WHMAP-WhoisCart apples to apples?

[PWS]

I have read posts and tried various searches until I am cross-eyed.
I have decided on emom as a registration service so that's out of the way. It seems WHMAP is the most preferred automation solution by most people.
What I can't ascertain (and I don't have the time nor money to do "free trials" or buy the wrong thing & have to start over) is:
I need a "system" that lets customers search for & register their domain name from my site and then creates the hosting package they have chosen automatically (or if they have a domain already just place an order & automatically provision a hosting account).
I do not want automatic account activation (I know you can turn that off in WHMAP) I just want the E-mail telling me somebody ordered whatever. But I can't tell if WHMAP will integrate seamlessly with enom (I know whoiscart will) and I can't tell if whoiscart has the automated account provisioning & set-up that WHMAP has.
Is there an "apples to apples" comparison here, or am I comparing "apples & oranges"?
And yes I have been to both their sites and still haven't figured it out.
Any explanations, feedback, opinions from people who have used or use either or both with enom will be appreciated.
And please keep it as simple to understand as possible. I am no newbie to hosting but I am new to integrating domain registration and automation software. (We are growing and doing things manually just isn't working out anymore).

[Bloory]

WHMAP does Enom very well.

I personally feel WHMAP is more professional to both customers and in terms of the company.

[PWS]

I personally feel WHMAP is more professional to both customers and in terms of the company.
I wish I had listened.
I bought whoiscart and even had them install it. Don't bother with that since you still have to upload a lot of things yourself.
After working a week to get it configured and working we still had issues with a script in the program. I went back & forth with support (and read the fine print, they make it appear support is fast but further down the page they give themselves 32 hours as a "target".)
Their support never could figure out the script error although they claim to have a support staff of 13 who are all PhDs in computer programming. I finally found someone who helped me fix the script but by that time I had criticized their support on another forum.

BIG MISTAKE. Whoiscart doesn't like criticism AT ALL.

The end result, I finally got the program installed, up and working and without notice they disabled my account and access to their support system and even their forums. Not to mention the ability to download any of the "additional features" from their "download center".

The price us great but I remember an old saying.
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten"
Whoiscart is $35 and you get what you pay for with the product.
Their bad attitude and lack of support is free.

[alex042]

I never had that much of a problem with whoiscart when I was tinkering with it. Maybe something changed recently?

[PWS]

My problem was with a buggy script. They say they are devoting all their time to this new "auracle" support ticket system they are working on & that's why their whoiscart support is so slow. They are also working on a replacement for whoiscart called silverstar that looks like it's designed to compete with the bigger automation programs (multi-server support, template monster integration, etc.)
But anyway when I first asked support about the script needed they referred me to their support forum where a guy had posted several samples. From reading other posts there the examples seem to work for 99% of their users but for some reason not for me, maybe I am using newer software/OS or something. Anyhow that's what their "PhDs'" never could resolve and when I criticized them one too many times for the lack of support (one tech even told me not to worry, without the script I could still do all my billing & stuff manually...that kind-of set me off since it's "automation" software after all) they got hacked and just disabled my account, even to the point where I can't view the "public" forums anymore (guess they blocked my IP)
I had somebody recommend DRAMS and it looks really good but for now I'll just try to recover from the time wasted with Whoiscart.
If you were using the older version most people seemed to like it, but they have got several negative reviews for their performance recently with the exception of people who know enough programming to work out the bugs and/or have plenty of time to wait on their support.
(One guy said he liked it, he had been installing it over the past two months...but if I buy something it's not because I plan on taking 2 months to use it).

[Saeven]

I think this might be a side-along to this post at WHT:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=302868

Partially a misunderstanding, partially a conflict of schedules - but it has been resolved. I hope that PWS can concur :) PWS = DDT at WHT.

I don't want this type of negative stuff floating around! I also do not want to conjure past ghosts. All the best PWS!

Cheers
Alex

[PWS]

No problem Alexandre,
As posted in the other forum we resolved our differences and are using the product. I am hoping the "upgrade" release will be more intuitive for the user in it's basic form. If not I will have to hire someone to integrate it into our site. We are using it now but have not had it in service a full month to see how the billing & everything works out. And we have had to post an "instructions" page because for some users the way of moving through the process is not intuitive. Perhaps it is just my market, I have no problem with knowing what to click next etc. but for some of our less "internet savvy" customers we were getting calls of "I can't get this to take my order" when all they were doing was not clicking the right button.
I have seen some sites that had this program custom integrated to where it seamlessly let people order from the site pages without the Whoiscart interface (couldn't even tell it was Whoiscart). Depending on the time of their new version release & my time to get everything like I want it on my end I may hire someone to do that for my site (I am presuming the billing portions etc will all work fine) or maybe the new "silverstar" upgrade will be a bit more intuitive in it's native state.
Not blaming Whoiscart for their interface, I just have to have it VERY simple for my average niche market user...if there is a wrong button to click they will find it first then become confused :rolleyes:

[nameslave]

Originally posted by PWS:

... although they claim to have a support staff of 13 who are all PhDs in computer programming.
THAT will be interesting. As someone who have spent quite a lot of time on campus (from studying to teaching and researching), I find it really impressive to have that quantity (never mind the quality) cluster in 1 single organization (except say some commercial ventures of universities), not to say that these people would actually work for SUPPORT instead of research and development.

[Saeven]

Your comments are interesting nameslave. We are ourselves academics such as yourself it seems, and whois.cart wasn't something that we entertained a primary vocation when it started. We aren't _all_ pure computer science either of course, the fields do vary. We aren't even all located in the same parts of the world in fact - but we do all work together at this point through a very tight network we've grown into over the years. This is all that matters! As you suggest, yes - I agree - it would be impossible to get us all to work 9-5 every day in a same building. I think that companies of the future will be more like ours, and less like those very common. I think we get more done this way too, and I wouldn't trade our work model for any other in the world.

[PWS]

I will add that Alexandre later explained to me that their staff of PhDs were involved in many aspects of their company that are not directly related to Whoiscart, they have other computer-related ventures and are also developing a new advanced support ticket system to compete with those type systems while working on their new replacement for Whoiscart currently referred to as "Silverstar".
I may not be totally correct but that was the impression I got from them about the "misunderstanding" that they do have this many people but many of them are involved in these other projects.
(It seems we were posting at the same time, Alexandre surely explained it better than my limited knowledge of how they operate.)

[nameslave]

Originally posted by Saeven:

Your comments are interesting nameslave ...
Sorry if I have been off topic a bit, but I must admit that a network of more than a dozen PhDs (no matter from which parts of the world) working together even on a "loosely coupled" manner is still in itself very impressive. Good for you guys.