Too Many Bugs & Horrible Support

Hey Shay,

I’m really sorry to hear about your frustrations with our plugins and with our support. We are happy to have answered and worked with you on every single one of the support threads you’ve ever posted on our premium forums, and while I know the recent recurrence of your DST issues is frustrating, we’ve been happy to help on an expedited pace on that thread, too. Please check out that thread here for the latest reply from yours truly! ??

Our plugins do fully accommodate DST, but there are a number of potential factors that could make for weird or seemingly-inconsistent results based on the event timezone configuration and/or potential conflicts with other plugins or your theme.

Figuring out exactly why a timezone result isn’t quite right is indeed a little time-consuming sometimes, and I sincerely apologize for the hassle there. Please do continue the conversation with us in your premium thread if you’re able, I’m confident we can get the correct information to display!

Sincerely,
George

You guys have NOT responded and resolved to every support request, which there are 9 total over a span of several years. Your plugin also does not accommodate DST for recurring events. I have been told twice by others at TEC this is a known bug and a fix will not be available until the end of March. Now you are telling me something different. THERE ARE NO CONFLICTS WITH MY THEME OR PLUGINS. This is your default response for every time there is an issue. YOUR PLUGIN HAS A BUG AND IT IS NOT WORKING. The amount of time I have spent addressing a simple DST year after year with this plugin is ridiculous. My review stands – I would strongly recommend avoiding this plugin.

Hey Shay,

I would like to respond to all of your points here, but before doing so, I want to make sure that I am fully understanding your issues. To help, here are some screenshots of me trying to recreate this bug on my own site (which is using the latest publicly-available versions of our plugins).

• First, check out this screenshot which shows me making the recurring event in the wp-admin.
• Next, check out this screenshot which shows the front-end output of the event.

Do you agree that this shows a correct handling of DST?

I just want to make sure we’re on the same page about what a correct output would be so that I can best help you here and on your premium thread. Please let me know if you agree that these screenshots show a correct handling of DST, and we can continue from there to try and figure this out.

Sincerely,
George

Are you using a fresh install with no events or did you update from an existing version that has been in use? That’s great if it works brand new, but that is not the case for your existing customers. So are you telling me that Jamie and Barry are lying to us when they say there is an existing DST bug that developers are fixing?

Hi Shay,

I’m sorry we let you down, here. I did want to chip in on a couple of things:

That’s great if it works brand new, but that is not the case for your existing customers.

This is a solid point.

Not all of our fixes now or in the future will or can retroactively fix existing data. However, we could certainly be better about communicating this and offering tools or guidance where appropriate. That’s something we’ll work on.

So are you telling me that Jamie and Barry are lying to us when they say there is an existing DST bug that developers are fixing?

Not at all, that’s not what he is saying.

Clearly we initially got some things wrong here and it would suck if we didn’t pause to re-evaluate, as the chances of us successfully solving the problem you are experiencing would be lower if we didn’t. George is just trying to get that process rolling.

That said, this is the plugin review page and it’s not the best venue for that discussion so, if you wish to of course, let’s keep the technical discussion relating to your case specifically going over on our Help Desk.

Though we’ve let you down, hopefully we can also make things right with a little more work and patience.

DST clearly worked at some point, then it stopped working. Now we (myself and others using TEC…we do talk to each other just FYI) are being told there is a bug that is in the hands of a developer, and it won’t be released until the end of March. Why is another support person coming behind at least two others who have said this is a verified bug?

I would agree this is not the best venue for this discussion, but if your staff is going to try and make me appear to be in the wrong or flat out lying for no reason, then I will respond here. It was clear he was not trying to understand the issue – he was trying to make a point, which is exactly why I say horrible support. At least Jamie was polite and professional, but that still doesn’t help get the problem fixed.

My support thread is still open, but am I stuck waiting for a bug fix as other support reps have said, or is this something that can be fixed now? I’m confused by receiving conflicting stories. If you would like to reply in the support thread, I will be happy to respond there in the future.

Hey again Shay,

Let me reassure you that in no way, shape or form are we saying you are “flat out lying” … or anything at all to try and make you appear to be in the wrong.

Text-based communication isn’t always easy and I’m assuming that somewhere along the line something we wrote led to you feeling this way, but I’m admittedly not sure what exactly. All we’re trying to do is help you.

To answer some direct questions:

Why is another support person coming behind at least two others who have said this is a verified bug?

We’re concerned we didn’t properly evaluate what you reported to us. That was our fault entirely, no excuses, and to get things back on track we want to gather more information.

My support thread is still open, but am I stuck waiting for a bug fix as other support reps have said, or is this something that can be fixed now?

To be certain your situation is linked to one of the DST bugs currently logged on our issue tracker we are going to need to get some extra information first of all.

If you would like to reply in the support thread, I will be happy to respond there in the future.

George has replied here with some further questions – if you can reply, we’d love the opportunity to take a fresh look.

I am not too comfortable dealing with George at this point, but I have posted the link https://thaliaumc.org/event/tec-test/all/ as he had requested. I appreciate the effort to address this issue now, but it makes me more concerned that two other support reps would have had us sitting around waiting for a release that wouldn’t fix anything instead of being certain.

OK, well – if you’re happy with this – I’ll work with you until we can get a better handle on things.

I just followed up and I believe it may be the case that you are experiencing a conflict with another plugin (Series Engine). That’s not a certainty, but it’s well worth exploring.

Let’s resume the conversation over there.