet issue that affected some regions and providers. It looks like you are unlucky to be using an ISP experiencing issues by frankly a growing and aging Internet.

See the thread in Reddit discussing the issue: Major Network Outage : networking

Also see Sysadmin

Also, here is a statement from Peer1 on the issue:

"We are currently investigating reported routing issues within our Fremont and San Antonio datacenters. Our initial reports show that there may be network routing issues within several large underlying internet providers that appears to affecting multiple links on the internet. We are investigating reports internally within our network while also working with our providers to further determine the root of the reported issues. We will update you further with information as we discover it. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible."

I hope this clarifies the issues and any concerns you may have. Please let me know if we can assist with anything more.


Regards,
Brenden


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## brenden

Hi there. A good article explaining the global network issues today. About 20 minutes it just hit Australia and we're now not able to access some of the internet

Article: Internet hiccups today? You're not alone. Here's why | ZDNet


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## stevegamble

youshirt said:


> Hi Peter,
> 
> at least i sail with deco, frankly i have to sale 1 more Shirt a day for the basic cost of deco and without any additional investment in the designer functions.
> 
> Really..
> You don't need to sell one more shirt per day for a designer to pay for itself.. or for you to benefit financially.
> You only need to save a few minutes per day of "here let me help add that text to your design" (Request) In some email or phone call etc.. that we receive many times per day. In our small business.
> We spend hours per week helping people in Corel Draw adding text, removing a background etc etc..
> At $16/hrly for staff we spend thousands per month providing this service, as many of us here do.
> Plus that Staff member becomes unavailable for other duties in the waiting ie; production of goods.
> Having a designer allow 50% of our customers (hopefully) design on there own saves us huge $$$$ in time spent.
> 149.00/mo is Nothing? Even for my small business it is the Pizza every Friday I buy for them.
> If you are that tiny small (one man show) printing 1 order per day part time home business in spare room etc.. then you probably won't benefit from a designer, other than to help grow your business.
> If you're truly working and investing in the growth.
> 
> We are testing Inksoft now.
> About 50% of our T shirt customers are sports team coaches and school teachers.
> Most can not design their shirt on our designer now, and have to call for help.
> I am too having difficulty using it, so hard to help.
> It's not zazzle that's for sure.
> 
> If after a couple more months we don't get it to work for our customers, we would be looking at 30,000 to set up a GOOD site. They'll say 20K .. but I know where that leads.
> and then 149.00 per week or maybe per Day? to maintain it..
> Consider the alternatives, when complaining about what 149/mo gets you.


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