Great Templates, TERRIBLE SUPPORT!

[kenci]

Great looking templates from joomlart but, if something should go wrong with the template or extension you are pretty much on your own. I saw JA_NEX and immediately fell in love, bought a membership and proceeded to install the quick start on my server. Everything went good. I got all of the updates and began writing the content for the site, that was when my partner told me that the Featured module does not rotate news articles anymore, upon further inspection the menu too was not working anymore. I couldn't seem to figure it out so I did what any other desperate person would I contacted support by their Ticket System.

07 May 2012 06:39 AM < Time my ticket was submitted.

07 May 2012 05:29 PM < Time I got my first response, however it was only a response to escalate my ticket. Without saying any names a staff member told me that my website was "offline" and for me to pm him once it was online even though I gave them the super username and password. I can't have my website publicly visible yet which is why I turned it off in the Global Configuration all they had to do is use the username and password that I supplied upon creating my ticket. Why they chose not to use it to solve my problem then is quite disappointing.

08 May 2012 09:12 AM < I reinstalled quickstart and did all of the updates again to rule out any error on my part.

BOTTOMLINE: I will not use JoomlART again in the future, nor would I recommend them to anyone who needs support. Their support is terrible! I started out on the Urgent priority and 10 hours in I changed it to Critical but it does not matter they won't help no matter what you do. BUYER BEWARE!

[drarvindc]

You have 2 threads and 1 ticket and total of 5 replies in forum (including this one).

Here is the complete log of our interaction with you.


Thread one :

http://www.joomlart.com/forums/showt...p?73213-JA_Nex

05-05-2012 10:19 PM << raised
05-05-2012 11:34 PM << replied back in less than 2 hrs

Thread Two :

http://www.joomlart.com/forums/showt...eatured-Module

05-06-2012 06:14 PM << raised (on weekend)
05-07-2012 12.02 PM << replied back in less than 24 hrs.
05-07-2012 04.11 PM << your reply
05-07-2012 04.49 PM << replied back in less than 1 hr
05-07-2012 06.19 PM << your reply
05-08-2012 09.11 AM << replied back in less than 20 hrs (problem is probably solved - checked by staff)

Your Ticket ID >> QAQ-456-80697

06 May 2012 11:39 PM << raised by you (Sunday - non working day)
07 May 2012 10:29 AM << replied back in less than 12 hrs
07 May 2012 10:55 AM << your reply
07 May 2012 02:12 PM << your reply again (due time reset, ticket gone back to bottom of queue)
08 May 2012 02:12 AM << your reply again
08 May 2012 04:34 AM << replied back in less than 20 hrs and issue fixed by staff.

<<<<

Both of your forum threads were NOT marked "Require help from Moderator / staff", but were still attended and answered promptly.

Issue in your ticket, yes the staff missed the submitted login info from you and evidently ended up asking for login details again but he was willing to help you. You went into panic mode and replied twice again on 7th may, which reset the due time for the ticket and it went back to the bottom of the queue, however, on 8th morning your ticket was attended again and issue was fixed using the FTP credentials you had supplied.

Our reply time is 24 hrs in forum / tickets and in your case too, it was fulfilled all the way. One of your thread was raised on saturday (weekend), you still got good response inspite that weekends are off for support.

Time and days when the support time of 24 hrs is not met :

1. Monday's are very busy with the earlier tickets / threads to attend plus replying all new threads / tickets, at times we do end up with overload and we do try to compensate by overtime work, but difficult issues are left for tuesday if the dev are busy.
2. First week of the month, as there are monthly releases and more questions are raised about them. Right now we have JA Wall and JA Lens (both not stable release yet) and adds to the support load plus these are responsive not using T3 framework, so support staff do need more time to investigate and provide solutions.
3. Days after long holidays : Taking the public holidays and recreational holidays into account, at times we have prolonged holidays and once back, it takes few days to take down the overload. We were on 4 days holidays from 28th to 2nd may.


Now, your timing of raising the issue fits all the above 3 criteria and still the reply time was less than 24 hrs at any given time and good of all, the problems were fixed.

Now the support process and escalations :

Staff are assigned tickets and forum threads every morning and the priority is given to the threads replied the earlier day and then the new threads / tickets are taken up for reply. With each staff handling over 60-100 threads / tickets at any given time (includes the awaiting response from user threads / tickets), it does happen (less frequently) that some of the replies get delayed. This is what we do in such cases :

If its a forum thread unanswered for over 24 hrs, user is required to raise a support ticket to get the attention at the same time send PM to any of the online moderator to get it lined up for support.


You should read the guide for Efficient Support - its a sticky thread in the News and Announcement forum for over 3 years now.


On a personal note : I started as a customer of this company way back in 2006 and was member of other clubs too. I did not renew other clubs ever but have been with JoomlArt as paid member till 2010, as a customer i always had the best of the support and regards.


The only thing which hurts is your last line :

but it does not matter they won't help no matter what you do.

Reply time of 24 hrs met, problems solved, attended even on weekend. Raised the sole ticket (basis for this feedback) on sunday, double replied same day resetting the due time, still replied with in 24 hrs with problem fixed.

You did NOT follow the support guidelines for your threads, still answered well and very promptly within 24 hrs. You failed to ping any of the moderators to get your issues lined up or checked upon.

All you did was to paint the town red with your negative feedback. Which seems fair on your part as you probably are unaware how support works.


Take it easy mate.

Regards


Arvind

[drarvindc]

I have deleted your reply and closed this thread. had enough of this ping pong, The timing posted above are from our timezone.. and for us it was sunday.

Our reply time is 24 hrs and we work hard to maintain it. You need to follow the support guidelines (link in earlier post) and co-operate with staff to get issues solved.

I took out time to reply to you and to clear how the workflow but for now you are not in the mood to understand and still ranting about it.

You are not pleased and its well accepted and i personally commit to get your issues solved, you can PM me your ticket ID (new if any) and threads and they shall be taken care of.

Any more impolite language or rant about it, i shall restrict you to ticket support only.

We are here to help and help us to help you.

Regards


Arvind