Updating plugins with a custom theme

Howdy

Aplogies first of all as I guess this a FAQ but i can’t find a definitive answer to the vexed issue of updating plugins when using a custom theme.

I have had 2 WP sites built by the same developer. I am an upgrade fanatic, a lesson learned over many years based on the first question any tech help desk asks is ‘Are you running the latest …’. So a couple of days ago I hit ‘upgrade’ on a number of plugins including woocommerce. The site became a horrid mess.

The dev told me not to update plugins without their input. So – when it udates arose again i asked them to do it.

Here’s there reply:
“As I told you earlier, if you update the plugins, all our customized codes will disappear. So if you want to update any plugin, please do at your own risk. Some changes after update may not be recoverable as well.”

Can this really be true? Plugins are the beating heart of WP. I recognise that some caution needs to be excercised but surely you can’t remain frozen at your launch date. I’d give a site like this about 3 months before it ground to a halt.

So who’s right – the developers or me.

I would really appreciate some input on this one.

Thanks
Martin