I'm with Brent .. What you are saying is actually the case - that's exactly what I was talking about. The only thing I was wrong about was the length of time you've had it installed.

Maybe you don't see it but I see that exact scenario all the time.
Any "Side" consultant is usually worthless when it comes to GroupWise. In fact, many regular consultants are worthless as well. I run into GroupWise installations all the time that, quite honestly, I can't believe they ever worked. A couple days or even a week with a consultant that knows GroupWise, and your opinion of it will completely change.
I have also been known to place actual wagers with customers (yes I'm serious) -- If I can't stablize a GroupWise system AND make it work reliably and secure (the way it is designed) AND make the customer understand GroupWise and see the power and functionality of it -- I will refund my consulting fees. And By The Way, I've never lost that bet.

For some, my consulting fees may seem pretty high -- I'm not cheap and I'm also not afraid to say it.. But if you look at the big picture, how much time and productivity have you lost just fighting with this since day 1? And the money you HAVE paid to the other guy, even though it is much less .. what has it gotten you?
Marvin
PS. I'm also guessing that GW is installed in a default setup (meaning that the guy went through the install and just let it pick all the defaults for him), which if thats the case, GroupWise is installed on your SYS volume, and that can be a catastrophe waiting to happen. This also means that no tuning or other tweaking has been done. And in fact, nothing has probably been done to incorporate any best practices that are common knowledge in the GroupWise community.
Sorry, I didn't start out meaning to go on and on like that.
Marvin Huffaker, MCNE