Really disappointed with amount of problems on Prestashop

[Premier Packaging]

I was convinced a few months ago to change to Prestashop (v1.5.4.1) but I have to say the amount of problems and errors I've had has really made me wonder whether I made the right decision.

I've had to hire a developer to even get the websites up to the stage where a customer can buy online but there are still significant errors that even he is having trouble fixing.

 

To give you an idea:

 

1) I only sell in Ireland and Northern Ireland/GB. I have disabled all the other countries in Localisation-Countries but if a customer tries to enter their address in the checkout, they can still choose from every country in the world.

 

2) Shipping is an absolute nightmare. I have 3 possible shipping options - collection, courier shipping and pallet shipping. Depending on the weight of the order the customer should only be able to choose from either collection or one other shipping solution. However in the little cart at the top of the website, if an item is added, it will show as "free shipping" and customer is only aware of the shipping charge when they get to the shipping section of the checkout.

 

3) My usual shipping charge is €8 per delivery and free delivery over €75. However I also have a couple of products that I offer with free shipping. However free shipping is not automatically applied to the specific products

 

4) Probably linked with item 2 above. Sometimes a customer abandons their cart but will ring me to clarify the problem they're having. I can see their abandoned cart and that they've registered as a customer. As far as I can see, it should be easy to "convert to order" but when it asks me to select the customer, I can see the details and click on it but nothing happens.

 

5) The ability to offer price discounts on quantities of items seems very ponderous and un-user-friendly. For example I offer a product that if they buy up to 5 it will be €1.99 per product. If they buy up to 10 it will be €1.80 per product and so on. This should really be linked to the quantity entered but the only way I can get it to work (ie offer a specific price, not a percentage) is to use the attributes function and this then only works if the buyer has the cop-on to click the button that says "up to 10" or "up to 15" etc.

 

This is just a rough sample of some of the problems I'm having. I have to say that previously I used Opencart and I found it fantastic to use. Both from the front end and also using it on the back-end.

 

If anybody has any solutions on how to fix these problems, I'd be eternally grateful.

Otherwise I'll be dumping Prestashop and advising anybody else to do the same!!!

[Soapa]

Maybe you better upgrade to 1.5.6 ?

[American Patriot]

I have the same complaint about the shipping options on Prestashop. 

 

Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to put Free Shipping! in the Cart Block!? Shipping charges, and taxes as well, should only be shown AFTER, and I repeat AFTER, a customer has put their shipping address in. How in the world can you figure shipping and taxes before you know where the product is going? 

 

It's absolutely crazy!

 

Upgrading to 1.5.6 does not change this.

 

Edited to add: I've spent almost $200 (theme, custom modules, etc.), and countless hours, trying to get Prestashop up and running and I'm nowhere close to doing so. I only went with Prestashop because of the many people saying it was easy for a beginner to open a shop and start selling online. If you're a developer and/or coder then that may be true but since most of us aren't it isn't as easy as they say it is.

Edited October 10, 2013 by American Patriot (see edit history)

[Premier Packaging]

Maybe you better upgrade to 1.5.6 ?

 

Why would I want to do that?

You buy a kit-car, you put it together maybe with help from others. It doesn't work the way it was advertised to work ... so you decide to go get another super-duper more-advanced one?????

Not sure I see the logic in that

[Premier Packaging]

I seem to have managed a couple of work-arounds that seem to be working now.

If anyone is having the same problems, here's what I did

 

 

1) I only sell in Ireland and Northern Ireland/GB. I have disabled all the other countries in Localisation-Countries but if a customer tries to enter their address in the checkout, they can still choose from every country in the world.

Even though Zones already exist, I've had to set up 2 brand new zones for Ireland & Northern Ireland. Then go link them to Ireland & Northern Ireland in the Countries section, then link the states/counties.

 

2) Shipping is an absolute nightmare. I have 3 possible shipping options - collection, courier shipping and pallet shipping. Depending on the weight of the order the customer should only be able to choose from either collection or one other shipping solution. However in the little cart at the top of the website, if an item is added, it will show as "free shipping" and customer is only aware of the shipping charge when they get to the shipping section of the checkout.

This seems to be affected by the cart rule I had set up for free shipping on certain products. Once I deleted the cart rule (not just disabled it) It's showing the correct shipping charges in the little cart box.

 

3) My usual shipping charge is €8 per delivery and free delivery over €75. However I also have a couple of products that I offer with free shipping. However free shipping is not automatically applied to the specific products

As above, I've had to abandon offering free shipping on certain products. The free shipping over €75 still works though.

 

4) Probably linked with item 2 above. Sometimes a customer abandons their cart but will ring me to clarify the problem they're having. I can see their abandoned cart and that they've registered as a customer. As far as I can see, it should be easy to "convert to order" but when it asks me to select the customer, I can see the details and click on it but nothing happens.

No idea on this one

 

5) The ability to offer price discounts on quantities of items seems very ponderous and un-user-friendly. For example I offer a product that if they buy up to 5 it will be €1.99 per product. If they buy up to 10 it will be €1.80 per product and so on. This should really be linked to the quantity entered but the only way I can get it to work (ie offer a specific price, not a percentage) is to use the attributes function and this then only works if the buyer has the cop-on to click the button that says "up to 10" or "up to 15" etc.

Should be an easier way to do this, but my head hurts trying to work out what to do.

 

 

Incidentally, I noticed others posting about problems enabling Paypal. I had this problem as well. You need to get a new dedicated SSL cert. Don't uninstall or reinstall your existing one. For some God-unknown reason, there was a problem of some sort with the existing dedicated SSL cert and Paypal will have blacklisted it. Getting a brand new shiny dedicated SSL cert will fix it.

Bit of a faff, but better than changing hosting providers as I've seen suggested!

[Soapa]

Why would I want to do that?

You buy a kit-car, you put it together maybe with help from others. It doesn't work the way it was advertised to work ... so you decide to go get another super-duper more-advanced one?????

Not sure I see the logic in that

You didn't buy. It is free. 

You say you put it together. Well you messed up. 

Of course it isn't perfect. That is why upgrades exists. 

And advertisements are never talking about the errors, you did know that. 

 

Plenty of logic if you ask me. 

 

My advice keep your site suuuuuper simple. And have another one to learn. 

 

My advice to the prestashop team. There needs to be a better system so non-technical people can report issues and errors faster, easier, and even with a little bit fun. 

 

If I can think of it, somebody else must be able to make it. Unfortunately I don't have a team at my side. 

 

How I would suggest the report-an-error-system? 

 

You are somewhere on your site. An error occurs or get noticed. You press a button. Snapshot is taken of your screen. You comment that snapshot. And now the snapshot is uploaded to the right category. That way prestashop can see where and which problems occur the most; and what problems do the people bother the most. 

 

Excuse me for my English but I guess you get the idea. Always welcome to contact me for advice. 

[Premier Packaging]

You didn't buy. It is free. 

 

Err, No. Prestashop might be free but it's not when you've paid a developer nearly €1000 not only to install it, but to fix the errors.

You say you put it together. Well you messed up. 

 

I have 4 other websites that I "put together" from scratch without any problems. I was persuaded by somebody I know that Prestashop was a great application. But not being familiar with Prestashop I hired a professional web developer to do it for me. Yeah I really messed up. 

 

 

[Soapa]

Ok I am sorry. I guess money doesn't fix everything and all the time 100%. 

You maybe outsourced too much for the same person?

What do you suggest? 

[parsifal]

5) The ability to offer price discounts on quantities of items seems very ponderous and un-user-friendly. For example I offer a product that if they buy up to 5 it will be €1.99 per product. If they buy up to 10 it will be €1.80 per product and so on. This should really be linked to the quantity entered but the only way I can get it to work (ie offer a specific price, not a percentage) is to use the attributes function and this then only works if the buyer has the cop-on to click the button that says "up to 10" or "up to 15" etc.

For this one, you should have a look here:

 

http://doc.prestashop.com/display/PS15/Adding+Products+and+Product+Categories#AddingProductsandProductCategories-SettingthePriceofaProduct

 

Scroll down some lines until you find the "Specific prices: Managing Quantity Discounts" paragraph...

[PascalVG]

1) I only sell in Ireland and Northern Ireland/GB. I have disabled all the other countries in Localisation-Countries but if a customer tries to enter their address in the checkout, they can still choose from every country in the world.

 

 

 

You probably didn't deselect all countries (i.e. they were still active) you don't want to see in localization->countries:

 

EDIT: Sorry, just re-read the remark 1, where you already said you did. See that you solved the problem in Zones already.

 

5) The ability to offer price discounts on quantities of items seems very ponderous and un-user-friendly. For example I offer a product that if they buy up to 5 it will be €1.99 per product. If they buy up to 10 it will be €1.80 per product and so on. This should really be linked to the quantity entered but the only way I can get it to work (ie offer a specific price, not a percentage) is to use the attributes function and this then only works if the buyer has the cop-on to click the button that says "up to 10" or "up to 15" etc.

 

 

 

Quantity discounts for a product you can simply add in the price-Tab when you add/edit a product:

Here you can add an amount when the discount should be applied, and you can set the discount (in amount, say 2$ discount, or percentage of original price (say 10%)

 

4) Probably linked with item 2 above. Sometimes a customer abandons their cart but will ring me to clarify the problem they're having. I can see their abandoned cart and that they've registered as a customer. As far as I can see, it should be easy to "convert to order" but when it asks me to select the customer, I can see the details and click on it but nothing happens.

 

 

 

If you want, I can have a quick look at it. If you want this, please create a new employee (Administration->Employee) with admin rights. PM me the login details and URL of your back office login page, or Email to: [email protected]

 

And to all of the members above:

don't hesitate to use the forum more. There are quite some "experienced users", and developers who love to help out.

 

Hope this helped,

pascal.