Warned is forearmed

  • I agree with several other reviewers: I have never taken time out of my day to leave a review on www.ads-software.com (I made this account only to do this), but I feel as well I have an ethical obligation to warn people to stay away from this plugin, and look for far better alternatives.

    Why?

    Well, I can only talk from my experience. I’m into online business for over 7 years, with a background in internet marketing. I was looking for this kind of software for one of my online shops, so I gave this plugin a test drive, and after several critical support requests, I was convinced to buy the full-pro package.

    Here is my story.

    1. During one of my pre-sales questions, I asked him if a specific feature was available. He answered it was there, so I bought the pro version.

    Bad idea. When I installed the plugin, the feature I was inquiring about was not available! I realized the developer did not really care about reading my support request properly (and taking me as a customer seriously) because if he had, he would have realized instantly that the specific feature I was inquiring about, was not available.

    2. Later on, when I tried to get my refund, I wanted to refer to his initial (wrong) answer, I could not find it anymore on the forum: he simply deleted it! Can you imagine? I have confronted him and he answered something like “I never delete comments on the forum”. I asked him to show my initial question and his incomplete reply. I never got an answer.

    In the beginning, when I logged into the customer area, I could find an overview of all my messages. But after several weeks, when I was filing my complaint to Paypal, I saw he disabled the function for customers to see an overview of their support requests. Can you imagine a professional support system doing this?

    3. When I asked for my refund, he only answered something like: “We will URGENTLY add this feature for you”. But I did not ask him to add any feature! During the pre-sales process, I was simply asking for information. He misguided me, I bought the plugin and realized this was a bad idea.

    Since my webshop was going to launch in a couple of days, I quickly looked for an alternative, un-installed his plugins, deleted the activation code from my website, and requested a refund. I even explained to him that I had un-installed his software (which he probably could verify by looking at the serial-activation code). I wrote him I already found another solution, and I told him my shop was launching in a couple of days.

    But he did not care. He simply answered: “we shall add this feature URGENTLY for you”… while I explained that I never asked him to add anything… so tiring to discuss with this guy. This is no professional customer support; this is forcing unsatisfied customers to stay your customer.

    4. I agree with many other reviewers: the documentation is far from complete. If it were, I would have known that the feature I was looking for was not available in the first place.


    5.     When I pay a professional price for a professional plugin with professional support, I deserve professional support and nothing less. He wrote me: “Usually we reply within the same day”. Really? I sent him my refund request and 6 days later he gave his first answer. And he always took, at least, 3 days time to reply to my support requests I posted on the forum. When I am running an online shop, I need customer support I can count on.

    6. I did file a complaint with Paypal, and strangely enough, Paypal did not refund me. This is beyond my comprehension too, especially when you read all these 1-star reviews… there is definitively something wrong there, and also with Paypal’s refund policy. This is my first big disappointment in Paypal, because if you look at the facts… that he deletes support requests from his customers while claiming he does not… that he (unwillingly) misguides customers during pre-sales,… well, I have no words for this.

    I fail to understand why any self-respecting online business would not refund a customer who is sincerely not satisfied with your product & support service? This is the first time this happens in the +/- 10 years that I shop with Paypal.

    Maybe Shaon has meanwhile outsourced his support forum to an experienced & trained support staff, which I would highly recommend him, so that he can focus himself on the software, instead of trying to do everything himself.

    Maybe his services and his plugin have gone through major improvements; I do not know. But it is possible; I believe in miracles.

    But what I know, is my experience. Warned is forearmed!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Plugin Author Shahjada

    (@codename065)

    Pre-sale support never says like that. They really don’t need to lie to get a sale. You said you sell pdfs and asked if pdf stamper can stamp email, support team reply, “yes, pdf stamper can do that, print customer name, email and other info( we also explained it clearly here https://www.wpdownloadmanager.com/download/wordpress-pdf-stamper-plugin/ ). After you purchase and download, now you want to link pdf stamper with email lock feature with wpdm pro, which is actually not in our available feature and also you never asked it to pre sale.
    We always refund as per our terms and conditions. But in your case, the reason was totally improper, a feature you asking which was never part of our plugin, but as you said you need it, we could add it with a day specially for you, then you saying you don’t want it, but refund, does it really sound reasonable? Yes, we are improving the plugin every day, that’s why, as you see, the plugin already has 1000s of active users. Believing in miracles is good, but being reasonable is better then believing in miracles.

    Thread Starter leo9

    (@leo9)

    Shaon,

    Before reading my answer, you might consider reading this article about one of the key ingredients that contributes to professional customer service, it’s something which I haven experienced at all with you (and which is also a reason I asked for a refund) https://www.insightsquared.com/2015/02/empathy-the-must-have-skill-for-all-customer-service-reps/

    1) and again, I ask you: where are my original support requests? Why do you keep on deflecting this question? In the member wordpress dashboard there used to be an overview of my support request. Now, this overview is gone. My first support request is nowhere to be found on your site, even not with a google site search. Where is it?

    2) you tell me: the reason I asked a refund was entirely improper? Since when is total customer dissatisfaction an inadequate reason to ask for a refund? Do you even care about trying to understand why I am not a satisfied customer? Can’t you bring up even a little empathy?

    3) your answer now is exactly my point: you have not read my support requests correctly! You, as the acting support staff, completely disregard my refund explanation, and you simply make up your own reasons why I asked a refund. And then you tell me that the reason (which you have made up) is improper. Is this professional customer support? (this alone would be a reason to ask for a refund)

    If you even care about trying to understand me, even a little bit, then read my explanation again: I requested a refund because your pre-sales answer led me to believe I could use the PDF stamper in the context of my site. You never mentioned that the users/buyers needed to be logged in for the PDF stamper to work, and this was, at that time, also not mentioned in the online documentation. Since I was not aware of this, I bought the full-add-on pack. Only to find out later that the users needed to be logged in for the PDF stamper to work, which was not explained in your tutorials, nor in your initials pre-sales answer. That was the main reason I asked for a refund. If you understand me now, you are always free to refund me now.

    4) I did not tell that you lied to me during the presales process. I told that you were incomplete in your answer (see explanation above) and thus (unwillingly) misguiding me. Can’t you not bring up any empathy at all for your paying customers? Why can’t you take ownership of some of your “support-requests-inefficiencies”, and simply refund me, and thankfully learn from these lessons so that future customers don’t have to experience something alike?

    5) Yes, you replied to my refund request with the message that you could implement some of the features I was inquiring about earlier. (btw: asking information about a feature is completely different than requesting to implement it!). If you would have given me from start complete answers during the pre-sales questions, if you would have replied to my refund request the same day, I might have maybe considered this. But I had to wait 6 days on your answer!

    And even then,… . When I explained you that my online shop was going live within a couple days, and that I had (meanwhile) installed already other software, etc. …. . Not even (ever) an apology from your side for your incomplete & late answers, not even a sign of customer empathy, or goodwill from your side to even try to understand why I am not satisfied! Some of my mails you even never replied to.

    Consider reading the article I mentioned above. If you implement “Empathy as a key ingredient in your customer support”, then you will stop receiving 1-star reviews like these. And if you then realize that my refund request was reasonable, I would be happy to accept it, even a partial refund.

    This alone would build a lot of goodwill with your (potential) customers, and I would happily submit another review.

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    @leo9 Your posts are hitting the spam queue and I’ve deleted your 3 duplicate posts.

    *Re-reads whole lengthy, really lengthy post*

    You’ve made a mistake.

    You wrote “WordPress.COM” on top and that’s not this place. You can edit your review and fix it (we’re www.ads-software.com, different animal entirely) with this link.

    https://www.ads-software.com/support/view/plugin-reviews/download-manager#postform

    Thread Starter leo9

    (@leo9)

    @ Jan Dembowski Thanks for pointing that out, I appreciate. I changed wordpress.com to .org. The reason why there were duplicate posts was because they did not show up. I posted it, and refreshed the page several times, but the post was nowhere to be seen. That’s why I posted it different times, until I saw it appearing; but only one time. Happy this is solved now.

    Hi Guys,

    @leo9 is right. I did have problems with this plugin + Shaon + him manipulating the reality + etc.. as well.

    Do not puchase this plugin. There are far better solutions available free of charge!

    Regards,

    – Max

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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