Ryan Lewis

Review of Website Pipeline

We have been struggling with Website Pipeline (Cim...

We have been struggling with Website Pipeline (Cimcloud) for going on 2 years now. So far the whole process has been terrible. The sales guy we spoke with promised us everything we asked for; ERP integration, E-commerce website with the ability for dealer login, Google Analytics Setup with the ability to setup ad campaigns and run dynamic re-marketing campaigns.
So after much debate on spending over $100k on a website we decided to make the plunge. After we sign the contract and make the initial payment we get hardly any progress reports for a month, but we think they are working on setup and integration into our ERP , next thing we know we get an email stating our project coordinator is leaving the company. We get assigned a new project coordinator, more time goes by and we have to always ask for status updates which come in very vague descriptions. 2 more months go by, before we get any kind of assurance that they are actually working on the website. which brings to light that our website is nowhere near completion, long story short it takes 14 months for them to feel comfortable enough to set a go-live date.
Keep in mind their contract states you have to start paying your hosting fee of over $1,600/month starting 60 days after you sign up, so we paid a $1600/ month bill on top of all the software, implementation and professional services .
We have been live with Website Pipeline now for over a year and they still cannot figure out how to configure google analytics correctly to show correct E-commerce calculations, cart abandonments, etc. They still charge us all the time for fixing errors with the site that should have been addressed before our go-live date. Most times there is no answer for questions we ask, just excuses as to why they aren t able to get them to work. Every module you add will add to your hosting fee, so it is real easy to have a $2500/month hosting fee if you want the ability to have coupon codes, shipping promos, or any other little thing that is built in to other websites at no charge. Just beware before you sign a contract that what is promised will most like end up costing you triple that amount because you won t get the whole story of up front.