Support FAQ

Here you will find some of the frequently asked support questions that our Customer Support team has received. Hopefully you find your answer. If not, feel free to contact BizStream anytime.
 

What are the minimum system requirements to use the BizStream Portal?
Minimum
Windows 98/ME/2000 SP1+2/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5, Pentium 300Mhz, 64MB RAM, Internet connection, 28.8K Modem

Recommended
Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6 (or better), Pentium II 450Mhz, 128Mb RAM, Internet connection, 56K Modem

Do I need a credit card to use the 30 day free trial?
No. Upon signing up for your free 30 trial of the BizStream Portal, you will not be required to enter in any financial information of any kind. You will receive e-mail reminders during your trial which will prompt you to sign up or risk losing your portal access. After 30 days your account will close. You will not be able to access your portal again until you have entered in a method of payment.

Do I risk losing my account and all of my entered information/data if my credit card expires, I get other problems with payment or it has been canceled for a while?
We will not delete your portal until the account has been closed for at least 3 months. It is possible that the portal may be kept longer.

Another way to check if your account is still in the system, is to access your account page. If you are successful, then the account is still in the system and can be reactivated.

The reason we delete the deactivated portals from our system is so we can free up server space for our active portal users.

Even if the account is closed, it will be possible to reopen it again during the 3 month window prior to deletion.

Is it possible to hack my account?
All the information on your portal account has been running on our newest top-of-the-line secure server since April 4th 2004. This is the same system that all big e-commerce systems use, and it is regarded as a very secure system.

Credit card numbers are not displayed on the account page.

Please be very careful with telling anybody about your username and password. Usually when unauthorized users gain access to another person's account on the Internet, the explanation is that somebody has been able to guess the password or trick somebody into giving out their password. Please note that even when someone has been able to do this, they will not be able to get your credit card number.

Here are some very important rules to follow regarding passwords:

• Never give it out to anyone, not even to people claiming to represent BizStream. We will never ask for this.
• Choose a password that it is impossible to guess.
• Never use the same word for username and password.
• Never use personal information that it is possible to find or guess.
• Never use a password connected to the username.
• Try to find a password that combines numbers and letters

If you have any suspicions about another user accessing your account, please send it to BizStream Support. We will investigate it.

Is the registration secure?
The registration pages located in the billing section of your portal's Administration section (Manage My Portal) are protected by SSL encryption. Please have a look at www.thawte.com for information on SSL encryption.

How do I reactivate my old account?
To reactivate your old portal account (prior to the scheduled deletion date), simply return to your portal URL (myportalname.bizstream.com) and select "Subscribe now!" located at the top of the login screen. You will also find a warning indicating how many days since your portal was last active.


If I cancel early, can I get a partial refund?
No, BizStream does not give partial reimbursements, even if you cancel only a day into your next cycle. But, the account will remain active until the paid time expires, before permanently canceling.

How do I cancel my account?
To cancel your account, we require BizStream Portal users to call our Customer Support line and verbally request a cancellation. You will be asked to confirm your identity through a series of questions aimed at determining that it is actually you calling. This is due to the extremely sensitive nature of some of the data contained within our portal customers' databases. We will take every precaution available to us in order to insure that your portal is safe from malicious outside sources.

How do I get help while logged into my portal account?
BizStream provides it's users a variety of ways to get the help they need when using their portal. When logged into your BizStream Portal account, look to the bottom of the window for our Customer Service bar. You will find links to our 'Getting Started Guide', our 'Need Answers?' knowledge base, Customer Support info, the FAQ & our Community Forums. Choose the form of communication you are the most comfortable with.

Bugs should be reported by using our 'Contact Customer Support' option located in the Customer Service bar at the bottom of the window. Depending on the issue, you may not receive a reply to the bug report. If it is something affecting your ability to use the portal, we recommend you call our customer support lines or e-mail us at support@bizstream.com and list "unable to use my portal account" as the subject. A member of the BizStream Tech Support staff will then contact you within 24 hours.

I want to report a bug.
Please use the "Report a Bug/Error" option from the drop down menu of our Customer Support Contact Form located in the 'Contact Customer Support' section of our Customer Service bar. Depending on the issue, you may not get a reply.

BUT! Thanks in advance. :)

Where is the BizStream Customer Support Center located?
Our main support office is located in Grand Rapids Michigan, U.S.A..

In which languages do you provide support?
We do ask support questions for the BizStream portal be sent in English, although if you read but do not type English very well you can send them in your native language and we will do what we can to work it out. You may get a really bad translation though. :) We would love to provide support in every language, but that isn’t always possible.

When can I expect a reply to my e-mail?
We have people replying to e-mail on all weekdays. Usually you will get a reply within 24 hours, but it could take a couple of days if it was sent during the weekend or holidays.

Billing questions and technical problems that make it impossible for you to get into your account are given first priority by our Support staff.

What does BizStream do to solve problems and bugs?
We collect information from users and employees in a bug-database. All bugs the user submits via our Customer Service areas in the portal & our website are sent directly to the database and assigned to the programmer responsible for the code. Statistics are generated to give an overview of the problems. The list of bugs is discussed at regular meetings and given a priority according to importance.

What is a patch?
To add new content or to fix bugs that may occur we use what is called a patch. A patch is basically a whole lot of code that is added to the existing BizStream Portal system code. This code "patches" the software by either adding things or fixing things. If a new patch is available, it will automatically be downloaded when you next login to your BizStream Portal.

How does the BizStream-team put a patch together? How do you decide what should be in the next patch?
When a patch is put together we consider both the solved bugs, the importance of the fixes and enhancements from all team-members. Then we try to put together a list of fixes and enhancements from the finished list that will feel worth while for our users.

Why did you fix problem X and not problem Y that is much more serious?
The BizStream-team is quite diverse, and all people are not able to solve all problems. Graphic artists and designers are unable to help the programmers and the programmers have different areas of expertise. That is why the patches don't always solve bugs in the order that seems logical.

Why do you add content & features when there are more serious problems to solve?
The BizStream-team is quite diverse, and all people are not able to solve all problems. Graphic artists and designers are unable to help the programmers and the programmers have different areas of expertise. That is why we would like to add some of the content the team-members who work on enhancements add. Some of the new content will also help on addressing other issues or allow us to make at least some progress advancing the portal while other members of the development team continue to work at solving larger issues.