[Plugin: WP e-Commerce] I agree, not worth the trouble

  • donhx

    (@donhx)


    16 years ago

    It seems impossible to get an decent answer from wp-e-commerce people on anything. Plus, they seem to have an attitude. Support, even when you pay for products, is virtually non-existent, a bad omen for a reasonably sophisticated product like a shopping cart.

    Lacking support, I had to purchase the gold and membership to test the product.

    Regular PayPal seems not to work completely in the free version according to their site, but seems to work okay when you pay for the Gold version. In their documentation there is this note: “Known issues (2008-07-21): PayPal Express Checkout doesn’t work properly.” Four months without fixing something so basic is really bad.

    wp-e-commerce DOES NOT support PayPal Pro. PayPal Pro is very popular in the US, but apparently not in New Zealand. They do support PayPal Payflow, a different PayPal product for which you need a merchant credit card account with a bank or other vendor.

    They support a bunch of other cc gateways that customers in the US have never heard of.

    If you try to use the membership module, forget it. wp-e-commerce commits the deadly sin of requiring site sign-up before people can complete a purchase. Seasoned e-commerce people know this is deadly since people just want to buy, they don’t need to be side-tracked by wp-e-commerce program requirements. Requiring separate site sign-up before they input their purchase data is a major sales killer.

    wp-e-commerce people blame this and other issues on PayPal, but other non-wp carts have overcome these issues.

    wp-e-commerce people have a potentially great product, but it is very far from being ready for prime time. I have lost time, and money paid to them, just to see if it was as good as they say. I don’t think it is.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

  • I spend a large amount of time on Instict’s support forum…I don’t remember seeing you there asking for help. If you have, then I apologize…you can always contact me for help.

    Thread Starter donhx

    (@donhx)

    Stastic, I know from your posts that you are WP e-Commerce’s strongest (and often only) supporter.

    I don’t know if you are partners with those guys, or if you rely heavily on WP e-Commerce confusion to make money off your own WP e-Commerce membership support site, which I have visited. But, Shayne, I see no reason why anyone should pay you (or anyone) $30-$150 extra for support.

    I visited the WP e-Commerce forum many times, but there were so many old unanswered messages there, I saw it was futile leaving a message. I sent emails, but like others attest, they go unanswered.

    Some people have got WP e-Commerce to work. The lucky ones. Many say it is not worth the effort to get working correctly, and that WP e-Commerce support is abysmal even when you pay for the product modules. I will continue to agree with those people based on my personal experience.

    It would be very hard for me to allow people to pin their e-commerce hopes on WP e-Commerce in its present state of development.

    Thread Starter donhx

    (@donhx)

    Today Dan Milward from WP e-Commerce has broken his long and eerie silence about WP e-Commerce. He has sent out an email blast saying he is looking for developers and documentation writers for WP e-Commerce.

    He has announced the next version of WP e-Commerce, but does not say when it will be released.

    He says the next version will be WordPress 2.7 ready (it’s not functional beyond WP 2.5.1 now), but he does not mention if the new version will solve the fundamental flaws that affect people seeking to do business on the net.

    It is one thing to fix cosmetics, but WP e-Commerce will still be a sales killer if people are required to register at your site before they complete their credit card data… when they are buying, it is deadly to take them off the sales page.

    Also, there is no word if WP e-Commerce will support PayPal Pro in the U.S. Other than PayPal Standard, this is the most used PayPal product in the US, but seems to be almost totally ignored by off-shore developers like the WP e-Commerce people.

    So, I guess we are in a waiting game with WP e-Commerce for the next version. I wonder how long the wait will be?

    Mufasa

    (@mufasa)

    @ DonHx: Sorry you feel this way – there are many many more working copies of WP e-Commerce then there are non working copies and it is weird you would say otherwise given you don’t have any stats. It is just unforutante that it does not work for you.

    Here are over 70 working examples:
    https://www.instinct.co.nz/forums/forum.php?id=5

    Anyway the next Release Canditate version of WP e-Commerce is due to be released tomorrow night / possibly Wednesday latest. This version (as with the current version) of WP e-Commerce works with 2.6.3 and many many other working versions of WordPress including 2.7 which we are activly working on right now. I don’t know what you think we do around here…

    And as for eerie silance. Oh please. You are just being rude now, what is your name so I can discuss you online huh? The truth is that I email our users quite often, perhaps not enough for some people (like you) and perhaps more then enough for others (like over 6000 people who don’t do this each time something like paypal does not work for them).

    Either way we will take a look at PayPal Pro issue for you and see what we can find.

    Good day sir. I bid you fine farewell.

    p.s. WP e-Commerce does not require users to login to enter their credit card details.

    That is a personal choice of yours. If paypal pro does not immediatly work for you then try authorize.net which also lets people enter their credit card details.

    Hey Don,

    You don’t have to join my members only forum…there is a “contact me” button on my site, and I make my Skype ID very available for everyone…if you’re having an issue with something that is supposed to work, I do not charge for that…only modifications, etc.

    https://www.stasticdesigns.com

    Also…Don..

    There is a 3 day free trial on my forums…do that.

    That should be plenty of time to get your issues resolved…and it costs nothing!

    https://www.stasticdesigns.com/wp-login.php?action=register

    DonHx is right ..

    The forums are littered with unanswered questions, I’ve had several issues personally and one of the first things I did was go to the forums to try to find a solution to my problem .. when I looked up my issues I found lots of people having them and lots of people not getting answered.. some were as “fresh” as a day, and others were as stale as 5 months ..

    I don’t doubt Stastic really believes this plugin is the bee’s knees, but there’s sure a very large number of people who disagree, which is evident simply by browsing the forums both here and on the official site.

    The module is in fact buggy, I’ve rarely seen a module with that many issues in it’s forums.. yes user error and server configurations can and quite often do come into play, but proper design, documentation, error checking and usability can overcome most of that.. the problem is too many people are experiencing the same issues.

    The support is in fact slim, I don’t doubt the guys are trying, but there is obviously an overload .. don’t take my word for it, don’t take Stastic’s or Mufasa’s word for it either, simply look around and you’ll see..

    I’m new to this plugin, I think it does have potential, and I plan to write a lengthy review about my experiences at the end of my time with it.. I’ve only just today submitted by request for assistance, and now I’m curious to see how it goes from there..

    I agree.

    This plugin was a waste of money for me as well.

    The plugin is way to ‘jumbled’ and not only will it not help with the complicated stuff; but I couldn’t even figure out the simple stuff (and I’m a web pro)

    Way to be on the brand management though Mufasa and static.

    WOW! I thought I was the only one who spotted the many ‘unanswered post’ around here and also the lack of support.

    Maybe WP should open a vacant ‘WANT TO BECOME A MODERATOR’ for those who are experts in their field e.g. WP E-Commerce etc. I can become one if WP wants me to but mine would only fit ‘INSTALLING WORDPRESS’ well at least I got the installation right hehe ?? lol.

    But yea serious something has to be done asap. Other wise I will take to wordpress to court ahaha ha just joking just joking.

    It’s really sad that WordPress’s customer sat. of this plug-in so inaccurately reflects the problems, lack of support and buggy code that the “WP e-commerce” plug-in still is 10 months later. I’ve installed WordPress 2.8.4 and WP e-commerce 3.7.4 and have been battling the plug-in for a week over bugs in the way it handles product images. Zero support from their forum from either other users or “god forbid” the actual developers.

    Run don’t walk away from this plug-in. There’s no way I would trust my e-commerce to this plug-in knowing the lack of support and nature of all the broken features it has.

    deleted by user

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • The topic ‘[Plugin: WP e-Commerce] I agree, not worth the trouble’ is closed to new replies.