Tungsten Network

Trying to invoice our customer (who uses Tungsten), but selecting Portal Login gives a server error. When calling technical support, I'm told to Login to our account and submit a trouble ticket. So how do I do that when the problem I'm reporting is that their portal won't allow me (or anyone) to login? I consider invoicing a mission critical function, so downtime is simply unacceptable and 7/24 customer support is a requirement, not simply nice to have.

Tungsten is one of a growing number of companies that position themselves between large customers and their suppliers. Their USP is that they offer early payment finance (at a cost) to help suppliers and simplify the payment process for their clients. That's ok if it is well managed but, in the case of Tungsten:

Payments are often aggregated from multiple invoices and paid after Tungsten’s fees are deducted, so suppliers receive payments that do not correspond to expected totals. Tungsten do not provide a detailed remittance advice, so you’ve no idea which invoices have been included in the payment. The only way to find out is to contact Tungsten and have them send you a spreadsheet summary. Good luck with that.
Their ticketing portal doesn’t work and they don’t answer e-mails.
They do not pay out until the money has been received from the payer. That is no different to being paid late by a customer of course, but it does add time to the process.
If you’ve signed up for early payment it is expensive (10.9%apr) and it’s hit and miss as to whether you’ll be able to use the service, so don’t rely on it.

We have a customer with whom we turnover about £300k per annum. Before they moved to Tungsten we had a 30 day account and were paid on time for every invoice. Our ledgers were accurate and trading with them was easy. Since Tungsten became involved we are on obligatory 30 day plus end of following month terms (i.e. 60 days in effect as we bill at the beginning of each month for trading in the previous month) and reconciling the account is a complete nightmare that takes hours of effort.
Furthermore, the day to day problems are becoming greater. Yesterday there was a notice on the Tungsten site saying that they were ‘unable to process invoices and payments’. You can’t open a support ticket as the link doesn’t work and they don’t answer direct e-mails.

You probably can’t avoid Tungsten because very large customers sign up with them and you’ll have no option but to accept their terms. If that does happen to your business you are in for a rough ride.

Poor system! User unfriendly! In general it is a waste of money and time. I really don't see the point of using it !

AVOID AT ALL COSTS....worst invoicing system EVER. Not organized, very ineffecient ticket system. Takes weeks and weeks to resolve any issue, and to think we are actually stupid enough to pay a yearly fee to these idiots in order for us to be able to invoice our work that has been done so we can actually get paid. You cannot even understand anyone who works there and they are trained to say "We understand your frustration" ...lol, they really have no clue about anything let alone their own system. Biggest scam ever!!!! INCOMPETENT PEOPLE... If i could give no stars in order to submit this review I would have!!

If there was an option to give them no stars it would more accurately reflect my experiences with Tungsten Network. My company is paid via them...It is a terrible system, backed up by advisors who know simply nothing about the system. Avoid at all costs!

BIG WARNING! Absolutely terrible system. They charge you a lot and provide no added value at all, ony added work for us. If it wasn´t for our big client demand on us to use this before, we would never had done it. Support is very bad. Very difficult as well to terminate their "services". We sent several notices during 2,5 years before we got out. Would have given zero stars (not possible).

My issue was my predecessor had set himself up as the company admin so when I tried to register I was unable as it needed him to log in and OK it. But he has left the company so this was not possible. Customer service did not read the tickets I raised, gave me standard copy/pasted responses that required me to log into the network (impossible for the reasons stated above). After several tickets, emails and phone calls I finally got someone who actually listened and understood, and we worked out a solution. But since then I get weekly emails advising that the ticket is resolved but to update the status I need to log in to the portal... which I still can't. And don't even get me started on the farcically non-intuitive interface (even at registration stage - if you require a video instructing people how to register... make your process simpler). It's meant to make business processes easier. I have one supplier that requires me to invoice them through this system, and I will be asking them if there are any other ways to do so rather than use it. Don't even poke this joke of a system with a 10 yard pole. 1 star is 6 stars too many.

The worst experience with customer service, make Comcast look good

Unbelievable – I’ve been going around in circles with Tungsten trying for them to recognize me as a vendor for a client so that I can invoice. I’ve provided documentation via PO’s and vendor numbers from the client and yet either Tungsten has an automated system that doesn’t work or inept employees who do not read what is provided.

Worst system ever, including customer service- limited understanding of the English language; continuously takes over 2 hours to submit 2 invoices each month (consisting of 2 line items); clearly does not read the support tickets submitted to try to resolve the entry issues; optional fields are required or they won't process your submission. DO NOT USE THIS SYSTEM. Oh, and I would have given 0 stars, but you can't submit a review without giving them at least 1 star.