Pro version broken, non-existent support

  • schoqs

    (@clubafterlifeq)


    7 years, 11 months ago

    I made the mistake of buying 2 plugins first and then the Pro plugin. The first 2 i bought over 30 days ago so unfortunately they are not eligible for a refund, but I’ve discovered that the Pro plugin is completely broken on our site and there is nothing I can do about it.

    This is the level of ‘support’ you will get for your money –
    Support replies (keep in mind this is a community forum, they don’t even have a ticketing system):
    – which basically amount to ‘please read this documentation’
    – which ask you to check for conflicts, multiple times, even after you have explained that you have
    – informing you that they are not allowed to actually look at the WP dashboard or anything beyond the page in the browser (??? I have never seen this in a paid product before, and I’ve bought many themes and plugins)
    – requests for you to set up other sites and WP installs to test it on, but with no assistance unless you pay their ‘customizers’.

    Even after you’ve done all the hard work of setting up multiple sites to test it on, if you’re lucky enough to have the capability to do that (people who are not developers may not be able or lack the expertise), your license is only allowed to be used 5 times and only on one site at a time! So after following the ‘instructions’ of support, you will have used up your license by their low arbitrary number of installs, without any warning from the guy who told you to do it! Amazing.

    I’m truly astounded that something that costs $89 per PART of a plugin – not even the entire thing – provides this poor level of support. The least I expect is a full refund of all of the plugins, but I won’t hold my breath.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi @clubafterlifeq,

    My name is Geoff and I manage support here at Modern Tribe. I wanted to first off thank you for the review — while I never like to see 1-star reviews, I (and everyone else on the team) sees them as an opportunity to get raw and honest feedback for how we can improve, which is something we are actively striving to do.

    That said, I do want to clarify a few points you raised because the truth is that troubleshooting a reported issue can require additional work on both ends — that is, for us here at Modern Tribe as well as the customer. In order for us to write a proper ticket in our system, it’s critical that we are able to replicate the same issue. Otherwise, a developer would have no way of being able to isolate the issue and it would be unclear if the issue is truly a bug in our code or if it is the result of a conflict with the theme being used or another installed plugin. Either way, proper troubleshooting is the first step and it is not always a linear process, considering that every site uses a different combination of themes, plugins and even WordPress versions.

    Creating a test site is sometimes the best route to replicating the issue because it allows us to work with a clean slate and replicate the issue with you in a default WordPress environment. It also allows us to work with you for the sake of identifying exactly where a conflict exists, if that winds up being the source of the issue.

    What I’m taking away from your feedback is that we can do a better job of providing assistance in the troubleshooting process, especially when it’s determined that a test site is the best route for replicating the issue.

    If you disagree (which is okay) that troubleshooting is the right approach for getting full context on an issue, then do you an alternative approach that you would suggest instead? Keep in mind that any reported issue requires information on whether the problem is located in the plugin or another component of the site in order for it to be properly patched.

    I also want to comment on this specific note:

    So after following the ‘instructions’ of support, you will have used up your license by their low arbitrary number of installs, without any warning from the guy who told you to do it!

    It definitely sounds like a lack of communication here, but it’s worth noting that our products do not require a license in order to function. In other words, you can install the plugins on as many sites as you would like, but you can only activate automatic updates and register for support on as many sites as you are licensed for. It’s easy for us to assume you already know this when setting up a test site, so I’m truly sorry for that lack of communication. I hope, however, that this help clarify the situation.

    The least I expect is a full refund of all of the plugins, but I won’t hold my breath.The least I expect is a full refund of all of the plugins, but I won’t hold my breath.

    I have to be honest and say that this feels like a cheap shot. While I understand your frustration it is unfair to suggest that Modern Tribe has locked you into purchasing something you did not need or expect. We offer a full refund on all our products within 30 days of purchase specifically because we want to ensure everyone has an ample opportunity to install the plugins on their own sites and ensure that it works with their specific configurations. As you can imagine with all the themes and other plugins in the WordPress market, it’s impossible for us to guarantee 100% compatibility with everything out there.

    I have a tough time seeing how a refund policy can be much more generous than that, but I also want to point out that our payment processor does not guarantee that is can process refunds after 30 days, which is the reason it is set where it is.

    On that note, I am more than happy to submit a refund for your orders, despite the fact that you are outside the 30-day window. All that I ask is for you to fill out the form here and reference this thread so we can expedite it:

    https://theeventscalendar.com/contact/

    Sincerely,
    Geoff

    Thread Starter schoqs

    (@clubafterlifeq)

    I’m currently on day 2 of troubleshooting, i.e. 2 full working days of trying to get this to work.

    I’m happy that I don’t require the license to install it on the test site as that would be impossible on our internal testing server

    I don’t have a problem with troubleshooting, per se. Any developer knows that sometimes it’s necessary. I just find the level of response in the forums and the inability of support to do anything other than look at the page in the browser to be frankly, ridiculous. I understand there are liability issues in case something is accidentally broken etc, but there has to be some sort of workaround? Even an indemnity form / disclaimer or something similar if you are that worried?

    It’s not even about the money, we are using $60-80 plugins and themes with separate licenses on 20+ sites because their support is fantastic. Please see Maps Marker Pro, Goodlayers themes, Revslider etc…

    Even if I get this to work – and I’m getting there, extremely slowly, as migrating a large site piece by piece is very time consuming when you can’t use a migration plugin for fear of copying over the error – I would love to improve my rating. But apart from your response I haven’t really seen anything that makes me want to. Please consider some of the things suggested by customers! A ticketing system is the absolute bare minimum for a paid plugin, as far as I’m concerned.

    Hi @clubafterlifeq,

    Thanks so much for following up! I appreciate your comments here and the fact that you helped clarify your earlier points.

    Troubleshooting is definitely a tough thing and it’s something we take seriously as a team. While I’m sure the way our team interacted with you when you sought support could have been phrased differently, or perhaps even explained better, I have no doubt that anyone who may have helped you was genuinely interested and willing to dig into your reported issues with you. We do indeed look at sites when we’re provided links and we sometimes even go to the extent of accepting requests to log into a customer’s WordPress admin for the sake of personally observing a site’s settings — though we in no way touch or alter them for the exact reasons you mention.

    If you have examples where our team was uninterested in helping or refusing to look at a site in the browser, then please do send me the links because that is unacceptable from my perspective and is something we can certainly resolve internally.

    It’s not even about the money, we are using $60-80 plugins and themes with separate licenses on 20+ sites because their support is fantastic. Please see Maps Marker Pro, Goodlayers themes, Revslider etc…

    Thanks for the examples! Can you tell me specifically what it is about the support for these companies and products that you think we can benefit from? I tried, for example, looking into Maps Marker Pro and I would say that our models are quite similar, support forum exchanges pretty on par and the timeliness of replies to be all consistent. I’m always game for seeing where we can improve, so I’d love to know more about what separates those fine folks from the pack so that we can see opportunities for upping our game as well.

    Please consider some of the things suggested by customers! A ticketing system is the absolute bare minimum for a paid plugin, as far as I’m concerned.

    You might already be aware of it, but we introduced a ticketing system for The Events Calendar last year called Event Tickets and open sourced it for the WordPress community to use free of charge, just like The Events Calendar itself:

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/event-tickets/

    That will provide you the ability to create free tickets for events. We also have a premium add-on for it called Event Tickets Plus for creating and selling paid tickets for events:

    https://theeventscalendar.com/product/wordpress-event-tickets-plus/

    I also want to note that we have a pretty aggressive release schedule and that we are actively releasing new features, bug fixes, security improvements and performance updates, all in accordance with what customers are asking for in our feature request forum and what is being reported in our forums. It’s hard for me to see how we are being inconsiderate of what customers are asking for, but please do let me know if you think otherwise and how we can be doing a better job of listening and I’ve love to consider that feedback as well. ??

    Again, thanks so much for your feedback so far — I hope you’ve found this discussion to be as productive as I have so far!

    Cheers,
    Geoff

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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