Excellent Customer Service

Hi akibasoul,

I’m sorry to hear that you had an issue.

However, I have to ask, why would you post a negative review without even submitting a support request first?

There is simply no code in the plugin that would take a long period of time to execute or load during a page load. When you see something taking that long, your first thought should be that there are errors occurring on your server.

The plugin is extremely optimized and will actually speed up your site. Benchmarking and speed has been a primary focus from the beginning. If you are experiencing a slowdown, it means there is an issue with your site or server, or your site does not meet the minimum requirements for the plugin.

WordPress site slowdowns are most often caused by undiagnosed PHP errors, configuration issues, memory issues, database issues, missing modules, old mySQL versions, and old PHP versions.

It is important for all plugin users to read the documentation. Please take a few minutes to work through the Troubleshooting Guide and FAQs, as these solve over 90% of issues users have. (Please be sure to follow all the steps, not just read through them.)

Please take special note of FAQ 15, as it specifically addresses your issue:
“Q: Will WP-SpamShield slow down my site, and is there anything I can do to optimize my site for it?” Real the full FAQ: https://www.redsandmarketing.com/plugins/wp-spamshield/faqs/#faqs_15

Excerpt from the FAQ:

A: WP-SpamShield will not slow down your site, and no further optimization is necessary. It is a very efficient plugin and has been optimized to use a very light server load. Because it keeps spam out of the WordPress database, and helps prevent database bloat, it actually speeds your site up in the long term compared to a site that does not use it.

Clients hire us day in and day out to optimize their sites, and we write plugins that help improve PageSpeed, so that’s one area we specialize in and would never let a plugin slow a site down.

Here is a breakdown…

For the rest of the FAQ, please click here to read it.

If the information provided doesn’t solve the issue for you, we’ll need a bit more info from you on the specifics, and we’ll need to email back and forth, so please head over to the WP-SpamShield Support Form, and take a moment to fill out a support request. That will allow us to help you diagnose this, find out what the real issue is, and get things working right for you.

Please ask yourself this…When developers spend so much time developing free plugins for the WordPress community, is it really ok to post a 1-star review without making any reasonable effort to receive support? That’s simply not the right way to handle things.

If you have an issue with something, submit a support request first, and give the author time to respond. We provide free support for our plugins…all you have to do is submit a support request at the WordPress Plugin Support Page. We provide some of the best support out there.

You might want to take a moment to check out these two posts:

• There’s a wrong way to give plugin feedback on www.remarpro.com
• How to Leave a Good Bad Review

I would ask that you reconsider your rating, as it simply isn’t accurate.

– Scott

You are correct in that I was a bit too hasty so I revised it to a 3 star for the time being. It may block spam but I’m not going to risk the speed drop that I already noticed. I installed the plugin on a brand new server and ran speed tests before and after installing the plugin and once more after uninstalling the plugin. The server had no posts, no other plugins and literally just the default everything. The page loaded really quickly, then slowly (with the plugin enabled), and quickly again when the plugin was removed.

EDIT: Honestly, I’m not even sure what there is to troubleshoot because there’s nothing on the server at all other than a fresh install of WordPress and literally nothing else. With the plugin, it takes 2-3 seconds to load. Without the plugin, it loads in 199 ms.

EDIT 2: I made sure that my servers were both meeting the requirements as well. They are both on WordPress 4.4.2, PHP 5.6, and configured to allow the use of an .htaccess file.

I have to disagree with you, that your review simply isn’t accurate, because you haven’t made any attempt to troubleshoot.

Speed tests from an external website can be good as an initial indicator of problems, but they won’t tell you what the actual issue is. Making assumption based on those tests isn’t an accurate way to troubleshoot a site.

In literally every case where someone has claimed a slowdown, if they submit a support request, we were able to show them the error occurring on the server, and help fix it. The code in the plugin takes microseconds, not even milliseconds. The FAQ explains everything in detail.

Honestly, I’m not even sure what there is to troubleshoot because there’s nothing on the server at all other than a fresh install of WordPress and literally nothing else.

Default server setups can still have configuration errors. Just because it was installed on a fresh site doesn’t mean there weren’t problems. If you’re not sure what to troubleshoot, that’s exactly why we have the Troubleshooting Guide and FAQs…it will walk you through all of that. ??

Using speed testing tools from another website are not an accurate way of debugging, or getting a gauge of what’s going on. External testing tools can’t see what’s happening on the server in PHP. Things are going on under the hood that it has no idea about. PHP or server issues won’t be revealed by the speed tests you’re doing.

If a highly rated plugin that’s extremely optimized for speed, and used without issue by over 100,000 websites, is slowing your site down by 2-3 seconds, that’s a pretty strong sign that your site/server has a serious issue. It’s simply not possible for it to take 2-3 seconds to do anything, unless you’re running a really weak server (and I’m talking something from 1980), and I’m guessing that’s not the case. The JavaScript wouldn’t take that long to download either…it’s tiny, and compressed.

When PHP, or the database (or a number of other server-side issues) have an error it can add seconds to the load time, but regular code doing its work wouldn’t do that.

If you give us a chance to help, we can help you fix the problem on your site. Whether you use this plugin or not is up to you. But the problem on your server will definitely cause you problems with other plugins in the future, so I’d recommend getting that fixed.

I do appreciate the revision to 3 stars, but I still consider it a negative review because you’re making a claim that this plugin horrendously slowed down your site, and you didn’t even submit a support request, and it’s still not right to post a negative review like that without requesting support first.

I’d like to help you fix the actual problem. I realize you’re worried about the speed drop, but we’re the people clients go to when they want their site faster. We’re really good at this. ??

Hi Scott,

Thanks for taking the time to write out an explanation for all those. Most developers wouldn’t bother so I deeply appreciate the attention you are taking to fix this. At the moment, I’ve just decided to switch to a different plugin so you don’t have to worry about troubleshooting through things. I’ll move the rating up to four and revise the text due to the excellent customer service you’ve provided.

Thanks again for your help!

Hi akibasoul,

You’re very welcome. We’re here to help. ?? I’m sorry that you had a negative experience.

I understand…tech support is unfortunately lacking as field. I hope we can make a small difference in that area. ??

If you ever do change your mind, let us know, and we’ll help you get things working smoothly.

You’re very welcome. Have a great week!

– Scott

Customer service like yours is a breath of fresh air for sure (in any industry, especially for a free plugin) so keep up the excellent work!

Have a great week as well!

Thank you! ??