Post by ASG » Sat Apr 02, 2016 6:18 pm

I bought this extension almost a month back:

http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route ... d%20coupon

There has been 2 instances where the developer has not responded. First instance was on 3rd March, when the developer didn't bother to respond for 5 days and only after I posted a comment under extension comments before I received a reply. Second instance on 29th March, when the following happened, to which I am awaiting a response till today, even after sending a reminder.

I had configured a Buy One get 50% off on 2nd product. However, customers are able to checkout with 6 products in cart and get 50% OFF on all of the products which have a lower price in cart. Yes, out of 6 products, customers have managed to get 50% off on 3 products in the same cart.

Obviously, I sent an email to this developer asking if there was something I did wrong while configuring the coupon. Email is the only option, as there is no documentation for this extension, and the language in the extension itself is hard to understand.

Was this a development query? No.
Did it require work at developers end which would take hours to look into? No.

It was a basic query which a developer of an extension should be able to tell in under 5 minutes! It is basic support! Going by the comments under that extension, there are a lot of other users who receive absolutely no response from the developer.

My question is, does Opencart have policy for such issues?

There are several other developers where the support has been great. However, are end users of the extensions supposed to go by their luck in such instances, as in the case of above extension? Reporting an extension for support issues is already ruled out.

ASG
Active Member

Posts

Joined
Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:03 pm

Post by IP_CAM » Sun Apr 03, 2016 2:36 am

it probably depends on what you understand/define to be a 'basic' support.
Basic Support USUALLY means, to support users, as long as they have/use a DEFAULT Theme,
and as long as they use DEFAULT built-in Extensions. BUT anything else, especially, when it
comes to VqMod's,involved, would sure not longer meet the BASIC Support Standards/Requirements.

One now could argue, but it would not change anything, it's impossible, for a DEV, to be aware about
all those uncounted Themes, and Extensions, possibly playing a role, when it comes to be compatible,
but this is the Price, one pay's, to use an OPEN SOURCE Software, without Restrictions, on what to do how.

On the other hand, one should always read the Comments, before buying an Extension. And if one feels,
that other Buyers have some unsolved problems, one should just better stay away.

Whatever, OpenCart cannot be held responsible for such, OC does not guarantee for anything, outside of it's
own 'influenece', especially, as long as an extensions functions in a virgin/clean OC Environment.

Just to give you some infos on such, from my very personal point of view.
Ernie

My Github OC Site: https://github.com/IP-CAM
5'200 + FREE OC Extensions, on the World's largest private Github OC Repository Archive Site.


User avatar
Legendary Member

Posts

Joined
Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:37 am
Location - Switzerland

Post by ASG » Sun Apr 03, 2016 5:45 pm

IPCam, I understand what you are saying about the definition of basic support. An extension not working with custom/third party themes could very well be "advanced/custom" support and not basic any most of the cases. However, that is a point which comes after checking if the issue is because of custom themes or other extensions in the first place.

Basic support is developer at least replying to the initial email, and telling me that it is a problem cause by something else in my installation.

That is what has been missing from the said developer's end all along - no replies altogether.

Secondly, on Opencart not being responsible is again a big grey area. These extensions are being sold on Opencart extension marketplace. Opencart takes a cut out of every sale, which is because WE end consumers bought that extension. Now to say you are on your own once you've bought an extension and Opencart cannot do anything about makes the entire thing sounds shady.

No one is telling Opencart to be directly responsible for support of each extension out there, but it can at the very least force developers to provide support through some support policy. Envato has a similar marketplaces for themes and scripts/extensions etc. They enforce a 6 month "basic" support and extended paid support if the user desires. If an extension isn't supported, it is clearly mentioned on the extension selling page. All of which makes common sense, but missing in Opencart altogether. Looks like the world moved on and Opencart is still stuck in 2008. ::)

You know there are real businesses and real money involved with end's users websites here? A badly written extension usually means lost sales or as in my case I've witnessed, financial loss on a sale. One cannot be selling a non-functioning $50 extension, and then there is no action that can be taken again him, because of lack of any support.

ASG
Active Member

Posts

Joined
Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:03 pm

Post by Johnathan » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:05 am

Contact the OpenCart team regarding the order. If there are enough reports of poor support for the developer, they'll likely get removed from the store.

Image Image Image Image Image


User avatar
Administrator

Posts

Joined
Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:08 am

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 36 guests