These are known issues with the ConsignPro consignment software system.
Brian @ ConsignPro, if any of these issues are fixed in an update, please post a comment below with the version that fixes said issue and I will update this post. Thank you!
Known Issues
- ConsignPro update does not utilize “if older, overwrite“, thus, installing the update will not change your CP.exe version. The update installer has to be ran a second time, choosing ‘Repair’, to force the update to replace CP.exe with the newer one. This is reproducible through v9.17.
- ConsignPro does not appear to utilize implicit SSL when sending emails and instead, appears to utilize explicit. The result is, many ISPs will block email attempts, which is why some stores can send emails and some cannot.
- ConsignPro does not support TLS (Port 587).
- ConsignPro will lock-up for 30 seconds or more at launch, while it attempts to send the owner emails. This only happens if ConsignPro is unable to send emails, either based on its lack of support for explicit SSL, lack of support for TLS, or invalid email settings.
- Security Vulnerability — ConsignPro utilizes standard FTP to upload nightly backups, for clients utilizing the MyResaleweb backup service. The username and password are transmitted in plain text. All stores’ backups are stored with full read/write/execute access, in an unencrypted file and thus, are susceptible to data theft. Utilizing a secure upload process, changing the file-level permissions, and removing the backups from the VPS once uploaded, could all help alleviate this issue. This has been reported to Brian @ ConsignPro multiple times.
- If CP.exe crashes during shutdown, it can write bad values to the Employee table — specifically, the fields which control employee access. The result is the logged-in employee, will no longer be able to access ConsignPro upon the next login and will only be able to view the Make Sale screen.
Dean
I am a Software Developer, System Administrator, and consignment software specialist. I currently manage hundreds of consignment workstations, point of sale systems, and database servers all across North America and I am the developer of Peeps' Software, Peeps2Go, and Peeps' Consignor Login for iOS and Android. I've been helping consignment & resale store-owners since 2003. I started The Computer Peeps in February of 2010. Peeps' Software launched in 2016 and is now on hundreds of systems all across North America. I have successfully converted dozens of stores from all of the major consignment software systems. After 20 years of working with consignment stores, I understand the unique challenges consignment & resale store-owners face. From electrical issues in old buildings or strip malls, to advocating for them when their old consignment software keeps crashing.
Dean, here are a few more for you. It would be great if you would keep track of some of the issues with CP that just never get any attention from Brian.
CP allows payouts on accounts with negative balances.
If 2 registers simultaneously complete sales the invoices will combine in unpredictable ways. We call this “crashed” invoices and it has been present since the introduction of CP.
Does not always create an invoice for returned items. This happens about once a week. The result is overstated income. Not easy to catch unless you are balancing cash, credit, checks, AND account credits.
If the software is set to logout the user after a preset period of time the login window will often end up partially off screen – makes logging back in difficult.
Tuesday shutdowns take an excessive length of time in order for CP to update pickup dates. We don’t even use the pickup date field but are forced to endure this process. If we need to reboot the server computer on a Tuesday then we have a problem as it impacts customers.
Option to expire inventory to store account after a given number of days ceased working. Inventory now remains in consignor accounts after expiring.
Hi Wayne,
Thank you very much for commenting, sincerely. I am going to test/verify each of these directly, but I can say with a fair amount of confidence, the “two registers” issue is 100% related to the lack of a proper database management system.
ConsignPro utilizes MS Access, instead of utilizing a RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) such as MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle, etc. By not having this, it allows for “collisions”.
Now, even if ConsignPro isn’t utilizing such a system, what this tells me is, Brian isn’t utilizing something called “Transactions”. These exist even in an Access database and they are a core fundamental for writing large/complex amounts of data to a database and ensuring the data goes in properly and without conflict. Without utilizing Transaction-based queries, you’re at the mercy of time itself, which can and will lead to “collisions.”
A quick Google search of ‘access transaction query’ returns plenty of results — e.g. http://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/can-access-make-a-transaction-query.1175097/.
Without this, you simply cannot have a reliable tracking system, ESPECIALLY once you start adding multiple computers writing to the same database. It’s simply a fundamental of database design and program design.
The ‘off screen’ issue is such an easy one to fix. It’s built-in to Visual Basic — i.e. “Window location = Center, Manual, Parent Center, etc.” These things are so easy to fix and there’s really no reason such an issue should persist longer than A) internal testing or B) a customer saying, “Hey, I noticed this.”
The shutdowns at the end of the day, can be related to email. ConsignPro does not support proper SSL and the result is, at opening + shut-down, when ConsignPro goes to connect to the email server (or attempt to do so), it can take 30+ seconds while it fails in the background. This is also a fundamental of programming @ multi-threaded programming (prevents UI lock-ups), as well as time-outs/proper exception handling.
Thank you again for commenting. My goal is not to make Brian feel bad. These issues are verifiable and ConsignPro could hire any outside consultant and they’d be told the same thing. The fact that the major consignment software vendors have shown a history of allowing issues to go on for years, speaks mounds to me. I support and maintain consignment/resale store owners’ systems all day, every day. Doing so reveals just what issues the vendors have. They try to say “all software has bugs,” yet I have provided the line-by-line fixes for said bugs and have demonstrated said bugs take minutes to fix. So is it cost? Is it time? Is it interest? I can only assume, but at the end of the day, my clients are more important than the feelings of the vendors.
I’ll check-in again this week, once I’ve had time to test these issues. Thanks again!