[Plugin WP E-commerce] Is this a waste of time…?

I have a potential client who wishes to set up an ecommerce facility on his website . The site is presently run by WordPress 2.9.2.

I have identified the e-commerce plugin as a possible way to do this but he also needs a two tier customer base for wholesale and retail customers (wholesale would log-in for wholesale pricing). So I am also looking at the proprietary Wholesale plugin.

The problem seems to be that it appears almost impossible to get any information on which to base my decision. I have tried registering at getshopped.org to find out about the e-commerce plugin but this seems to be impossible – I have received no emailed password and both my preffered username and email address are now shown as registered but I can’t get in, nor can I get a new password.

Looking at previous posts in the getshopped forum suggests that this plugin is far from complete and usable without considerable knowledge and tweaking. The developer of the Wholesale plugin also doesn’t respond to email queries.

The upshot of this is that I shall probably now advise this client that WordPress is not suitable for an ecommerce platform and he should go to a developer who can provide a solid, usable package with good support, although it will cost him a lot of money.

I am also disappointed by posting in this forum. I realise that help here is voluntary but it seems that there is so much traffic that if a question isn’t answered quickly it disappears down the pile and from view.

Mike Davies