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500k users and 1 moderator? Ridiculous


Online Office USA

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The title pretty much sums it up. It really is absurd that there is one moderator for this entire board.

 

Alas, how many thousands of people have uttered that exact same sentiment...good luck to us all.

 

I have another store on BigCommerce that gets replies by customer service within minutes if not immediately. I have zero issues with my site. I have zero headaches. I would never use Prestashop again for my own eCommerce sites, and fortunately, I have my client ready to migrate there as well.

 

It is absolutely ridiculous how poor any resemblance to service PS has...it's a shame.

Edited by Online Office USA (see edit history)
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1 - The moderators help when they can and when they have time.

 

2 - In the Prestashop forums the moderators help many users in different communities, French, Spanish, English, etc...

 

3 - The moderators do not work in the company Prestashop.

 

4 - Moderators help altruistically, in the forum.

 

5 - Moderators have their work outside the forum, help when they can and when they have time.

 

6 - A moderator is like a normal user.

 

Sorry for my English

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Please understand this is not aimed at any one person or even the tiny group of people who DO try to help (Vekia, Patron, and a couple others) it is directly aimed at PS.

 

I understand ALL of your valid points...especially the ones that involve moderators volunteering their time. My point is precisely that we as users are reliant on other users, most of whom need help with their own issues, to get some sort of help. Yes this works often and has worked for me in the past - some of the time. Other times, there are mildly useful replies, and more often than not the issue remains unresolved...like my current issue for a perfect example.

 

I, like many, appreciate all of the help the moderators give...but the fact still remains that the so-called service of the platform Prestashop leaves a GREAT deal to be desired.

 

I just bought a new domain for a new product line that I am carrying, and I am using a different platform...doesn't exactly sing the praises of PS does it?

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Yes I have replies that don't help. The posting hasn't been edited to say resolved correct? I don't expect anything. But if that's helping then guess what? It doesn't. I see you're all jumping to defend yourselves though!

 

And yes I will gladly pay BigCommerce because I value my time and instead of messing around trying to rework my PS store I can actually sell.

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Once again and I will repeat...this isn't an attack on the moderators themselves...and if I struck a nerve - sorry. Having said that I will add this: After all of the anguish PS has created, I am feeling a little less than humanitarian towards those who would try to tell me there's nothing wrong! You can blow sunshine up my pant leg until you're blue in the face and the same will still be true - PS customer service is sub-par.

Edited by Online Office USA (see edit history)
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It is really not anguish that PS has created, it is that you cannot figure something out. You can either spend time trying to learn how prestashop templates with smarty, ask for help, or post a paid job to fix it. But it is nothing that is inherently wrong with prestashop.

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You are impatient, remember this is not chat but forum, so if someone reply after several hours it is normal. You're expecting instant help but you have to know that this isn't commercial support.

 

Vekia I appreciate your help. However, I find this tiring and my problem is still unresolved. My time and the time and money of my client is far too valuable to continue this. I have simply removed the original offending module and put in a recommendation to my client that we should use another platform. They agree that even if we do have to pay BigCommerce $300 a year, it would save them in the amount of time that it takes to deal with PS.

 

You seem to be genuinely interested in helping people and my hat is off to you. But I can't help but be reminded of a great line from the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales" that goes "Don't p**s down my back and tell me it's raining."

 

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Edited by Online Office USA (see edit history)
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It blows my mind that people that do not know how to use Prestashop get clients and act like developers, Prestashop uses basic languages that developers should be familiar with. I have browsed some of your posts, and actually answered a couple, but the kinds of questions you are asking are not the kinds of questions that a paid web developer asks. They are the tye of questions that people that use Wordpress, install a theme, and download a couple plugins ask. Its people that don't know a platform or how to program in it, that act to clients like they do, that gives platforms a bad name. Now you are having to go back to your client and recommend another solution for problems that you have come across that would take a developer 20 or so minutes to sort out. How about you contact your client and tell them the truth, that you don't really know how to develop in Prestashop.

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Hello Everyone,

 

Thank you for all of you guys that have participated. Forum posts like this always get me sad, however, it is very uplifting to see our moderators step in and try to share some of our philosophy. So a great thank you goes to the moderators, for helping our community, for being volunteers in supporting our users, and in some cases to help us figure out how to make our software better.

 

Moderators aren't expected to provide technical support through the forums, but they do it because they love our product, and they love helping others succeed.

 

A warm thank you to DH42, Vekia, Nadie, El Patron and many more.

 

Online Office USA, Thank you for using PrestaShop.

 

I usually do not answer these kinds of posts, but somehow this post struck a nerve. I know that you called on several occasions. Once we helped you figure out database issues when moving from one host to another so that you could install the software. Another time, Frank helped you with a design problem that you had on the template. We provided you with several alternatives to fix your issue, but you turned down our service.

 

PrestaShop is very different from BigCommerce. If we controlled all your files by offering a SAAS solution, then yes, there would be less issues, but you would be much more limited in what you can do as an e-commerce merchant (number of products, site design, performance, etc). Would we have issues like database migration? No. You would have to use our servers, and the database would be on our servers. You could not choose your hosting provider, or try to migrate hosting providers (You just could not do it!). Problem with the translation tab with Max input variables? No, because once again we would host it, and nothing could be modified on the sofware.

 

Another side note, who owns your data when using a hosted solution? (Just something to think about)

 

PrestaShop bends over backwards to offer a powerful solution with so many features, and we keep it free (in large part, thanks to the moderators). The moderators bend over backwards as well, and we are very greatful for their help.

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Look this:

 

PrestaShop Forum

The best place in the world to ask questions about PrestaShop and get advice from our passionate community!

 

I am one of this hundreds of people, not moderators, one of this passionate community who enjoy helping other to create their e-shop like a few months ago somebody help me.

 

this is not the prestashop forum, is the prestashop community forum.

 

And now friend, can I help you ? it

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It blows my mind that people that do not know how to use Prestashop get clients and act like developers, Prestashop uses basic languages that developers should be familiar with. I have browsed some of your posts, and actually answered a couple, but the kinds of questions you are asking are not the kinds of questions that a paid web developer asks. They are the tye of questions that people that use Wordpress, install a theme, and download a couple plugins ask. Its people that don't know a platform or how to program in it, that act to clients like they do, that gives platforms a bad name. Now you are having to go back to your client and recommend another solution for problems that you have come across that would take a developer 20 or so minutes to sort out. How about you contact your client and tell them the truth, that you don't really know how to develop in Prestashop.

.

 

 

Well maybe that's because PrestaShop says it's, fast, efficient, easy to use, and provides everything you need to open, operate and maintain a successful site. This is far from true, and it makes no mention that to make even simple changes you need to know PHP or Smarty, or that you have to be a developer to use PrestaShop. How about PrestaShop tells the truth that this is a serious bait and switch gamble.

 

 

But past that I have long said that PrestShop should offer a monthly support package.

Edited by Jimbola (see edit history)
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check this: https://www.prestashop.com/en/support

 

I totally recommend it :)

 

This is not a monthly support plan, it needs to be paid upfront, I can't image merchants paying $4k upfront, I mean you might as well hire someone at that rate. There need to be something along the $100 dollars a month for x support, or as I have suggested in the past a premium forum for those that want it.

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Hi all,

 

I love forum because of these posts. If you can't deal with the fact that Prestashop takes a bit of time and knowledge to be modified...well don't use it. The forum is a community, don't start saying "it takes time to get an answer", most of us are here to help with no cost, we're just here to help people achieve their goal. Don't go saying "moderators doesn't exist", my challenge here is to answer Posts BEFORE Vekia or Nadie, and let me tell you this : IT IS HARD!

 

Also, if I may, I don't really like the idea of a Prenium Forum. That's like saying "We're free but quality information comes wit a price".

 

Martin

Sorry for my english, I kinda lack pratice thes days.

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Don't go saying "moderators doesn't exist", my challenge here is to answer Posts BEFORE Vekia or Nadie, and let me tell you this : IT IS HARD!

Man, tell me about it... They're fast.

 

Also, if I may, I don't really like the idea of a Prenium Forum. That's like saying "We're free but quality information comes wit a price".

Rest assured that Premium Forum will not happen. :)

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Also, if I may, I don't really like the idea of a Prenium Forum. That's like saying "We're free but quality information comes wit a price".

 

 

As opposed to we're free but quality support comes with a price tag of $4k?

 

 

 

Rest assured that Premium Forum will not happen. :)

 

Famous last words :D

 

 

 

The fact is that the number one complaint people have with PrestaShop is the lack of support, I don't understand why PrestaShop would not address this.

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We did address this. PrestaShop's support plans are very popular, they meet our users' expectations.

 

It depends on what you mean by very popular, I would quite happily hazard a guess that the number of users who purchase you support plan is less than 1%. What about the other 99%?

 

Also how do you know your support plans meet your users expectations, I'm a user, and no one has asked me if the support plans meet my expectations? There has been no poll, or survey, so on what basis do you say this?

 

I'm not sure what you wish for. Free support from PrestaShop Customer Support team, on the forum?

 

No I'm not expecting anything for free, what I am suggesting is a way of getting premium support, even if it's just a small amount like 2 support tickets a month, for a manageable monthly fee of say $100. That's not unreasonable is it?

Edited by Jimbola (see edit history)
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Hello All,

 

Thank you Jimbola for your feedback. You are making a bit of assumption in regards to only getting support if you spend $4000 a year on a support contract.

 

We provide quite a bit of support to incoming phone call to customers that have questions that might not require to connect to their database or to their file via FTP. If we have to connect, and do some site modification, then we will always ask for a support contract. Much of it has to do with the fact that we need to address some liability issues when manipulating merchant's files or data.

 

Customers that elect to purchase personal dedicated support are typically under the $399 per year plan and they love it. The assumption that you need to purchase the $4k support is actually a bit misleading. This contract actually gives you access to the cell phone number of PrestaShop's Inc CEO, and the ability to have support pretty much anytime from him or his team.

 

I can see now where this sends an erroneous message. We will get the website change within the next 15 days.

 

I am proud at PrestaShop for really trying hard to support our merchants. We will continue to find innovative way to even offer more services to our merchants.

 

I invite anyone to give me a call to discuss, suggest ideas, or share ideas that could help us improve. I am available at 888 947 6543.

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It depends on what you mean by very popular, I would quite happily hazard a guess that the number of users who purchase you support plan is less than 1%. What about the other 99%?

Also how do you know your support plans meet your users expectations, I'm a user, and no one has asked me if the support plans meet my expectations? There has been no poll, or survey, so on what basis do you say this?

Alright alright, let me rephrase this: "PrestaShop's support plans are very popular, they meet our customers' expectations." (customers = users who buy a support plan)

 

No I'm not expecting anything for free, what I am suggesting is a way of getting premium support, even if it's just a small amount like 2 support tickets a month, for a manageable monthly fee of say $100. That's not unreasonable is it?

You mean, our Support Plans :)

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You mean, our Support Plans :)

 

The problem with the support plan is that many user will be trying to start a business from scratch and usually with minimal funds, they come across PrestaShop and discover how awesome it sounds, install it and then generally run into some issue at which point they stop using PS. No start-up wants to pay large sums of money upfront if they have no idea what will happen to their business, that include $399 not just $4k.

 

Now I don't have access to PS statistics/context, but I am guessing, that if there are 2.7m downloads and that equates to 150k users or 5% there is some major disconnect happening. There could of course be a multitude of reasons but the number one complaint I have and that is often repeated on the forum is the lack of support PS has.

 

For something like PS support has to be an integral part of the package otherwise is simply won't and isn't working for many people. I know many people who have got fed up with PrestaShop and moved over to some nonsense like Shopify and it's simply because of support.

 

 

Hello All,

 

Thank you Jimbola for your feedback. You are making a bit of assumption in regards to only getting support if you spend $4000 a year on a support contract.

 

I invite anyone to give me a call to discuss, suggest ideas, or share ideas that could help us improve. I am available at 888 947 6543.

 

 

Hi Matt,

No where have I said that you only need to spend $4k to get support, I haven't made this assumption.

 

You have asked for suggestions for improvement, and I have suggested a $100 a month support or some support at that monthly price point, why isn't that feasable?

Edited by Jimbola (see edit history)
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Hi Jimbola,

 

You are correct, I should have read a bit more carefully. You said that you could not imagine people spending that kind of money, which left two support options out of the picture.

 

I love the fact that you bring out the number of downloads with the number of users. This is the kind of numbers that we look at on a daily basis to evaluate our performance. A couple interesting facts is that our closest competitor has the same number of stores, and twice as many downloads, which mean our retention rate is twice as good.

 

In the very near future, you will see several activities that will show you that we are working hard on trying to facilitate the process. How can we help a merchant continue throughout the installation, implementation, and then to run their store as a long term successful business.

 

You suggestion about a $100 / Month support system could be beneficial to PrestaShop. However, this is not what we are trying to accomplish with contract support. Our goal is to provide long term support with our customers so that 5, 6, and 10 months down the road, we are there to support the merchant if they have any questions. Another word, with a $100 / month, more than likely, we would have a lot of one shot technical call and customer support. However we feel like long term the merchant does not really benefit.

 

Our approach is more to support our merchant every step of the way, and to hold their hand as much as possible as they develop their online business.

 

I hope this helps answer the question a little bit.

 

Matt

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Hi Jimbola,

 

You are correct, I should have read a bit more carefully. You said that you could not imagine people spending that kind of money, which left two support options out of the picture.

 

I love the fact that you bring out the number of downloads with the number of users. This is the kind of numbers that we look at on a daily basis to evaluate our performance. A couple interesting facts is that our closest competitor has the same number of stores, and twice as many downloads, which mean our retention rate is twice as good.

 

In the very near future, you will see several activities that will show you that we are working hard on trying to facilitate the process. How can we help a merchant continue throughout the installation, implementation, and then to run their store as a long term successful business.

 

You suggestion about a $100 / Month support system could be beneficial to PrestaShop. However, this is not what we are trying to accomplish with contract support. Our goal is to provide long term support with our customers so that 5, 6, and 10 months down the road, we are there to support the merchant if they have any questions. Another word, with a $100 / month, more than likely, we would have a lot of one shot technical call and customer support. However we feel like long term the merchant does not really benefit.

 

Our approach is more to support our merchant every step of the way, and to hold their hand as much as possible as they develop their online business.

 

I hope this helps answer the question a little bit.

 

Matt

 

Thanks for responding, that does help explain things more clearly and I look forward to the future PS activities.

As ever, I thank and commend the PS team (and valuable forum contributors) for all their hard work.

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Jimbola,

 

I am just going to put this out there. As far as e-commerce packages go, there are a couple popular ones with the power and flexibility as Prestashop. The ones that I am referring to are Magento and Netsuite.

 

Magento basically has two options on how they handle support, they have a free community support like Prestashop has, then they also have a version that has a support package. You can find more about it here, http://www.magentocommerce.com/product/overview-compare#compare But notice, the supported version is $15,000 a year. That is almost 4 times higher than Prestashop's highest support option.

 

 

Then there is Netsuite, here is an overview of their pricing, http://www.horizonassociates.net/Product-Datasheets Between $999 and $2500 a month. Modules are not a one time buy with Netsuite, they are charged monthly. You want advanced inventory, which is comparable to Prestashop's advanced stock management? That is an extra $299 a month.

 

 

The reason I use Prestashop and my clients use Prestashop is the value. Prestashop provides a lot of value for shop owners. take a platform like shopify, they have built in support, but using the cheapest shopify option you still pay $660 a year for that support. For a platform that is so limited, it doesn't look like a good value now.

 

 

I am actually kicking the idea around of offering support packages for customers with a monthly fee. If it is something that you would be interested in I can contact you about it.

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Some valid points from all. Some defensive posturing from others. I can't emphasize this enough: the original post was NOT intended to insult, degrade, diminish, or refute the fact the moderators do as good a job as possible with helping out. I like most thank them.

 

Dh42...I find you extremely offensive. Your assumptions about someone's business, skills, or business model is so far from being professional I find it embarrassing for the rest of the moderators. Who in the hell do you think you are?

 

To Matt: thank you for your input. Hopefully PS seriously looks at the number one complaint I see here which is a lack of support from PS itself.

 

I agree PS has a whole multitude of positive factors. I also realize it has it's downsides. The service issue is huge! I don't want to keep harping on this but I had some customer service questions that I needed answered at BC and it was a very pleasant experience having those questions answered.

 

I like PS. I have used it for some time now. The majority of my experience has been positive. However, the daily concerns about what may or may not be working is a little unsettling to say the least.

 

I have happily made my move and I am glad I did. I wish everyone who is trying to operate an eCommerce store the best with whatever platform they choose.

Edited by Online Office USA (see edit history)
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I am really sorry that I come off as offensive, it is not my intentions. I am just trying to share business advice that I have learned over the years.

 

I feel like I have a bit of practical business sense that extends far beyond just e-commerce. When I was in my 20's I borrowed $2500 from my dad to start a business ( I live in the US, and this was in the early 2000's). I sold the company 6 years later for 7 figures. So I have run business that have just been me as an employee up to 40 employees. I know about the troubles that come from starting a business on a shoe string budget, I made gambles that if anything went wrong, I would have went broke, almost weekly in the first couple years.

 

 

The post you quoted, I didn't mean to come off as that, but understand my position. Every week just about I get a couple contacts from people that need a Prestashop site straightened out. People that have hired developers to make sites for them that either disappear, do not know what they are doing and mess the site up and cannot fix it, or just give the wrong advice and do things that are detrimental to peoples sales. It bothers me, because some of the people I have come across have put all of their savings into a site and someone basically scammed them. It makes me feel bad for those people.

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I am really sorry that I come off as offensive, it is not my intentions. I am just trying to share business advice that I have learned over the years.

 

I feel like I have a bit of practical business sense that extends far beyond just e-commerce. When I was in my 20's I borrowed $2500 from my dad to start a business ( I live in the US, and this was in the early 2000's). I sold the company 6 years later for 7 figures. So I have run business that have just been me as an employee up to 40 employees. I know about the troubles that come from starting a business on a shoe string budget, I made gambles that if anything went wrong, I would have went broke, almost weekly in the first couple years.

 

 

The post you quoted, I didn't mean to come off as that, but understand my position. Every week just about I get a couple contacts from people that need a Prestashop site straightened out. People that have hired developers to make sites for them that either disappear, do not know what they are doing and mess the site up and cannot fix it, or just give the wrong advice and do things that are detrimental to peoples sales. It bothers me, because some of the people I have come across have put all of their savings into a site and someone basically scammed them. It makes me feel bad for those people.

 

Are you now insinuating that I am somehow unethical because I am fed up with a lack of customer service? You just don't know when to stop do you?

 

I sir do not "scam" my clients. I look out for their every need as required. I dedicate an enormous amount of time to their projects, which includes creating unique stores based on PS platform (up to now), assisting them with marketing, etc. I do not give wrong advice based on knee-jerk reactions but based on the needs and budget of the client.

 

Understand your position? Is your position that of being rude? You are not Prestashop. You are nothing more than someone who throws their $.02 in. I'm sure I'm not the first person who finds you distasteful and crass. I showed my client these posts and when he stopped laughing he agreed with me about you! In fact he's taking me to lunch right now because he loved the laugh...maybe you served some purpose after all.

Edited by Online Office USA (see edit history)
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I am really not intending on coming off as offensive, like I said before, I am sorry I offended you. And no, I am not insulating that you are scamming people. I am sure that some people do find me rude and I am also sure that others find me helpful. I do solve a lot of peoples issues with prestashop (not as many as vekia and nadie, they are heroes). Again, sorry if I offended you.

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I am a shop owner and I have used Prestashop for about 6 months. To me, searching through the forums has been a pretty valuble resource, I haven't actually had to create an account yet because I have found answers to all of my problems. But I thought I would jump in on this thread because quite frankly it looks fun.

 

Vekia, Nadie, DH42, El Patron In my searches for problems that I have, I see you guys posts a lot. Thanks for the hard work.

 

Jimbola and Online Office USA, I am guess you guys have not worked too much with open source software. This is how support is handled with most opensource platforms. You think you can just call up the guys at wordpress for a chat? Nope, I would be willing to be that it would be pretty difficult to get the number of the COO at wordpress. The guy from prestashop came and just put his in the forum, that is awesome.

 

 

DH42, you seem knowledgable I understand your points. I have been screwed by developers, it sucks. I paid a guy from this forum to do a couple things to my shop. He basically broke my payment gateway, didn't tell me about it, and couldn't fix it when I figured it out it was broken.

 

Online Office USA, You are basically a troll. You want free support from free software, while charging a client money. Things don't work that way. I don't know if you are trying to make a scene or if your web development knowledge is as thin as your skin. I feel it is more than likely the latter. To me as a shop owner, you do seem like a sleazy developer. I see the people that develop in prestashop and help out on the forums, but I never see them ask questions about prestashop. I am guessing it is because they know how to program and solve problems. What is your industry by the way? Is it being a developer or selling office furniture? You don't seem to be doing great as a developer, http://www.yelp.com/biz/southwest-modular-and-office-design-las-vegas#hrid:_JMJf2Ajivy-IdJRcLVj9A or https://plus.google.com/103319907550049065257/about?hl=en but at the same time you don't seem to be doing great at selling office furniture either. Maybe you should enter a troll contest.

 

Matt, like I mentioned before, it is awesome that someone in your position would give out their direct number, rock on.

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I am a shop owner and I have used Prestashop for about 6 months. To me, searching through the forums has been a pretty valuble resource, I haven't actually had to create an account yet because I have found answers to all of my problems.

 

...and what would you do if you had a problem, maybe a serious one, posted it on the forum and never got an answer?

 

 

 

Jimbola and Online Office USA, I am guess you guys have not worked too much with open source software. This is how support is handled with most opensource platforms. You think you can just call up the guys at wordpress for a chat? Nope, I would be willing to be that it would be pretty difficult to get the number of the COO at wordpress. The guy from prestashop came and just put his in the forum, that is awesome.

 

 

If you click on my Avatar, you will notice I joined the PrestaShop forum back in 2010 and built my first site with PS in 2009 about 18 months after I think it first launched so I have plenty of experience with OS PrestaShop and other OpenSource platforms.

 

One thing you may not understand about OpenSource is that it is about ideas, discussion, collaborations and interaction (and definitely butting of some heads :-) ), which ultimately leads to better products and services, free or paid. I personally have never had the inclination to ring up the COO of any company and think the forum and dedicated support channels are the best way to add your voice to the conversation. And I have added my voice many times, and sometimes what I think is right gets heard and added to PS and sometimes it doesn't and that's fine.

 

Just because support is handled mainly by forums for other developments platforms doesn't mean that's the best way, or that's the way it should be for PrestaShop, and indeed PS has addressed this. And just because something is free, it doesn't mean that the company shouldn't feel a sense of responsibility to its users to assist them in the best way possible.

 

As ever, PrestaShop is awesome but it can always be improved and luckily always is.

 

PrestShop FTW!!

Edited by Jimbola (see edit history)
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