Our Customers Say ...
Hi Gregg and Stephen, I wanted to tell you how much we appreciated have FirstClass up during the storms - first the hurricane with power outages and then a big electrical storm the next day that zapped parts of our network and some computers and printers at school. I'm sure FC on campus would have suffered if we had it here. Thank you so much for keeping FC hosted up and running and us connected! Best wishes, Beth
Stephen,
You're a god. The procedure worked, I got the license file, I ran the test upgrade, and everything looks perfect. I can't thank you enough. FC Admin New York
Brilliant, knowledgeable, pleasant, experienced... perfect... technical support from Kannon. Thanks for the seamless migration (and the trust that I could even have a hand in some of it). Technology Director Rhode Island
I can easily say that working with Kannon has been one of the nicest and most helpful companies I've worked with over my 12 years with Plainville. FC Admin Plainville, Connecticut
To the Great and Powerful Oz:
Steve is the best. When I first came to this District in 2004, I had never heard of First Class. I went to Maine to take the training, which Gregg did a fabulous job with, in the Fall of 2005. Since then, any time that I need help, no matter how small, Steve is always there with a cheery voice and words of wisdom! Â He knows First Class so well and he gives me so much information during a phone call that my head usually ends up spinning by the end. We all know that sometimes you call the vendor for support and it is mediocre at best. Not here! When I go away on vacation, I do not worry about it because I know if there is a problem, Steve will be there to quickly resolve the issue. I really can't say enough good things about him.
Thank you for everything!! Network Administrator New Hampshire
In a day and age where support has been second and third rate with a lot of vendors, it is truly a pleasure to work with Stephen! He is a very competent and knowledgeable individual with FirstClass support issues and possesses something that unfortunately eludes many people, common sense and logic. I have been impressed with his ability to quickly diagnose and repair the many FC issues I have had. He takes the time to explain what he is doing, and the time to tell me what I can do differently to maintain my FC server more efficiently. (Even if I was the bonehead that messed the server up in the first place!) Thank you to Stephen and Kannon for such excellent support. We look forward to many more years of partnership with Kannon!
P.S. Did I mention Stephen's excellent taste in music?
Thank you so much, Art Reardon SAU16 Technology Support Manager New Hampshire
Thank you Thank you Thank you
Everyone should have someone like you.
I really appreciate your help. FC Admin Greenville, Maine
Stephen, Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â I want to thank you for all of the help, support, and guidance you give Tiffin City Schools on a daily basis. I need to especially thank you for all of the extra effort and patience you gave me when we upgraded our FirstClass tower, OS and implemented Archive Services over spring break. You really went above and beyond the call of duty to "make it happen" as our
school motto states this year. Thank you for all you do!
Technology Coordinator Tiffin, Ohio
Gregg, Stephen, Claudia and Ben,
Every time you have come here to do the initial install, or the recent 9.0 upgrade; and whenever I have called or emailed you with a request for information or for help with problems and/or upgrade questions; and yes, even for the panic call, you have always responded quickly, calmly and accurately. I want you to know that this means a lot to me. Being a one person tech team in a one-school district, it is really important to have someone that I can count on to have the right answer just a phone call or email note away. It sounds to me like you really enjoy your jobs, and you always seem to be smiling, or at least it sounds that way. Thank you for all your assistance through the years, and I am looking forward to many more years ahead.
FC Admin Massachusetts
Hi Gregg,
I just wanted to let you know that Stephen did a fantastic job supporting me through a FirstClass upgrade challenge yesterday and he was very quick to get back to me as I posed questions. Thanks for running a top-notch organization. Tech Director Massachusetts
Hello!
Just a quick note of appreciation for Steve's Technical Support when our server crashed recently. After coming this close to losing all our data, I called support and Steve walked me through the steps for a full recovery. No bits lost. He also sent along some helpful backup utilities I should have been running all along. Just knowing I could call him if things got worse was helpful all by itself.
Thanks much! Tech Director Maine
Stephen,
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your technical support as my school system worked through a problem with our ISP that caused our FirstClass server to stop delivering mail. You were extremely helpful, clarifying the nature of the problem and identifying the steps that needed to be taken to solve the problem. Your knowledge and experience allowed you to quickly identify the problem, make adjustments on our FirstClass server, and explain the situation to me in an understandable way.
You can take pride in the high quality of service you provide the user. I wish our ISP was as responsive and clear about the services they are supposed to provide.
Right from the start, Kannon has been very helpful and flexible in meeting our needs, from designing and implementing our FirstClass installation, to administrative training, to troubleshooting problems like the one described above.
I really appreciate you showing me the web-based DNS testing site. That ought to get me farther down the road to diagnosing a problem before the next time I get stymied and need to call you up. Thanks again.
Technology Coordinator Vermont
Dear Stephen,
Here is a testimonial to the wonderful support that you and the folks at Kannon Communications provide to us "jack of all trades, master of none" tech coordinators in the schools.
I had been noticing the comments and writeups on the fixes that FC 8.1 would solve and decided it would be a good idea to stay as current as possible. I had made a promise to myself after our migration from 6.x to 8 a while ago (once again, I could not have done it without your help) that I would keep this server as up to date as possible.
I thought I had been preparing our FirstClass server for the upgrade to 8.1 all along. I was at 8.0 so I installed the service patches up to 5, so I thought. In retrospect I only got to SP 3 and never got 5 installed. This was major issue number 1.
I then began the install for the 8.1 upgrade. All I can say is thank goodness I had made a hard backup of all the files. The initial install seemed to go well but the server would not start. A panic call to Kannon Communications was my next step.
You verified that I was not at the correct OS on my server and that I had not installed the SP 5 as stated on the FirstClass site. So, to wrap up this tale of woe, you walked me through a fresh install of 8.0 SP3, helped restore the backup copy of my Post Office, verify that it was whole and then the install of SP5. So I am back to being a happy camper minus a few years of my life.
My major life lessons today were to:
1. Verify current status of server -OS Version -SP installs are correct -create a complete backup before any install is done and make notes
2. Call Stephen when I get the urge to upgrade or creatively tweak my server so he can talk me out of it.
Humbly yours, Tech Director in Maine
Steve,
Thank you again. I said it before and I'm saying it again. I'm nominating you for sainthood! Chicago, Illinois
Hi Steve,
I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU for your help over the last few days. Your ability to get us back and running is invaluable to us [because] we rely on e-mail from outside vendors constantly. Please know your dedication, follow through and excellent troubleshooting skills are above and beyond any reasonable expectations, and as such, are most appreciated. New Jersey
To whom it may concern,
As a technology coordinator for 30+ years you know who is doing a good job with tech support and who isn't. In 1995, I implemented FirstClass in a school district with the assistance and training of Gregg Kaloust. Since then I have watched as 3 other area schools adopted the program and eventually our regional center which serviced 30+ school districts.
I am now semi-retired and doing support for a small school district close to my home. We recently purchased and implemented FirstClass for this district. As issues have arisen I have contacted Stephen Curtis for support. As was the case before, the tech support and input has been exceptional. The best I have ever encountered!
Tech Coordinator Northern Minnesota
Claudia,
Just want to let you know that I had an awesome tech support call with Steve Curtis the other day. We had been having difficulty with our event calendars displaying correctly on the web. I finally got tired of waiting for others to correct the problem, so I emailed Steve.
We started emailing back and forth, then he called and within just a few minutes, we had the calendars displaying properly and had a few other things cleaned up and organized in the process.
Steve has always been so very helpful and knowledgeable whenever we have needed tech support. Just thought I should let you know.
Elementary Tech Coordinator Maine
Hi Gregg,
Stephen's tech support is awesome, but of course, you know that!
Just a note to let you know that we had major issues with our FC Server (hardware related) and Stephen was extremely helpful in diagnosing the problem and helping to get the issue resolved. I dominated much of his time over the last 24 hours and he was most gracious!! Very thorough with his explanations and walking us through the process to bring things back to normal. A little luck on our part and a lot of expertise on his part, we are running again. His tech support is much appreciated!
Thank you. Tech Director Maine |
