Does anybody have any recommendations for helpdesk software?

We're currently using an older version of Intuit Track-It! Standard but it's rather slow. The sales guy say the latest version is alledgely faster because it actually uses a proper DB instead of just a massive Access MDB file. Considering it takes around 1 minute just to start up the client app and 10 seconds to open each work order it's not going to be hard to be "faster". The client PCs are all P4 2.8GHz minimum so they're not particularly old or slow.

Yup. It is still slow.

I don't have any experience with or know much about this site but I ran across it the other day:
getahelpdesk.com

Well, I work in a help desk. We use HelpStar. It's pretty good, aside from some UI annoyances. I don't know what it's like from an administrative standpoint, but we've gotten it to the point where people can email HelpStar with a screenshot of the error they're getting and it will open a ticket.

Thanks for the pointer to HelpStar. I've got into contact with them and it turns out the UK reseller is about 10 minutes walk down the road!

Oh god, you've made a deal with the devil! do not pay blue ocean any more money!

They have enterprise and standard, enterprise uses a SQL backend and standard is an MDB. Sounds like they were once again being misleading!

They are a _pathetic_ company. Horrible at best. I've had so many issues with their people misleading me, (yes that was fixed in the next release, no we dont issue bug-fix lists, etc etc) that they ended up giving me their Enterprise edition and a year of support for free (about 4 grand worth of software and license)

They called me back 2 weeks later and tried to strong-arm me into paying for more support (we never had it in the first place) after the free year- saying we were rude for not paying for extra support, after they offered free kit in response to me being upset with their buggy product and lack of service.

fscking idiots. the lot of them. no wonder Intuit sold them 11 months after buying them.

Good luck trying to find a replacement, I searched high and low and came up with nothing. Of course there are things like Goldmine for salespeople and whatnot but it seems like Track-It really has that market on lock (computer technical helpdesk s/w)

I'll watch this thread and hope you end up luckier than I.

Yeah. I decided against HelpStar in the end anyway. To get the same functionality as Track-It, it would have cost about 40% more. Sounds like there are lots of even better reasons why not to go with them! Rude for not paying for extra support? Uh? How's that one work?! It is much more rude of them to release such a bad product

I'm beginning to agree with your point about there being a limit range of helpdesk software. It's either free and really clunky & unpolished or it costs a fortune and is marginally less clunky... If I can get approval in then I'll probably give the latest version of Track-It a go. It is the actual client that is slow so I need to see if the web interface is good enough.