Author Topic: Sofware company not providing support for an extension  (Read 5756 times)

Offline Ollie

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Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« on: January 20, 2015, 02:06:18 PM »
Back in July of last year I purchased the Advanced Search extension. With the new Abanecart 1.2 upgrade, the extension is practically useless, nothing seems to work (no matter what search parameter I choose). I contacted Algozone and asked for an extension upgrade. They said the website where I purchased the extension (i.e. their own website) no longer supports the extension then referred me to Abantecart Marketplace. Well, it turns out that I cannot download the extension upgrade unless I pay for it. This doesn't seem fair. I wrote to them again but haven't heard anything back. Anyone facing the same dilemma? If so, I'm curious to find out how you got this resolved. I'm also interested in hearing from the Abantecart administrators. Aren't vendors obligated to provide upgrades for their software free of charge?
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 02:18:25 PM by Ollie »
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Offline llegrand

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Re: Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2015, 02:39:51 PM »
Ollie,  glad you opened this line of conversation.   It has been a concern of mine for sometime.   I do not have a solution for you,  just a voice to add to the problem.

I too have several extensions purchased directly from AlgoZone,  and since they also sell on the Marketplace it is dismaying that the upgrades are not available on the new Marketplace.   We should not be penalized because the location of  where we purchased has changes IMO.  But sadly,  Algozone has been notorious in lack of support for any purchase of their products in either marketplace.

There are two sides to most things -  and extensions by third party developers certainly fall in that category.  From the website admin side -  we all would like to see the updates be free forever -  it improves our bottom line.   But from the developer side -  who's paying for the work to keep that all going? And I don't think there is any way for Abantecart to enforce that a developer continue to develop. 

This issue of moving to a more current version of any software always impacts what extras we may have on our systems rather that be an operating system on our PCs or other equipment. We have all deferred updating our Windows because some favorite third party software doesn't work on the latest and greatest - or at least not just yet.  This is the same thing.

It seems to me that we need to find some type of middle ground -  my proposal is that extensions are free for a year after purchase or thru then next 3 updates to the core and then there is a reduced cost (50% maybe)  for an update that is good for another year.  If there is some income incentive for a developer perhaos they will continue to update.  How this can be enabled in the current marketplace would be up to Abantecart.  Perhaps some type of coupon?

It would be good if others voiced an opinion on this - but I do hope they would take into consideration the developer side also.

Lee

Offline abantecart

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Re: Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2015, 03:26:37 PM »
It is developer's responsibility to provide an update for extensions. We encourage them to do this for free and on timely manner. I know there are many updates available at this point.

If you use some non-default extensions, it makes sense to check if these extensions updates are available, before you upgrade your AbanteCart.
This is particularity important for major and minor releases. Since AbanteCart had 1.2 (minor) release, some extensions are effected.
As a matter of fact this was mentioned on the release:
http://www.abantecart.com/shopping-cart-news

I wish updates would work as smooth as with Iphone update, but we have to rely on developers to keep up with our updates and work together with us to improve this in the future.

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Offline eCommerce Core

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Re: Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2015, 03:35:49 PM »
Ollie. If you refer to refined product search extension, I did review this extension before it was posted. It was updated recently.
This extension is implemented pretty well and functions properly.

What issues, did you have? I can trace this with the developer.
“If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
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Offline Ollie

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Re: Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« Reply #4 on: January 20, 2015, 05:17:12 PM »
Ollie. If you refer to refined product search extension, I did review this extension before it was posted. It was updated recently. This extension is implemented pretty well and functions properly.

What issues, did you have? I can trace this with the developer.

Thank you for your kind offer to trace the issue with the developer. It would be nice if the software company were doing their job of being more responsive to their customers. It looks like I'm not the only one hinting at their lack of customer service / tech support. But anyway, responding to your question: Advanced Search is not working for me. It doesn't matter what search parameter I pick (Categories, Brands or Tags), nothing works. It always retrieves search results that have nothing to do with my selected choice(s). This problem started as soon as I upgraded to v. 1.2.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 05:59:51 PM by Ollie »
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Offline Ollie

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Re: Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2015, 05:22:53 PM »
It is developer's responsibility to provide an update for extensions. We encourage them to do this for free and on timely manner. I know there are many updates available at this point.
(...)
I wish updates would work as smooth as with Iphone update, but we have to rely on developers to keep up with our updates and work together with us to improve this in the future.
Thank you for clarifying. I suggest sending the developers a reminder about the importance of providing free updates in a timely manner. In the real world, it can be very disruptive if they are not ready for these changes or - worse yet - when they don't respond to their customers in a timely fashion (or don't respond at all). Fortunately, my shopping cart is not live yet, but one can only imagine the chaos if something like this happened when the cart was up and running. John Doe is looking for product A and finds A to Z listed in the search results. Oh, well, I guess while we are here trying to find a solution, John Doe would have gone to Amazon, Target or some other website where Search works (rather than buying at dinkyseller.com). LOL... If free upgrades are not always possible for the reasons pointed out by Lee (Illegrand) then I think it's imperative that Abantecart establish clear guidelines/requirements for developers who are interested in selling their stuff in the Marketplace.  As a customer, I would expect to be informed of the limitations (if any) when buying something. Lee's proposal to get two or three upgrades for free makes sense to me. If we can get them free all the time, that's even better. And by the way kudos for Abantecart for putting out such an awesome shopping cart. I wasted my time (and money) on PDG for several years and won't ever consider going back. I'm stuck with them for a couple more months, after that it will be Abantecart TOUJOURS!
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 06:55:56 PM by Ollie »
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Offline eCommerce Core

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Re: Sofware company not providing support for an extension
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2015, 09:34:19 PM »
I agree. Thank you for your points.
“If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
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