Worst Experience I've Ever Had

  • Initially, I tried this plugin for free, and it seemed to work fine with my version of WP and my theme. The problems occurred when I upgraded to the premium version, which I should never have done. The only problem is that the features on the free version aren’t good enough to warrant having it as a standalone plugin.

    The free version has very limited features, and unfortunately, you have to pay to even see how the premium features “work”. (Note the quotes. They don’t. Red flag #1.)

    After purchasing the premium version and installing the plugin, I simply couldn’t access it. (Red Flag #2)

    I approached Zia for support, and at first, it seemed like everything would be OK. He sent me a new version of the plugin that he said would work for me. I was allowed access. All my worst fears dissipated. For about 5 minutes.

    I asked him what went wrong, and he wouldn’t tell me unless I gave him a 5-star review. (HUGE Red Flag #3.)

    Then, I actually opened up the plugin and tried to use it. None of the features actually worked. (HUGE Red Flag #4)

    Let me explain this in more detail:

    • All of the pictures he includes as screenshots to advertise this plugin look as if the background images will stretch to fill the entire screen. They won’t. The pictures are only as large as the original source file. They can be repeated, but only in one direction (either along the x or y axis, but never both).
    • The ability to actually upload logos and background images didn’t work at all. I had to manually upload the media file, copy the url path, and then re-open the plugin and paste the url path into the box.
    • When uploading a logo, the plugin forces a border around it. Even when setting the size of the logo box to the exact pixel specs of the logo you’re including. So, even after learning that background images would not work as they appear in his screenshots, I tried to use a solid color background and a transparent .png for a logo. This will never, ever work.

    Even if you DO want a border around your logo, you’ll still end up spending 10 – 15 minutes trying to figure out what pixel size to set as the box heigh and width, because it won’t be the same as your source file. Most of the time, my logo ended up being cut in half horizontally.

    To be fair, this plugin is advertised as not requiring any coding skills. And technically, CSS isn’t code. (Even though you can take it as a course on sites like CodeAcademy.com…)

    But let me ask you this: If a plugin requires you to know and understand CSS to get what you want, and the plugin itself is designed to alter CSS, then what good is the plugin in the first place?

    After I realized that the plugin would not work, I found another solution for free within 5 minutes, had it up and running in 10, and was completely happy with it in 15.

    It’s called Theme My Login, and it makes your login page look exactly like the CSS of your theme. It takes no time or effort, which is what this plugin is supposed to do. I highly recommend it if you need a temporary solution like I did.

    Instead, this POS plugin cost me 27 dollars, and a more than a week of my time (which costs you way more than $27).

    On top of that, I spent that week bickering back and forth with a the creator, who tries to blackmail people into giving his plugins fake 5-star reviews.

    To top it all off, when I asked for a refund, he gave me the runaround. Instead of being empathetic to my situation, he wanted me to be empathetic to his.

    His “solution” to all my problems was for me to uninstall the free solution I already had up and running, create him a back-end admin account, and give him free reign over my website in the process.

    What is the point of UNFIXING something to FIX it again, just so he can keep his $27 and FEEL like he did his job correctly?

    And how are you supposed to trust a guy like this with backend access to your website to fix a problem? Who knows what kind of malicious shit or accidental errors could actually happen?

    I still have not received the refund, and I don’t believe I ever will. So I spent a ton of extra time to give you this warning. Ignore it at your own risk.

    STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLUGIN. THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE WAS A NIGHTMARE.

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  • Thread Starter nspyer

    (@nspyer)

    UPDATE:

    Knowing that Zia only seemed to care about whether he got a 1 star review or not, I told him that I would be giving him one and detailing out the entire process of what happened between us unless he refunded me my money. It seemed like my only leverage.

    He then promised the money would appear in my account after no more than 2 days.

    4 days later (today), the money was still not in my Paypal. I emailed him at 9:42 AM EST and told him I would be posting the review. Then, I followed through by writing and posting it.

    Within 10 minutes of posting the review, I received an email from him. He acted as if he was confused the original refund didn’t go through, and asked me for my order number, which I had already given him in the very first email I sent.

    I’m sure he realized this, of course, which is why the refund that I received today is timestamped at 10:29AM EST.

    Now, it’s entirely possible that there could have been some Paypal error, or holdover, or delay of some sort. This means it’s possible that Zia wasn’t lying..

    But afterwards, he DID send me ANOTHER email asking me to remove the one star review and the comment because he refunded me the money.

    Which proves, yet again, he’s more concerned with APPEARING as if this plugin is a quality product and provides a good experience, rather than ACTUALLY making a quality product and providing a good experience.

    He also told me that, because of this one star review, WP would completely remove his plugin from their database and he wouldn’t be able to feed his kids, because “all [he] was earning was $400 from WordPress plugins”.

    Personally, I wanted to remove the review after that. I don’t want his family to suffer, even if it is possible he’s lying to me repeatedly. Unfortunately for Zia, I’m UNABLE to remove it. It might be fortunate for you, however.

    A lot of people DO seem to like this plugin. And while it may be POSSIBLE that every 5 star review is fake, it’s statistically CLOSE to IMPOSSIBLE.

    That being said: This guy has no idea how to handle customer service. He never once empathized with my situation. He never once apologized for my inconvenience. He never once took any responsibility for misrepresenting what his plugin can do.

    All he did, the entire time, was make the situation about him.

    To the effect that it’s now, somehow, MY responsibility to weigh the equally possible and terrible burdens of potentially ruining the lives of this man’s family, versus warning thousands of WP users about that same man’s potentially very shady business practices.

    Why the hell should anyone have to bear that responsibility as a customer who just wanted a $27 dollar plugin to do what the hell it was supposed to do in the first place?

    And all through the way, a pattern emerged of wanting to manipulate these reviews for his own benefit.

    Personally, I’m washing my hands of this whole situation, and I advise you to err on the side of caution and do the same before you actually take your first step. It could waste weeks of your life. In that time, I’ve learned PHP and HTML and am halfway through Code Academy’s CSS course. There are better ways to spend your time than clawing and scraping over getting what you are rightfully due. I’ve only gone this far because I’m too damn principled for my own good.

    But, I feel like if this guy spent more time on Engineering, and less time on Social Engineering, then maybe I wouldn’t be put in this ridiculous position in the first place.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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